AL557 Fort Collins today

I admit that my term “rotting away” is a bit hyped, but there are better alternatives for the airframe. Of course, it is a plus that the remains are fenced in, as opposed to the time when the remains sat in the open at Ft Collins. Unfortunately, a Liberator is a large aircraft, so storage indoors is a challenge.

I have a direct family connection to 159 Squadron and the time period when AL557 was at Salbani, India. A restoration would be a huge financial undertaking, but realizing this doesn’t stop me from dreaming of seeing a restored Lib with a 159 Sqn history, however brief.

Thanks, by the way, for your excellent zenfolio.com photos.

Its sad to see but being in Colorado is helping to preserve the airframe really well, I have observed it over several years and its not rotting at all.

Attached is a 2007 low-level oblique aerial view of AL557 in outdoor storage up against the large building at upper left. The photo is from this fascinating website:

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CO/Airfields_CO_E.htm#Christmas

The image is about halfway down the page, under the Valley Airport / Fort Collins Airpark / Fort Collins Downtown Airport heading.

Using this photo as a guide to landmarks, it’s easy to find on Google Maps. Then, using the Street View, you can peek some more from a ground perspective nearby the storage location.

In July 1943, after duty in the UK (including some RAF 120 Sqn time), AL557 was flown to India to join RAF 159 Sqn and also 1584 Conversion Unit (converting airmen to 4-engine Liberators), both at Salbani, West Bengal.

The 159 Sqn Operations Record Book does not list it on ops.

Copies of five airmen’s logbooks in my possession show 19 individual training flights aboard AL557 while with 159 Sqn or 1584 CU between 3 Aug and 1 Oct ’43. This was during the monsoon season of ’43, when 159 flew very few ops (a policy which changed as the war progressed). Most of the logbook entries identify the aircraft as a Mk II Liberator, and none as an LB-30, though I doubt it was ever planned to use AL557 on ops. My guess is that it carried no bomb racks, and if there were guns, they were only for use in training. Also, per the ORB the last Mk II Liberator op on 159 Sqn was on 24 July 1943, the same month AL557 arrived at Salbani.

AL557 was moved to a general duties role in ACSEA before departing India on 23 May ’44. Later it was converted to become a passenger aircraft in the immediate post-war years. Then, later again, it was converted for freight hauling. The aircraft crashed in Alaska during 1958 and was recovered by the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum in 1990. It was sold in 1996 to the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston, TX and stored 1996 – 2001 with Vintage Aircraft Ltd at Ft Collins, Colorado. Then, apparently, it was sold in 2001 to Worldjet/D. Whittington (or the Whittington brothers?) of Ft Lauderdale, Florida but still stored outdoors at Ft Collins.

I have no idea if there has been any further sale, but it sure is a heartbreaker to see this valuable airframe rotting away exposed to the Colorado weather. I also know that this now-closed airfield is on a floodplain, and at least part of the airfield site was flooded back in September. The above-mentioned website shows one such photo.

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?19866-AL557-LB-30-Liberator

Ron Buccarelli was, very recently, looking for parts for an LB-30. He’s had involvement with the Whittington brothers and the plane did belong to them at one time. Maybe it still does. The restoration hangar was Darrel Skurich’s place. I believe he’s retired down on a beach in Mexico now.