Aero Vintage Books

I think the original tail code was RC for Rapid City. Back to my earlier post, I'd have to guess this airplane was used by the 6th Bomb Group on early Gypsy Task Force deployment. There weren't enough B-29s to go around and several crews flew B-17s on long over-water missions to the Caribbean. I've ...

Great find, Chris! The photos don't show the airplane at Grand Island as it's flat as a board all around G.I. Grand Island became a B-29 Phase Training field and I'd guess this Fortress was part of the Base Unit used for building crew flight time when there weren't enough B-29s to go around. I've go...

I should have been more specific about that comment also.....sorry to add confusion!

So, the aircraft on the right is an AAF B-24 and not a USN PB4Y-1? If so, that answers the question. Thanks for posting. Yes, the B-24 on the lower part of the image is a standard B-24D. You've most likely seen photos of the Fort Worth Consolidated assembly line with a mixture of O.D./neutral grey ...

Scott, I've got several photos in my files of ASW B-24s in AAF service, though it'd take me a long time to find them. Here is one aircraft that was used at McCook AAB as a trainer in 1943. Without digging deep into my notes, this airplane was part of an AAF ASW squadron that gave up the submarine pa...

The Liberator was the first thing I fastened my eyes on! I love coming here and seeing these new nuggets of history!!!

That photo certainly does a nice job of showing the belly gunner's side windows, doesn't it?

I've spent a LOT of hours at all the Kansas and Nebraska 2nd Air Force stations and that picture wasn't taken at any of them. The hangar in the background could have been at Sioux City or possibly Topeka. G.I. had the standard arched hangars with the exception of one smaller one that was actually bu...

I'm glad you posted those, and it brings up a question that's been nagging me for years...... Is there any photographic or other documentation of the scrapping operations that were conducted in Europe? I've seen a few photos of B-26s, P-51s and B-17s but not many. There was also a fairly large scrap...

Something interesting that doesn't show up often is that this airplane has hubcaps. We used to give Doc Hospers a hard time about having hubcaps on Chuckie but he usually said that he'd seen photos of Forts with them late in the war.

The use of Santa Monica on the card possibly just indicates the home field or headquarters of Douglas' west coast production.

Quite a photo of the airplane as a toolshed!

Your postings have started me thinking. I live and work in Tulsa (in fact, I've worked in all four hangars that were the Modification facility) but have done next to no research on what work was performed at the Tulsa Mod Center, other than the YB-40 project and various B-24 projects. Is it possible...

Here's a link to a memorial about forty miles from where I grew up in northeast Nebraska. Two trainers from Sioux City (42-107144 and 42-107157) collided during a training flight, eighteen crew members, only one survivor.
https://iowahighwayends.net/blog/2013/0 ... -memorial/

Yes, the B-24 program was interesting, to say the least. I was researching an early Fort Worth built airplane and hadn't a clue as to interior color since they were knock-down kits. By total chance I met a gentleman who worked at the plant until his draft number came up and he told me that the early...

That is a good test--it certainly leads one to green. I had/have some doubts about the yellow when I posted that reply and you've pretty much convinced me it's green. As I mentioned earlier, I spent 99% of my research on the YBs but the question of the B/C/D interior color had come up among a group ...

If you study the shade of the interior and compare it to the life raft container, it does look like the color might be yellow chromate. My special study is the YB-17s, and many of the photos I've collected show the YBs to have been painted with silver lacquer on the interior. This C photo has much f...