Last warrior

Air Classics, Sep 2001 by O'Leary, Michael

With having recorded just ferry time, '740 sat at Altus for 18 months before being purchased by a company named Metal Products for just $750. By the company's name, the outfit was probably a scrapper. However, the plane was not scrapped but sat at Altus for a month until Metal Products sold the still-gleaming bomber to Universal Aviation for $1800 - an excellent return on investment. Universal was an aerial mapping company in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and wanted '740 either as another mapping platform or as a parts source. They gave the aircraft the civil registration of N5017N (its other B-17 was N5014N).

The Fort did not remain with Universal for long - being sold once again to Vero Beach Import and Export Company in Florida during mid-1947. The owner of the company was named Charles Winters and he wanted to utilize '740 (for which he paid $3500) as well as two other Fortresses he owned for cargo duties south of the border. Winters, however, must have also had other thoughts on his mind because he sold the other two Forts to agents of Israel to be used as bombers against Arab forces. Once smuggled to Israel, the aircraft were refitted with turrets and other military equipment and, along with another example, formed the main bombing force of the new Israeli Air Force. Ferried south, the bomber went to Melbourne, Florida, where it was picked up by Tom Cobb, the company's chief pilot, and flown to Sebring, stripped of all military equipment and, modified as a cargo hauler to carry cattle between Florida and Puerto Rico, Modifications included the removal of the bulkhead that separated the rear fuselage from the radio compartment. Also, a strengthened floor was added to support the aircraft's new tenants. This was in 1947 and, at the time, the B-17G had only 37 flying hours on the clock!

We do not know just how successful the former bomber was in its southern route cattle hauling missions but in mid-1949 it was once again sold. This time the purchaser was Aero Service Corporation operating out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Aero Service was a large and successful mapping and survey company and operated a varied fleet of aircraft - most of them ex-military and suitably modified for their new mission.

By 1949, the storage yards across the United States were empty of B- 17s and companies that needed such aircraft now had to pay the asking price and Aero Service had to shell out $28,000 for the airplane. The plane (which by now had about 1400 hours flying time) was flown to the Mercer Country Airport, Trenton, New Jersey, and given a complete inspection, disassembled, and then modified into a high-altitude mapping platform. New engines and props along with new wiring and fuel tanks were installed along with updated instruments and when the aircraft came out of the hangar it was virtually new and suitably modified for its mapping mission. All this had to have been done at a considerable expense.

The airplane was in demand and in just three years, N5017N logged over 3000 hours of flying time as it headed to remote parts of the globe. By 1962, Aero Services had gotten their money's worth out of the old bomber which was beginning to look a bit tired and sold the plane in August to Chris Stolzfus and Associates. Operating out of Coatsville Airport in Pennsylvania, Stolzfus flew a variety of Stearmans, Twin Beeches and other military aircraft in agricultural and fire bombing roles. He hoped to modify the B-17 into a large acreage sprayer but when the Coatsville Airport expanded he had to fly the Fort to his own private field which was nearby. He had never flown a B-17 but the flight was accomplished without a problem. The B-17, with canvas covers over its engines, sat parked in the grass and the plans to modify the plane into a sprayer never came to fruition.