California-Atlantic Airways
Wed Jan 18, 2006 11:37 am
Can someone point me to some written accounts of the activities of California Atlantic Airways and Owen Williams?
I see he gets a mention in "Final Cut" apparently moving around the country buying four "Town Bomber" B-17s from Scout troops/small towns etc. and putting them back in the air. "Final Cut" also says the registrations N66569 to N66574 were used for these machines (but not N66569 and N66572 which were already used by him)
Sounds interesting and worth a footnote by itself. Maybe someone's written that footnote already?
Rob / Kansan
I see he gets a mention in "Final Cut" apparently moving around the country buying four "Town Bomber" B-17s from Scout troops/small towns etc. and putting them back in the air. "Final Cut" also says the registrations N66569 to N66574 were used for these machines (but not N66569 and N66572 which were already used by him)
Sounds interesting and worth a footnote by itself. Maybe someone's written that footnote already?
Rob / Kansan
Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:20 pm
Found this from the NASM site, hope it helps some. 
The NASM B-17G-95-DL, U. S. Army Air Force Serial Number 44-83814,
was one of 2,395 B-l7Gs built at the Douglas plant in Long Beach, California. It has no combat record because it rolled off the production line on June 15, 1945. On June 22, the AAF put the bomber in storage at Syracuse, New York, and then declared it excess to their needs on October 10. From Syracuse it went to a War Assets Administration (WAA) surplus depot at Altus, Oklahoma. The story of 44-83814 could have ended there. Many military airplanes built immediately after the war were scrapped and by 1948, 95% of all B-17s had been destroyed. However, late in 1947 the WAA released this particular aircraft for public display to the Public School District #3 at Hazen, North Dakota. On June 20, 1951, Owen Williams, President of California-Atlantic Airways in St. Petersburg, Florida, bought the aircraft but sold it two years later to Kenting Aviation Ltd. of Toronto, Canada. The B-17 joined other Flying Fortresses serving as high-altitude camera platforms. Kenting used them to perform mapping operations and aerial surveys over Canada's vast territories. Wearing the registration code C-FHBP, the old bomber crisscrossed Canada from 1965 to 1971, flying west to Vancouver, north to Baffin Island and the Arctic, and east to Greenland and Iceland.
After 18 years in Canada, 44-83814 returned to the U. S. in April 1971. Black Hills Aviation of Spearfish, South Dakota, bought it to augment its fleet of forest fire bombers. A new registration code, N66571, was painted on the airplane and-with two other Black Hills B-17s-it bombed fires with chemical retardants throughout the 1970s. Age finally caught up with these old soldiers and Black Hills retired the warplanes after two Flying Fortress fire bombers crashed. NASM acquired the B-17G from Black Hills on January 19, 1981, and ferried it to Tucson, Arizona, on October 19, 1981. The aircraft remained at the Pima County Air Museum until early April 1984. Black Hills Aviation personnel prepared the airplane and ferried it to Dulles International Airport on April 25, 1984. It is now stored at Dulles in a temporary building, awaiting restoration.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 1998-2000 National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution (revised 3/15/01 S. Wille and R. E. Lee)
Aircraft of the Smithsonian
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regards
Robbie
The NASM B-17G-95-DL, U. S. Army Air Force Serial Number 44-83814,
was one of 2,395 B-l7Gs built at the Douglas plant in Long Beach, California. It has no combat record because it rolled off the production line on June 15, 1945. On June 22, the AAF put the bomber in storage at Syracuse, New York, and then declared it excess to their needs on October 10. From Syracuse it went to a War Assets Administration (WAA) surplus depot at Altus, Oklahoma. The story of 44-83814 could have ended there. Many military airplanes built immediately after the war were scrapped and by 1948, 95% of all B-17s had been destroyed. However, late in 1947 the WAA released this particular aircraft for public display to the Public School District #3 at Hazen, North Dakota. On June 20, 1951, Owen Williams, President of California-Atlantic Airways in St. Petersburg, Florida, bought the aircraft but sold it two years later to Kenting Aviation Ltd. of Toronto, Canada. The B-17 joined other Flying Fortresses serving as high-altitude camera platforms. Kenting used them to perform mapping operations and aerial surveys over Canada's vast territories. Wearing the registration code C-FHBP, the old bomber crisscrossed Canada from 1965 to 1971, flying west to Vancouver, north to Baffin Island and the Arctic, and east to Greenland and Iceland.
After 18 years in Canada, 44-83814 returned to the U. S. in April 1971. Black Hills Aviation of Spearfish, South Dakota, bought it to augment its fleet of forest fire bombers. A new registration code, N66571, was painted on the airplane and-with two other Black Hills B-17s-it bombed fires with chemical retardants throughout the 1970s. Age finally caught up with these old soldiers and Black Hills retired the warplanes after two Flying Fortress fire bombers crashed. NASM acquired the B-17G from Black Hills on January 19, 1981, and ferried it to Tucson, Arizona, on October 19, 1981. The aircraft remained at the Pima County Air Museum until early April 1984. Black Hills Aviation personnel prepared the airplane and ferried it to Dulles International Airport on April 25, 1984. It is now stored at Dulles in a temporary building, awaiting restoration.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 1998-2000 National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution (revised 3/15/01 S. Wille and R. E. Lee)
Aircraft of the Smithsonian
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regards
Robbie
Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:39 am
Robbie,
Exactly!
There's a similar write-up to bdk's B-17G 42-102715 (aka N66573 "The Batmobile" )(see earlier post) which was also purchased by Williams. So from his base in Florida he made excursions to North Dakota and Northern Illinois to buy two surplus B-17s which at that time belonged to a school district and a scout troop. Wonder how many he looked at before he found those two?
Rob / Kansan
Exactly!
There's a similar write-up to bdk's B-17G 42-102715 (aka N66573 "The Batmobile" )(see earlier post) which was also purchased by Williams. So from his base in Florida he made excursions to North Dakota and Northern Illinois to buy two surplus B-17s which at that time belonged to a school district and a scout troop. Wonder how many he looked at before he found those two?
Rob / Kansan