Moggy,
Comparing Mossies with B17s is like comparing apples with bananas.
After getting my wings, I was assigned to bombers. Thankfully it was B17 rather then B24. I knew that my chances of survival were better in B17s.

I believe that more bombers were lost to flak then to fjghters. B17s were much better able to defend themselves from fighters then B24s. Much tighter formations, etc

I still say that I would rather have B24s flying with us then escorting fighters, because the enemy would attack the 24s rather then 17s.

I finished my tour before P51 Mustangs came into our theater. Once they began escorting the bombers, the bomber loss to enemy fighters dropped dramatically.

I was told a story of a classmate of mine(Stan Bass) On a combat mission, at about 20M feet,his position was #2 of a three plame element. The formation made a turn on his side, must have been too steep, he flipped overand went into a split ess, on his way back up the speed was so great that he wasn;t able to level off, the plane went skywood and went into a stall and then into a spin. He eventually pulled out of the spin at about 3000 feet. He flew back to base OK. After landing it was discovered that every rivet had popped. He was in a neighboring group,

To those of you who said B17—- If you were in WW2 and had a choice as to which bomber you would want to fly in I’m quite sure you would choose the B17 because it would be your best chance of surviving a tour. This in spite of it’s smaller bomb load.

Hi All,

Mr Allens B-17 is in storage pending its turn at the restoration shop. When the Whinington Brothers sold it to him it had only been wash out and repaired to make it airworthy. Mr.Allen has most of the items to rebuild it.

I have some photos of it when it was in florida and I can tell you even after they washed and clean the inside it still had a funk to it.

The last thing I heard was it was slated to head to the shop sometime in 05.

Cheers

Crazy mainer,
The Bolivian B17 that Don Whittington restored wasn’t anything that you described.I helped with some of the coolie work, since it was in very poor condition, when the restoration was completed, it was in pristene condition. I had a ride in it and I had about 15 minutes stick time. I have hanging in my apartment 6 11×16 pictures taken by a pro photographer

B 17

When I flew Cs and Ds in transition training, I do recall that they were faster then Es and Fs. Cs and Ds didn’t have the dorsal fin, I also recall that i was able to get one over 30.000 feet.
As for ops it was the greatest. easy to fly and we were able to fly very tight formation when under attack by fighters, We loved having B24s flying with us because enemy fighters would attack them and leave us alone. I flew mostly Fs, before I finished my 50 flights I flew Gs a few times, most of my tour was in 1943

pictures

I have 6 color 11×16 professional pictures of the interior of the bolivian B 17.I don’t know to get it on this site. I guess if I had a digital camera something could be done, but I don’t.

Beat trip

I had 50 best trips, each time I returned from a combat mission. Oh yes the scenery was superb.

Bolvian B17

Re: B17 hauling meat …..Don Whittington has a business at Ft. Lauderdales Executive Airport in FL. restoring WW2 aircraft and refurbishing present day planes. Several years ago he had a /the Bolivian B17 at his shop, he started to restore it in intermittant intervals, it was a mess. I helped in some of the coolie work, washing down the skin with rags, coated with acid. It took several years, but eventually it was finished and ended up in pristine condition, I was later told that he sold it for a millon bucks. One day some months later, he was checking someone out shooting landings, about 50 miles away. I was invited to go along, I was able to be at the controlsfor about 15 minutes, it was quite an experience for me after 55 years to be at the controls again.

I have a friend who was a pilot for a major US airline (I forgot which one),
he said that he saw the plane out in the boondocks some years before.