# I think I found a B-24



## T Bolt (Jul 31, 2013)

Wile killing time looking on Yahoo maps at various airports I was looking at the airport at Fort Collins CO and saw this and thought it sure looked lone a B-24 wing.
The first picture is of what I saw first. The gear bay was even in the right place and size.
The second picture is an angle shot from Google and it defiantly looks like a Liberator wing.
The third shot is from Bing from the opposite direction and the forth shot is a zoom of the third. It looks like both wings, the forward fuselage section, and maybe the rear fuselage section is there too.

Anyone know anything about this B-24?


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## meatloaf109 (Jul 31, 2013)

Sure looks like one!

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## FLYBOYJ (Jul 31, 2013)

I live close to there and fly into FNL all the time. Chances are that wing is from a PB4Y.


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## GrauGeist (Jul 31, 2013)

Dang, good eye there!

Be interesting to know what's going on, perhaps it's one of those projects that fell by the wayside and has become somewhat forgotten?

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## Lucky13 (Jul 31, 2013)

Dammit!! I thought that I'd hidden it well enough....cr*p!
Oh well...been caught now, haven't I and me new private 'jet'....

Nice find!


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## T Bolt (Jul 31, 2013)

I've been looking at a lot of reference photos of B-24's lately for my group build entry and you just can't miss the shape of that Davis wing. There has to be a story behind it. I can't believe it's just laying there forgotten.


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## FLYBOYJ (Jul 31, 2013)

Actually I stand to be a bit corrected. Fort Collins Downtown isn't in operation anymore, but I have flown into it when it was still operating. There's Fort Collins/ Loveland a few miles away where I'm continually flying in and out of. I believe what you have is a PB4Y wing from an aircraft that was once flown by Aero Union and scrapped somewhere close by (I don't know if a PB4Y could land at the old downtown airport). From some folks I work with they believe that was a yard from an old salvage company.


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## GrauGeist (Jul 31, 2013)

Well from the looks of it, Joe, there's quite a bit of the aircraft in that pile...do you suppose it might be for sale?

* Hey, just checked and found this:
LB-30
AL557 - in storage in Fort Collins, Colorado .[25]

According to wiki's list of surviving B-24 liberators

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## FLYBOYJ (Jul 31, 2013)

GrauGeist said:


> Well from the looks of it, Joe, there's quite a bit of the aircraft in that pile...do you suppose it might be for sale?
> 
> * Hey, just checked and found this:
> LB-30
> ...



I don't know how long ago those yahoo map images were taken. I drove past the old airport in March or April and there didn't see to be a lot of activity there. I believe the city wants to make it an industrial business park.

As far as the LB-30 storage? A possibility for sure but remember there were two airports at Fort Collins.


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## Airframes (Jul 31, 2013)

Interesting find Glenn. Be good to know more about it.


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## T Bolt (Jul 31, 2013)

Did a goggle search for Fort Collins LB-30 and came up with this site among others. Warbird Information Exchange • View topic - Status of the LB-30/B-24 in Ft. Collins???
Apparently it is an LB-30 recovered from a crash site in Alaska. The second picture looks like it was taken from the same place as the satellite pictures. Those satellite pictures were from 3 different sources, Yahoo, Google and Bing so I don't think it can be too old.


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## Capt. Vick (Jul 31, 2013)

Ah, hell yeah T-Bolt! Good find you spy you!

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## GrauGeist (Jul 31, 2013)

Will ya' look at all those bullet holes in the fuselage?

I have never understood why people have this overwhelming urge to shoot the hell out of objects in rural settings.


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## FLYBOYJ (Jul 31, 2013)

WOW!

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## GrauGeist (Jul 31, 2013)

T Bolt said:


> Those satellite pictures were from 3 different sources, Yahoo, Google and Bing so I don't think it can be too old.


Next time you check the sat images, look at the lower portion of the image at that particular resolution, it shows a copyright/date notice. Different resolutions have different dates, like here in Redding, if I zoom in on our shop using Bing, they're images from 2010.

May help give an idea of how recent those pics are


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## Airframes (Jul 31, 2013)

This is starting to ring bells. I recall seeming some pics, taken on the ground, showing the fuselage etc, dumped between two hangars, or other buildings, not that long ago (maybe a year or two). But I can't remember if it was here, on the forum, or in a magazine.
It looks to be in a fairly delicate condition, probably with a lot of corrosion, but not beyond a re-build to static display I would think.


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## Gnomey (Jul 31, 2013)

Interesting find! Good eye to spot those from the images in the maps...


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## T Bolt (Jul 31, 2013)

I had another look and the copyright date is 2013 wile the watermark on the pictures is 2012. Also found a good street level shot with a picture date of July 2012 so I'll bet she's still laying there. Some better pictures below along with the street shot.


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## Crimea_River (Jul 31, 2013)

Good eye Glenn.

If I ever forget where I parked my car, I'll call you!

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## GrauGeist (Jul 31, 2013)

Found a little more info on it:
Warbird Registry - Consolidated Liberator/Privateer Al 557

She was known as the "Maid of Athens" at one time


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## FLYBOYJ (Jul 31, 2013)

I don't get up that way that often (it's about 70 miles from my house) but then next time I'm there I'll try to go by that place.


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## T Bolt (Aug 1, 2013)

Great, maybe you can sneak some pictures over the fence.


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## Wayne Little (Aug 2, 2013)

Very interesting Glenn, well spotted!


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## T Bolt (May 22, 2017)

She's Still there. Date stamp on the image is 2017


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## FLYBOYJ (May 22, 2017)

_View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/acw367/30347731154/_

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## T Bolt (May 22, 2017)

Thanks Joe. Too bad they don't store it indoors. There's only one other LB-30 left to my knowledge and that's the one flown by the CAF


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## Old Wizard (May 22, 2017)




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## parsifal (May 23, 2017)

man, some excellent work guys. obviously frustrated NSA analysts.....

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## Wayne Little (May 23, 2017)

Cool stuff.


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## Gnomey (May 23, 2017)

Good stuff! Shame it's still outside...


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## Night Fighter Nut (Jun 1, 2017)

Well spotted. You know this might be a good subject for a thread... how many warbirds can you find on google or yahoo maps... folks would be scouring the world maps for lost planes...


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## Lucky13 (Jun 3, 2017)

Better that then those game figures!


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## T Bolt (Mar 30, 2021)

Ou-Oh, Its not there anymore. I hope they didn't scrap it.


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## fubar57 (Mar 30, 2021)

Make some calls Glenn. I'll wait....................................


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## T Bolt (Mar 30, 2021)

Everything I can find says that AL-557 is still there at Ft. Collins.

Maybe it turned invisibly and this should be in the. "Color of a airplane I'm building" thread

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## MIflyer (Mar 30, 2021)

I found a PBY wing once. I was at Fantasy of Flight and took a, shall we say, "indirect" route back to where I had parked my airplane.

So it probably was not much of a discovery.

Used to be when I was driving to Shawnee OK for a flying lesson I could see what was a wing, probably C-47, up against the fence along the South side of I-40 to the East of Tinker AFB. I went looking for it in the area, figuring that there might be some other neat stuff there, but never could figure out where it was. We did not have GPS then.


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## cvairwerks (Mar 30, 2021)

Last info I saw, was that AL557 had been purchased by Ron Buccarelli and had been moved to his place in Fl. That info was from 2019.

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## T Bolt (Mar 30, 2021)

Well that's good news. At least it hasn't been scraped.


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## FLYBOYJ (Mar 30, 2021)

cvairwerks said:


> Last info I saw, was that AL557 had been purchased by Ron Buccarelli and had been moved to his place in Fl. That info was from 2019.


I'll double confirm that - I'm friends with Thom Richard on FB, I'll ask him.


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## FLYBOYJ (Mar 30, 2021)

cvairwerks said:


> Last info I saw, was that AL557 had been purchased by Ron Buccarelli and had been moved to his place in Fl. That info was from 2019.


Just IM Thom - he responded immediately. Yep, he said Buccarelli brokered the deal, doesn't know the status


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## T Bolt (Mar 30, 2021)

Good. Maybe something will be done with it. It would be nice to see it in a museum somewhere.
Now we need to work on getting 'Lady Be Good" back from the Libya

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## Gnomey (Mar 30, 2021)

Good to see it’s not been scrapped...

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