The October 2022 issue of Air Classics magazine has an article I did that pulls together as much of the story about an obscure B-17G, s/n 44-85764, that was ultimately seized at the Santa Maria airport in the Azores Islands by the Portuguese government. It had been illegally flown out the U.S. in July 1948 to join three other B-17s that were successfully flown from Florida to Czechoslovakia the prior month; those three B-17 went on to form the bombing force for Israel in its attempt to form a new country.

The story of this B-17 and those involved with it is intriguing. It was purchased out of Altus, Oklahoma, in 1947 as a brand new, never used war surplus B-17, complete as delivered in 1945 with operable turrets and bomb racks. All it lacked was the Norden bombsight and machine guns, which the government would, for some reason, not include with the surplus B-17s sold. This B-17 at Tulsa for a year before Al Schwimmer, a U.S. citizen but acting as a covert agent of the new Israeli government, purchased the airplane. What followed was a desperate attempt to smuggle the B-17 out of the country and get it to Czechoslovakia (off all places!) to join three other similarly exported for the new Israeli air force. The flight out of the country drew increasing media attention as it had to divert to Halifax in Newfoundland where it was impounded by the Canadian government. Some fast talking by the pilot, Shifty Schindler, enabled the B-17 to eventually be flown, with Schindler promising he was on his way back to the U.S. The airplane ended up landing in the Azores where the Portuguese government was not as friendly towards the unexpected arrival of the B-17. It was ultimately and permanently impounded by the Portuguese and the crew and passengers sent back to the U.S. on commercial airliners. The B-17 was evidently then used to support the several B-17s flown by the Portuguese air force and ultimately scrapped, probably at Santa Maria or the Lajes Air Base in the Azores. End of story, then.

It is an intriguing and admittedly obscure story. For anyone interested, the issue is available directly from Challenge Publications by calling 818-700-6868 or at http://www.airclassicsnow.com/ (though the website has not yet been updated to the current issue).