No 45 B-17 G NINE O NINE

[Kevthemodeller]

45 checking in skipper

The 91st Bomb Group operated out of RAF Bassingbourne (to which I have a direct link) during WW2, NINE O NINE was part of the 323rd Bomb Squadron. Not only NINE O NINE operate from there but so did the more famous Memphis Belle, from 7 November 1942 -19 May 1943 she was the first to complete 25 missions.

The 91st Bomb Group (Heavy) was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. Classified as a heavy bombardment group, the 91st operated B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft and was known unofficially as "The Ragged Irregulars" or as "Wray's Ragged Irregulars", after the commander who took the group to England. During its service in World War II the unit consisted of the 322nd, 323rd, 324th, and 401st Bomb Squadrons. The 91st Bomb Group is most noted as the unit in which the bomber Memphis Belle flew, and for having suffered the greatest number of losses of any heavy bomb group in World War II.

At the end of June 1943 it also acquired its most recognisable symbol, the "Triangle A" group tail marking often used in films about B-17s.

The 91st Bomb Group conducted 340 bombing missions with the Eighth Air Force over Europe, operating out of RAF Bassingbourn. Inactivated at the end of the war, the group was brought back in 1947 as a reconnaissance group of the United States Air Force, and then had its lineage and honors bestowed on like-numbered wings of the Strategic Air Command, the Air Force Space Command and the Air Force Global Strike Command.

From 1 July 1947, until its drawdown in February 1952, the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Group provided worldwide surveillance, flying RB-29s, RB-45s and RB-47s as a subordinate component of the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, consisting of the 322nd, 323rd, and 324th Strategic Recon Squadrons, and the 91st Air Refueling Squadron (Medium). The group was inactivated on 28 May 1952, as part of an SAC-wide termination of groups as an organizational echelon, while the wing and all subordinate units remained active until 8 November 1957.

The group was activated in 1991 as the 91st Operations Group. Between 1991 and 1994, and since 1996, the 91st Operations Group, initially as part of the 91st Space Wing, and since renamed the 91st Missile Wing, maintains the alert force of Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles maintained at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. Its three missile squadrons, however, have no traditional link to the 91st Bomb Group and were previously part of the 455th Strategic Missile Wing and 455th Bomb.

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.

Service history
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.

The Collings Foundation Nine-O-Nine
The aircraft you see flying today ins't NINE O NINE she was scrapped at some point after 7 Dec 45, but here's that aircraft's story:

Some lovely pictures and all about the Foundation here:
https://www.collingsfoundation.org/airc ... -fortress/

B-17G-85-DL, 44-83575, civil registration N93012, owned and flown by The Collings Foundation, Stow, Massachusetts, currently appears at airshows marked as the historic Nine-O-Nine.

The Collings Flying Fortress was built at Long Beach, CA by the Douglas Aircraft Company and accepted on April 7, 1945. Although she was too late for combat, #44-83575 did serve air-sea rescue duties as part of the Air/Sea 1st Rescue Squadron and later in the Military Air Transport Service.

In April 1952, #44-83575 was instrumented and subjected to the effects of three different nuclear explosions. After a thirteen-year "cool down" period, #44-83575 was sold as part of an 800-ton scrap pile and Aircraft Specialties Company began the restoration of the aircraft.

Damaged skin was fabricated and replaced on site; engines and props were stripped, cleaned, repaired, and tested; four thousand feet of new control cable was installed; all electrical wiring and instrumentation was replaced.

For twenty years, without a major problem or incident, #44-83575 served as a fire bomber dropping water and borate on forest fires. She was sold in January 1986 to the Collings Foundation. Restored back to her original wartime configuration by Tom Reilly Vintage Aircraft, she represented one of the finest B-17 restorations and won several awards.

Civilian crashes
On August 23, 1987, while performing at an airshow in the Pittsburgh suburban Beaver County Airport, N93012 ("Nine-O-Nine") was caught by a severe crosswind moments after touchdown. The right wing lifted in the air, finally coming down too far down the runway. Despite the efforts of her crew, she rolled off the end of the runway, crashed through a chain link fence, sheared off a power pole and roared down a 100-foot ravine to a thundering stop. The landing gear sheared off, the chin turret was smashed and pushed into the nose; the Plexiglass nose was shattered; bomb bay doors, fuselage, ball turret, wing and nacelles all took a tremendous beating. Engines and propellers were also torn from their mounts. Fortunately, there were no fatalities to the crew or riders although there were injuries.

For a second time, N93012 (Nine-O-Nine) "rose from the ashes". With nacelles from the famed B-17 "Shoo Shoo Baby", thousands of volunteer hours at Air Heritage Aircraft Restoration Inc., support from the people of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, and donations from individuals and corporations, she was made whole again to carry on the proud and rugged heritage of the B-17.

Since the crash at Beaver County Airport N93012 (Nine-O-Nine) has succeeded in visiting over 1200 tour stops.

On July 9, 1995 N93012 (Nine-O-Nine) once again crashed, this time near Norfolk, Nebraska.

Note
All of the above was taken form the internet, I'm not an expert and is here purely as information, if it's wrong please don't get on my case, thank you

This will be my first aircraft in over 30 years, since returning to the hobby a little over 2 years ago I've build AFV's, a Bike and almost finished a car. I never built a B17, I've got a 70's Airfix B17 still boxed somewhere I'm going to max this build up as much as I dare and hopefully do the kit some justice.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Oh THIS is gonna be good
Awesome to see you in formation here, ready and raring to go
I welcome you to the sig and wish you good luck and good fun
Scott

[Kevthemodeller]

Oh THIS is gonna be good
Awesome to see you in formation here, ready and raring to go
I welcome you to the sig and wish you good luck and good fun
Scott

Thanks mate I'm certainly going to do my best, I just hope work doesn't get in the way again

[DBMiller]

Sweet! I've seen the Collings Nine O' Nine twice on the Wings of Freedom tour. One of the best looking planes of the war.

And, if you don't mind me posting images to your thread;

Here is Nine O Nine's bombardier's station:



And my feet!

[aur0ra145]

Oh wow, that's so cool! I'll follow this build with great interest.

[Quax]

looks like this is going to be one cool kite with all those goodies, good luck mate!

Paul

[Mylightweight]

Nice to see another B-17 in the mix, looking forward to see it come together

[Les0012]

Enjoyed the history lesson on the aircraft. I love the names that the USAAF gave their birds back during WW2.

Good luck and enjoy your build.

Les

[Stokesy44]

Possibly the most beautiful heavy of the war, if you can call a bomber beautiful anyway.

Great to see pics of the actual bird too

[Kevthemodeller]

Possibly the most beautiful heavy of the war, if you can call a bomber beautiful anyway.

Great to see pics of the actual bird too

Thanks mate, it's a shame the real one was cut up, but that was soon after the war and people really weren't in the mod for preserving what they'd stopped using. I think it was more they just wanted to forget and move on back then and I can't say I blame them.

[Stokesy44]

Possibly the most beautiful heavy of the war, if you can call a bomber beautiful anyway.

Great to see pics of the actual bird too

Thanks mate, it's a shame the real one was cut up, but that was soon after the war and people really weren't in the mod for preserving what they'd stopped using. I think it was more they just wanted to forget and move on back then and I can't say I blame them.

Every time I see or think about the thousands of aircraft that were junked I just wish - if only someone had had the forethought to mothball some of them at the end of the war. When you think of the resources needed for a restoration (£1m seems average) its a crying shame nobody thought of it. I can fully see your point though, it was time to move on and embrace the peace.

You hear occasional stories of lost caches of planes like the Burma / Myanmar Spitfire XIVs but nothing ever comes of them.

[gaz45]

Great choice there mate

[pourquoi61]

So nice.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Door prize draw coming up this weekend

[Kevthemodeller]

The build starts this evening at last

[Stokesy44]

The build starts this evening at last

Yay!

Kicking off with my Lanc today too!

[demarcation]

The build starts this evening at last

Nice!!Good luck with the build mate!!

[Kevthemodeller]

The build has finally begun
It doesn't look like I've done much but I spent almost a day looking over the kit, PE and instructions and prepping parts ready for the PE and boy is there some PE in the Big kit and today getting this far

Here we go

The centre bracing from the kit is replaced with PE
Bomb Bay PE

Detail all removed to allow PE for panel

Bomb bay bulkheads

[Twokidsnosleep]

Very jealous of all that PE
She is gonna be gorgeous

[pourquoi61]

My word there is some PE in this build but it looks very good.

[Kevthemodeller]

Very jealous of all that PE
She is gonna be gorgeous

Thanks mate there's lots ans lots of PE in this Big Ed kit

My word there is some PE in this build but it looks very good.

Your'e not kidding mate

Some of it is I think of little use as it wont be seen on the finished model so I'm being selective.

[Kevthemodeller]

I've been slowly chipping away at the build, pressures of work are still taking their toll

I've finally got the bomb bay finished, it's basically completely replaced by PE only the worked bulkheads remain.

It really was challenge, the Kit parts didn't help with what I remember of Revell quality I also use solder for the first time to assemble the main spar, little messy in places but hopefully it will only improve.


Trying to match the radius at both ends which are slightly different was very difficult, I had planned to solder each PE bulkhead to the bomb bay arch then attach the assembly to the kit bulkheads but as they were different that wasn't possible. Next I though solder just one end then attach that the the kit bulkhead, then the other attach the other to the kit bulkhead, then solder. problem there was a high risk of melting the kit bulkhead. In the end I used CA which was a real pain, gluing bit at a time trying to even up the two different radius's took several goes of a few days The result there's a small gap, this has been filled with CA and should hopefully disappear once painted, I hope

Building the bomb racks and attaching all the bulkhead detail took days of an hour or 2
Bomb bay doors

On wards and up wards

[ElCapitan]

Wow, that looks and sounds like a lot of work! Looks worth it though

[Stokesy44]

That looks absolutely stunning. Amazing work mate

[Kevthemodeller]

Wow, that looks and sounds like a lot of work! Looks worth it though

Thanks mate I hope so, it really looks like there's not a lot too it, which is why I thought I'd give it a go, oh boy was I wrong

[Kevthemodeller]

That looks absolutely stunning. Amazing work mate

mate it's slow a little frustrating at times but overall enjoyable

[Kevthemodeller]

Look what was delivered today

A really big thank you Scott

[Stokesy44]

That looks absolutely stunning. Amazing work mate

mate it's slow a little frustrating at times but overall enjoyable

I tell you mate, that is some of the most beautiful PE work I have EVER seen. Scott should give you a prize just for that bomb bay. Or we could just call you Captain Awesome for the rest of the SIG.


I sh*t you not!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Look what was delivered today

A really big thank you Scott

Hey there we go
It took me long enough to wrap it up and three visits to the unfriendly postal office... but it got there
Enjoy the kit my friend.
Your bomber details are spectacular

[Tomcat64]

That bomb bay is absolutely stunning work mate

[aur0ra145]

Build is looking great so far.

[Kevthemodeller]

That bomb bay is absolutely stunning work mate

Many thanks mate, the bomb bay is almost complete now just been looking at the cockpit, mid and rear sections of PE

[Kevthemodeller]

Build is looking great so far.

mate

[Stokesy44]

How much pimpage can one aircraft stand?

[Kevthemodeller]

How much pimpage can one aircraft stand?

Having now had a good look through the Big Ed I'm beginning to wonder that myself mate, I think there's really a fair bit that's a waste really as it's not going to be or it's going to be very hard to see. That said there's a lot that will and if you're going to pimp something, I think it's best to pimp it large as they say

[demarcation]

Wow! That PE work looks absolutely amazing. Top job Sir!!

[Kevthemodeller]

I'm really struggling with bench time at present work is just off the scale

I have managed to get a little in over the weekend

and after prep for the PE, control panel is flattened and the throttle binnacle is remove and few areas on the bulkhead are also removed.

First level of bulkhead PE

Cockpit seats, they don't look like much but these took almost 2 hours each




Hopefully more tomorrow

[demarcation]

Wow, those seats look amazing. Great work!

[Kevthemodeller]

More bench time this afternoon
Again it doesn't look like much but these assemblies take an age

[Twokidsnosleep]

I tried making some seats myself, trust me those PE ones of yours look marvellous
Some good PE details continue in your build.
Glad to see you back at it

[digger303]

I tried making some seats myself, trust me those PE ones of yours look marvellous
Some good PE details continue in your build.
Glad to see you back at it

Can't say it any better

[Quax]

fabulous job with the pe Kev

Paul

[alextheblue]

Awesome PE work, and not a drop of CA in sight!

[Kevthemodeller]

Wow, those seats look amazing. Great work!

Thanks mate

[Kevthemodeller]

I tried making some seats myself, trust me those PE ones of yours look marvellous
Some good PE details continue in your build.
Glad to see you back at it

Very kind of you Scott, need more work on the soldering but I'm pleased with them.

[Kevthemodeller]

I tried making some seats myself, trust me those PE ones of yours look marvellous
Some good PE details continue in your build.
Glad to see you back at it

Can't say it any better

fabulous job with the pe Kev

Paul

Thanks guys much appreciated

[Kevthemodeller]

Awesome PE work, and not a drop of CA in sight!

If you look closely there is, but I've tried to keep it to a minim. I've also found the smaller amount of CA you use the faster it sticks, this is a balancing act even with slow set CA. I've done plenty of cussing I can tell you

[Tomcat64]

Stunning work - absolutely stunning mate.

The panels look great but those seats really are works of art

[Kevthemodeller]

Stunning work - absolutely stunning mate.

The panels look great but those seats really are works of art

Thanks mate

It's slow but I've got the a point where I'm starting to control the PE instead of it controlling me as was and I fear could very easily be doing again, it's dam tricky stuff

[DRUMS01]

Kev, absolutely stunning work so far! I will be tuned in to the end on this one...