Liberator "The Dragon and his Tail"

fuelsguy · 07-30-2007, 10:22 PM

I'm researching "The Dragon and his tail" and have found several photos of the starboard side showing the dragon art work. I have also found one statement that said the port side was unpainted. I have also found two drawings of the plane showing the port side with the dragon on that side also. The repaint of the currently flying B-24 had the dragon on the starboard side and a completely different airplane on the port side. Another confusion is that the repainted B-24 had red and white stripes on the rudder, while the port side drawings show blue and white stripes on the port rudder.
So the question is "What was on the port side of "The Dragon and his tail"?
Any help appreciated,
Thanks in advance,
Ivor

evangilder · 07-30-2007, 10:31 PM

Are you talking about the original "Dragon and it's tail", or the previous Collings Foundation paint job on their B-24? The previous paint on it had 2 different motifs, one on each side to commemorate 2 different aircraft. When it had the "Dragon" on one side, the other side was "All American". Now, both side are painted with the same nose-art on both sides, "Witch craft".

IIRC, the original "Dragon" had it on both side.

syscom3 · 07-30-2007, 10:34 PM

Evan... did you know the Collings Foundation also had it named "Golden Gal" at one time in the mid 90's?

fuelsguy · 07-31-2007, 09:45 AM

Evan,
Thansks for the reply,
I'm talking about the original Dragon.
The Collings one is now painted as Witchcraft, and I took lots of photos of that one when it was in Seattle a few weeks ago.
You say the original one was painted both sides, do you have any references or photos to show the port side fuselage?
Ivor

evangilder · 07-31-2007, 10:01 AM

I don't have any in my possession, but I thought I saw one on the web a while back. I will see if I can find it again.

fuelsguy · 07-31-2007, 03:15 PM

Evan,
Thanks, anything will be appreciated.
Ivor

criannick · 08-08-2007, 11:05 AM

Hi Ivor and Evan

I am new on this forum but used to go on hyperscale
I saw your exchanges with big interest because I made researches on this plane even 20 years ago .
It crashed shortly after the war on Ie shima
see the story:
The DRAGON AND HIS TAIL (PIC 3)
here you will also see a picture with the engines set on

I guessed also about the nose art.... on one or both sides ? but I've never seen a picture with the dragon on the port side
So what Evan told is very interesting
But I keep my doubts because who could imagine that a paint would repeat a second time such an complicated artistic pattern
Waiting for changing my mind ....
Christian

syscom3 · 08-08-2007, 08:32 PM

I heard it was flown to the US to the Davis-Monthan boneyard and processed into scrap.