very rare bird

JB-17G, test aircraft. It had a turbo on the front.
But it looks like someone has Photoshop'd off the 4 engines off of the wings on your photo.
I could be wrong. Maybe they did a clean version later.

And that's weird, I was looking at that plane the other day.
 
It's a photoshopped version of the JB-17G N5111N turboprop testbed. The real photo had 5 engines in place.
 
haha yeah, google images sure isnt airliners.net keeping out photoshopped craft, still would be an interesting design :)
 
Not a bad job on the shopping. The thing that gave it away for me was the oil coolers left on the wings leading edge. But I must admit that is one HELL of an engine to drag a B-17 around on 1 prop, even WITH the 4 big dirty radials messing up the air stream! Just think of how light and more clean it would be without them!
 
I hope someone can confirm this, but I was told that aircraft was refitted to stock condition and is now Liberty Bell. It came through the Dallas area almost a year ago. That's what I was told, or shown in a book describing the remaining flying B-17s.

Glenn
 
Glenn, that is correct, Liberty Belle was at one time one of the 'five-engine' test-beds. In order to restore it back to WWII configuration, the restorers had to move the cockpit some 15 feet forward, as it had been moved back in order to install the center test-engine (you can clearly see this in the photos). There is another B-17 under restoration currently, that was also at one time, one of the "five-engine" test beds.
 
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