Antoher Obscure Civil B-17: N5723N

[aerovin]

I just added a post about B-17F 42-30921 that obscurely was on the U.S. civil register in 1950 as N5723N before going to Bolivia as CB-71 later that year. It also had an interesting AAF service in development work of radio-control drones/targets/bombs between 1943 and 1946.

https://www.aerovintage.com/2023/09/23/another-early-obscure-civil-b-17-n5723n/

[quemerford]

Yellow leading edges on the Fleetwings' are interesting too. Thanks for posting.

[wendovertom]

Hey that is one of the 216th BU birds!! Cool - I will have our curator look through our photos of that time period and records as well. Might be interesting to see if we have anything about her here in Wendover.

Tom P.

[bdk]

Yellow leading edges on the Fleetwings' are interesting too. Thanks for posting.

Look like YPQ-12As. Only 8 were built according to Wikipedia.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... axying.jpg

[quemerford]

Yellow leading edges on the Fleetwings' are interesting too. Thanks for posting.

Look like YPQ-12As. Only 8 were built according to Wikipedia.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... axying.jpg

Eight Fleetwings YPQ-12A-FL; a single XPQ-12-FL and an XPQ-12A-FL; ten in total.

[marine air]

That may be the only color photo of the PQ-12A's. Anything built by Fleetwings is exceedingly rare. I have the last surviving Fleetwings BT-12 Sophomore and we are making slow progress to bring it up to static display condition. That drone paint scheme would look nice on an Ercoupe as opposed to the YO-55 scheme when someone is trying to make the Ercoupe look a bit military.

[quemerford]

That may be the only color photo of the PQ-12A's. Anything built by Fleetwings is exceedingly rare. I have the last surviving Fleetwings BT-12 Sophomore and we are making slow progress to bring it up to static display condition.

Do you have a website? I'd love to see more. This is obviously the Walt Soplata machine?

[marine air]

I don't have a website but that's a great idea. It came from the Soplata collection and is the XBT-12 prototype. Have been building a workshop to move t to and now getting it where it will roll. Have bought some of the instruments and just ordered tires and tubes. It has Hayes wheels dated 1937. Fun to think about what other aircraft were using those wheels in 1937. Maybe a BT-9 or 14 ?

[aerovin]

Here is the complete corner of that photo showing the YPQ-12As.

[quemerford]

Thanks for posting! I cannot locate full records for the YPQ-12As yet but late 1943 for the above seems more likely. The #1 aircraft is at front in the photo; I'd imagine that the others are the #2 and #3 machines. The #4 YPQ-12A was not delivered from Fleetwing [sic] Inc, at Bristol PA until February 1944. Curiously, from the #6 machine, YPQ-12As were manufactured by Culver in Wichita, KS.

[aerovin]

Thanks for posting! I cannot locate full records for the YPQ-12As yet but late 1943 for the above seems more likely. The #1 aircraft is at front in the photo; I'd imagine that the others are the #2 and #3 machines. The #4 YPQ-12A was not delivered from Fleetwing [sic] Inc, at Bristol PA until February 1944. Curiously, from the #6 machine, YPQ-12As were manufactured by Culver in Wichita, KS.

Could be later in 1943 but all aircraft, including the B-17 (hard to see) appear to have the red outline on the insignia that was replaced with blue in August 1943. Not that such things were immediately changed, but possibly indicative of a summer date.

[Mark Allen M]

I’ve got a full folder full of photos of those fleetwings, and a few photos of that particular B-17. I’m traveling at the moment so if anyone is still interested I’ll be happy to post em when I return.

Also a clearer color pic

[aerovin]

Yes, please do.

[Mark Allen M]

B-17F-125-BO 42-30921 Delivered Wright Fd 19/8/43; Mat Spl Tonopah 9/6/44; 4127 BU McClellan 28/7/44; Tonopah 16/8/44; 4127 BU McClellan 6/10/44; 216 BU Wendover 7/11/44; 4135 BU Hill Fd 2/4/45; 216 BU Wendover 20/4/45; 554 BU Memphis 7/5/45; 4145 BU Wendover 30/4/46; 594 BU Minneapolis 31/5/46; 554 BU Memphis 31/5/46; Reconstruction Finance Corporation (sold for scrap metal in USA) 31/5/46. To Bolivia as CP-71 & CP-571; destroyed Jan/1962

[quemerford]

I’ve got a full folder full of photos of those fleetwings, and a few photos of that particular B-17. I’m traveling at the moment so if anyone is still interested I’ll be happy to post em when I return.

Also a clearer color pic

Oh lordy! Yes please!