The College Bomber

No.. not Ted whats-his-name.

Colleges with Aeronautics programs who may have had an RFC/WAA surplus warbird?

Just from "Final Cut" we can see:

USC Santa Maria - B-17F 42-6073 (destroyed Bolivia 1965)
Bozeman State College (MT) B-17F 42-3470 (also destroyed Bolivia)
University of Minnesota - B-17E 41-9210 - (survivor)
Williamsport Technical Institute (PA) - B-17F 41-24487 "Eager Beaver" (scrapped 1950s - nose section in 8AF Museum?)

And more recently Lowell Thompson's mystery B-17F-20-VE, 42-5771 maybe at the University of North Dakota.

Has anyone noticed any more in the published literature or even worked on them as a student in the dark days of yore?

Next stop - "The Gas Station Bomber" - Art Lacey's B-17G plus two B-17s in Oklahoma City in the late 40s (?) Any more gas stations with aeronautical memorabilia or maybe an airframe?



Rob / Kansan

[chasd25]

My Dad went to Spartan School of aeronautics in Okla. in the mid/late 50s. He's got slides somewhere of some of the surplus airframes they trained on.

Lots of BT-13s, and texans with the wings chopped off, and one of a late model B-24 (he mentioned the instructors kept the students away from the bomber while he was there).

Charlie

My Dad went to Spartan School of aeronautics in Okla. in the mid/late 50s. He's got slides somewhere of some of the surplus airframes they trained on.

Lots of BT-13s, and texans with the wings chopped off, and one of a late model B-24 (he mentioned the instructors kept the students away from the bomber while he was there).

Charlie

Hmm - Interesting!! Wonder if that'd be a Douglas-Tulsa built B-24-DT??

Rob / Kansan

[Dan K]

Well, just see for yourself!

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b24regis ... 48781.html

[Dan K]

Sorry. Baugher's site says it's a Ford.

Dang!!

Rob / Kansan

[Chris Brame]

Pasadena (CA) Junior College (now Pasadena City College) had an early model P-38 in their aeronautical program. Maybe we should start looking at old college (and high school) yearbooks from the '40s and '50s...

[chasd25]

Well, just see for yourself!

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b24regis ... 48781.html

Wow, Thanks for the link!

I'll pass that along to my Dad, he'll be happy to hear that it survived.

I once asked him why all the wings of the planes were chopped off when he went to Spartan. He told me it was because a few years prior to his attendence there, a few students took one of the instructional airframes for a joyride/flight......

Charlie

[Randy Haskin]

Not a bomber...or a college...but perhaps worth noting:

F-6K 44-12817, July 1946 - War Assets Administration transferred to Phoenix Union High School District, Arizona

Later registered N4963V, and eventually 'eaten up' in the Cavalier Aircraft Corporation Mustang meat-grinder.

[spriso]

I seem to remember that Oregon State University (Oregon State College back then) had a B-17. I know that I have seen a photograph of it sitting in front of the WWII hanger at the Corvallis airport somewhere, but I cannot for the life of me remember where I saw it...

I checked Ron Olsen's excellent website, thinking it was there... but I did not see it.

Or was it just a dream???

Michael

[valdez25]

What is the address for Ron Olsen's website?

[spriso]

http://www.ronsarchive.com/

Ron has a fantastic collection of post war shots (lots of B-17s!)

Look under "Out of Uniform"

Michael

[Aircraft Mech Paul]

No.. not Ted whats-his-name.

Colleges with Aeronautics programs who may have had an RFC/WAA surplus warbird?

Just from "Final Cut" we can see:

USC Santa Maria - B-17F 42-6073 (destroyed Bolivia 1965)
Bozeman State College (MT) B-17F 42-3470 (also destroyed Bolivia)
University of Minnesota - B-17E 41-9210 - (survivor)
Williamsport Technical Institute (PA) - B-17F 41-24487 "Eager Beaver" (scrapped 1950s - nose section in 8AF Museum?)

And more recently Lowell Thompson's mystery B-17F-20-VE, 42-5771 maybe at the University of North Dakota.

Has anyone noticed any more in the published literature or even worked on them as a student in the dark days of yore?

Next stop - "The Gas Station Bomber" - Art Lacey's B-17G plus two B-17s in Oklahoma City in the late 40s (?) Any more gas stations with aeronautical memorabilia or maybe an airframe?



Rob / Kansan

Hi All,

I just "stumbled" into this topic. Very interesting for me on a bit of a personal level. Because I attended Williamsport Technical Institute (when I was there it was Williamsport Community College), to get my A&P Licenses back in the early 1980's. The program then was very well respected for turning out very good aircraft mechanic's, especially when it came to sheetmetal/structures work. I do recall seeing photographs of the B-17 they said that was there long before I arrived for my training. But, at the time I didn't pay them much attention.....ahhh youth...young and dumb.

On a side note, the story went along the lines of how they disposed of the Fortress to obtain (yuck !!!!) a Convair 240. Nasty plane to work on back then....leaked like sieve and the belly was full of water because the drains in the belly were blocked up with ............. everyone was afraid to find out just what. Opened up the E&E bay door and the water level was such that it was about 2 inches below the radio and electrical racks. The fuel tanks were full of....no one was really sure, but it was kind of a white jelly substance which plugged both pressure carbs on the 240's engines. Let's just say that when it came to run the plane up.....it was a REAL adventure keeping the engines lit.

The even better part of the time I was there was that the "Vo-Tech" was sponsored by a local high school district and the Vo-Tech Instructor was an old Air Force guy who flew as Flight Engineer on B-36's. He had a FULL sized photo of his "office" onboard the B-36 which covered one full wall of his office. Monsterous panel to be the boss over to keep that big aluminum cloud airborne. The stories he would tell about the B-36 were incredible.

Just out of curiousity...and purely personal....but are any other folks out here on the boards A&P's and I was curious, based on where this post took me, to see if anyone else knew of or is a graduate of Williamsport Tech. School as well.

Don't know if I kept this much on topic....but it brought back some very pleasent memories for me. And I thought I'd pass them along.

Paul

[phil65]

THERE IS A NICE O2 AT "ECAT" NOW WYOTECH IN BEDFORD MA., THAT SOMEONE SHOULD TAKE OFF THERE HANDS.

[L. Thompson]

Charlie Rothe in New York reported in November 2000 that he "worked on an AT-21 at Spartan school of aero. in 1950-51 I was there under an Air Force contract along with 299 other Air Force men. The AT-21 was used by us students along with 2 BT-13's and 2 AT-9's and a UC-78. That was in another lifetime!!!!! "