Douglas B-23 Dragon

[Eureka181]

Does anybody have any pictures of the interior of the B-23? And how many still survive?

Eric

[ww2John]

I know of 7 surviving B23's, but have actually only seen 3, so take my information with a grain of salt. Here are the 3 I have seen:

39-037 NMUSAF (Dayton, OH)
39-045 Castle Air Museum (Merced, CA)
39-051 PIMA A&S Museum (Tuscon, AZ)

I have not seen and therefor can not verify:
39-036 McChord AFB (WA) -on display?-
39-038 CAF (Midland, TX) -in restoration?-
39-057 Kermit Weeks/Fantasy of Flight (Polk City) -in storage?-
39-063 Robt. Schlaeffli?? (Moses Lake, WA) -sitting?-

Various publications in the past decade have listed 39-063 as "flyable" or on "flying status", but, to my knowledge, it has not flown for several years (perhaps not in more than a decade?).

Hopefully other readers have more current information than I do.

[MX304]

The CAF does have one in Midland, but it does not appear that any work is ongoing. It does look complete parts wise, and is sitting on it's gear back by the Avenger fuse and P-82 out on the back of the ramp by the parts pile. I think I got a picture of it at Airsho. I'll look for it when I get the film back.

[Eureka181]

The CAF does have one in Midland, but it does not appear that any work is ongoing. It does look complete parts wise, and is sitting on it's gear back by the Avenger fuse and P-82 out on the back of the ramp by the parts pile. I think I got a picture of it at Airsho. I'll look for it when I get the film back.

I guess a CAF Wing or Squadron does not want it.

I think it would be great to get that one flying.

Eric

Last edited by Eureka181 on Thu Oct 06, 2005 5:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Eureka181]

I know of 7 surviving B23's, but have actually only seen 3, so take my information with a grain of salt. Here are the 3 I have seen:

39-037 NMUSAF (Dayton, OH)
39-045 Castle Air Museum (Merced, CA)
39-051 PIMA A&S Museum (Tuscon, AZ)

I have not seen and therefor can not verify:
39-036 McChord AFB (WA) -on display?-
39-038 CAF (Midland, TX) -in restoration?-
39-057 Kermit Weeks/Fantasy of Flight (Polk City) -in storage?-
39-063 Robt. Schlaeffli?? (Moses Lake, WA) -sitting?-

Various publications in the past decade have listed 39-063 as "flyable" or on "flying status", but, to my knowledge, it has not flown for several years (perhaps not in more than a decade?).

Hopefully other readers have more current information than I do.

Thanks for your input. I know the CAF B-23 exists. I have not had time lately, but I should go through my old Air Classics and Warbirds International to see if there are any articles on surviving B-23s.

What is your opinion on the B-23?

Eric

[Cvairwerks]

There was mention on here a few weeks back that the reason the CAF's is parked and not being worked on is due to extensive structural corrosion. So far the estimated cost to rebuild exceeded what any Wing wants to take on from what I've been told.

[tom d. friedman]

howard hughes had 1, i think it survives, but no clue as to who owns it if it is a survivor.

[Old Shep]

Re: the CAF B-23. cvairwerks is right....there is extensive corrosion in the airplane and it would be EXTREMELY expensive to fix....obviously beyond what any CAF unit wants to invest as it has been up for assignment for years. When our local unit, the High Sky Wing, had it, we discovered the corrosion and realized it was beyond our bank account. The airplane is about 90% all there...some parts didn't make it up from the Rio Grande Valley for some reason.
Bill Coombes

[JBoyle]

The B-23 was at Moses Lake a couple of years back...

Air Classics did an article on the McChord B-23 in the mid-80's.

[Eureka181]

Re: the CAF B-23. cvairwerks is right....there is extensive corrosion in the airplane and it would be EXTREMELY expensive to fix....obviously beyond what any CAF unit wants to invest as it has been up for assignment for years. When our local unit, the High Sky Wing, had it, we discovered the corrosion and realized it was beyond our bank account. The airplane is about 90% all there...some parts didn't make it up from the Rio Grande Valley for some reason.
Bill Coombes

Bill,

Everything costs $$$$$. You need to get a sponsor for the plane. Not too many B-23s still exist. It would be terrible if the plane continues to destroy itself until all you could do is make a static display with it.

Anything new with "Tinker Belle" and the Alaska Wing?

Eric

Last edited by Eureka181 on Thu Oct 06, 2005 9:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Eureka181]

The B-23 was at Moses Lake a couple of years back...

Air Classics did an article on the McChord B-23 in the mid-80's.

Thanks for the info.

Eric

[airnutz]

2 more B-23's, Tom had one of them. Ser.# 39-031 is on outside display
at Quito, Ecuador. There was a rash of photos of the aircraft here at
WIX awhile back, no interiors. Run it through the WIX search and see
what comes up Eric.

The former Hughes bird, #39-033, N747M survives her late-owner
Mike Bogue. The aircraft is kept at Eagles Nest Airport, Ione, Calif. A while
back WIXer, warbird51 informed us she was run-up in 2002...he's her
Crew Chief, might send him a PM Eric and see if he can help you?

So, that makes 9 survivors currently accounted for. I'm pretty sure
the pieces that were hacked-out of the Loon Lake bird went for the bits
for the McChord aircraft.

Hope this helps...

Edit:
In regard to the Loon Lake components which were removed from the
hulk, some components were reported by TIGHAR to have been present
at Wright-Pat when they were interviewing the Senior Curator of NMUSAF,
Terry Aitken about 5yrs ago regarding the harvesting of the Loon Lake
bird. I don't know how accurate their report is..I had forgotten it...but
I'm passing it on. Scroll about half way down for that part of the report
with photos....
http://www.tighar.org/Projects/Histpres ... lake2.html

Last edited by airnutz on Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Warbirdnerd]

Here is Midland example...

[tom d. friedman]

nice pic, what is the ball park date of it

[Warbirdnerd]

It is a little over a week old.
I took it last Thursday evening...
I have a pic of PIMA's example taken in Feb 2000 I can post if people are interested...