
Caption | In-flight view of one of two Boeing JB-17G aircraft. The aircraft were modified as test bed aircraft for the Allison T-56 turboprop, circa 1950, Indiana, United States (designation changed to JB-17G in 1956). ww2dbase | |||||
Photographer | Unknown | |||||
Source | ww2dbaseUnited States Air Force via D. Seley | |||||
More on... |
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Photo Size | 1,800 x 1,188 pixels | |||||
Photos at Same Place | Indiana, US Pacific Islands | |||||
Added By | David Stubblebine | |||||
Licensing | Public Domain. According to the United States copyright law (United States Code, Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105), in part, "[c]opyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government". Please contact us regarding any inaccuracies with the above information. Thank you. |
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22 Nov 2014 01:55:00 PM
After WWII the B-17 soldiered on in different duties, among them were testing new equipment,
as a flying test bed. Others were used as drones
and targets for ground-to-air missiles and
air-to-air missiles. One of the last mother ships
was a DB-17 used as a drone director for testing air-to-air missiles against the remote controlled QB-17G target, these DB-17 aircraft were retired in 1959.
SPECIAL OPTS: COVERT MISSIONS 1950s
Operated by CIA front companies surplus B-17s were used to drop agents into Mainland Communist China. Flying out of Taiwan, these B-17s were painted black with no national markings of any kind, and crewed with Nationalist Chinese many of these operations, were used to gather and update
intelligence and did resulted with aircraft being shot down, lost of crews due other conditions. Aircraft flew covert missions over Tibet many of these missions remain classified to this day.
CIA VIETNAM: CLOAK & DAGGER
Some sources list the B-17 was used early in the Vietnam War to drop agents into North Vietnam.
At the same time, other sources list the B-17 could be confused with the French flying their
Institut Geographique National over Indochina will we ever really know what the truth is? some list it as disinformation...never happened, so what about those B-17s that operated out of Clark Air Force Base, in the middle 1950s in the Philippines.
SHORT LIST:
By 1960 the B-17 was retired from the USAF, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Coast Guard inventory most had been expended as target drones, research, testing
and other duties, even the DB-17 drone control
aircraft were sent to storage or to be scrapped...