Above and Beyond the Call of Duty

Kinda cornfused about the B-17 that was supposedly a gas station in OKC...

The B-17 gas station in the video was in Milwaukee, Oregon. It was there until 2014,

but they are now rebuilding it which started in 2012, and is supposed to be gone now

for the rest of the rebuild. They decided the plane was worth too much as a potential

flyer to continue to waste away at a restaurant. The plane was bought in Oklahoma,

and flown to OR. So maybe that's how OKC got involved.

It's location in OR was at 13515 SE McLoughlin Blvd Milwaukie, OR .

The aircraft at the Texaco station was the one that Art Lacey flew from OK to OR in 1947.

I have many pictures of that plane/station, quite a few later than 1959.

These are a few taken when they started working on it. I think those are the original

mounts that it's on at that time. Some later pictures seem to show the plane being

off those mounts after 2012 when they took off a couple of sections for the rebuild.

"IE google street images, etc..

I've never heard of any bomber at a gas station in OKC. I also tried a search and nothing

came up on one. The place he bought that one was in OK, and was a B-17 salvage yard

or whatever.. At that time, they had loads of them, and you could buy one fairly cheap,

which he did.

One of my uncles was a flight engineer on a B-17 bomber, and served for a time on the

personal crew of Gen. Robert Eichelberger in World War II.

 

A little info about the OR plane.. One of the pix is mid 60's, and it seems he changed

brands, as no Texaco branding at that time.

 

http://www.katu.com/news/specialreports/95638799.html

 

http://jeffersonian.therealgunguys.com/lacey/lacey.html

Read the book "Pride of Seattle The story of the first 300 B-17F's" by Steve Birdsall it has the complete history of the Knockout Dropper.

 

David

Yes I agree but the idea was not original, read the book "Pride of Seattle" it has the complete history of the Knockout Dropper.

 

David

 

I guess I got the wrong impression from the video. I thought you were saying

the Bomber Texaco in OR was in OKC.. So I guess Knockout Dropper ended up

as a gas station building or decoration in OKC until around 1948?

I guess I got the wrong impression from the video. I thought you were saying

the Bomber Texaco in OR was in OKC.. So I guess Knockout Dropper ended up

as a gas station building or decoration in OKC until around 1948?

 

Watch it again.

 

David...

OK, I think I got it cleared up now. Too bad more of those old planes didn't escape the

scrap treatment. Not that many left considering the large amount built. "Over 12,000"

 

I had another uncle that flew the B-36 for SAC. Only four of those left now, but only

384 of those were built. None of those four can fly..

But I have the "Strategic Air Command" movie I can watch if I want to see one actually

running. ;)

I lived in Dallas in the late 50's, and it's possible I might have seen B-36's flying over to

and from Fort Worth even though I wouldn't have known what they were at that age.

I distinctly remember the Connies flying over to and from Love Field, and I had a toy

Connie at that time so was kind of familiar with it. The triple tail was hard to miss.

There is video on u-toob of a B-36 doing low passes over a Fort Worth residential area in

the 50's.

Interesting video of the B17F. I have the A2A B17G and I have never had so much fun with all my clothes on as when flying this model. Nice detail: seeing the exhaust pipes vibrating, I will have to check if mine do that! One question: what are the grey marks on the right hand side of 'Knockout Dropper's fuselage? Shadows? Ground crew graffiti? Thanks for the video.