Just been talking to a guy at work who recently visited the Evergreen museum in Oregon, and insists that the B-17 there was used for covert ops in Vietnam. I know other WWII types like the C-47 and A-26 were used in SEA, but surely not the B-17, even as a one-off?
http://www.sprucegoose.org/pdfs/planes/Bombers/B17FlyingFortress.pdf
By: Last Lightning - 10th October 2008 at 15:59
air america b-17
http://www.utdallas.edu/library/collections/speccoll/Leeker/b17.pdf
By: J Boyle - 10th October 2008 at 14:49
I believe the black plane was based at Clark in the Phillipines in the 1950s…possibly used to support French activities in Indo-China.
In one book I have, they say it was chosen because someone felt it didn’t look like an American airplane(?!!!).
One theory is that with similar wings, it could have easily been mistaken from the ground for the Boeing 307s used in the region as transports.
It WAS NOT used by the USAF in the American phase (1962-on) of Vietnam.
All USAF B-17s were long gone by then..thanks to 50s-early 60s missile tests.
By: Mondariz - 10th October 2008 at 10:49
I know they were used in connection with the Vietnam war.
Im at work not, but will look in my big B-17 book when i get home in a few hours.
Hopefully there are some details inside….
By: BSG-75 - 10th October 2008 at 10:26
maybe early in the US involvement? – there was that famous black B-17 with changable serial numbers that when scrapped, had some parts shipped to Los Alamos…. not sure I could see the need after that with the range of airframes available ?
Sign In
October 10, 2008 at 9:58 am