“..By my count, there are at present only seven airworthy B-17s in the US. A little research might identify which one it was....”
Yep...only a small handful still flying.
That’s why I was so amazed to see one flying right over my shop.
Once I stopped staring in awe as it continued eastward, I checked to see if it might be on the FlightAware app.
It was N7227C: The Texas Raiders out of the Conroe, TX area....probably on it’s way to an air show somewhere.
Made my day, for sure. :)
I once knew an A&P mechanic, Fred L., who had learned his trade working on B-17s in the Eight Air Force in WW II. After the war, he was shipped stateside and kept in service for a year working on B-17s, some for service or long-term storage, but most for sale to scrappers.
The military, being the military, was determined to demilitarize and sell off no longer needed B-17s on schedule. That required that the guns and bombsights be removed and the old birds made airworthy and flown to the sales sites. The bombers that had wrecked Nazi Germany were then sold for the value of the AV gas they had in their fuel tanks. Cannily, the Air Force sales agents had the tanks filled so that buyers could be assured of making a reliable profit on their bids.
Fred recognized one old friend in its last days, a B-17 with a plain metal patch on the leading edge of its wing. Late in the war, Fred had helped remove an unexploded German flak rocket from the wing and put a patch on so that it could continue to fly missions. And there it was with its sisters on an airbase in Alabama, waiting to be sold off for the value of the fuel in its tanks and oil in its engines and to be ground up to make appliances and aluminum foil for America's kitchens.