Aero Vintage Books

http://img-cdn.filefactory.com/embed/xl/22ncn09v5un2.jpg This photo turned up on the Second Emergency Rescue Squadron’s website, courtesy of Alan Humphreys. It shows instructor Private Lloyd Humphreys at Lockbourne in April 1943. The caption states, “With his previous experience as a Navy pilot as ...

Margaret Bourke-White from LIFE took this photo of the contraption on the 97th Bomb Group's "Peggy-D".

Since there’s been some renewed interest in this thread I have restored the images which were lost when I switched ISPs a few years ago. I also thought it might be interesting to add this composite of several Richard Leahy photos “stitched” together by Jack Fellows. It shows what 41-9234 looked like...

Interesting photo showing a unique B-17 interior. The only one I know of that was fitted out this way was 41-9043 "Peggy-D" . Roger Freeman described the modifications as heavy and unwieldy and "soon deleted". http://img-cdn.filefactory.com/embed/xl/1dm4h9a75o6o.jpg https://www.ebay.com/itm/32578893...

Interesting photo turned up on Facebook posted by Holden Reaves . . . 41-2524 was originally intended for the RAF but joined the 26th Bomb Squadron of the 11th Bomb Group in Hawaii on May 28, 1942 and features in John Ford's Midway footage. Returned to the U.S. in October 1943. http://img-cdn.filefa...

I think this is well worth a look . . . https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/american-b17-bomber-black-jack-lost-1943-dfbd407716a94dd9a16d6cb0c5f4a9de The remains of 41-24521 Black Jack 80 years after she ditched off New Guinea. Background story on the images here . . . https://www.curtin.edu.au/news/med...

Points taken. I’ve since learned that Flip Marchese and Ross Smith have been investigating these same photos, and concluded that #60 is this one, B-17F-130-BO 42-30949, in earlier days named Jumpin’ Jive.

With the help of Jack Fellows I think I've been able to take this a bit further. The WASP pilot is Dawn Seymour and this appears likely to be the B-17 she was photographed in. http://img-cdn.filefactory.com/embed/xl/1utktubsg5fs.jpg http://img-cdn.filefactory.com/embed/xl/472rkw4zlq5o.jpg For more ...

Thanks Scott, I think that's pretty much the conclusion that Robert Stitt arrived at - confusion or to urgently meet a specific requirement somewhere. Both 41-9137 and 41-9141 were delivered to the Air Corps on 25 April 1942. (The other plane in the photo, 41-9131 was delivered 23 April.) I’m still ...

Interesting point, but it is a Royal Air Force camouflage scheme and the wider white panel is consistent with that on 41-9141 when photographed in April of 1942 (and 41-2622, which did go to the RAF).

http://img-cdn.filefactory.com/embed/xl/1265bm7us9ug.jpg This photo was used in a Boeing ad that appeared in the major magazines in July 1942. It reveals just enough to prove that 41-9137 was painted in the RAF’s Temperate Land/Deep Sky camouflage scheme in Seattle. As with the similarly-painted 41...

Thanks Dave, I'll give that a try.

I’m hoping to find photos of B-17E 41-2620, which was involved in a collision with a truck at Mitchel Field on 29 May 1942. It was a taxying accident due to brake failure – pilot Lt Col Herbert K. Baisley. The AAIR site does not list an accident report for this date and plane, but it is noted on 41-...

No, The Aztec’s Curse was standard OD/NG.

Perhaps I was being too diplomatic in previous comments about that Don Greer sideview. It is just guesswork, and not very good guesswork. As pointed out, the radio call number would not have been applied in that format. The blue vertical tail stripe is a pre-war marking, the red and white rudder str...