The skin I want is a 17F, not a 17G
But there is still this one that would be amazing to have!
The B-17 was eventually purchased by aviation enthusiast Don Brooks, who formed the Liberty Foundation to exhibit the plane as the Liberty Belle. Restoration began in 1992 with parts from another damaged B-17 (44-85813), performed by Tom Reilly and company/Flying Tigers Warbird Restoration Museum (aka "Bombertown USA"), located at that time at Kissimmee Gateway field, Kissimmee, Florida. She returned to the air on 8 December 2004, and had been touring the air show circuit since then. The Liberty Foundation also planned an historic overseas tour in July 2008 along the northern ferry route to England.
Liberty Belle (the one shown above) never served in WWII. But there were some named Liberty Belle that did.
Liberty Belle was the name of several individual Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses used in combat during World War II. The first Liberty Belle B-17 (serial number 42-30096) crashed near Wakes Colne after an accidental on-board fire on 30 November 1943; while the BQ-7 Aphrodite variant (42-30039) named Liberty Belle "was hit by flak and crashed" during a mission against the Heligoland U-boat pens on 15 October 1944. Liberty Belle tail number 42-31610 and a Liberty Bell were attached to the 91st Bomb Group (Heavy), at Bassingbourne.[2][3] A third Liberty Belle (42-97849) landed in Belgium with heavy damage on 14 February 1945, during an Oil Campaign raid. A fourth Liberty Belle B-17G (43-38037), was part of the 487th "B-17 Flying Fortress Story" and involved in a mid air collision on 30 September 1944. After a sharp turn in heavy contrails, this B-17 was caught in prop wash (presumed), went over on its back and collided with Tail Number 43-38154 of the same squadron. The right wing of '38037 and the left wing of '38154 came off and both aircraft crashed at Bexterhagen, 9 km east of Bielefeld. Only 3 out of 18 men on the two aircraft survived.
