Boeing B-17G 44-8543/ N 3701G, seen with “Doc” Hospers at the helm. Sadly, “Doc” died in March 2010.

In late october, the Vintage Flying Museum’s (VFM) Fort Worth, Texas-based B-17 Flying Fortress 44-8543 Chuckie was sold to Jerry Yagen’s Military Aviation Museum at Virginia Beach, Virginia. The bomber has not flown for two years, and is currently being prepared at the museum’s Meacham Field site for the delivery flight to Virginia.

The founder of the VFM, William “Doc” Hospers, acquired the B-17 in 1979 from an insect-spraying operator in Alabama. He named it Chuckie after his wife, who now runs the VFM.

This B-17 was built at Burbank, California, in 1943. It became a pathfinder bomber, fitted with the top secret BTO radar, named the “Mickey” radome, in place of the ball turret. Jerry Yagen says “We are talking about having an interchangeable display of either the ball turret or the radar. We might switch them out every few years, and have already found what we need for that.”