Texas Raiders
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The Commemorative Air Force’s Gulf Coast Wing "Texas Raiders" group maintains and flies the B-17G Flying Fortress named "Texas Raiders", based at William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) in Houston, Texas.
Boeing built a total of 6,981 B-17s. 5,745 were built under license by Douglas and Lockheed Vega. “Texas Raiders” was built in 1944 by Douglas Aircraft Corporation at the Long Beach, California plant. She was one of the last 20 B-17s built by Douglas and was delivered on July 12, 1945, to the U.S. Army Air Corps as B-17G-95-DL 44-83872. On July 21, all 20 were transferred to the U.S. Navy to serve as PB-1W Patrol Bombers, and 44-83872 was assigned the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics Number 77235.
Project Cadillac staffed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) personnel, demonstrated the ability to place RADAR in an aircraft and via data link, send the video image to the fleet’s Combat Information Center (CIC) for assessment and reaction. The test bed, modified with the AN/APS-20 radar, was the Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bomber, redesignated the TBM-3W.
The Navy used PB-1Ws as the original Airborne Warning and Control System or AWACS aircraft developed under “Project Cadillac II”, combining enemy threat detection, a flying command center, electronic countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare, and hurricane hunter into a single aircraft. The Naval Air Material Center’s Naval Aircraft Modification Unit (NAMU) at Johnsville, Pennsylvania modified the B-17 to PB-1W specification. The NAMU sealed the bomb bay doors and installed 300 gallon drop tanks on each wing to give her longer times on station. The AN/APS-20 Seasearch Radio Detection and Ranging (RADAR) was then mounted in a bulbous housing below what used to be the bomb bay. Radio direction finder (RDF), instrument landing system (ILS), and long range navigation (LORAN) was also installed at that time. It is said that she was not painted, but waxed to prevent corrosion, and she kept her original Browning M2 machine guns.
May of 1947 saw BuNo. 77235 assigned to Air Development Squadron 4 (VX-4), tasked with the development of airborne early warning systems at NAS Quonset Point, Rhode Island, a base both on the front lines of anti-submarine warfare and on the cutting edge of research in airborne radar and electronics systems. The CAF’s PB-1W saw most of her service based at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, assigned to Airborne Early Warning Squadron Two (VW-2)
Her last assignment was with (VW-1) the "Typhoon Trackers" at NAS Atsugi, located on the main island of Japan, in the shadows of Mt. Fuji. The base was originally built in 1938 by the Japanese Imperial Navy as Emperor Hirohito's Naval Air Base to oppose the threat of American bombing raids. It is form there that BuNo. 77235 may have flown her only combat patrols, supporting the Korean Conflict. In January 1955, VW-1 phased out PB-1W operations for the new Lockheed PO-1W and WV-2 “Whiskey Victors” (Navy versions of the EC-121 Warning Star) based on the Lockheed Super Constellation airframe. January, 1955 BuNo 77235 was placed in Flyable Storage Status at the Storage Facility at NAS Litchfield Park, Arizona, until officially retired from naval service on August 25 1955 with 3257 hours flying time accrued on the airframe. She was one of the last B-17s left in U.S. service at the time, and one of only 3 PB-1Ws saved from the scapyard or scavenging.
Aero Service Corporation bought BuNo 77235 for $17,500 and in October of 1957, she was civil registered as N7227C, to be used as a high altitude aerial surveying platform. N7227C Aero Service Corporation was bought by Western Geophysical, a company that specialized in using reflection seismology to explore for petroleum. Western Geophysical was later sold to Litton Industries, who then sold off N7227C in 1961.
The Confederate Air Force, based at Rebel Field in Mercedes, Texas paid Litton Industries $50,000 for N7227C and was white with a large United States flag on the tail. A Confederate States of America Battle Flag was added to it after the CAF purchase. Assigned to the Gulf Coast Wing by the CAF in 1972, Texas Raiders has undergone many changes to put her back to the B-17 G model configuration that flew with the United States Army Air Corps in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) under the "Mighty" Eighth Air Force.
She was named "Texas Raiders" during her first CAF restoration in the 1960s. Texas Raiders also underwent a $300,000 restoration and rebuild project from 1983 to 1986, and is currently undergoing a LENGTHY and COSTLY main spar replacement project, started in 2001 due to FAA Airworthiness Directive # 2001-22-06 citing corrosion in the wings. The current refurb will go well into 2008 and cost in the neighborhood of 200 thousand dollars!
Texas Raiders will fly again in 2008, still painted in the combat colors commemorating the U.S. Army Air Corps’ 8th Air Force, 1st Air Division, 381st Bombardment Group (Heavy), 533rd Bombardment Squadron's plane "hull number" X. The 381st Bombardment Group was formed at Pyote Air Force Base and was assigned to Ridgewell Airfield in Essex, England.
