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Type – B-17G Flying Fortress
Manufacturer – Boeing
Construction number – 8693
Registration – G-BEDF
Serial – 44-85784
In service – 1945–54
Fate – Airworthy Preserved at Duxford airfield in the uk,
flies in many airshows over the uk during the summer season,
Sally B is the name of an airworthy 1945-built Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress, it is the only airworthy B-17 left in Europe, as well as one of three B-17s in the United Kingdom. The aircraft is based at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, England, Sally B flies at airshows in the UK and across Europe as well as serving as an airborne memorial to the United States Army Air Forces airmen who lost their lives in the European theatre during World War II.
The aircraft was delivered to the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on 19 June 1945 as 44-85784, too late to see active service in the war. After being converted to both a TB-17G training variant and then an EB-17G it was struck off charge in 1954. In 1954 the Institute Géographique National in France bought the plane for use as a survey aircraft. In 1975 it moved to England and was registered with the CAA as G-BEDF to be restored to wartime condition.
The Sally B was first fitted with accurate gun turrets and other much needed additions for her role as Ginger Rogers, a B-17 bomber of the fictitious bomber unit featured in the 1981 LWT series We’ll Meet Again.
During the winter of 1983–84, Sally B was painted in an olive drab and neutral grey colour scheme, in place of the bare metal scheme she had worn since construction, in order to protect the airframe from the damp UK weather. At the same time, she received the markings of the 447th Bomb Group.
The Sally B was used in the 1990 film Memphis Belle as one of five flying B-17s needed for various film scenes, and it was used to replicate the real Memphis Belle in one scene. Half of the aircraft is still in the Memphis Belle livery,
following restoration of the Sally B nose art and the black and yellow checkerboard pattern on the cowling of the starboard inner (no 3) engine, carried as a tribute to Elly Sallingboe’s companion Ted White, whose Harvard aircraft had the same pattern on its cowling. Sally B was reworked to B-17F configuration for filming.
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