B-17 question

jankees

jankees

SOH-CM-2025
Can anyone tell me what is written on the data block on the left hand nose of the B-17.
Knowing the AAF, it's probably something like:
U.S. ARMY MODEL B17G-XX
AIR CORPS SERIAL NO 42-XXXXXX
CREW WEIGHT XXXX POUNDS
SERVICE THIS AIRCRAFT WITH
GRADE 100 FUEL
IF NOT AVAILABLE XXXXXXX

but what does it say exactly?
 
:wavey: Quick search of "nose art" shows
U.S.Army Model xxxxxx
Air Forces Serial No. xxxx
Crew Weight xxxxx
Hope this helps
Curt
 
This was on the nose of "Mary Alice" as photographed in 1944.

U.S. ARMY MODEL B-17G-35-BO
AIR FORCES SERIAL NO. 42-31983
CREW WEIGHT 1200 LBS 92469-H

SERVICE THIS AIRPLANE
WITH 100 OCTANE FUEL
...........ONLY

FUEL SYSTEM SUITABLE
FOR AROMATIC FUELS

The "Service this airplane" part was contained within a black outlined rectangle.

Placement of this information varied, but was always on the port side of the nose.
 
Can anyone explain why it gives a crew weight of 1200 pounds considering the B-17 IIRC had a crew of 10?

VCN-1
 
Yeah, it does seem kinda light. Especially when you consider all of the stuff they wore into battle and the cold.
 
My father weighed 138-lb when he was in the Navy in WW II, you'd be surprised how small those boys were back then. The late John Champion, who was a ball-turret gunner in a B-24 told me they would line you up and the shortest and smallest person was the ball-turret gunner. Cannot validate if that is a truism, but it sounded sensible to me at the time.

Caz
 
All single-seat fighter planes had a crew weight of 200 lbs. written in their data block, so that is what they measured an average crew person's weight at during WWII, with all equipment, etc. Six people would thus be recognized by the weight being 1200 lbs. This could very likely be a carry over from the earlier pre-war model B-17s, perhaps, or they factored in all but the four gunners - bombardier, navigator, pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer, radio operator.
 
Here ya go:
better than default, because that was unreadable...
But is it too big now?
And the textures are way too big now, at 2048 x 2048 = 16Mb each. I think 80Mb for a repaint would be slightly over the top. We'll see where this ends...
 
Not bad Jankees, but the squadron symbol Triangle S or Triangle C need to be the same on all places.

With the ID code of IN you're definately doing a 401st BG skin ... the triangle c on the wing needs to be a triangle S to match the tail.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top