the War Assets Administration sold surplus planes for non-flying display or educational purposes.
The provisions for these transfers were contained in Surplus Property Administration Regulation Number 4, in a subpart entitled "Disposals for Educational and Public Health Purposes," issued in May 1945 and applied primarily to technical training programs.
Receiving institutions had to pay transportation fees and a nominal disposal cost to obtain the aircraft. However, pricing policy provided a B-17 for as little as $350 and a new Pratt & Whitney R-4360 for $10.
Central to the transfer of the aircraft was that the receiving institution had to sign a statement that the aircraft was for non-flight purposes and had to be rendered non-airworthy or dismantled prior to disposing of the aircraft when the institution completed its use of the material.
In December 1945, the program was expanded to include a wide variety of public institutions that enabled local municipalities to obtain aircraft for memorial use. In all cases, the agreements retained the scrapping provision that restricted any further transfers of the aircraft unless it was scrapped. Title was retained by the U.S. government.
In many cases, these airplanes were later "sold" by the institutions, who forgot about or ignored the scrapping provisions. The new owners usually then had to make large payments to the federal government to actually gain the legal title. There were dozens of such B-17s (and lesser numbers of other types, i.e. P-51s, B-24s) transferred, many of which disappeared from sight in the early 1950s.
https://www.aerovintage.com/RFC_B17.htm
the Redwood Falls Junior Chamber of Commerce (“Jaycees” for short) put on a really great show for the Fourth of July. How could they top it in 1946?
At the May 8, 1946 meeting of the Jaycees, the idea of buying the bomber was approved by the group.
The U.S. government had thousands of surplus airplanes just sitting around after the war, and nothing to do with them. Then someone had the bright idea to sell the bombers to schools, cheap, to use for fundraising efforts.
The Redwood Falls Junior Jaycees voted to buy one of the quarter-million dollar B-17 bombers for the bargain basement price of $350, plus $500 in moving expenses. After being put on display for the Fourth of July celebration, the Jaycees donated it to Redwood Falls High School.
Cutting down on costs was the fact that a flight crew could quickly be put together from local Redwood area men with combat experience. Kenneth Clark, the volunteer pilot, had flown 42 combat missions in B-17s and B-24s when he was stationed in England during WWII. Co-pilot D.R. Duea flew 80 missions while stationed in Italy, France, and Germany.
The rest of the seven-man crew was made of other local men with similar experiences during the war. Arrangements were quickly made with the Army to buy a Flying Fortress and fly it from where it was based at Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.
On Wednesday, May 22, most of the volunteer flight crew flew down to Arkansas, where they discovered they bomber they had bought wasn’t in the good shape they had been promised. Clark and Duea quickly picked out a second B-17 instead, and waited for the rest of the crew to arrive from Redwood Falls.
The chosen B-17 weighed 17 and a half tons, had four 1,200 horsepower engines, and was 74 feet long with a 104 foot wingspan. After several days delay due to rain, the Flying Fortress arrived at the Redwood airport (then known as “Redwood Airways”) on Sunday, May 26. Hundreds of area residents turned out to see the B-17 arrive. Finally, at about 1:25 p.m. the bomber made several low runs over Redwood Falls, circled the airfield, and landed, using less than 1,000 feet of the airfield’s 3,000 foot runway. Local groups — including a new teen boy group called the Air Scouts — were able to tour the plane for the next few weeks.
On Friday, June 28, the Jaycees moved the B-17 from the airport parking lot to the RFHS athletic fields on E. 2nd Street, to approximately where the Memorial Field tennis courts are today. Even with the wing tips removed for easier travel, the wings extended well over the shoulders of Highway 19.
As it happened, the day the Jaycees tugged the plane to the athletic field featured one of the worst downpours of the year. The plane had to be dried out and the engines turned on to warm them up afterward. On Friday, July 19, the plane was moved from the athletic field to the Redwood County fairgrounds where it could be displayed during the annual fair.
Once it was parked at the fairgrounds, ownership of the Flying Fortress officially changed hands from the Jaycees to Redwood Falls High School. Eventually, to raise money for band uniforms, the high school sold the bomber to a gas station in another state for use as a roadside attraction.
https://www.redwoodfallsgazette.com/article/20140424/News/140429796
Don't you wish just ONE high school still had it's B-17? I do.
this reminds me that some high schools paid for B-17s, like this one: https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/03/one-b-17-was-bought-and-paid-for-by.html
and I know I recently posted about a fighter plane or two that a college had in the 1950s, but I don't have time to look for that link right now, it's pretty late, I need to go to sleep!
Oh, reminder, here are about 4 dozen that were sold, like the one in this post that became the plane a high school owned, on this website, which I'll dive into more this weekend https://www.aerovintage.com/RFC_B17.htm
That had to be the BEST 4th of July, high school celebration EVER!
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