description
Object description
American built four-engine heavy bomber military aircraft, built by the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1945 and used in civilian service from 1947-1972. Of a type of US military aircraft developed by Boeing in the 1930s and introduced in 1938, and widely used by the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) on daylight strategic bombing missions against German industrial and military targets during the Second World War.
Physical description
Four-engine heavy bomber aircraft. Fixed-wing monoplane with straight high aspect ratio wings, conventional tail and tailwheel-type landing gear. Fitted with armament of 12 .50 calibre M2 Browning machine guns, including Bendix Chin turret, Sperry top turret, Sperry ball turret and Cheyenne tail turret.
Overall painted in olive drab and neutral grey finish; with US Army Air Force (USAAF) national insignia (September 1943 pattern) painted in white and blue on fuselage and port wing; with Radio call number painted in yellow and 'Square C' (96th Bomb Group) high visibility tactical markings painted in blue and off-white on vertical tail fin.
History note
28 May 1945 - Delivered from the Douglas Aircraft Company - Long Beach, California.
31 May 1945 - Received by the Maintenance Division, Syracuse Army Air Base, New York - placed into storage having flown 20hrs 25mins.
2 Nov 1945 - A further 35mins were flown before the aircraft was dropped from the USAAF inventory by transfer to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation Altus AAF Oklahoma.
17 Feb 1947- Sold to Industrialist Colonel Andres Soriano for $13,750 on behalf of Transocean Air Lines
21 Feb 1947- Sent to Altus and accepted by Captain Samuel L Wilson
22 May 1947 - Registered to Transocean Air Lines of Oakland Municipal Airport, California as NL68269. Fitted with a seven seat lounge in the nose position, toilet, buffet with drinks cabinet, refrigerator and office. Extra fuel tanks were installed in the bomb bay and new autopilot fitted. Used exclusively for Andres Soriano on regular flights between Oakland and Manila, and on one occasion a round the world trip from San Francisco (Oakland) - Honolulu-Wake Island-Guam-Manila-Bangkok-New Delhi-Karachi-Cairo-Rome-Bordeaux-Paris-Bordeaux- Shannon- Keflavik-Gander-New York-Oakland.
14 Oct 1949 - Purchased by General Council of the Assemblies of God Inc, Springfield, Missouri.
28 Oct 1949 - Registered to the Assemblies of God and renamed Ambassador II. (replacing Ambassador I, a Curtiss C46 Commando, having longer range and greater four engine capacity) Flew missionaries to South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The nose eventually carried names of 38 countries which Ambassador II had visited in its first year of operation.
20 July 1951 - A bill of sale to Albert J Leeward. The sale was forced by increased insurance costs caused by the Korean War and other trouble spots. Regular scheduled airline services were also improving by this time.
1952 - Sold to the office of the Air Attache French Government in Washington
30 Dec 1952 - Received by Institute Geographique Nationale in Creil near Paris, France with 1475 airframe hours. Converted for aerial survey work.
18 Feb 1972 - Grounded at Creil after flying 6808 hrs and 40mins and cannibalised for spare parts to keep other B-17s flying.
20 Nov 1973 - Offered for sale without engines, instruments or radios for 30,000 Francs (£2,860)
May 1975 - Purchased by Euroworld Ltd together with an airworthy B-17 and sent to Duxford airfield.
January 1978 - Purchased by Imperial War Museum (IWM) and underwent major re-conversion and conservation to return the aircraft to its wartime configuration and painted to represent a B-17G Flying Fortress 42-31983 nicknamed "Mary Alice".
September 2012- After a 16-month conservation project by IWM which was supported by Mr John F Bookout on behalf of the 96th Bomb Group. The aircraft was repainted to carry the tail markings and number of a B-17G of the 96th Bomb Group.
Olive drab paint applied to the upper surfaces of the aircraft and neutral gray lower surfaces
238133
US military aircraft's radio call number with 6 digits painted in yellow
US Army- Model B-17G-95-DL
Air Forces Serial No 44-83735
Crew Weight 1200 lbs
US military aircraft's Technical Data Block (TDB) made up of three rows of dark grey text consisting of one-inch high characters
C
VIII Bomber Command high visibility tactical tail markings with capital 'C' painted in blue superimposed on painted square off-white background.
Roundel consisting of white 5 pointed star on a blue circular background, with two white bars and blue outline.
US Army Air Force (USAAF) national insignia with 'insignia blue' outline (September 1943 pattern)
