B-17D "Swoose" Question: Where was the Caribbean C
Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:01 am
I have a question which maybe someone out there can answer (starting a possible new article though the first one is still holding-fire!)
In Jeffrey Ethell's book, "B-17 In Color", there is a photo of 40-3097
"Swoose" in a lineup, in all natural metal, with all 32 flags on the nose under the nose windows, with a post-September-1943-star-and-bar-with-blue-outline national marking, amputated belly "bathtub, seen from the right side, but with the fin and rudder either out of frame or cut off.
What I need to know is, was that serial number, "3097", on the forward vertical fin, like that Hawaiian tail-striped aircraft in the photo leading the formation of 41-2405 and 41-2434 (B-17Es), or was the serial number stencilled at the top of the rudder, like 40-3092 as shown in Class-26 at Harvard in 1944?
Can anyone help on this? Does anyone have an illustration showing the correct placement?
Thank you in advance!!!
Gratefully,
Dan Katz
In Jeffrey Ethell's book, "B-17 In Color", there is a photo of 40-3097
"Swoose" in a lineup, in all natural metal, with all 32 flags on the nose under the nose windows, with a post-September-1943-star-and-bar-with-blue-outline national marking, amputated belly "bathtub, seen from the right side, but with the fin and rudder either out of frame or cut off.
What I need to know is, was that serial number, "3097", on the forward vertical fin, like that Hawaiian tail-striped aircraft in the photo leading the formation of 41-2405 and 41-2434 (B-17Es), or was the serial number stencilled at the top of the rudder, like 40-3092 as shown in Class-26 at Harvard in 1944?
Can anyone help on this? Does anyone have an illustration showing the correct placement?
Thank you in advance!!!
Gratefully,
Dan Katz