Some 25 years ago my wife and I journeyed up to Mud Island to see the Memphis Belle. There was a fellow there who gave a short lecture about the history and crew during WWII. Several times in the talk he referred to the Belle as a B-17G. Finally a little old lady in the front raised her hand and said "excuse me". She went on to say that the Belle was a model F, not a G. The lecturer assured her that he was an expert on the subject and knew that the Belle was a G. After a short pause the lady replied that she was sure it was an F. Why? Because she had over 4,000 hours flying them. She was a ferry pilot during WWII. That was the end of the lecture. I have a picture of the Belle's flight home from England after completing 25 missions. It's very special to me because it's signed by her pilot..Capt. Robert Morgan. If interested you can see the picture here  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Belle_(aircraft)#/media/File:Memphis_Belle.jpg  ...............Doug

EPIC !! 😎

I wonder if the lecturer ever altered his future lectures and honoured the lady ferry pilot?

That would have been so great to see, did he thank her for her services??? Probably not 😂

I doubt he ever gave her any credit and he sure didn't thank her for anything. In a word...he was pissssed.

Some expert he was lol. Not even close.

I should have thought anyone who was even remotely familiar with the Flying Fortress, let alone someone claiming to be an expert, would know that 17's didn't get a Bendix nose turret as a standard feature until very late production Fs began having them fitted, they then becoming standard on the G variant, and since the Belle did not have a nose turret, she could not possibly be a G model Fortress. Moreover, since she has the earlier view ports in her nose, and does not have a modified shorter Cheyenne tail turret with an improved gunnery sight, this means she has to be an early production model F. Other clues include antenna placement, the adjacent waist gun ports as opposed to the staggered ones on most G variants and a few other details which changed for the G. The Belle is such an early F therefore, that she is quite close to being an E model in many respects apart from the structural improvements to the airframe internally and the revised nosecone plexiglass.

But there is of course an even more obvious clue as to the fact that the Memphis Belle is not a G variant, and that is the build number on her tail - 41-24485. No B-17G models had a build number commencing with 41, they all start with either 42 or higher. The number identifies which batch she was in and what plant she was made at. So just a quick look at the number tells you she is an F. The Belle is also a genuine 'Boeing' B-17 i.e. the batch she was part of was built at Boeing's plant, not at the Vega or Douglas shadow factories. 

Edited June 22, 20205 yr by Chock

5 hours ago, W2DR said:

Some 25 years ago my wife and I journeyed up to Mud Island to see the Memphis Belle.

Only 25 years ago?  You youngster.  I saw Memphis Belle at Mud Island back around 1987-88, which I believe was right after it went on display there.  It had a big white tent/tarp over it, but wasn't exactly completely covered.

I'm surprised to learn that it went to Wright-Pat.  (!) I really didn't know that.  I thought it was still at Mud Island after all these years.  Glad to see it indoors in a safe place.   New Madrid Fault Zone is too close to Memphis -- the whole area could liquify in a big earthquake.  Wright-Patterson is in a more stable area I think.

 

She was still under the tent when I was there. I don't remember the story but I know that there was quite a push by the folks that maintained the Belle to get her out of the open air. A lot of "stuff" was deteriorating quite badly. When she was on Mud island all the maintenance work was done by volunteers. I don't know what the story is at WP but I just hope the Air Force doesn't spare any expense in keeping her looking good and flyable..........Doug

Edited June 23, 20205 yr by W2DR
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