Boeing B-17F  Flying Fortress         N1340N            (c/n  6403-VE)

                                          

                                                  This B-17F was formerly 42-6107.  It was civilianized in 1946.  One popular use for B-17s
                                                  was as fire-fighters.  This one was Aero Enterprises tanker number 34.  This shot was taken
                                                  at Long Beach in the mid 1960s.  In 1969 it was re-engined with Rolls Royce Dart turboprops
                                                  which give it a really strange appearance.   Unfortunately N1340N crashed in the Wind River<>
                                                  Mountain Range west of Crowheart, Wyoming on 18 August 1970.   It was fighting a fire on
                                                  the Wind River Indian Reservation.    It had flown out of the West Yellowstone Jump Base
                                                  (Smoke jumper Base) and on that day  was being flown by: Pilot James Raymond Elgin (Ray),
                                                  53 of Cody, Wyoming and Co-Pilot John E. Bastian, 23, of Burns, Wyoming.    The War Bird
                                                  Registry site has a photograph of it fitted with the Dart Turboprops at
                                                                           http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b17registry/b17-426107.html