Dragon in the Bayou

ALOHADAVE · **Posted:** Tue Dec 20, 2011 5:38 pm

B-23 Dragon Bomber Loon Lake Idaho
updated photos and condition

http://www.secesh.net/B23.htm

The Inspector · **Posted:** Tue Dec 20, 2011 6:55 pm

If they came out the door as UC-67's, then the USAAF had decided that to save money and better allocate resources the bomb racks and tail turret would quite likely have been deleted on the line. The ABCD list shows a mix of both coming down the line towards the end of production in mixed distribution and the 67's were probably used as big wig fast transports for Generals and such.
The wreck @ Loon Lake has no tail gun position or evidence of it having been deleted and sheeted over so it may well be a UC-67 used as a navigation trainer or crew coordination trainer, this is mostly guessing but seems plausible.

Capt. Texas, Good hunting to find that picture of 777LW

WallyB · **Posted:** Tue Dec 20, 2011 10:08 pm

Captain Texas wrote:

Here is a picture of N777LW in what appears to be a large, old hangar at presumably Grant Co International Airport (MWH). I do not know when this photo was taken, but it seems to be recent.

To judge by the apparent dilapidated state of the hangar, I'd say that's more like Ephrata just up the road. Maybe that's where it's 'hiding'.

The Inspector · **Posted:** Tue Dec 20, 2011 11:08 pm

Think I found it! Thanks for the tip Wally,
GOOGLE earth Ephrata, WA. zoom onto the airport to the right of center, there's an awfully strange looking something with DC-3 wings sitting in front of a white hanger structure just off the Northwest taxiway loop, unfortunately The shot is from 2006, stuff don't change much in the Eastern Washington High desert, but we just might have found 39-0063.
And across the taxiway is what appears to be a PBY and a later model BEECH 18 with squared wingtips, hard to tell as resolution sucks

L. Thompson · **Posted:** Wed Dec 21, 2011 2:13 am

The B-23 at Loon Lake is NOT a UC-67. It absolutely did have a tail gunner position with much of the hardware still in place as late as October 1988 when I was last there.

After much research into this B-23 (mostly done in the early 90's before any Internet help), I have never found a pre-accident photo of 39-052, so if anyone ever finds one let me know please. There is, of course, a famous high quality photo of 39-053 at Muroc.

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Wed Dec 21, 2011 6:02 am

Quote:

The B-23 at Loon Lake...did have a tail gunner position with much of the hardware still in place as late as October 1988

When I took a tour of the NMUSAF restoration shop back in the mid 90s they were working on their B-23, and had a rather battered and weathered tail gun emplacement and some other bits off to one side. Could these have been salvaged from the Loon Lake wreck?

SN

WallyB · **Posted:** Wed Dec 21, 2011 10:18 am

The Inspector wrote:

Think I found it! Thanks for the tip Wally,
GOOGLE earth Ephrata, WA. zoom onto the airport to the right of center, there's an awfully strange looking something with DC-3 wings sitting in front of a white hanger structure just off the Northwest taxiway loop, unfortunately The shot is from 2006, stuff don't change much in the Eastern Washington High desert, but we just might have found 39-0063.
And across the taxiway is what appears to be a PBY and a later model BEECH 18 with squared wingtips, hard to tell as resolution sucks

The PBY is N9505C ("Always") and the Beech is lkely one of Methow's. I'd say that's the Dragon there - nose too short for a DC-3.
Take a look at: http://wap.airliners.net/search/photo.s ... ch=Ephrata

W

The Inspector · **Posted:** Wed Dec 21, 2011 10:47 am

Thanks for the AIRLINERS link. In that series of pictures are two of a C-47 with a very long nose cone. I got a really good look @ it a few years ago when it was RON @ KPAE. N272R is a modellers time capsule. On it's bare flanks with the light just right you can see the locations of it's post war TWA 'Sky Freighter' markings over the window belt and including, in about 2 inch high letters, 'sky freighter' under the aft cabin windows and behind the cockpit sliders and it's TWA registration NC88824. On the left side you can also faintly make out 'PIEDMONT AIR FREIGHT' in cursive style over the windows. I talked to the co pilot and he said the long radome was installed when it was a flying test bed for RAYTHEON and he said it had about 347 open holes in the instrument panel where switches used to be installed. it was built as a C-47A-25-DK l/n 13678 42-108983 (that S/N seems a bit long but thats how it's listed on ABCD)

gary1954 · **Posted:** Wed Dec 21, 2011 2:08 pm

they only built a ga-zillion of them :axe:

Rocketeer · **Joined:** Wed Jan 26, 2011 6:16 pm **Posts:** 195

I would love to see some interior photos of a "stock" B-23 from the 1940 timeframe.

wingman1 · **Posted:** Wed Dec 21, 2011 4:10 pm

You never know where and when a Dragon Lady will pop up.
check this out........................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12BHd7QZnRA

(at the 0:12 second mark?) :drink3:

cooper9411 · **Posted:** Wed Dec 21, 2011 4:25 pm

That was neat. :drink3:

Rocketeer · **Joined:** Wed Jan 26, 2011 6:16 pm **Posts:** 195

Nice! I really like the prewar stripes on the tail.

Does anybody know what the original interior colors of the B-23 were?
Possibly coated in zinc cromate or mostly bare aluminum?

Chris Brame · **Posted:** Thu Dec 22, 2011 12:13 pm

Quote:

When I took a tour of the NMUSAF restoration shop back in the mid 90s they were working on their B-23, and had a rather battered and weathered tail gun emplacement and some other bits off to one side. Could these have been salvaged from the Loon Lake wreck?

Yes - I believe we had a thread on this subject a few years ago. The NMUSAF's rationale was to make their B-23 a "reference restoration" with as much original material as possible, so a lot of structure that was removed from theirs (for executive conversion?) was cut from 39-52 to replace it.

As an aside there's a rare (and brief) shot of B-23 39-24 in the 1943 movie Bombardier during the B-18 belly landing sequence.

The Inspector · **Posted:** Thu Dec 22, 2011 1:59 pm

Gary 54,
Yeah they did, but how on many 65 year old aircraft still working for a living can you see (and clearly read) the original civilian markings locations on? And I've NEVER seen a picture of a TWA DC-3 in 'SKY FREIGHTER' markings.

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