Aero Vintage Books

I just posted an update on the restoration progress of B-17G 44-85790 at Salem, Oregon. The B-17 Alliance Foundation volunteers are making slow but steady progress on returning this B-17 to the air. They are aggressively fundraising right now because they have the opportunity to buy the hangar where...

I added a post with some more details on how the Twin Beech through the hangar was shot at Sonoma County Airport in December 1962 for Mad Mad World. Frank Tallman flew the Twin Beech through the hangar that day, but Paul Mantz had flown through that same hangar seven weeks earlier to get air-to-grou...

Another Owen Williams B-17...this one was parked at Russell Field, Texas, for five years from 1946-1951 before it went to Owen Williams as N66570, then on to Bolivia as CB-97. It was destroyed in a mid-air collision in Bolivia in September 1955. https://www.aerovintage.com/2025/04/27/owen-williams-a...

I just added a post at aerovintage.com on B-17G 43-38322 that, after wartime service, went to the Oklahoma Military Academy at Claremore, OK, for five years, and ended up with Owen Williams and getting exported to Bolivia to fly as CB-80 and CP-580. It was wrecked in a 1965 accident at La Paz. https...

I went to add this Quakertown B-24 to my RFC listing and...it is already there. It was identified by Nick Veronico some time ago as B-24E 41-7127. https://i0.wp.com/www.aerovintage.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/B-24-42-7127.jpg?ssl=1 My master RFC list is here: https://www.aerovintage.com/waa-rfc-l...

Wow, thanks, Dave. Another one surfaces. I’ll add it to my listing. Interesting story. More digging perhaps warranted.

I just added two posts at aerovintage: One is on another of the Owen Williams B-17s, B-17F 42-3470 that flew as N66574, OB-RAH-346, N9815F, and HK-580. It crashed in Colombia in 1962. https://www.aerovintage.com/2025/03/07/owen-williams-and-his-b-17s-n66574-the-bozeman-bomber/ The second post has in...

I just posted a brief update at aerovintage on the B-17s at the Erickson Aircraft Collection at Madras, Oregon: ex-Thunderbird, ex-Yankee Lady, and Ye Olde Pub.

https://www.aerovintage.com/2025/02/28/ ... y-28-2025/

Is that photo of 40-3092 at Yale? I have not seen any information that a B-17D went to Yale so I need to chase that down.

Thanks for the head's up.

I just added a 'deep dive' on the B-17F that Paul Mantz flew out of Stillwater, Oklahoma, in 1946 and owned until mid-1950. It appeared in two films... Command Decision and Chain Lightning , before Mantz sold it. It went to California-Atlantic Airways and Owen F. Williams in July 1950, then to Lloyd...

That photo confirms what others (mainly Steve) have reported about that unusual paint scheme worn by some B-17s. There has been much speculation and theorizing about the unusual paint scheme and this seems to finally provide a definitive answer. I'm amazed at how these long-lost photos suddenly surf...

I just added a post at aerovintage.com that explores the history of this somewhat obscure civil B-17 N7726B, that started as the XPB-1W with the Navy. It crossed paths with Owen Williams, the organizer of California-Atlantic Airways, but only briefly. It ended up in Peru flying as OB-SAB-576 but cra...

I think most of the over land shoot downs were at the Test Range at Holloway or China Lake and from what I understand, they were cleaned up fairly quickly after the tests.

Q-Birds is a new book being released next week (December 19) on the manned drones operated by the U.S. military through the years. I've gotten an advance copy of the book and find it particularly fascinating for the detail on the DB-17/QB-17 operations in the late 1940s and 1950s, but it well-cover...

Owen Williams and his California-Atlantic Airways had much involvement in surplus B-17s and other types in the time period from 1949 to 1954. He and his company owned or operated seven B-17s in those years, as well as a number of other types such as a B-24 and P-38. Little information has been avail...