Warbird Information Exchange

Keep your eyes out for the 1944 film An American Romance the next time TCM runs it. There's a terrific four-minute sequence - in glorious Technicolor - at the end, showing B-17Gs being assembled at the Douglas Long Beach plant, culminating in completed bombers being taxied out of the factory every five minutes and taking off (although the takeoffs are really five different angles of the same plane!). The footage is a bit sped up, but not too much.

I've IDed two planes by serial and possibly two more by line number:

42-107229/line #1346 (number painted behind the cockpit windows): with 447th BG, lost 8-25-44 (ditched, crew rescued)
42-107230/line #1347: 349th BS/100th BG marked XR-B, damaged on mission to Mainz, salvaged 12-5-44

These were near the end of the run of the B-17G-35-DL; the last one was 42-107233 which should be line #1350. The Douglas production list shows the next B-17 built to be 44-6001, first of the -40-DL block. If the line numbers continued in sequence, and if 44-6001 was #1351, two of the fuselages seen in the assembly line shots would be:

Line #1401/44-6051
Line #1424/44-6074

Both seem to have been stateside trainers; 6051 was listed as with the 2126th Base Unit in Laredo, TX when it received minor damage in a gunnery accident on 8-8-44. 6074 was with the 2137th Base Unit at Hendricks Field, FL when it had a Category 4 (major damage) landing accident due to mechanical failure on 11-15-44.

Can anyone verify the line number/serial number tie-in, and if so, the final fates of 44-6051 and 44-6074?

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

I just caught that part of the movie the other day too. There were some great but brief scenes of the factory workers in the plant.

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Daviemax
Researcher of Post-War B-17 History
Maintains database of B-17s used from 46- on.

Hi all,

To shed some light on the subject, the numbers are Douglas “ship on contract” not the construction number. The B-17s built at Long Beach are easy they are all built on one contract and start at ship 1, 42-2964 C/N 7900 and end with last one 44-83885 C/N 32525. Note they are several blocks of C/Ns and serial numbers but the “ship on contract” are consecutive.

Here is another Long Beach built B-17 “ship on contract” 1155 from some movie I forgot the name of about an imagery worm name Curly. Ever note how many movies flight line scenes where shot at night in the Hollywood movies of the time, put the actors in B-2 bomber jackets it’s “somewhere in England” or Casablanca or wherever.


Where it’s gets to be a can-of-worms with Douglas is when different contracts are on the same production line like these A-20s at Santa Monica:



The ones on the left are A-20As for the Army, the ones on the left are Boston IIIs for the British with lower “ship on contract” number and a different series of C/Ns. Since the fuselages were built at El Segundo as were the A-20Bs built at Long Beach some references say “fuselage number”.

All the best to you all.

Tom

On a related A-20 item, the A-20 at the Pima Air Museum had its cockpit armor removed for the restoration and it revealed a fuselage line number ("ship on contract", I guess) that did not match the aircraft serial number (based on the original Douglas ledger) so at some point in the process, the fuselage got switched. I have the details in a file somewhere and some photos of the fuselage markings. Little doubt about either the aircraft s/n or the fuselage line number, for what it is worth.

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Scott Thompson
Aero Vintage Books
http://www.aerovintage.com
WIX Subscriber Since July 2017

Great find! The movie is Once Upon a Time from 1944, a rarely seen Cary Grant picture ("Curly" was a dancing caterpillar!). I believe the pilot on the left is an uncredited Lloyd Bridges.

If the numbers are consecutive, counting backwards would make ship on contract #1155 out to be 42-107038. Per Baugher:

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

Not so much B-17 related but movie related....

I was watching Objective Burma last night. I noticed what looked like quite a few C-47/C-53's in the movie with tail numbers. Alot of gliders. One scene looked alot like the airfield used for the Baa Baa Black Sheep series. The last scene showing a C47/53 flying low over a glider and picking up the tow rope is fantastic. I never seen a glider "yanked/jerked" into flight.

You mean the now-closed Indian Dunes Airport in Valencia, California?

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Keep your PDI centered!

If that was the place then yes. However doing some research....the problem is the Indian Dunes Airfield may not have been around in 1945. The Abandon & Little Known Airfields site says it didn't get built till 1964-69.

I had recorded the movie on the DVR so I watched last nite. Great footage as you stated and in color. I enjoyed the movie as well.

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!