B-17G 44-85829Yankee
Air Force Museum, Willow Run Airport, Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Flies as 485829, Yankee Lady.
Photo by Todd Hackbarth
Photo by Yankee Air Force Museum
Built by Lockheed/Vega in Burbank, California,
it was accepted by ATC on 16 July 1945. It was ferried to the Lockheed
Modification Center, Love Field, Dallas, Texas, arriving 18 July 1945.
Too late to enter the war it was flown to South Plains, Texas and put in
storage under the command of ATS in September 1945. On 20 February
1946 it was assigned to 4104th Base Unit Rome AFB, New York and put in
short term storage. In September 1946 it was transferred to the US Coast
Guard and assigned BuNo 77255. It was sent to the Naval Aircraft
Modification Unit, NAS Johnsville, Pennsylvania and converted into a PB-1G
air-sea rescue aircraft. All armament was deleted and it carried an A-1
lifeboat. In the late 1940s it was used for iceberg counts conducted from
Argentina and Newfoundland. It was assigned to CGAS San Francisco in 1953
Finally ending its military career on 11 May 1959 it was sold at an auction
at NAS Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
Sold to Ace Smelting of Phoenix, Arizona it
was registered as N3193G and possibly ferried to Arizona. On 16 November
1959 it was sold to Fairchild Aerial Survey, Los Angeles, California and
converted to an aerial survey aircraft. Sold to Biegert Bros. Shickly,
Nebraska on 1 October 1965 it was modified with bomb bay tanks and the
survey equipment was removed. Again sold on 19 March 1966 to Aircraft Specialties,
Mesa, Arizona it was further modified into a fire bomber and marked with
as "34." In January 1969 it was flown to Oahu, Hawaii for the movie "Tora
Tora Tora." After filming of the movie it was flown back to Arizona for
the next decade. It made a gear up landing in Salmon, Idaho damaging the
retardant tank under the bomb bay. The company reorganized on 18 February
1981 as Globe Air Inc. In October 1985 all other Globe Air aircraft were
sold, however N3193G didn't make the minimum bid and was retained by the
owner Gene Packard. It was sold to Yankee Air Force, Ypsilanti, Michigan
on 25 June 1986 and ferried to Ypsilanti between June 30 and July 2. She
was restored to flyable condition and started flying at air shows sometime
in 1995 marked as Yankee Lady from the 381 BG, 534 BS.
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!
