This one-off oddity of WWII was a war-weary B-17F converted into a "Project Aphrodite" radio-controlled drone aircraft designed to attack the German battleship Tirpitz.  The top deck of the B-17 was made removable so that British depth bombs could be loaded into the fuselage.  The aircraft was nicknamed "Roadster" because of its open cockpit.  The mission plan was that after takeoff, the lone pilot would bail out.  The aircraft would then be flown to the target by radio control.  The plane was crudely painted white on its upper surfaces so it could be more easily seen from the drone-control aircraft.  "Roadster" was never used for its intended mission.  The plane
ended its days as a squadron hack.  According to Jack Olsen in his 1970 book "Aphrodite: Desperate Mission," some pilots of "Roadster" loved to formate with B-24s, stand up in the open cockpit, and then salute the "Banana Boat" crews.

To produce this conversion, I used the old Revell "Memphis Belle" B-17F model, which was first released in 1962.  I sliced off the upper fuselage of the original model, used paper to cover the top deck, and scratch-built a single-seat cockpit.  The model is brush painted.  The "Gremlin Gus II" name was hand written using a white gel pen.  The wheels are from "True Details."

Guy

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