Homeward Bound depicts a scene repeated across the air war over Europe: a battle-worn B-17 Flying Fortress making its way back toward England with a P-51 Mustang nearby. Craig Tinder based the scene around two identifiable aircraft—the B-17G Shady Lady and Lt. Col. William B. Bailey's P-51D Double Trouble Two—to represent the relationship between Eighth Air Force bomber crews and the fighter pilots assigned to protect them.
Bringing the Bombers Home
Long-range escort fighters transformed the daylight bombing campaign. By the time the P-51 became available in strength, Eighth Air Force fighters could accompany heavy bombers far deeper into German-controlled airspace than earlier escorts. Their task was not simply to remain beside the bomber formations. Fighter groups ranged ahead, broke up Luftwaffe attacks, engaged German fighters, and covered vulnerable bombers during the long return toward England.
Bailey served as deputy commander of the 353rd Fighter Group, whose P-51s were recognizable by their black-and-yellow checkerboard markings. Double Trouble Two was his second Mustang to carry the name. The artwork places Bailey's fighter alongside Shady Lady, a B-17G, during the return across the English Channel—a quieter moment that represents the final stage of missions that had carried bomber crews deep into occupied Europe.
The B-17 Relic: Texas Raiders
The B-17 relic associated with Homeward Bound came from B-17G-95-DL 44-83872, better known as Texas Raiders. The aluminum wing skin was removed from the outer section of the port wing during a major wing-spar restoration in 2001. Craig Tinder served as a loadmaster and restorer on the aircraft and personally acquired material removed during the restoration.
Craig Tinder with B-17G Texas Raiders during the Wings Over Houston Air Show.
Aluminum panels removed from B-17G-95-DL 44-83872 Texas Raiders during restoration.
The P-51 Relic: 44-73990
The second relic comes from the fuselage of P-51D-25-NA 44-73990 (construction number 122-40530). Built during the final year of the war, the Mustang later served with the Royal Canadian Air Force after being transferred to Canada in 1951.
The aircraft subsequently passed through several civilian owners and entered the air-racing world as Pigeon Chaser. Bob Hoover flew it as a pace aircraft at the 1971 Cape May National Air Races. Following an extensive restoration carried out between 2000 and 2015, the Mustang was finished as Alabama Rammer Jammer, representing the 353rd Fighter Group—the same fighter group represented by Bailey's Double Trouble Two in the artwork.
Two Aircraft Types, Two Surviving Histories
The relics do not come from Shady Lady or Double Trouble Two themselves. Instead, each originates from a surviving example of the aircraft type represented in the scene: a B-17G Flying Fortress and a P-51D Mustang. Together they connect the artwork to the physical construction and postwar histories of two aircraft that came to define the American daylight air campaign over Europe.
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