08/22/2022. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "The pictured aircraft was originally the second B-23 built en was delivered to the USAAC under the serial 39-28 in 1939. After a brief service it was one of the B-23s made available for special tests.
It was loaned to Emerson Electric to evaluate various remote gun control and aiming systems. At Wright Field (presently Wright-Patterson AFB), Dayton, Ohio, it was also used in glider pick-up tests. The aircraft was fitted with a specially designed All American Aviation Model 40 winch with a hook in the tail, for loads up to 4,000 lb (1,814 kg), like the Waco XCG-3. The hook would catch a glider's tow line, held off the ground between two poles, thus enabling the B-23 to take the glider in tow without having to land. The B-23 was transferred to Reconstruction Finance Corp at Bush Field, Georgia, on April 5, 1945.
In 1946 the aircraft was registered as NC54584 to Starling Airports Inc., Arnold, Missouri., the same year it was reregistered to a Daniel Peterkin in Illinois, in 1947 it was deregistered.
