WARNING: This livery contains historical pin-up nose art
Note: some screenshots may depict the aircraft using roughmets to showcase the aluminium finish.
Delivered Cheyenne 17/1/45 where an AN/APS-15 radar unit was fitted instead of standard ball turret; Hunter 12/2/45; Grenier 25/2/45; Assigned 511BS/351BG [DS-M] Polebrook 25/3/45; 6m transferred 365BS/305BG Chelveston 23/5/45 but remained in Europe as RB-17G at Weisbaden and Tripoli, Libya before moving on the Port Lyautey, Morocco, on mapping duties. Transferred to 45Recon. Sq in 3/49. Eventually sold to French I’Institut Geographique National as F-BGSP 7/12/54, then became airworthy as F-AZDX 5/85 at Fortresse Toujours Volante, Paris, France, as MOTHER & COUNTRY (pilot’s side) and PINK LADY (co-pilot side).
Baugher: 8846 delivered Cheyenne Jan 17, 1945 where was fitted with AN/APS-15 radar. to Hunter Feb 12, 1945, to Grenier Feb 25, 19o45. Allocated to 511th BS, 351st BG at Polebrook Mar 25, 1945. Transferred to 365th BS, 305th BG at Chelveston. Went in 1947 to 49th RS (later 7499th Support Sqn in West Germany) and used for ELINT missions along East German border and down Berlin corridors. Assigned 47th SCS, Furstenfeldbruck, West Germany Jan 1, 1948. Assigned to 45th PRS, Furstenfeldbruck, West Germany Jan 21, 1948 Assigned to 7499th AFS, Furstenfeldbruck, West Germany Nov 2, 1948. Redesignated RB-17G Mar 22, 1949 Assigned to 7499th CS, Furstenfeldbruck, West Germany May 17, 1949. Transferred to Wiesbaden Aug 25, 1950 Assigned to 7150th ABG, Wiesbaden [Erbenheim], West Germany Jul 23, 1951 Assigned to 7499th CS, Wiesbaden [Erbenheim], West Germany Nov 7, 1951 Assigned to AMC Dec 10, 1953 and transferred to Hill AFB, UT Dec 7, 1953. [noted in transit through Prestwick, Scotland 3Dec53]. SOC late 1954, and sold to Institut Geographique
National of France Dec 1954 as F-BGSP. WFU in 1959 and stored. Whilst with the IGN,
spent some time in South Africa as ZS-DXM reserved but not allocated. Transferred May 1985 to Fortress Toujours Volante and e-registered as F-AZDX and is still flying. Departed Orly Oct 24, 2006 for new home at Saint-Yan. To be put on ground display at La Ferte Alais. Flown there Mar 19, 2010.
The Pink Lady is the nickname of a B-17G Flying Fortress bomber, serial number 44-8846, which flew several missions for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) over Nazi Germany near the end of World War II. The plane is now on static display in Cerny, Essonne, France.
Military use
Rolled out of the Lockheed-Vega production facility in Burbank, California in December 1944, The Pink Lady was then only known as a B-17G-85-VE Fortress, serial number 44-8846. The plane was outfitted with AN/APS-15 radar in place of a standard ball turret.[1]
On March 1, 1945, 44-8846 was flown to RAF Polebrook, England, and assigned to the 511th Bombardment Squadron, 351st Bombardment Group. Since she entered active service so close to the end of the war, 44-8846 only flew six missions over Germany, the last one on April 20, 1945, when the 351st ended combat operations. She was transferred to the 365th Bombardment Squadron, 305th Bombardment Group, based at RAF Chelveston, England, when the rest of the 351st returned to the United States.
Post-military use
She was featured as the fictional B-17F aircraft Mother and Country in the 1990 film Memphis Belle, she was painted on one side to resemble the older B-17F. She is credited in the 2012 film Red Tails. The Pink Lady was based at Paris–Orly Airport, France, just to the south of Paris, until its hangar was listed for demolition. In October 2006, she was stored for winter 2006–2007 in a hangar in Saint Yan, (Saône et Loire), France. Afterwards, she was based at Melun Villaroche (LFPM), south-east of Paris, where some Dassault (Mirage, Mystère or Balzac) aircraft made their first flights. She has made some appearances, like at Melun in 2008 or the Paris Air Show in 2009. Her last flight fr om Melun Villaroche (her last base before retirement) was to Cerny-La Ferté Alais (LFFQ) (the airfield of Amicale Jean-Baptiste Salis) in March 2010.[2]
Until retirement early in 2010, it was the only flying survivor to have seen action in Europe during World War II. As of 29 October 2011,[3] she is inside a new hangar wh ere she will wait some years before flying again.[4] In 2012, this aircraft was classed as Monument historique.
elow is a non-exhaustive chronological list of The Pink Lady's painting schemes and registration numbers fr om 1945 to 2006:
Entire Aircraft: Unpainted Aluminum
1945: s/n 48846 on tail
1945, March: white J in black Triangle 48846 M on tail (with red diagonal stripe), DS : M on fuselage, M on chin turret
▲J designates 351st Bombardment Group
Squadron code DS designates 511th Bombardment Squadron
1945, May: white G in black Triangle 48846 XK: M on fuselage
▲G designates 305th Bombardment Group
Squadron code XK designates 365th Bombardment Squadron
1954: Institut Geographique National logo on tail, F-BGSP on fuselage
1965: IGN, registered as ZS-DXM
1979: WFU
1985: 48846 on tail, F-AZDX on fuselage, "Lucky Lady" artwork added to nose for air-show tour
Entire Aircraft: Olive Drab upper surfaces, light gray lower surfaces
1989: Officially registered as F-AZDX, was painted for the movie Memphis Belle as:
Left side: 28703 (25703?) on tail, DF-S on fuselage, "Mother and Country" on nose
Right side: 122960 on tail, G-DF on fuselage, "The Pink Lady" artwork on nose
1993: large text below pilot and co-pilot side windows:
B 17
FAURE
EVER
On right-hand side, 5 yellow bombs painted after the word "FAURE", under which there were 2 swastikas
1998: 22955 on tail, F-AZDX on fuselage, "Mother and Country" artwork on nose
2002: Triangle-J 48846 M on tail (with red stripe as per 351st Bomb Group markings), M-DS on fuselage (chin turret removed)
Left side: "The Pink Lady" artwork, and 846 on nose
6 yellow bombs painted below pilot's side window
Blue number "7"
TEXT (black stencil):
U.S. ARMY-MODEL B-17G-85-VE
AIR FORCES SERIAL NO. 44-8846
CREW WEIGHT 1200 LBS
(+ 5 lines of smaller text)
Right side: "Mother and Country", and "The Pink Lady" artwork on nose
Top left wing: Star
Right Bottom wing: Star
The current paint job does not have "The Pink Lady" artwork on right nose, but is otherwise like its 2002 configuration.
This aircraft was present at "The Flying Legends" (Duxford, UK) air display on 12–13 July 2008. The "Mother and Country", and "The Pink Lady" artwork was present on the right side nose area.
To get the aluminium finish:
Livery comes with specular files. These files will also act as roughmets to give the aluminium finished planes a proper look of aluminium instead of dull grey.
If you want to change to roughmets either google the ED forum for instructions or follow the instructions included here. To do so will involve a basic understanding of editing the lua and knowing your way around windows explorer.
WARNING. I have only tested this with my liveries and cannot guarantee it will work with other livery creators work. Doing the following modification may make other liveries incorrect. If so & if they have provided a specular/roughmet file then following the procedure below may help.
I won’t go into wh ere you place the livery folder you downloaded as you can search for that on ED Forums.
Step 1.
Open the lua for the livery
Change all SPECULAR entries to ROUGHNESS_METALLIC
BEFORE CONTINUING CHECK IN MODEL VIEWER AND IN-GAME TO SEE IF AN ALUMINIUM SHINE IS PRESENT. If not goto the next step.
Step 2.
Change all false entries associated with ROUGHNESS_METALLIC to true
Remove the green – (double dash) fr om the beginning of any line in the lua that has them (should be only 3 lines – ROTOR, RotorBlured & Whels)
Save the lua and close it.
Step 3.
Create a new empty folder called B-17G in your game section for DCS
The path should be as follows:
(Drive Letter wh ere you have DCS located) > Eagle Dynamics > DCS World > Mods > tech > WWII Units > Textures > B-17G
COPY (don’t move) the specular files (7 files in total) from the livery folder you downloaded to the B-17G folder.
Do not move (cut) them so you have copies for future use should DCS delete them.
The B-17G folder should not be removed when you do an update.
I take no responsibility for any mistakes you make. If required delete my liveries, re-download and start again.
