Sally B
Built as a Boeing B-17G-105-VE c/n 8693, the future Sally B was one of the last to be constructed by the Lockheed-Vega plant at Burbank, California. Accepted by the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) as 44-85784 on June 19 1945 it was too late to see war service, and was flown to Nashville for modifications. Converted for training purposes and re-designated TB-17G, it was based at Wright Field (now Wright-Patterson AFB), Ohio from November that year.
Continuing in the care of 2750th Air Base Group (ABG), ‘784 was selected for use as a research vehicle and in 1949 allocated EB-17G status. As such the B-17 was used in a variety of research roles, one of the most bizarre being the addition of a man-carrying pod on the starboard wingtip. Also fitted at the time was an infra-red tracking device in place of the Perspex nose. These trials continued for some years in a variety of guises and it was not until 1954 that ‘784 was returned to standard configuration, less armaments, at Hill AFB in Utah. No details have emerged of the trials which this aircraft was involved in.
In France the Institut Geographic National (IGN) had purchased several B-17s after the war for survey and mapping work, and added others as necessary; ‘784 arrived in November 1954 and was given the French registration F-BGSR. Based at Creil, these aircraft carried out work for the French government, and others, faithfully for many years. As they entered the 1970s it was apparent that the cost of operating the Flying Fortresses was getting prohibitive, also spares were becoming something of a problem. The IGN replaced the B-17s with other aircraft, including the purpose-built Hurel-Dubois HD.34.
Businessman and pilot, Ted White brought F-BGSR to Britain via Biggin Hill to the Imperial War Museum Duxford, as N17TE, in March 1975, to begin a new life as Sally B, named after Ted’s long-time companion Elly Sallingboe. Sally B made her debut at the 1975 Biggin Hill Air Fair, flying as the USAAF World War Two Memorial Flight. The struggle to operate Sally B successfully in this important role had begun.
In order to operate the aircraft successfully, an engineering support group was set up and many volunteered their help to work on the aircraft. A permanent operating base was set up at Duxford, which, at that time, was an up and coming centre for aircraft preservation operated by the Imperial War Museum. Kept in flying condition by volunteers from the newly formed Duxford Aviation Society, the Fortress was painted in the 457th Bomb Group, USAAF 8th Air Force, based at Glatton during the Second World War, but retaining her original serial number 485784.
Sally B continued to be flown at displays as a memorial to the 79,000 US airmen who died fighting in the skies over Europe between 1942 and 1945. In October 1979, a distinguished audience assembled at Duxford to see Colonel John Vanden Heuvel DSC unveil a plaque fitted in Sally B’s radio room, dedicated to the fallen airmen, thus putting an official seal of approval upon the aircraft’s role as a flying memorial. No silent, cold memorial this, but a living tribute to the dead, borne aloft with the thunder or engines into the sky that they knew and loved and in which they fought and died.
Seen with her little friend The P-51D Mustang,

Built too late to see combat service in World War Two, P-51D 44-84847 was one of the last Mustangs constructed at North American Aviation’s Dallas, Texas, plant. Details of her post war service career are limited, but there is photographic evidence, from September 1951, of her serving with the 45th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron at Kimpo, South Korea, during the Korean War.
By late 1951 the 45th TRS were replacing their aging Mustangs with RF-80 Shooting Star jets, and so 44-84847 was shipped back the US to serve with the Air National Guard until around 1956. Around this time she slips off the radar until January 1999 when she re-appears in North Dakota as a restoration project. The airframe joined The Fighter Collection fleet the following year and was moved to Chino, California for a full restoration with the decision made to modify her to two-seat TF-51D configuration.
The restoration culminated in a first flight in May 2007 with Steve Hinton at the controls. Following this our Mustang was painted in the 55th Fighter Group scheme of Capt Frank Birtciel’s P-51D 44-14561, Miss Velma. Following the successful completion of her flight testing, Miss Velma was fitted with external drop tanks and flew across the Atlantic to the UK, where she arrived at Duxford on the 4th July 2007.

MY THANKS TO ALL WHO VISIT AND COMMENT IT IS APPRECIATED.