This old girl serves as the gate guard at the Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum. The museum closed in November 2015 and the C-97 and C-133 were offered for scrap at government auction in September 2017.

Ex USAF Stratofreighter 52-2764. Used for worldwide flights to relieve famine etc.

Ex USAF KC-97G 53-218. Converted to KC-97L. Last served 191 ARS, Utah ANG. Seen here stored at Greybull, but still in USAF markings with additional Flight 97 Restaurant logo and titles, from the time it was in use as such from 1986 until 1989. The Flight 97 Restaurant was a two-storey restaurant at the airport at McMinnville, OR, with this C-97 aircraft attached to it as a dining room. It opened for business in Feb 1986, after the C-97 had been flown there from Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ in Sep 1985. The venture was a failure and the restaurant closed in 1987. The C-97 was put up for auction in 1988, but initially remained unsold. It was eventually sold in Dec 1989 and to the Minnesota ANG Museum in 2000.

Built for USAAF as a KC-97G tanker 52-2698 and later modified to KC-97L. Sold to Hawkins & Powers and converted to C-97G standard. Still active in 2006. Note the Aluminum Overcast nose art.

Three Arizona Air Guard KC-97L Srtratofreighter tankers on oetachment to Rhein-Main AFB with 0-22761 in the foreground.

It was a treat to see these aircraft on visits to Frankfurt in the 1970s. This aircraft of the Texas ANG is seen taking off

This Stratofreighter, owned by Stratolift Inc, shows misleading identification marks. It is ex USAF 52-0883 (with some difficulty '0883' can be seen below the faded U.S. Air Force titles on the nose), but the tail clearly shows '0237'. This is because the original tail fin was damaged, and it was replaced with that of 53-0237 (cn 17019). The missing cowling of engine #3 suggests that this aircraft had already been withdrawn from use at the time. It was slowly reduced to scrap here during 1994-1996.

Converted to EC-97G. Scrapped at Davis Monthan.

A total of 888 C-97s were built, of which 814 were KC-97 tankers. 53-0230 was assigned to the Strategic Air Command in 1955 at Westover AFB, Mass. In 1965 it was converted to KC-97L status at Hayes Aircraft Corp, Birmingham, AL, by the addition of two J47 jet engines and transferred to the Tennessee ANG. To MASDC for storage in 1976 and transferred to the AMC Museum in 10.99

One of three KC-97L tankers supplied to Spain. Note the auxiliary J47 turbojet. Old USAF lettering is coming through on the bulbous nose.