Air Scouts B-17G, Paducah, KY 1946 CONFIRMED!!!

[Chris Brame]

Just got off the phone with Air Scouts troop leader Stanley Pirtle's son-in-law who found the plane's paperwork including flight reports.

42-102875 #H 87!

He's mailing me some papers. More to come.
HOORAY AT LAST!!! Now to build the model...

ETA: Now that I have a moment: This gentleman called me out of the blue this morning and told me a lot more about the plane; he had a lot of detailed multi-page flight reports that even had the engine serials listed. He also said Mr. Pirtle saved some small parts of the plane (not the data plate, unfortunately) which he now owns - things like the radio direction finder, liquid-filled compass and four fuel gauges.

Today was a good day.

[Chris Brame]

42-102875's record card:


Quickie 'shop of how it would have looked (now with turrets):

[terveurn]

Good work

Another Hobbs ship found -- finding these ships is worse then pulling teeth.....

Update attached from all the information

B-17G blank also attached - since she had the upped and chin turret(s), would assume she also had the ball

42-102875 update.JPG

B-17G-50 Blank b.jpg

[terveurn]

interesting with the Hobb id of H-87

from research, know that 42-29610 was also marked as H-87

Del Cheyenne 17/1/43; Wright Fd 20/1/43; Denver 26/1/43; ass 1037 Sch Sq/Combat Crew Sch. Smyrna 31/1/43; mechanical problem, landing accident w/Edwin Esslinger 9/2/43, rep; Tinker 28/2/43; Hobbs 29/4/43; f/l base w/R.C. Lindblad 3/7/43; 3017 BU Hobbs 8/11/44; RFC Altus 11/9/45.


Wonder if this means there was two ships at Hobbs with the same ID

[Second Air Force]

Great job staying with it, Chris! Patience pays off and it really feels good when the last piece of the puzzle drops into place, doesn't it! I chased one particular B-29 for over a decade before finally finding the serial.

[Chris Brame]

Thanks for the blank, David - corrections made. I still want to find a photo with a side view; just to double-verify and also to see whether the star-and-bar was painted over, stripped off, or left as is when it landed at Howell Field.

The number duplication concerns me, too - I can only guess they parked some of the older Fs when the new Gs came in and relegated them to the mechanics' school; the numbers never went over 99 but it seems that well over that many were at the base at one time or another. As an example, note that both #47s went to the RFC - 42-30078 to Altus and 44-XXXX to Kingman.

Another detail I got from Jim (the son-in-law) today was that the reports had the pilots' names and even the serial numbers of the engines, so stay tuned. Next time I take my folks down to Paducah we'll get together and hopefully I can copy everything he has.

Now for the one in Pipestone...

[terveurn]

Chris

Did you ever get any information from the scrap people

[Chris Brame]

Haven't contacted them yet; one person told me it was Tick Bros. that cut it up but Jim mentioned it was Johnson's - have to try both.

[Chris Brame]

The job ain't done 'til the paperwork's completed:

Flight report dated August 7, 1945 for 42-102875 at Hobbs AAF.
On the notation "Pilot's & Co-Pilot's W.M.B. Inop. - No Freq. Motor", what's a "W.M.B."?

And you gotta love this exchange between the pilot and the maintenance crew:

Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Maintenance: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T."

Newspaper column by Bill Powell of the Paducah Sun-Democrat:

I think there's a little embellishment here; reading between the lines, maybe the first plane they picked was a Pacific veteran and they wrecked it, then left with '875 instead.

So there you have it. Huge thanks to Mr. Jim England who provided the critical piece of the puzzle!

[Chris Brame]

Had a free trial for newspapers.com this weekend, so I spent two days researching various stuff, including the B-17. No new photos, or confirmation on its fate, but according to this item, it was still there in September 1947:

9-14-47.jpg

[Chris Brame]

As promised: The mortal remains of TB-17G 42-102875. Radio, gyro fluxgate compass indicator, large liquid compass, fuel gauge, flap indicator and three headsets. The surviving gauges were damaged by vandals and were pulled out just before the plane was scrapped; the radio was converted to household current and, according to the owner, still works:

(The little gauge in the bottom middle wasn't from the B-17.)
Big thanks to Jim England; a copy of Final Cut is on its way! Hopefully the shots of the pilot reports will reveal more info. '875 was getting pretty tired by the last one dated September 25, 1945; the pilot wrote "#2 and #3 engines smoke very badly."

[Chris Brame]

Update: A third photo has turned up, such as it is...