Post nothin' but B-17 photos

[Clifford Bossie]

[Clifford Bossie]

[4RG.I.'S]

Madison, WI Heavy Bombers weekend last summer.

[4RG.I.'S]

Attachments

[4RG.I.'S]

[VaBeachEd]

Here's a couple more of Chuckie. I know she's gone to a good home, but we still miss her around the MAM.

[florida.warbirds]

Liberty Belle back at Tom Reilly's



Suzy Q at Fantasy of Flight

[p51]

I have shots of it still being skinned in the same spot. That was still going to be "Outhouse Mouse" at that point (I just found the pin I bought there that day with the nose art and "fortress flight" on it).
I have oodles of B-17 shots but very few scanned. Like many of you, I'm in a lifetime quest to personally see every existing B-17 on earth and I'm very close to that goal at this point...

[jdvoss]

Mystery "EL" tail coded B-17. I thought it could be El Paso AAF or possibly Ellington Field. The paint is quite faded and the "771" certainly is indicitive of an aircraft having been in the sun. According to the Wikipedia file El Paso AAF trained both B-17 and B-24 crews.

Anyone have insight ???

Thanks,
John
http://www.fuselagecodes.com

[ignomini]

Great stuff, but hows about we work on slowing down those shutter speeds. Stopped props in the air always look janky to me.

[Taigh Ramey]

With no particular order whatsoever





Radio operators from two very different eras of the B-17 only a few years apart

[b747cf]

Suzy Q in the late 70's at the Flying Tigers Museum at Kissimmee, Fl.

Mark Fidler

[Clifford Bossie]

Mystery "EL" tail coded B-17. I thought it could be El Paso AAF or possibly Ellington Field. The paint is quite faded and the "771" certainly is indicitive of an aircraft having been in the sun. According to the Wikipedia file El Paso AAF trained both B-17 and B-24 crews.

Anyone have insight ???

Thanks,
John
http://www.fuselagecodes.com

The EL was indeed for Biggs AAF. There seems to be no distinction between Biggs and El Paso and El Paso was just somewhat of an overflow base for Biggs. There was quite a bit of transient traffic through El Paso Municipal Airport, but the only unit I show based there was the 497th BG. A B-29 unit that was formed at El Paso and then relocated to Clovis AAF (now Cannon AFB). All other units were Biggs based.

The EL code was applied to ground vehicles. Maybe even before airplanes. I suspect the it started use for Biggs sometime in mid 44.



Do you have a larger scan of the B-17 photo? And if so may I use it on my Biggs site? http://www.angelfire.com/dc/jinxx1/Biggs/BiggsAFB.html

[sledge39]

.
...Chino 1969...right turn-out...gear in transit...

[res6kgcr]

Gooday John & Clifford,

The “EL” tail code was Second AF designation for Biggs Field, Fort Bliss, TX next to El Paso TX. The B-17s were used by the 235th AAF BU (Combat Crew Training Station, Very Heavy) (16th BOTW) for initial B-29 crew training till the shortages of B-29 could be made up since Second AF was about 20% short of training B-29s.

I do have photos of B-29s and L-5s with this tail code but this is a B-17 only topic.

All the best

Tom