The SAC Museum's B-17G S/N 44-83559 rolled off
the Douglas production line at Long Beach, California and was accepted
by the USAAF on 5 April 1945. On 7 March 1950 it was sent to Olmstead Field,
Middletown Depot, Pennsylvania, for modification to become a DB-17 drone
director aircraft. Throughout the 1950s it served in various units assigned
at Eglin AFB, Florida; Eniwetok Atoll, Marshall Island Group, Pacific;
Scott AFB, Illinois; and Holloman AFB, New Mexico.
In May 1958, it was dropped from USAF inventory
and issued as a museum piece at Patrick AFB, Florida. The Air Force transferred
S/N 44-83559 to the Strategic Air Command Museum at Offutt AFB, Nebraska.
It was flown to the SAC Museum in May 1959 and has been on continuous display
ever since. It is painted in with the markings of King Bee S/N 42-3474,
an Eighth Air Force B-17F-65-DL from the 100th Bomb Group. The original
King Bee was commanded by the first director of the Strategic Air Command
Museum.
If you have any comments or have found information on my page that
is incorrect, please e-mail
me! If you know of a surviving B-17 that is not on my page, please let
me know!
