TAILOR MAID
44-8145
B-17G
91/323 OR-C
91/324 DF-C

Also known as Ah’s Availble this silver B-17G was assigned to the 323rd squadron for the first half of its operational life but transferred to 324th after 4th December. It has not yet been determined whether the aircraft carried both names simultaneously, one on each side, or if the title was changed at some point. A photo of Ah’s Availble displays 13 mission markers above the side windows and a splendid Starcer painting of a girl in a swimsuit. This would suggest that the ship was named Ah’s Availble during October at least. The aircraft survived the war with the 91st but was transferred out of the group to 306th Bomb Group on 24th May 1945. 306th records give the plane as still being named Ah’s Availble so the assumption is that Tailor Maid may have been an early name given to the ship, possibly by Major Willis Taylor who flew in it several times. However, Major Taylor also took the ship on its last lead mission on 21st March 1945 with Robert Williams crew so a dual identity cannot be dismissed. It was a PFF ‘Mickey’ ship equipped with GEE-H beam radar for navigation and blind-bombing. Assigned to the 91st on 15th September, its missions, almost without exception, were in the lead role. The first trip on 21st September 1944 to Mainz was one of those rare exceptions but thereafter it performed various lead roles under a variety of pilots, including Lt. Col. James Berry. On 4th December, still part of the 323rd Squadron, the airplane lost two engines after the target, Kassel, and Captain Rexford Boggs was forced to put down at an Allied airfield near Brussels. Two days later it returned to Bassingbourn but seems to have been transferred into the care of the 324th Squadron after this date.

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