B-17G “Buzz Buggy” of the 92nd Bomb Group. Serial number unknown. Update 27 January 2026: Seems to be 42-39851. See comments below.
B-17G Buzz Buggy Details
England, 14 May 1944.
Published: 1. January 2022 / Last updated: 27. January 2026
02. January 2022 access_time 17:49
There are 2 words painted under the cockpit. I can’t make out the first word but the second looks like ‘Joy’.
17. May 2022 access_time 14:54
Are you sure it’s not “Tinker Toy”?
20. May 2022 access_time 16:58
The top word looks like it ends with’ys’. I’m thinking something like ‘___y’s Joy’.
11. August 2022 access_time 21:09
My father William D Husted was Buzz Buggy’s navigator from Nov 1943 to April 1944. He was assigned to a green crew and shot down. He survived Stalag Luft 1.
How many missions did the Buzz Buggy compleat?
08. September 2022 access_time 21:25
i found the serial number (42-39851) among other things at the linked website
08. September 2022 access_time 21:26
https://www.americanairmuseum.com/aircraft/7233
19. March 2023 access_time 16:17
https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/aircraft/42-39851
found this link with the serial number 42-39851.
21. October 2025 access_time 20:41
The plane has flown thirty missions and looks quite old. The 30th mission decal is black, probably because at this time in the first half of 1944 a tour of duty was thirty missions and now the crew could go home. From March 18 to May 13 the 306th BG (another 40th Bomb Wing group) flew thirty missions. If the 92nd BG flew a similar number in that time, and “Buzz Buggy” flew on most of those missions, it probably would have arrived in January or February. Someone else posted the link to the AAMB webpage, https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/aircraft/42-39851 , which says it arrived on February 12, 1944. From then to May 13 the 306th BG flew 43 missions, meaning “Buzz Buggy” would have to fly just 70 percent of those missions, which is a fairly normal rate for a B-17, to finish thirty missions by mid-May. So it is probably 42-39851.
27. January 2026 access_time 1:06
the images display the hallmarks of a Vega, Burbank product, thereby reinforcing the AAM identification as 42-39851 cited earlier. Another cross-check can be .. The Big Triangle First in so much as the a/c is within the scope of the Bishop’s reference