B-23 WWII bomber carries its own history

Out on the flight line, in the midst of three to four Cessnas, with a Boeing 747 doing touch-and-goes in the background, sits a grand old bird with all her grace and history.

It seemed only fitting the Columbia Basin sunlight flickered off her windshield as she sat parked on what was once a World War II training airfield and later operated Larson Air Force Base until 1966.

The B-23 is many times referred as the “forgotten bomber” in the annals of U.S. military aviation. It was faster than its predecessor, the B-18, and introduced some new armament ideas, but was later rejected for combat duty, the victim of bad timing, as well as major technological and operational changes.

There were just 38 B-23 Dragon bombers ever built. The grand old bird sitting just outside Columbia Pacific Aviation was the second to last of its class built in 1939. It’s a special plane and a rare bird. She’s the only flying B-23 in the world. Even though the B-23 Dragon never became the bomber the Army Air Corps was looking for in 1939, it has proven without question it is still one sweet ride.

“It’s the only flying one like it in the world. There’s a total of 10 and at least seven of those are in museums,” Columbia Pacific Aviation President Jeff Akridge said. “The rest of them are rotted or gone. There’s this one and maybe one other one and that’s it. But this is the only one that gets up there.”

Its history didn’t include bombing raids over Germany or any military strikes for freedom, but she has her own history nonetheless. She was converted from a B-23 to what’s called a DC67 utility aircraft and became one of the first executive transports before private Lear jets, transporting businessmen to and from engagements. The original design was a six-man airplane without a co-pilot's seat, so it has been converted to a dual control cockpit. The bomb bay was sealed. The three 30-caliber side guns were removed and the area sealed. The same went with the 50-caliber tail gun.

But there is a story that brought a smile to Akridge's face. As he stood looking at the grand old bird, his faithful golden Labrador lying in the shade of one of the Cessnas, he straightened out his sunglasses.

“We had it up a couple of weeks ago and the wind was blowing, bouncing us around pretty hard,” he recalled. “We did a check after we got back and found a 50-caliber shell lying in the tail. I don’t know where was, but it shook all around and finally shook loose.

“I thought it was kind of neat that something stayed in that airplane for last 70 years. It finally rattled its way out. It’d never been discovered it to this point.”

They cleaned the shell up and discovered it was produced in 1943 at the Utah armory.

The military did log 8,000 hours of the 10,000 on the grand old bird. Apparently the weapons were fired at some point in her history. But mostly, she was converted and was one of the first business executive transport planes. The nine-passenger rear section, complete with rear bench seat, still had a little musty smell to it.

“This plane’s history is more about business flights. All the big oil companies owned one of these — Standard Oil, Oso Oil (& Gas Properties LLC) — there’s a lot of heavy hitters that were flying corporate airplanes for the first time ever. It was 20 years before the Lear jets of the world ever came out,” Akridge said. “So you can imagine the big shots with glasses of Scotch and cigars flying around making business deals.”

“We took it up last week and went over the Grand Coulee Dam and I can imagine this plane flying the important people to that project to the business meetings that shaped the Columbia Basin.”

The grand ol’ bird is a pilot’s plane, no automatic pilot, you pretty much fly line of sight. Owner Vic Jansen and Akridge just got licensed to fly it, making them one of the few pilots in the world licensed to fly the B-23. There’s just something about hitting the clouds in an aircraft that kept a 50-caliber shell hidden for almost 70 years before finally ponying up its hidden treasure.

“I fly King Airs (Beechcraft) and that kind of stuff all the time, but flying this is a whole different ballgame,” he said. “It feels like a big ol’ tub and it’s real slow in the controls. We went up on Saturday and it’s one of the best flights I’ve had in years.

“If I had to pick an airplane to fly for the rest of my flying days, I’d pick something like this.”