Warbird Information Exchange

As you may recall, a while back I posted shots of the third XB-32 on the fire dump at McClellan AFB circa 1952:
www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpB ... =3&t=53756
While digging through old airplane photos in the University of Southern Mississippi Digital collections, I stumbled on another Dominator; the remains of a TB-32 being used in a firefighting demonstration at Keesler AFB during the Air Force Day airshow:




While its big brother, B-36A 44-92014, makes a low pass:


Turns out Keesler was a maintenance training base for the Dominator; I've never seen a photo of one from there before. Note the K field code; maybe 510 would make this one 42-108510? It's not listed on Baugher so maybe one of our B-32 mavens could chime in?

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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)

Hi Chris

Here is K-510 as an airplane mechanic’s instructional airframe note the B-24N in the background at Keesler. Keesler specialized in B-24 mechanic training because of the differences between the B-17 & B-24, Amarillo specialized in B-17 mechanic training. Looks like Keesler was to continue on with specialized airplane mechanic’s training with the Consolidated product, I know Amarillo shifted over to B-29 mechanic training.



K-510 is just the field number not part of the serial number. Some mechanic schools used field numbers others just left them in the previous unit’s markings for these instructional airframes Keesler did a little of both the B-29s in the background of the B-36 flyover have their 20th Air Force markings complete with some fine nose art with K- numbers painted over them.

Best regards,

Tom

Thanks for finding that shot, Tom! That's what I was afraid of with that number - once in a while the "last three" were used, but not that often . I wonder how many Dominators were assigned to Keesler?

_________________

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 know this will really be out there,but any chance that fuselage got pushed way back in the weeds and forgot about?

...in Burma or on some atoll?

What a shame.

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K-510's tail number was 42-108489. Info pulled from the b-32 book by Mr. Wolf
it's listed as 'class 26' which I believe means it was made non flyable and used as an instructional maintenance trainer only.
As far as I can tell it was the only B-32 sent to Kessler.
It's great to see one that lasted longer than the ones scrapped at kingman and walnut ridge, even if its only by a year.
Gives me that slim hope that one is still rusting away somewhere forgotten in the states.
Unfortunately there's no hope for a B-32 to be found overseas. only 4 stayed on Okinawa after the war. 2 scrapped on location, 1 crash n burn on take off and 1 that crashed into the ocean on a return flight to Okinawa.

it is fairly safe to say that all of the "easy" recoveries have been made and no more of those "easy" finds exist. That said, there are still many, many warbirds out there waiting to be recovered. Its just not going to be "easy" or "cheap". They will be laborious, expensive, potentially dangerous recoveries. Thats why they are still there.