Collectibles Around, but Not for Long

PlaneTags has finished up a run of plates using some of the castoff skins of the upper wings from the Experimental Aviation Association's B-17 Aluminum Overcast.

The skins were taken off in March of 2014, when the aircraft was overhauled and stripped down for a much needed refurb. That material left the factory with it when it went to the US Army Air Corps in 1945, and stuck with it while it went on to work as a cargo aircraft, aerial survey plane, AG bird, and crop duster in the decades following the war. Aluminum Overcast was sold off to a group of investors in 1978, B-17's Around the World, who saw it as a fine airworthy choice to bring back to its original condition. Funny enough, even in the 70s it was economically prohibitive to bring a B-17 back to service, so the group donated the plane to the EAA in 1983. Aluminum Overcast remained on static display in their EAA Aviation Museum until 1993, after which they sent it on a national tour in 1994.

While PlaneTags are generally expensive for what they are, they're a small way to snag a little shard of now long-gone aircraft in a way accessible to the average aviation nerd. Depending on the exact aircraft, make, model, and condition of the tag, some can be somewhat collectible on the secondhand market. Any fly-in with a display shows that warbird pieces are in very short supply, with only the most expensive ones left on the peg by the end of day 3 at Sun 'n Fun. The EAA has put up 8 different variations, since the removed skins had black, white, and silver sections to choose from. Most of the time, ones with some kind of striation or paint application seem to do better on the secondary market, so the "partial black paint" or riveted pieces will likely prove popular in years to come.

Expect to pay about $110 on the lower end for a plainer tag, and about $165 for the more interesting variants. Lucky for EAA members, there is a modest discount on that price, and all proceeds go to supporting the eye-watering costs of keeping a vintage B-17 airworthy in 2024.

FMI: www.eaa.org