This folder contains a repaint for the A2A WoP2 B-17G in the colors of B-17G-30-BO 'Nine o nine". Nine-O-Nine was a Boeing B-17G-30-BO Flying Fortress heavy bomber, of the 323rd Bomb Squadron, 91st Bomb Group, that completed 140 combat missions during World War II, believed to be the Eighth Air Force record for most missions, without loss to the crews that flew it. The original aircraft, a block 30 B-17G manufactured by
Boeing, was nicknamed after the last three digits of her serial number: 42-31909. Nine-0-Nine was added to the USAAF inventory on December 15, 1943, and flown overseas on February 5, 1944. After depot modifications, she was delivered to the 91st BG at RAF Bassingbourn, England, on February 24, 1944, as a replacement aircraft, one of the last B-17s received in factory-applied camouflage paint.
A former navigator of the 91st BG, Marion Havelaar, reported in his history of the group that Nine-O-Nine completed either 126 or 132 consecutive missions without aborting for mechanical reasons, also believed to be a record. M/Sgt. Rollin L. Davis, maintenance line chief of the bomber, received the Bronze Star for his role in achieving the record.
Her first bombing raid was on Augsburg, Germany, on February 25, 1944. She made 18 bombing raids on Berlin. In all she flew 1,129 hours and dropped 562,000 pounds of bombs. She had 21 engine changes, four wing panel changes, 15 main gas tank changes, and 18 changes of Tokyo tanks (long-range fuel tanks).
After the hostilities ceased in Europe, Nine-O-Nine was returned to the United States on June 8, 1945, and was consigned to the RFC facility at Kingman, Arizona on December 7, 1945, and eventually scrapped.
B-17G-85-DL, 44-83575, civil registration N93012, owned and flown by The Collings Foundation, Stow, Massachusetts, flew marked as the historic Nine-O-Nine until its crash on the 2nd of October 2019.
Repaint by Jan Kees Blom.
