Purchased by the Yankee Air Museum in 1986, it was restored to a World War II configuration and flown for flight experience rides and airshow appearances until it was sold to a private collector in June of 2024.

[2] The airplane was built by the Vega Division of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation at Burbank, California, and was delivered to the USAAF on July 16, 1945.

[3][5] At one time, it carried an air droppable, 27-foot-long (8.2 m) 3,300-pound (1,500 kg) wooden lifeboat under the fuselage for rescuing people stranded at sea.

This company used numerous B-17s as air tankers to fight forest fires and apply pesticides on crops and trees.

[2] In 1985, the airplane was among four other B-17s that were put up for sale at an auction held by Globe Air, the successor company to Aircraft Specialties.

After several test hops, the aircraft was flown from Mesa, Arizona, to Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti, Michigan, on July 2, 1986.

The primary goal was to return the aircraft to safe flying condition, with the secondary objective of reinstall as much authentic combat equipment as was obtainable and practical.

The two 1,000-US-gallon (3,800 L) fire retardant tanks were removed, and the bomb bay doors re-installed along with the equipment required to be able to open and close them in flight.

[6] In 2018, Yankee Lady and another operational B-17, Aluminum Overcast, were on hand with re-enactors for the debut of the famous Memphis Belle bomber at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

[7] The plane played a role in the 2022 movie Wolf Hound, about a Luftwaffe special operations unit, KG 200, that flew Allied aircraft.

[10] In April 2023, the museum announced that Yankee Lady would be grounded “out of an abundance of caution” and was not expected to fly for the rest of 2023.

[11] By July 3, 2023, Yankee Lady had been found compliant with the airworthiness directive that had grounded the plane earlier in the year, and resumed a regular flying schedule.