Interesting B-17...is this Fuddy Duddy!?!

[Ztex]

I was looking over my inherited photos and I found these two B-17 shots from Okinawa in 1951

1st one in interesting because it is B-17 - SN 44-83547
David Talichet's airplane is SN 44-83546...they are siblings...kinda cool.




2nd has a partial SN visible on the tail...44-8356_
now doing my amateur on-line research I find:
SN 44-83560 was a drone and seems to have been scrapped in 1959
SN 44-83565 was a drone and had an accident at Eglin AFb in 1950
SN 44-83567 crashed near Raton NM ...no date
SN 44-83568 crashed on the Azores in 1946
and
Sn 44-83563 is now Fuddy Duddy

I estimate a 50% chance that this airplane is Fuddy Duddy
50% chance that it is not...

The label on the photo says the airplane belonged to teh Commanding General of the 20th AF in 1951...who was that?...does anyone have information on Fuddy Duddy or another airplane that would shed light on this photo?

Last edited by Ztex on Tue Aug 22, 2006 8:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Larry Kraus]

For what its worth,I found a site that includes a Douglas Long Beach production list that appears to originate in The Netherlands as do so many other useful aircraft lists.The URL is:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~rioolpw/douglas_longbeach_04.html

According to the list, the only B-17-85DL in the series beginning with s/n 44-83560 and ending with 44-83569 (c/n 32201-332210) that was later converted to a VB-17G was s/n 44-83563 which is listed as N9563Z.

Assuming that this is accurate,it would seem that the odds favor "Fuddy Duddy". As to 44-83547. The s/n looked familiar,but I was probably thinking of 44-83546 which was a VB-17G that I flew as Tanker 68 a.k.a N3703G.

For Mudge,I tried to add more space between numbers,but it came out lke this.

[Ztex]

Larry,

I saw that list on-line...it's amazing the amout of effort soem have put out to make these things available.

Any one out there know about this airplane and the 20th AF CG connection?

[aerovin]

As per the USAF record card (and included in the book Final Cut, 44-83563 was assigned to the Far East Air Force at Yakota, Japan, with the 6161st Air Base Wing between November 1950 and February 1952. It was being operated as a VB-17G. It is consistent with the photo that the airplane could have been assigned to the commanding general of the 20th AF during this period.

[FlyingFortB17]

Also to note is that the radio operator's window configuration in the last photo is present on Fuddy Duddy today.

[groundpounder]

dont mean to blow your theory apart but fuddy duddy only has one window in the radio operators room today. also note in the old pic the two windows above the insignia in the waist section. not sure of the significance of this but it could be another clue. hope this helps. sim.

[aerovin]

A 1955 photo of the airplane on page 112 of Final Cut shows the added window just to the right of the US insignia on the left fuselage. The area forward of that window is obscured in the photo by the wing. Of course, the added windows seem to be fairly common on VB-17Gs so it is probably not going to be conclusive.

[wls3]

Very interesting thread!
Below is a photo taken last summer of Fuddy and true, although
only one window in radio compartment, it sure looks like there
might have been 2 at one time by the color of the exterior skin.

Bill

[FlyingFortB17]

Yes, I was referring to what seems to be a covered 2nd window. If you were to tour the interior, you would notice the extra window frames in the radio compartment.

Courtesy of NorthStar gallery

[wls3]

Aerovin wrote:
"A 1955 photo of the airplane on page 112 of Final Cut shows the added
window just to the right of the US insignia on the left fuselage. The area
forward of that window is obscured in the photo by the wing. Of course,
the added windows seem to be fairly common on VB-17Gs so it is
probably not going to be conclusive."

I enlarged the above photo of Fuddy I took last year and it appears there
could also have been a window to the left of the national insignia as in the old photo.

Bill

[Larry Kraus]

While looking for something,I came across another useful list concerning civil B-17's.It might be useful for those of us who don't have our copies of "Final Cut" handy.

http://www.aerovintage.com/b17list.htm

[Larry Kraus]

Chuck Ott,who was my co-pilot on Evergreen's B-17 Tanker 22 in 1983 just sent me a link to another B-17 list.This one concerns air tankers and has some good photos.Also,be sure to check out the available optional links on the Aerovintage B-17 List site from my previous post.

http://ronsarchive.com/oou06/b-17s3.htm

[Larry Kraus]

The Ron's Archive B-17 list is,of course, one of Ron Olsen's. A little more searching brought up the FM-2 and PB-1W photos.I should have recognized it earlier.Facinating stuff.

[groundpounder]

from looking at some interior shots of fuddy duddy that i have although i cannot see just where the rear front window would have been it does appear that it would have been located in the waist section just before the radio room bulkhead and not in the radio room itself. excellent exterior shots of the plane you guys! nice blow up shot of the sheet metal! sim.

[spriso]

A quick search of "Google Images" lists a website with a photographic tour of Fuddy Duddy.

This shot is interesting, and shows the location of one of the blocked off windows:

http://www.hockeyjimm.com/images/B17_Jimm.jpg

Looks to be part of the radio room?

The rest of the photos are here:

http://www.hockeyjimm.com/B-17.htm

Michael