"866" (V2)

NAME

SER

BLK

SERIAL #

RCL/#

V#-P

PHOTO CREDITS

"866"

44-51866

02-1

CLIFF PARKER

Shown at Plateau Sky Ranch Airport, Edinburg, NY USA

Contributor - Cliff Parker
After WWII, the grass airstrip across from our house purchased a surplus B-24 and landed it at the airport, never to fly again.

From Vol. 30, No. 1 [2nd ADA] Spring 1991 - Page 29 of Journal
Dear Bill
Regarding the Fall 1990 Journal, I must comment on the Ed Chu story on the B-24 at Edinburg, NY. Being originally from Ballston Spa on the other side of Saratoga County, I knew of the plane. From the summer of 1954 I have a few color slides of the bird, which had been badly vandalized even then.
I remember walking from one wingtip to the other as well as getting inside. When I discovered the Confederate Air Force in 1968, my thoughts immediately went to the plane, and I wrote my old high school buddy to see if it was still there. Unhappily, a scrap dealer from Schenectady had cut it up for salvage in 1966. With the work being done today, there's no doubt it could have been saved.
And a rare bird it would have been too, as its tail number of 44-51866 makes it a B-24M-30-F0, the 63rd from the last production plane produced by Ford at Willow Run. How amazing it is we can claim today 3 flying B-24s when for so long there were none.
Richard Bagg