Aero Vintage Books

This one is for Scott

There was a rumor / photos of 7-8 combat B-17's (and possibly B-24's) sold to a gasoline franchise (Flying In ? ) in the Oklahoma City area (including the 100th BG Hell's Angel).

Have not seen anything posted on the RFC page regarding these aircraft. Understand that these aircraft were disassembled, trucked then dumped behind a local ice house then "lost" when the franchise deal when bust.

Wondering if anybody has information / photos of these aircraft.

Cheers

dave

Dave, that sounds very much like the plan that involved the 303rd's 41-24605. which was one of 78 B-17s sold to Paul Mantz by the War Assets Administration in February 1946. Along with Yankee Doodle Dandy and Hell's Angels, 41-24605 was dismantled and trucked to Oklahoma City as part of a plan to incorporate the old airplanes into service station sites to be known as "The Flying Service". Knock-Out Dropper was last reported in April 1948 near an ice dock near NW 39th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Oklahoma City.

Maybe somebody can find more and better, but here’s a photo of 42-5264 Yankee Doodle Dandy.



I got it from the Stillwater Airport Memorial Museum twenty-odd years ago.

Hmm. Let's take a closer look at that wing in the background and enhance it:


Looks like 42-29832:

Dave Osborne wrote:42-29832 Del Cheyenne 24/2/43; Casper 13/3/43; Smoky Hill 3/4/43; Ass 364BS/305BG [WF-H] Chelveston 18/5/43 SPIRIT OF A NATION; tran 534BS/381BG [GD-H] Ridgewell 22/8/8/43; AFSC 5/4/44; RetUS Tinker 16/6/44; Memphis 13/7/44; Tinker 14/9/43; RFC Arledge Fd 23/11/44. OUR MOM.

Interesting to see a combat veteran with the serial on the bottom of the wing; I've only seen it on stateside trainers. If anyone knows more about the placement of the number there, let's hear it - was this done at the factory or in the field, and when did it start?

Remember that many of the returned combat airplanes then became trainers--hence the serial number would likely have been stenciled on during its service Stateside.

Steve, that's the first time I've seen that photo, thanks! (I confess we live less than two hours east of Stillwater and I've spent precious little time there doing research.......)

Well, for what it is worth, that photo and a brief account are on page 36 of the 4th edition of Final Cut. My research on this episode came up with only a few B-17s and they all came out of the Mantz group at Stillwater. I have a copy of an OKC newspaper article that details a bit more about the story of these airplanes. I don't have it in front of me but that article supposed at least one of the B-17s was used as fill for a construction project.