11bee Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 (edited) Saw this linked over on HS. It's a great collection of pics taken during the modification process at the Cheyenne, WY mod center. B-17's were sent from the Boeing factory to this center for updates / mods, prior to being deployed to Europe. Lots of really nice before and after shots (125 pics), including many interior pictures. Question - were the cheek guns added or deleted during this process? I'm not a B-17 expert. Question 2 - what are these additions? Recognition lights or some sort of antennas? I never noticed these before. Edited November 1, 2017 by 11bee Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dnl42 Posted November 2, 2017 Share Posted November 2, 2017 Can't help with your questions but thanks for pointing to these.!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Johnny_K Posted November 3, 2017 Share Posted November 3, 2017 WOW! Those are really great photos. The black and white film shows every dent, ding and scratch. How about all of those rivets, especially in the front of the fuselage. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
afspret Posted November 3, 2017 Share Posted November 3, 2017 Early Gs left the factory with the small cheek windows and had the larger ones were installed at modification centers. As for those extra lights, they might be formation lights, and the other attachments could be static discharge devices. The aircraft featured in this series of pic, 42-97825 is, according to the Joe Baugher web-site, a B-17G-30-VE, which ended up being converted to a SB-17G. Another a/c shown in the background of one of the pics, 43-37623 ended up with the 96th BG and returned stateside after the war. It was subsequently salvaged in July 1946. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
martin_sam_2000 Posted November 3, 2017 Share Posted November 3, 2017 I love these pictures. Lots of little details. never realised the waist windows had such a pronounced rearward angle to them, and the tail gunners have an anti-glare area painted. Plus, I had always assumed the old tail turret unit was removed and a new one installed, but we can clearly see that they cut the old end off and constructed the new fairing in-situ. And, they litteraly just hacked the old nose windows out then cleaned up the hole a little and mounted the new gun fairings. I always assumed ( tho I guess i should have known better) that things were much cleaner than that. But in the heat of war i guess, time literally meant lives, not money! Sean Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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