![]() ![]() There is no record showing this airplane ever being used for civil purposes, either in the U.S. Where it went from Parks, and when, has not yet surfaced. It was used at the college for technical training of mechanics and technicians. Presumably, the Parks airplane was obtained in late 1946, early 1947, as part of the RFC disposal program for educational or memorial use. Kingman, AZ Walnut Ridge, AR, etc.) but the airplanes as Altus were stored. Most of the other airplanes stored on RFC scrapyards were sold in field-size lots in a June 1946 auction and were subsequently scrapped (i.e. The record shows it released as surplus to the RFC in November 1945. This B-17G was delivered from Boeing in April 1944, and served in a number of training units in Florida, particularly Drew Field, through the balance of the war (I would suspect the "D" on the top of the tail was a code for Drew, with the other code "W3" being the airplane number on the field.) This previously unidentified B-17G was Boeing-built 42-102829. This was news to me, so I happily add it to my list of RFC B-17s maintained here. McGuire had some interesting information, at least to me, about another of the RFC B-17s, this one used Parks College at the Cahokia, Illinois, training field between late 1946 and probably 1950 or so. After the war, Parks College was donated to SLU and it was eventually folded into the main SLU campus across the Mississippi River in Missouri.ĭr. ![]() During the war he founded three more sites (Sikeston and Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and Jackson, Mississippi) and at these five Parks locations, over 15,000 Army Pilots passed their Primary flight training. He also owned a second campus and airfield at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, which also became a training site for Army pilots. He built his school there and during World War II, Parks became one of the first eight civilians to offer his services to the US government to train Army flyers. Louis, next door to the old Illinois village of Cahokia. Parks College was founded as an independent aviation school in 1927 and was named "Parks Air College." When its founder, Oliver Parks, couldn't find enough affordable space in Missouri to build his new campus, he found 113 acres across the Mississippi River from St. McGuire is the SLU archivist who curates the Parks College collection held by SLU. Randy McGuire of Saint Louis University (SLU). ![]() First off, Nick Veronico recently attended the Conference of Aviation Writers (CHAW) held in St.
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