Mid America Flight Museum Releases Update on B-17G ‘Thunderbird’

Since the Mid America Flight Museum of Mount Pleasant, TX, acquired the B-17G Thunderbird from the Houston-based Lone Star Flight Museum in 2020, the aircraft has been the subject of an extensive refurbishment at the Erickson Aircraft Collection in Madras, OR, chosen for their work in maintaining and fly the B-17 Ye Olde Pub. Now, the MAFM has released a statement regarding the future appearance of the aircraft. 

As related in previous installments, the B-17 that flew as Thunderbird for over 30 years was originally built by the Lockheed subsidiary Vega Aircraft at their plant in Burbank, CA, where it was accepted into the US Army Air Force as 44-85718 on May 8, 1945. Being delivered on VE-Day, it never saw combat with the USAAF, and by November 1945, it was stored at Altus Army Airfield in Altus, OK to await either scrapping or to be sold into private hands by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). On December 10, 1947, 44-85718 was sold to the Institut Geographique National (IGN) in Creil, France, being listed in the French registry as F-BEEC by 1948. From there, F-BEEC was used as an aerial survey plane, flying all over the world to create aerial maps that provide a basis for today’s aerial maps. In 1984, F-BEEC was retired from this globe-spanning job after more than 30 years in the air, and went to England as G-FORT. Returned to the United States in 1987 by Robert Waltrip, it became N990RW, and in November 1987 it would join the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston, TX (now based at Houston Ellington Airport), where it received a new set of WWII turrets and was painted in honor of the original B-17G Thunderbird, 42-38050, which flew no less than 112 combat missions with the 359th Bombardment Squadron, 303rd Bombardment Group, Eighth Air Force, with not a single crew member she carried receiving an injury during the war, only to be cut up for scrap in Kingman, AZ after being flown back to the United States.

The MAFM has made the following statement on October 29 about the status of 44-85718: “It has been rolled out into the sun as they prep to strip the paint on the fuselage. A few corrosion issues to deal with as we get closer to wings going back on in this coming year. The Warbird Shop in Madras, OR is quickly becoming a B-17 hot spot. It will be our plan to polish the fuselage as a good match to our B-25 God and Country.” Belly turret removed for ease of moving around. We promise it’ll be reinstalled. Great things happening in Oregon.” The post also mentions that the B-17 will receive a new name; We The People. Given the well-polished appearance of their B-25J Mitchell God and Country it will certainly a great sight to see the B-17 We The People gleaming in the Texas sun after it returns from its long stay in Madras. 

In addition to being the home base of Ye Olde Pub and the refurbishment site for Thunderbird/We The People, the Erickson Aircraft Collection is also currently hosting the B-17 Yankee Lady, which has just arrived from Ypsilanti, MI after it was recently sold off by its longtime owners the Yankee Air Museum (now rebranded as the Michigan Flight Museum), and will be carefully disassembled for overseas shipment for restoration before it returns to the USA, likely in a new as yet undisclosed scheme. We will maintain a watchful eye on the B-17 Thunderbird/We The People, and will be eager to see it return to the skies for the first time since it was flown from Texas to Oregon in December 2020. For more information, please visit the Mid America Flight Museum WEBSITE.

Adam Estes

Raised in Fullerton, California, Adam has earned a bachelor's degree in history and is now pursuing his master's in the same field. Fascinated by aviation history from a young age, he has visited numerous air museums across the United States, including the National Air and Space Museum and the San Diego Air and Space Museum. He volunteers at the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino as a docent and researcher, gaining hands-on experience with aircraft maintenance. Known for his encyclopedic knowledge of aviation history, he is particularly interested in the stories of individual aircraft and their postwar journeys. Active in online aviation communities, he shares his work widely and seeks further opportunities in the field.

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