Aviation author and photographer Nick Veronico visited the Palm Spring Air Museum very recently and provided this update on B-17G 44-83546 (N3703G), otherwise known as the Movie Memphis Belle. As has been reported earlier, this B-17, owned by the Tallichet family, has been at the museum since it was ferried to Palm Springs in November 2021. Ever since then, it has been receiving detailed inspections and heavy maintenance to bring it back to good airworthy condition.

Among the work completed was the overhaul of all four propellers, overhaul or detailed work on all the engines, and required spar inspections, among many other things. As of Wednesday, October 30, 2024, the outer wing panels and horizontal stabilizers were still off the airplane. Nick reports that the wing panels were back on the B-17 by the following Friday, but the horizontals remained off. They are having new spar caps manufactured, work which should be completed in the near future. During the inspections, some minor corrosion was also found on the wing spar aft of the number 3 engine, which necessitated the removal of the fuel tank for that engine to make the required repairs. Some fuselage belly skins are also being replaced due to corrosion that started years ago, caused by fire retardant that seeped into skin joints during the B-17’s operation as an air tanker.

The museum is hosting an open day and anniversary celebration on November 9 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. At 1 p.m., they will run-up three of the bomber’s engines. Engine #3 can’t yet be run due to the still-to-be-installed fuel tank for that engine. Nick states that plans call for the plane to be flying again in late spring or early summer 2025. Presuming that to be the case, it will become only the fourth airworthy B-17s…the other three being the CAF’s Sentimental Journey, the Erickson Ye Olde Pub, and B-17 Preservation’s Sally-B in the UK. The other recently-airworthy B-17 Yankee Lady is being disassembled for shipment to New Zealand for restoration and won’t be flying again for several years. More information on the museum’s November 9th event can be found here.

So, a brief history of the Movie Memphis Belle. (More detailed information can be found in Final Cut: The Post-War B-17 Flying Fortress and Survivors available right here.) 44-83546 was a Douglas-built B-17G delivered in April 1945. It saw no wartime service and was converted to a CB-17 the following summer and served for administrative transport. It later was designated as a VB-17G and flew generals around in the Far East during the Korean War. It went into storage in 1953 at Davis-Monthan AFB and sold as surplus in April 1959. It became N3703G in civil service and was quickly converted for use as an air tanker, flying with Fast Way at Long Beach, California. It was used as an air tanker into the early 1980s.

After retirement, it was sold to David Tallichet’s Military Aircraft Restoration Corp. (MARC) in 1986. Tallichet had been a B-17 copilot with the 100th BG during World War II. The B-17 gained a series of combat paint schemes through the years with MARC. It was restored to resemble a wartime B-17F with an early-style tail ‘stinger’ (vs. the latter Cheyenne tail guns) and unusually had the B-17G chin turret skin patch removed and replaced with new nose skin. That resemblance to a B-17F earned it a starring role in the 1989 filming of the movie The Memphis Belle in the UK. It shared star billing playing the real Memphis Belle along with B-17G 44-85784, as both can be seen in the resulting film as the famous B-17. Three other airworthy B-17s were also used in the filming.

After the filming was completed, the Movie Memphis Belle was based, variously, at Chino, Farmingdale, New York, and Geneseo. It was also leased by the Liberty Foundation for three years and flew on scheduled tours. The airplane was maintained in airworthy condition through the years, but was getting a bit tired and ended up being parked at Geneseo for several years until 2021 when it was ferried to Palm Springs.

It will soon enough be flying again and will, at least for the time being, remain based and on display at the museum. There, it joins another B-17 on static display…that being B-17G 44-85578 (N3509G) marked as Miss Angela. Though that airplane is currently grounded, museum plans may yet return that B-17 to airworthy status at some point in the future.