A Timeframe Question

[CoastieJohn]

I need some help from the B-17 experts here. By looking at this model B-17, can anyone estimate the year the photo may have been taken? It was taken at BE-2 and I "assume" during WWII. Thanks ahead of time.

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Last edited by CoastieJohn on Tue Jul 28, 2020 10:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[CoastieJohn]

Here's a more current color photo....note the same mountain in the background.

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[Dan Jones]

I'm no B-17 expert, but it's a bare metal G model with no armament and and an ASV radar installed in the nose. I'd say it's a postwar USCG PB-1G, and Google says BE-2 was closed in 1947. But that's just a semi-educated guess.

[CoastieJohn]

Interesting observation!! Here is a few of them at Argentia....year unknown. There was a USAF rescue squadron at BW-1 that may of have B-17's.

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[CoastieJohn]

Came across this pic of what maybe a unique B-17 used for photography and land mapping in Greenland.

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[Dan Jones]

It looks like all three of those airplanes have an ADF football antenna on the roof roughly in the former top turret position (on the airplane in the foreground you can see two antennas, the other is on the belly) but the airplane in the original photo doesn't have an upper ADF antenna like that, just the one on the belly (hiding against the left hand main gear leg). Presumably the other two airplanes in the group of three have belly antennas as well, you just can't see them. Interesting photos - especially that photo Fort.

[CoastieJohn]

I found a BW-1 reunion webpage that had numerous old photos. I snipped these for anyone wanting them.

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[CoastieJohn]

Another.....I couldn't fit the text in the pic and still load it. It states "Big Bear, Danish Modified B-17, surveillance, reconnaissance, and search/rescue". The nose looks very long.

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