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BLUE DREAMS
42-37761
B-17G-10-DL
91/323 OR-L

Crew Chief David Lloyd was proud of his aircraft and his efforts, together with his maintenance team, were especially appreciated by Capt. Ken MacFarland's aircrew. So much so that they awarded a silver cup to him and his ground crew in appreciation of the magnificent work they had done.

Named Blue Dreams by MacFarland's crew, David Lloyd had Tony Starcer paint a stylish portrait of a blonde onto the left nose. Starcer took along with him a copy of the newly arrived 1944 Esquire Calendar for reference, one of the most popular sources for all nose art being its Alberto Vargas pin-ups. On this occasion it was the month of December that was chosen as reference for Blue Dreams. When news came through that MacFarland's wife was expecting a baby the rest of the crew arranged for Starcer, without the pilot's knowledge, to add a stork and baby motif near the cockpit. The baby was a girl and the crew had Starcer at work again later adding her name, 'Mona Gail', below the motif. The plane would successfully complete 29 combat missions before an unfortunate oversight by another aircrew caused it to be written off. On 6th March 1944 the group's aircraft took off for Berlin, a mission that was to prove to be one of the most punishing of all for the 8th Air Force and on which the 91st would lose six aircraft.

But Blue Dreams was not destined to be part of this momentous raid, the first full-scale daylight attack on the German capital. Shortly after taking off and pulling up into a cold early morning sky, the pilot, 2/Lt. Walter Wilkinson, noticed fuel was streaming from the starboard wing. Immediately he decided to land the heavily laden plane to check what was wrong, planning to take off again and catch up with the formation. All went well as he began the let down and approach to the 355th's fighter base at Steeple Morden, just a short distance from the end of Bassingbourn's main runway. Lined up and slowly losing altitude the plane eased closer and closer to the runway for what should have been a smooth, though heavily laden, touch-down. Lower and lower as the crew braced themselves for the jolt and squeal of rubber on concrete. When it came it was not what they expected. The main undercarriage had not been lowered. Blue Dreams became a nightmare, the jolt became a grinding, screeching, metal-wrenching skid across the ground onto the grass. The crew scrambled out and clear of the bellied aircraft but the bomb load didn't explode. Blue Dreams was a wreck, with the fuselage badly damaged and warped, the ball turret demolished and the chin turret buckled and it was salvaged the following day.

In mitigation the subsequent accident report noted that the pilot had flown 8 exhausting missions in the preceding 15 days. This time the crew was lucky and so were the men of the 355th. Ten months later it would be a different story when another 91st Fortress force landed on the base.

"Story taken from Plane Names & Fancy Noses, by Ray Bowden"