Hi Guys,
I hope someone out there can help me………
A guy I met, showed me a dataplate, that, according to him, his father had released during the war form a B-17 downed in the Dutch Zuiderzee, now Ijsselmeer. He also mentioned the name ‘Dinah Might’ but this was,as far as I know, a B-17G …
This dataplate mentions B17-F (and not B-17F, what I would axpect from an early Flying Fortress)
Secondly, AFAIK no B-17 were built by Bell, or am I wrong?
Thank you in advance for your intellectual labour !!
Aerovet
By: sfp54 - 1st September 2011 at 04:06
Here’s one from my collection. Was told Bell made B-17 stabilizer assemblies, which this plate may have been associated with.
By: sfp54 - 1st September 2011 at 04:06
Here’s one from my collection. Was told Bell made B-17 stabilizer assemblies, which this plate may have been associated with.
By: GrahamSimons - 30th August 2011 at 21:21
Looks to me like a Bell subcontract part from one of the Douglas built aircraft. I’ll check through my listings in the morning.
By: GrahamSimons - 30th August 2011 at 21:21
Looks to me like a Bell subcontract part from one of the Douglas built aircraft. I’ll check through my listings in the morning.
By: aerovet - 30th August 2011 at 20:10
That has puzzled me too…
I don’t know the answer either…
Thank you all for replying to my thread!
Keep up the good work!
Aerovet
By: aerovet - 30th August 2011 at 20:10
That has puzzled me too…
I don’t know the answer either…
Thank you all for replying to my thread!
Keep up the good work!
Aerovet
By: ZRX61 - 25th August 2011 at 23:36
I wonder why the date was drilled out…?
By: J Boyle - 25th August 2011 at 22:53
I’d guess that somewhere there might be a listing of subcontractors for major B-17 components.
That way you could see what Bell built and then narrow it down by the weight listed.
With Pete Bowers and Roger Freeman botgh no longer with us, who’s the resident B-17 expert?
You also try WIX, there are guys on that forum involved in the several B-17 rebuilds currently taking place in the U.S.
They may know what the component might be.
By: bomberflight - 25th August 2011 at 22:50
aerovet ~ here’s a picture of the plate attached to the horizontal stabilizer on B-17G ~ Thunderbird as a comparision …..
As already stated ~ many companies acted as sub-contractors to fabribricate parts in the quantities required to build more than 12,000 B-17s in WW2.
The part this plate was attached to was built to a B-17F spec but it’s possible that it was swapped out as a replacement to a B-17G after combat damage to the latter airframe after the F model had become a spares doner.
B-17G “Mary Alice” had two replacement horizontal stabilizers fitted during its 98 mission history with the 401st Bomb Group. Both of these were sourced from Fortresses that had ended their flying days as a result of combat damage.
I hope this helps ! 🙂
By: glhcarl - 25th August 2011 at 21:50
Whatever the “data plate” is for it is not a B17-F, which weighed slightly more than 267 lbs.
It most likely a part built under licence by Bell for a B-17F that was being built by Douglas (listed as customer). Douglas was part of the BVD group building B-17’s during WWII.
BVD = Boeing, Vega, Douglas.
Vega was a subsiduary of Lockheed.
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August 25, 2011 at 9:07 pm