Warbird Information Exchange

I just added a post at aerovintage.com that explores the history of this somewhat obscure civil B-17 N7726B, that started as the XPB-1W with the Navy. It crossed paths with Owen Williams, the organizer of California-Atlantic Airways, but only briefly. It ended up in Peru flying as OB-SAB-576 but crashed in March 1963. End of story. But what I posted is detailed...probably too detailed for most, but I think it is worthwhile to get information out of files and on to the internet so it is more widely available to researchers now and in years to come. So, take a look if you dare...

https://www.aerovintage.com/2025/01/01/owen-williams-and-his-b-17s-b-17g-n7726b/

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

I've come across some of the other B-17s owned by American Compressed Steel before. Any idea what the company wanted with them? I presume they were just for resale and not actual use.

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

Good question. There is not a bunch known about American Compressed Steel Corp. of Cincinnati. It was a company organized before WWII and its president was Abe Byers. It had dealings with a number of surplus airplanes in the 1950s. It purchased those 13 ex PB-1Ws in December 1957, and resold a couple quickly. But then the remainder were flown to Dallas-Love Field where they just sat. In June 1959 they purchased four surplus USAF B-17s out of Davis-Monthan. Why purchase more B-17s when there are ten sitting at Dallas? There was other stuff going on, apparently, and Greg Board was involved as he was listed as a vice-president of Aero American based at the same address in Cincinnati, and also had his own company, Aero Associates, based at Ryan Field near Tucson.

There was a media report in January 1961 an agent supposedly representing Fidel Castro had tried to purchase ten of the Love Field PB-1Ws in late 1959. Nothing came of the episode but it's hard to envision B-17s being a viable combat airplane in 1961.

There's some more on American Compressed Steel USAF B-17s here:
https://www.aerovintage.com/2022/12/07/enduring-b-17-mystery-in-the-bahama-triangle/

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

There's a book "Angels In the Sky" about the formation of the volunteer force that fought for the formation of the Country of Israel in 1947-48. An insurrection requires assets and they were grabbing anything they could find. Beaufighters, Me-109's Spitfires, C-47s , Mosquitos, Norduyn Norseman, and other hand me down aircraft. They even had a couple of B-17's and there was an uproar about those being sold and used by another country militarily.
It was a "rag tag" group of men and some had no military experience but most were WW II veterans from several countries. A few of them had been fighter aces in WW II. It's a great read and shares light on the efforts going on around the world not just in the middle east but Central and South America, India, Asia, Africa and elsewhere where countries were wanting their own sovereignty or simply to overthrow the existing government. When my dad bought his P-51D in 1976 he received a few calls from people wanting to buy it for export to foreign governments.

So, a quick search of Newspapers.com turned up a few articles that mention American Compressed Steel in mid-1976. The gist is that they operated a scrapyard on the Cincinnati riverfront and it was in the way of the planned Sawyer Park. The company was willing to move, but it requested another site a five miles up-river and a number of groups opposed the new location. Aside from the fact that they were a scrapyard, the only relevant detail is that, as you previously mentioned, it was founded by Abe Byers in 1940.[1]

EDIT: So it looks like some of the B-17s were used - and two destroyed - in the filming of The War Lover:

(Source: Newspapers.com)

_________________
Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

Yep, the two PB-1Ws used were scrapped in England after the filming was completed.

More here: https://www.aerovintage.com/2022/07/19/making-the-b-17-film-the-war-lover/

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