''The Pink Lady'' is the nickname of a

B-17G Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

bomber, serial number 44-8846, which flew several missions for the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

(USAAF) over

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

near the end of World War II. The plane is now on static display in

Cerny, Essonne Cerny () is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is 53 km South of Paris. It has an airfield named '' Aérodrome de Cerny - La Ferté-Alais'', including an airplane museum.Lockheed-Vega production facility in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...

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 A ball turret was a spherical-shaped, altazimuth mount gun turret, fitted to some American-built aircraft during World War II. The name arose from the turret's spherical housing. It was a manned turret, as distinct from remote-controlled turrets ...

. On March 1, 1945, 44-8846 was flown to

RAF Polebrook Royal Air Force Station Polebrook or more simply RAF Polebrook is a former Royal Air Force station located east-south-east of Oundle, at Polebrook, Northamptonshire, England. The airfield was built on Rothschild estate land starting in Augus ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, 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 The 365th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was first activated in March 1942. After training with Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers in the United States, the squadron (aviation), squadron deployed to the E ...

, 305th Bombardment Group, based at

RAF Chelveston Royal Air Force Chelveston, or more simply RAF Chelveston, is a former Royal Air Force station located on the south side of the B645 (former A45 road), east of Wellingborough, near the village of Chelveston in Northamptonshire, England. Duri ...

, 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 ''Red Tails'' is a 2012 American war film directed by Anthony Hemingway in his feature film directorial debut, and starring Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr. The film is about the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African-American United States A ...

''. ''The Pink Lady'' was based at Paris–Orly Airport,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, just to the south of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, 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 Dassault Group (; also GIM Dassault or Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault SAS) is a French group of companies established in 1929 with the creation of Société des Avions Marcel Bloch (now Dassault Aviation) by Marcel Dassault, and led by son Ser ...

(

Mirage A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', meanin ...

, Mystère or Balzac) aircraft made their first flights. She has made some appearances, like at Melun in 2008 or the

Paris Air Show The Paris Air Show (french: Salon international de l'aéronautique et de l'espace de Paris-Le Bourget, Salon du Bourget) is a trade fair and air show held in odd years at Paris–Le Bourget Airport in north Paris, France. Organized by the French ...

in 2009. Her last flight from Melun Villaroche (her last base before retirement) was to Cerny-La Ferté Alais (LFFQ) (the airfield of Amicale Jean-Baptiste Salis) in March 2010. Until retirement early in 2010, it was the only flying survivor to have seen action in Europe during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. As of 29 October 2011, she is inside a new hangar where she will wait some years before flying again. In 2012, this aircraft was classed as ''

Monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

''.

Painting schemes and registration numbers

Below is a non-exhaustive chronological list of ''The Pink Lady's'' painting schemes and registration numbers from 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 A squadron code is a marking used on a military aircraft to visually identify the squadron that it is assigned to. Squadron codes of the World War II era, notably for Royal Air Force (RAF) and United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) aircraft operati ...

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

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.

References

External links

B-17s: Where to find them
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pink Lady, The Individual aircraft of World War II Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress