European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 11, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse Stripes daily ma8aziie to � k i r " Yucca Tody was suck bartered b17 when insect Spray firm representatives found it in Arizona storage. Fortress had been used in atomic bomb tests. Old air planes to old Soldier never die and they Nevei Fowle away either at least not old by flying fort resses. " Between 1939 and ims the . Air Craft Industry operate under forced draft and turned out some 13,000 bi7sto help win world War is a. % Only a handful of this original Fleetis still around hauling freight serving As movie props or still in bombing runs Only this Lime their targets Are insect pests in the . One of these is the Yucca lady a victim of an atomic blast in one of the Nevada test programs of the 1950s. When representatives of an Aerial Spray firm found the old bit it was in a sorry state. Half of the rudder was gone Metal had been stripped from w i n g surfaces the Turret covers were miss ing and it looked a mess. The plane had t been off the ground in 14 because it could lift Between 12, 000 and 13,000 pounds of cargo and had big bomb Bays it was just what the com. By Marc Huet is Washington Bureau chief any needed. Yucca lady was bought patched up and readied for new Spray ing duty in today s new War. Aviation spraying companies around the . Collect old b17s like dowager collects diamonds according to the. Boe ing co. Which turned out More the world War n bombers. They do this not for history or nostalgia but because it s Good business. Flying fortresses they say Are easy to convert can carry a heavy Load give Little trouble and Are quiet important when air planes Fly near cities. Two Aerial Spray firms one in Ala Bama and another in Arizona Are using the b17s to fight the Southern fire ant a Nasty Little insect which has been spreading across the South for the Pas few decades. The ants Are now com Mon in nine Southern states. Their fierce stings can be fatal to animals and dangerous to humans. The department of agriculture and states involved have joined forces to counterattacks Raj Weir ammunition is poisoned bait made from ground Corncob Rand spread by old aircraft mostly bus along with somevpv2s and. B25s. The bait is stored in the fuselage an then when the plane is on its bomb run fed out under the wings by spreader. A sideling their age More advanced than some of the pilots the b17sare in remarkable shape according to one Aerial sprayer. Even though som of the planes Are 25 years old and have been exposed to the elements for Mostof their lives the airframes Are in excellent condition. Most of the old bombers Lack com plete records and their histories Are a bit sketchy. No one even knows for sur How Many Are still flying a dozen two dozen or perhaps up to 50.one b17 used on insect missions was used in great Britain for a motion Pic Ture based on John Kersey s Story of world warn the War an other had seen service in Dhahran r Jed a Beirut Rome Lisbon Bombay Cal Cutta Bangkok Tripoli Cairo Saigon Karachi Teheran Tunis and now Ala Bama. Another has a log Book that give the plane s history from the Day it was turned out in 1944 through its service All Over the United states to 1957 when it went into storage at the Davis Mon than fab Ariz an air plane graveyard. Life did t end there. The following year the old b17 was bought for use As a cargo plane by a Texas company an still later was used to Fly dynamite to the Bahamas and fresh produce mostly cucumbers on the return trip Home before it wound up As an Aerial it was converted for its latest role mechanics found Rotten cucumbers in the bomb Bay. From bombs to cucumbers to pest aids the old b17s Are still serving. Spreaders under Wing of converted b17 spread poisoned bait in flight. Rebuilt fortress skim along Over farmlands in Battle against fire ants. Thursday april 11, 1968 the stars Ano stiffs pa9e
