I read yesterday that the Memphis Belle Memorial Association have not succeeded in their bid to keep the Memphis Belle B-17 in Memphis. The US Air Force demanded the aircraft be moved to the USAF Museum (or whatever its called now) about a year ago, but the MBMA were given an extension to prove that they could fund and maintain a museum for it in Memphis. It looks like an indepentent consultant has determined that it is not feasible, so it will now go to Ohio.
I was lucky enough to get a guided tour of Memphis Belle at is current home on the outskirts of Memphis in November 2004. I was really impressed with the amount of work the volunteers were doing to preserve the B-17, but it looks like their efforts were wasted as a suitable location could not be found. I think this is a great loss for the historic aviation community in the area, and that the aircraft will lose much of its significance in the USAF Museum. The B-17 had been open to the elements for many years, but the guys at MBMA were making a big effort the strip it down and repair the handful of corroded areas.
Andy
By: J Boyle - 3rd September 2005 at 07:08
I too worry/wonder about the “Shoo Shoo Baby”‘s fate. I hope it doesn’t get shuffeled off to some second/third rate museum like the NMUSAF did with their B-47E when the RB-47 was restored and put on display. Today the stratojet a rare plane ang they put it in a little known Ohio museum (presumable because it was close) rather than putting it where people might actually see it. At least it’s under cover.
Still, I wish it found a better home.
Also, I’d hate for the “SSB” to end up at a base museum…probably outdoors and left to typical airbase haphazard preservation standards (being repainted in water based paints for environmental concerns in unauthentic paint schemes) and lots of birds.
By: RPSmith - 3rd September 2005 at 01:02
[QUOTE=Papa Lima]This is the thread I put up after my visit in August 2003; the aircraft had long since been moved from Mud Island (shown in Mark12’s photo at post #3)
QUOTE]
I saw it at Mud Island November, 2002 so it must have moved pretty soon after that. Regrettably my photos didn’t come out to well – it was fairly dark under that tent when the sun wasn’t shining!
Perhaps the folks of Memphis will commission the first B-17 FSM (or has someone already done one?)
Roger Smith.
By: Kansan - 2nd September 2005 at 16:48
OT – other towns’ warbirds
This is OT but in the September issue of FlyPast there was a pic of a B-24 called “Joplin Jalopy” (B-24J-1-FO 42-50535 “GJ – O-bar” of the 506BS 44BG) – an operational veteran which survived the war and somehow ended up at the Joplin Regional Airport in Joplin, Missouri – about 30 miles from where I now live. (And I only found this out thanks to FlyPast)
However that’s where the similarity ends because “Joplin Jalopy” was scrapped in the 1950s, according to the article. I am now going to make some enquiries locally to see if anyone has any pics of it while it was there, and of course how it got there and how/why it got scrapped.
This could easily have been Memphis Belle’s fate.
Rob / Kansan
By: Papa Lima - 2nd September 2005 at 16:27
This is the thread I put up after my visit in August 2003; the aircraft had long since been moved from Mud Island (shown in Mark12’s photo at post #3)
By: Kansan - 2nd September 2005 at 15:25
The Memorial Association are putting a brave face on it on their website www.memphisbelle.com .
I have very mixed feelings about it. It’s probably one of the most significant B-17 airframes and its experience over the years embodies the whole aircraft preservation “scene” in microcosm.
The USAF Museum / National Museum of the United States Air Force have made noises to the MBM Association on more than once in the past about the aircraft’s preservation state IIRC. I wonder how long it’ll take them to get it out on display in Dayton after restoration or conservation. Then I wonder what’ll happen to “Shoo Shoo Baby”.
Maybe the NMUSAF should start pestering the Smithsonian about “The Swoose” 🙂
Ron / Kansan
By: FiltonFlyer - 2nd September 2005 at 15:17
The B-17 was dismantled and brought indoors a couple of years ago, and is now in a restoration hangar at Millington Airport north of Memphis. I believe it had been ‘under cover’ for a decade or two before that. It was protected from the rain, but not from birds, which probably cause a bigger problem than damp. Once restored, the plan was to keep her indoors for good somewhere in the Memphis area.
Apart from its name, there was no link with Memphis during its war years, but it was recovered from a scrapyard by a what became the MBMA in 1946 or around that time, so its had a strong Memphis connection since then. The USAF loaned it to the MBMA, but it was some time after it had been dismantled for restoration that they decided it would be better in Ohio.
Andy
By: Mark12 - 2nd September 2005 at 13:46
Shame
Sure the breeze can blow through but it is hardly out in the elements. 🙁
Protected from direct rain and shine as it is, and with the continuous TLC it clearly gets, I think it should stay there.
Here is a shot I took in June 1999.
Mark
By: Moggy C - 2nd September 2005 at 13:21
Other than its name, what connection does the aircraft have with Memphis?
Seems to me any historic airframe should be undercover anywhere, rather than out in the elements in a city where the pilot’s wife / girlfriend used to live.
Still sad news for the people of Memphis though.
Moggy
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September 2, 2005 at 1:17 pm