Warbird Information Exchange

It’s hard to verify by a written source, but the B-50A fuselage of Lucky Lady II was displayed at the Tallmantz International Flight and Space Museum at Orange County Airport (CA) for a number of years in the mid-to-late 1960s, along with a bunch of other USAF aircraft (F-107, F-85, possibly a B-47, and others). I saw the B-50 fuselage there as a kid in the 1960s and remember it quite clearly. That museum was a non-profit museum organized by Tallmantz to obtain such USAF exhibits and was organizationally separate from the Movieland of the Air Museum. It was how Tallmantz was able to lease and operate DB-17P 44-83525 from the USAF for five years (1967-1972). The IFSM was located adjacent to the larger Movieland of the Air and later, the IFSM withered away and closed. The various exhibit aircraft were mostly re-distributed to other museums and that’s how The Air Museum got Lucky Lady II, plus several other aircraft. Where the museum was located slowly turned into a B-25 parking lot after the Catch-22 filming in 1969.

All this is to say that I’d sure like to get a copy of a photo of the B-50A fuselage while it was at the IFSM…or, for that matter, any photos of displayed aircraft at that small museum. I do have a dedicated page with a few photos to that museum found here: http://www.aerovintage.com/ifsm.htm.

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Scott Thompson
Aero Vintage Books
http://www.aerovintage.com
WIX Subscriber Since July 2017

Does anyone know the history of how it got to Tallmantz in Orange county? Surplus from March or Norton AFB? What happened to the rest of it?

I really hope they get it back together someday with the KC-97 bits stored in Arizona.

Not sure on the route to Tallmantz, but it had previously been a walk-through USAF recruiting tool:



Its centre section is apparently still around (with Planes of Fame at Valle?). For completeness its service history is:

Project SAC-DM-565C; available 28Jan48; accepted 29Jan49
4127th Base Unit McClellan 02Feb48
4127th Base Unit Inglewood 03Aug48
Sacramento AMA 30Sep48
Boeing Wichita 04Oct48
43rd BW Davis Monthan 22Dec48
Oklahoma Air Materiel Area 11Jan49
43rd BW Davis Monthan 08Feb49
Oklahoma AMA 07Mar49
43rd BW Davis Monthan 06Apr49
43rd BW Sculthorpe 19Aug49
43rd BW Davis Monthan 21Nov49
San Antonio AMA Kelly 21Apr50
43rd BW Davis Monthan 22May50
43rd BW MacDill 24Jul50
43rd BW Davis Monthan 07Aug50, 63rd BS

Its flying career came to an end on 13 August 1950 when it crashed 2 miles southeast of Davis Monthan following engine failure on a test flight; Bombardier 1Lt Theodore Hastings was injured by a cactus on leaving the aircraft; the rest of the 11 crew were uninjured.

I have fallen on a cactus while hiking in the Escalante wilderness - I can't laugh at all when this was the only injury - those stupid things HURT!

Tom P.