Hello all,
I thought I would post a few photos I've taken over the years of the Seattle Museum of Flight's B-17F 42-29782, N17W, during its time as a flying warbird. Unfortunately, I only managed to photograph N17W flying once, so these are mostly static photos, and some aren't that great of quality.
First are a couple from the mid 1980s, I think 1987. I was still a kid in elementary school then, and N17W was the first B-17 I saw. I still remember touring the interior and meeting Bob Richardson, then the B-17F's owner and operator.
Next is a photo from August 26th, 1990, the day after N17W returned to Seattle. The B-17 had been away for about a year, first for the filming of "Memphis Belle," and then held up in New York for a few months while the ownership was sorted out after Richardson passed away earlier that year. The Museum of Flight purchased N17W from Richardson's estate for $750,000.
N17W's next public appearance was at an open house in November 1997 (or maybe 1996?) at the Boeing Renton Factory where it had been under restoration by Museum of Flight volunteers since 1991. Here the plane was unveiled nearly complete and in its new paint scheme. The somewhat unusual camouflage scheme was donated and applied by Boeing.
N17W returned to the skies on May 9, 1998 with a short ferry flight from Renton to Boeing Field, marking the end of major restoration work on the aircraft. 782 stayed at Boeing Field for a few months before being flown back to Renton.
The Museum maintained N17W as a flyable aircraft between 1998 and 2003. The last flight came on December 12, 2003, when N17W made another flight from Renton to Boeing Field and the B-17 went into storage in the Plant 2 building.
From what I know, N17W wasn't flown very often in the 1998-2003 timeframe. One member of the restoration team told me it was flown maybe six or seven times. I only managed to photograph the May 9, 1998 flight.
Anybody else have photos of N17W they could share, either when operated by the Museum of Flight, or during the Richardson years, or even earlier?
Jon Davis
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