Warbird Information Exchange

I have been collecting WW2 photos for a awhile now. But really never was interested in researching them until recently. How can you look up tail numbers? I just got a nice B17G photo I'd like to research, but I cannot find anything.

Help!


Randy

There are various websites, such as Baugher's
http://home.att.net/~jbaugher/usafserials.html

But the bible for B-17 ID is Freeman & Osborne's 'The B-17 Flying Fortress Story'. All 12,731 B-17s listed with #, Delivery Location, Group,
Squadron, crash location, scrap location etc. You might find a copy on amazon. Also, Wallace Foreman's 'B-17 Nose Art Directory' lists over 8,000 ships with some # and group info.

Steve G

Another hint, when you go to Baughers website, using the picture of your plane's tail number, chances are the first "4" wasn't used.
Example:
Your B-17 shows "3-38111"
It would actually be "43-38111"

_________________
Roger Cain
www.sfahistory.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stearman/


We must limit politicians to two terms:
one in office and one in jail.

Joe Baugher's s/n lists would be my first stop, however I would suggest using the search engine for his lists...

http://users.rcn.com/jeremy.k/serialSearch.html

Using Roger's example if you had a B-17 marked "3-38111" you could enter "38111" in the "Serial Number" category and "B-17" in the "Description" category and the possibilites would be reduced to a short list for you very quickly.

Mike

_________________
Mike R. Henniger
Aviation Enthusiast & Photographer
http://www.AerialVisuals.ca
http://www.facebook.com/AerialVisuals

Do you want to find locations of displayed, stored or active aircraft? Then start with the The Locator.
Do you want to find or contribute to the documented history of an aircraft? If so then start with the Airframes Database.

If you know the year and serial number, just looking through the long lists of aircraft on the J. Baugher site is worth the time spent.
http://home.att.net/~jbaugher/usafserials.html
The number of aircraft, pilots and crews is hard to imagine today in our reduced forces.

This is another site with tons of info. Shows accidents (non combat) both overseas and stateside. The sheer number is staggering. When you consider there were over 15,000 fatalities in TRAINING during WW2, just in the Air Corp, not counting naval aviation, the scope of the war was incredible. Can you imagine media reaction to numbers like this today?

http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/AFrptsMO.htm

What is the tail number?

Regards,