Boeing B-17E Flying Fortress Arrives at Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor

One of the most talked about artifacts of American aviation history, the Boeing B-17E Flying Fortress #41-2446 “Swamp Ghost”, arrived at the Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor recently. The plane, force landed in 1942 in a remote region of Papua New Guinea sat undisturbed, partially submerged in a swamp for 30 years when it was rediscovered by Australian soldiers. The plane was found to be untouched since its abandonment, right down to it’s loaded machine guns. It was then that those soldiers christened the plane “Swamp Ghost”.

It took nearly another 40 years to get the plane retrieved from that swamp and back to the United States, with many false starts and legal wrangling with the government of Papua New Guinea, but in 2010 the final hurdles were cleared to bring the “Swamp Ghost” home. The Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor acquired the aircraft, which was shipped in pieces from California, arriving its new home at the museum in Hawaii last month. The museum intends to restore the plane, but as it is anticipating a restoration cost to be around 5 million dollars, it will take some time to raise the needed funds. In the meantime, they are planning to set the plane in a display that will replicate the swamp in which it had lain for all those years.