Aero Vintage Books

Looking for information of Knock Out Dropper 124605 post 1946. Have picture of the Dropper sitting on wooden blocks in Oklahoma City in 1946. My Dad flew on the Dropper and I would appreciate any new information. Does anyone know for sure it was scrapped?

In my years of research nothing has surfaced about the fate of this airplane except what has already been reported: probably buried in a construction project as fill material. If not buried, it was probably scrapped. No sign of this airplane after 1950 and extremely doubtful any parts exist (above ground anyways).

Short answer: I doubt anyone knows "for sure" short of an eyewitness to events now sixty years past, and that person has not yet made himself known.

Thanks for the response! You mentioned since "1950". Do you know where it was in 1950?

A quote from the Daily Oklahoma column by Robert E. Lee, dated in March 1995:

"Bobby Riley recalls visiting the Acme Brick plant at NW 10 and Villa in the 1950s. At the bottom of the huge excavation (caused by digging clay for bricks) was the fuselage of a camouflaged bomber. 'I remember wondering how such a large plane got there, unless it had crashed, which seemed unlikely,' Bobby writes. That may have been one of the B-17s."

L.D. Tucker photographed three B-17s in 1946: Knock Out Dropper, Hells's Angels, and Yankee Doodle Dandy (all pretty famous airplanes). The photos were taken presumably at the gas station site. John Reed reported seeing some old bombers near an ice dock at NW 39th and Pennsylvania in OKC, date unknown. The gas station with Knock Out Dropper was in the same area, but the photo taken by Tucker shows the airplane on its belly without wings.

For what it is worth, that's the gist of the information I have on the airplanes.

Scott, in Pride of Seattle I noted that "Knock-Out Dropper was last reported in April 1948 near an ice dock near NW 39th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Oklahoma City". I'm not sure exactly where the date came from, but almost certainly via John Dienst, so I consider it reliable.

Makes sense to me based on the available information to me. It would be nice to provide a definitive conclusion to the story of these three airplanes.

We've lived in the Tulsa area for eleven years off-and-on, and I've heard many variations on the story of surviving B-17s near OKC. The stories are usually that there were a pair of airframes on a property that was needed for one of the major highways and that they may have been moved. There are well-meaning people who are sure they are still around (above ground) but no one has ever seen evidence of them. I would bet money that these stories are offshoots of the demise of these three aircraft back in the late forties/early fifties. There were a good number of combat vets stored at Stillwater, again giving folks ammunition for what has been talked about.

Heaven knows I'd like to find them!
Scott

May we please see the photos? Post 'em if you got 'em!

You can see one photo from the series on page 36 of Final Cut (third edition, of course).