B-17 Gas Station
B-17 Gas Station
A friend sent me this story and I couldn’t resist posting it here. I tried to determine who the original author was, but to no avail. My best guess is from this website by a guy named Blair Shorney. Some of the claims in the story are pretty far-fetched, but the images alone are worth taking a look. This is classic Americana!
Shortly after WWII a guy named Art Lacey went to Kansas to buy a surplus B-17. His idea was to fly it back to Oregon , jack it up in the air and make a gas station out of it. He paid $15,000 for it. He asked which one was his and they said take whichever you want because there were miles of them. He didn’t know how to fly a 4-engine airplane so he read the manual while he taxied around by himself.
They said he couldn’t take off alone so he put a mannequin in the co-pilot’s seat and off he went. He flew around a bit to get the feel of it and when he went to land he realized he needed a co-pilot to lower the landing gear. He crashed and totaled his plane and another on the ground.
They wrote them both off as “wind damaged” and told him to pick out another. He talked a friend into being his co-pilot and off they went. They flew to Palm Springs where Lacey wrote a hot check for gas. Then they headed for Oregon (ed. just south of Portland)
They hit a snow storm and couldn’t find their way, so they went down below 1,000 feet and followed the railroad tracks. His partner sat in the nose section and would yell “TUNNEL” when he saw one and Lacey would climb over the mountain.
They landed safely, he made good the hot check he wrote, and they started getting permits to move a B-17 on the state highway. The highway department repeatedly denied his permit and fought him tooth and nail for a long time, so late one Saturday night, he just moved it himself.
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Thanks for a great story. It reminds me of Steven Coonts book “Cannibal Queen”. On of his stories was when he landed at an FBO and the “Old Guy” behind the desk told him that as a boy, he learned to fly when his dad told him and his brother to pick on of the 50 PT17’s he bought as salvage to learn how to fly.
Man a B17 for $15,000!
Thanks Will!
44-85790 was purchased in 1947 in Altus Oklahoma, not Kansas. For the rest of the story, including updates on the current status of the restoration of 44-85790 feel free to check out our website http://www.b17alliancegroup.org or our facebook page B-17 Alliance Group
Sweet!