B-17 with turboprop engine

[pampa14]

In 1946, two B-17Gs were modified as flying testbeds for experimental turboprop engines. The military equipment was removed, the pilot's cockpit was moved farther back, and the nose was completely modified to accommodate the experimental engine. To see the photos, please, visit the link:

Aviação em Floripa: Boeing B-17 modificadas

Hope you enjoy and thanks for the visiting!!!

 

[planb]

Interesting

 

[AMC]

It looks very odd....

 

[vikingBerserker]

I really like the way it looks!

 

[Blue Yonder]

N51117N= The Liberty Bell?

 

[herman1rg]

Scary

 

[Wurger]

Interesting...

 

[Wayne Little]

Don't look right to me either...

 

[Blue Yonder]

From Wiki:

"The B-17G (SN 44-85734)[3] did not see combat in World War II, and was originally sold on 25 June 1947, as scrap to Esperado Mining Co. of Altus, Oklahoma; it was then sold again later that year for $2,700 to Pratt Whitney, which operated the B-17 as a heavily modified test bed[1] (similar to 44-85747 and 44-85813).[5] Following these flights, it was donated to the Connecticut Aeronautical Historic Association, where a tornado on 3 October 1979, blew another aircraft onto the B-17's midsection, breaking the fuselage."

Imagine, purchasing a B-17 for (in US dollars) 28,000!!!

 

[swampyankee]

Connecticut doesn't get very many tornadoes. That particular one destroyed something like 75% of New England (née Bradley) Air Museum's collection.

 

[vikingBerserker]

I wonder how it would have done with 4.

 

[Gastounet]

A few years ago, I visited Tom Reilly's restoration museum, in Kissimmee, near Orlando (Florida).
There, I saw a B-17 under restoration, and I was told it was an old test bed for a turboprop engine.
Was it this plane ?