Warbird Information Exchange

I just watched an old episode of "Baa Baa Black Sheep" tonight on my computer, entitled "Trouble at Fort Apache" and was wondering if that was the POF's "Piccadilly Lily" taxiing and doing engine runs as the General's bomber? It sure looks like her.

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.

At that date, it could also have been the Tallmantz ship, N83525. Easy way to spot it was the top of the nose was painted gray.

Per Scott Thompson's book Final Cut, Lilly has been grounded since 1971.

Can you pause the scene in question, hit Print Screen and save the image?

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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)

Its interesting because the plane was grounded in ~'71 and that episode was filmed in '76 or '77... i wonder if it took much work to get the engines turning and taxing around, or if the plane got steady film work on the ground and they kept the systems operational just not airworthy. Chino made for in interesting stand-in south pacific airbase...

I saw the episode a year or so ago. IIRC, it was the Tallmantz ship, not Lilly....but I could be wrong.
Tallmantz provided a lot of aircraft for the series (Duck, L-5, R4D) etc.

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I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

The Chino plane was grounded but I believe they did do engine runs after that date.

There's two B-17's in the episode. You can only see the rear end of the second one briefly but after looking again you can see that it's USAAF 44-83663, which would have been with Yesterday's Air Force in Chino at the time. The other one (Lilly?) is painted pretty much exactly the way Lilly was when I first saw her in person in 1989 at POF. It doesn't fly in the show, just briefly taxies on three engines with #3 feathered and a smoke bomb under the cowl. The plane seems to have a slightly oversized forward window on the bombardier's left with no angled machine gun fixture on it. That might be why the window looks oversize.

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.

No idea, but if it helps, here's a video of her (inside and outside) from a few months ago.

https://youtu.be/NPw4fzjMUp8

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