Amarillo B-17 Mechanic School

Second Air Force · Post by **Second Air Force** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 10:50 pm

I feel rather foolish for not starting this thread much, much sooner. I've been talking with Dan K and realized that I'd not posted these photos here.

This past summer found my wife, Ellen, and I back at AFHRA doing research on H2X, Second Air Force training programs, etc, etc. I was curious to see what the Amarillo Army Air Field Base Historical Files had in them, and I was bowled over by the quantity of photographs. I will post these photos over the next few days as I have time. There are literally dozens of photos of trainee mechanics in various classes, all learning to maintain the Fortress, and a lot of the photos have very early machines in them. So, here goes:

I'll start with a couple of the Y1B-17 pictures.

I'll have to upload the rest to Photobucket before I continue.

More later,
Scott

Dan Johnson · Post by **Dan Johnson** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 8:52 pm

Great stuff. Looking forward to seeing more of the photos. The mid tail fin serial number placement is interesting on the bottom photo. Seems like that came up in discussion earlier with the Sebring B17Bs as the photos from there have the serial up high

Second Air Force · Post by **Second Air Force** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:14 am

Sorry, this is all I have time for this morning. This was taken at the first Amarillo Air Base Open House. Heck, they weren't eve done building the place yet!

Scott

Second Air Force · Post by **Second Air Force** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:24 am

On second thought, I have just time enough for these two. Moonbeam McSwine is the airplane in the background undergoing the engine change.

McSwine again:

Scott

pokryshkin · Post by **pokryshkin** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 11:27 am

Scott,
Even though some of these have been seen on other threads here, they are still beautiful to behold!

Please, ASAC(Convenient), post any others you feel appropriate.
Gratefully,

Dan Katz

Second Air Force · Post by **Second Air Force** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:36 pm

As I continue to post these pictures I should make it clear that I'm not really putting them up in chronological order. I decided to post them from oldest airframe to newer (more-or-less) and I'll leave the handwritten captions and dates on the photos for chronological reference.

Here is close-up of 38-268 that I cropped when we first started talking about her:

This is Hangar 740 with an early machine residing within:

And a blown-up version showing the nose numbers and offset aircraft commander's bubble.

Now back to Y1B-17s in various forms of undress, and I'll just let the original captions (sometimes oddly worded, but original nonetheless) speak for themselves:

This one gives a really good view what was under that nacelle-top fairing:

I'll post this pair here since they're refuelling a YB in the bottom shot. We have a vintage trailer at VFM that I'd like to rebuild to replicate the Mobile Training Unit van.

I'll get some more loaded on Photobucket and post them then.
Scott

Dan Johnson · Post by **Dan Johnson** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:31 pm

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing these. Looking forward to more!

pokryshkin · Post by **pokryshkin** » Thu Dec 03, 2009 1:42 am

WOW!!!

Thank you!!!
-Dan K.

PS - This fills a gap in the B-17B numbers used at Hendricks!
I wonder whether this was 39-002, or perhaps another airplane.........

pokryshkin · Post by **pokryshkin** » Thu Dec 03, 2009 1:44 am

I suspect but cannot prove that the aircraft being refueled is also the one behind the engine stand: 36-158.

-Dan K.

Second Air Force · Post by **Second Air Force** » Thu Dec 03, 2009 9:07 am

The Amarillo Historical File is unusual in that it actually had a LOT of photos with descriptive text. Most airfield histories that we've gone through (primarily Kansas and Nebraska 2AF stations) have only a few pictures. Unfortunately, there wasn't an equipment list or any serial numbers of the training airframes assigned to Amarillo. I suspect that there is a document somewhere in the archives that has this info......if only I knew the proper words to use in my query.

Scott

pokryshkin · Post by **pokryshkin** » Thu Dec 03, 2009 10:33 am

Scott,
By some miracle did you check on Hendricks Field, Sebring, Florida?

What you've got so far is GRRRREAT!!!!!

-Dan K.

hang the expense · Post by **hang the expense** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 10:45 pm

Man I love this stuff.To all please keep this up.There is a book in here for early forts.The info all you guys have needs to be told.Thank you all again.

Second Air Force · Post by **Second Air Force** » Sat Dec 05, 2009 7:12 pm

Oddly enough, the Base History photo collection jumps from the really early airplanes with no pictures of the C, D, or E that I've been able to find. The next few photos are of general maintenance training with several F models as backdrops.

This last photo is interesting in that the mysterious "P" code is visible. From what I gather the P22 stencil was an identifying mark from a Mod or Processing Center for aircraft destined for the combat zone.

Scott

Second Air Force · Post by **Second Air Force** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:16 am

Here are a few more photos of Amarillo training airframes:

Scott

bluethunder28 · Post by **bluethunder28** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:40 am

Man those photos are great!!!

Has anybody tried to get the B-17 photos from China Lake NAS? Serveral years ago I picked up a B-17 window from a gentleman who worked at CL and he showed me some photos of B-17s that were used for testing.

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