Following the end of the war, a surplus B-17G-105-VE serial number 44-85728 was purchased by Trans World Airlines for conversion as an executive transport. Following TWA's purchase of the surplus B-17G, it was ferried to Boeing's Seattle plant for the conversion. Since Boeing had by now used up all the letters of the alphabet for sub-variants of the Model 299 series, the company had to start through the alphabet all over again in designating later versions, and the conversion was assigned the company designation of Model 299AB. All of the military equipment was removed and the fuselage was fitted out with additional seating, and additional windows were cut into the sides of the fuselage.

The first civil registration assigned to the Model 299AB was NX-4600, but this was soon changed to NL-1B, the L being a new symbol introduced in the immediate postwar years to designate former military aircraft that had been converted to commercial uses. These sorts of conversions were given a limited type certificate of LTC-1, since they could not qualify for the standard licenses that purely commercial types were given. One restriction of the LTC-1 type certificate was that these conversions were not allowed to fly paying passengers.

TWA used the Model 299AB for survey and liaison work in setting up its routes in the Middle East. So far as I am aware, it never flew paying passengers. At the end of 1947, the machine was given to the Shah of Iran, and the Iranian registration was EP-HIM, where the HIM stood for "His Imperial Majesty". The Shah's B-17 was scrapped for spares at Creil, France in 1970.

Bolivia used a total of 26 B-17s in their civil aviation fleet by several different operators. Most of them were acquired from the civilian market, but eight B-17s were transferred to Bolivia directly from USAF surplus stocks in 1956. These planes were assigned Bolivian civil registratins between CP-620 and CP-627. Hamilton Aircraft of Tucson was contracted to prepare the aircraft for delivery to the Bolivian government. An additional seven B-17 airframes were supplied to Hamilton Aircraft for scavenging for spare parts to keep the remainder flying.

USAF serial    Bolivian serial	Disposition

41-9210		CP-753		ex N9720F.  Returned to US as N8WJ for
				restoration.
41-24434	CB-79-->CP-579  ex N60475.  Destroyed Dec 1958.
42-3360		CB-70-->CP-570	ex N67974.  Destroyed Sept 1955.	
42-3470		CP-633		ex Nicaraguan AN-AMI.  Sold to Colombia
				as HK-580.  Ultimate fate unknown.
42-6073		CP-686		ex-N7942A.  Destroyed Nov 1968.
42-30921	CB-71-->CP-571	Destroyed Jan 1962.
43-37650	CB-97-->CP-597  ex-N66570 - Destroyed Sept 1955.
43-38322	CB-80-->CP-580-->CP936  Destroyed Feb 1972.
43-39307	CP-625		Transferred to Bolivia from UsAF in 1956.
				Destroyed Nov 1957.
44-6332		CB-88-->CP-588 	Destroyed May 1963.
44-6393		CP-627-->CP-891 Returned to USA in 1981 for display
44-6556		CP-624		Transferred to Bolivia from USAF in 1956.
				Destroyed Feb 1963.
44-83750	CP-623		Transferred to Bolivia from USAF in 1956.
				Destroyed 1958.
44-83809	CP-626		Transferred to Bolivia from USAF in 1956.
				Destroyed 1959.
44-83858	CP-742		ex-N5226V.  Destroyed Feb 1965.
44-83859	CP-767		ex-Peruvian OB-R-623.  Destroyed April 1967.
44-83861	CP-741		ex-N5227V.  Destroyed Oct 1965.
44-83875	CP-640   	ex-N5231V.  Destroyed August 1967.
44-85774	CP-621		Transferred to Bolivia from USAF in 1956.
				Returned to USA in 1968.  Destroyed 1973.
44-85806	CP-762		ex-N117W.  Scrapped Dec 1964.
44-85817	CP-622		Transferred to Bolivia from USAF in 1956.
				Destroyed Feb 1957.
44-85824	CP-694		Ex-N9347R.  Destroyed Dec 1963.
44-85840	CP-620		Transferred to Bolivia from USAF in 1956.
				Returned to USA in 1968 as N620L.  Destroyed 
				July 1973.

There was one place where the B-17 did fly paying passengers--Sweden. During the war, sixty-eight B-17s flying over Germany had been forced to divert to Sweden when their crews found that they were unable to return to England. Since Sweden was neutral, these planes had to be interned and their crews sent to camps. An exchange program was worked out in late 1944, and the crews and other interned Americans werre returned to England. The US government agreed to let Sweden purchase nine of the interned Fortresses fo $1.00. Swedish authorities converted seven of these planes into commercial transports for the SAAB airline, stripping them of their military equipment and installing airline-type seating. The nose windows were removed and the length of the nose was increased in order to make room for more passengers. These B-17 airliners were operated for several postwar years before being replaced by more conventional airliners.

The following is a list of interned B-17s converted as commercial transports in Sweden:

Swedish registrations	Designation	Ex-USAAF Serials
SE-BAH	B-17F-75-DL	42-3543
SE-BAK	B-17F-115-BO	42-30661
SE-BAM	B-17G-5-BO	42-31163
SE-BAN	B-17F-70-DL	42-3490
SE-BAO	B-17G-40-BO	42-97115
SE-BAP	B-17G-35-BO	42-32076
SE-BAR	B-17G-35-DL	42-107067

SE-BAR and SE-BAP were sold to the Danish air line DDL in late 1945 as OY-DFE and OY-DFA respectively. In 1948, OY-DFA was sold to the Danish Army Air Corps under the serial number 67-672. In 1949, it was transferred to the Royal Danish Navy, and in 1952 it was transferred to the Royal Danish Air Force. It opperated with the RDAF under the serial number ESK-721 and was used for transport, mapping, and communication. It was placed in storage in late 1953. In 1955, the Danish Air force finally sold the aircraft to the French Institut Geographique National (IGN), which added the plane to its fleet of B-17s that flew world-wide photographic and geophysical survey missions. Its French civil registration number was F-BGSP. It eventually ended up derelict, sitting out in the open as it was slowly scavenged for spare parts. In 1972, the USAF Museum purchased it and returned it to the US. It was restored in its original markings (with the nose art "Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby") and put on display at the Wright-Patterson AFB museum at Dayton, Ohio.

In 1951, Brazil was supplied with thirteen B-17s under the provisions of the 1947 Rio Pact. Six were tranfwerred in 1951, five of which were SB-17Gs and the sixth was an RB-17G. Seven more were transferred in 1954-55. All of these planes were used for search and rescue or for photographic reconnaissance. In 1955, the survivors were assigned Forca Aerea Brasiliera serial numbers between 5400 and 5411. These planes were all withdrawn from service in the mid- to late-1960s. Three of these planes have survived, two of them on display in museums and a third in storage.

The serials of these planes were as follows:

FAB serial	USAAF serial	Disposition

5400		44-83663	Returned to US in 1968.  Now on
				display at Hill AFB.
5401		44-85567	Withdrawn from service in 1967
5402		44-85583	Withdrawn from service in 1968.
				Currently on display at Recife.
5403		44-85602	Withdrawn from service in 1966.
5404		44-85836	Crashed 1959
5405		43-39246	Crashed 1962
5406		43-39335	Withdrawn from service in 1966.
5407		44-8891		Withdrawn from service in 1967.
5408		44-83718	Withdrawn from service in 1968 
				under restoration at Brazilian AF Museum.
5409		440-83764	Crashed in 1964.
5410		44-83378	Withdrawn from service in 1965.
5411		44-85494	Withdrawn from service in 1968.
 - 		44-85579	Crashed in 1952.

Shortly after the new nation of Israel was formed, the new Israeli government surreptitiously acquired four B-17s by purchasing them on the commercial market via intermediaries. They were ferried across the Atlantic one step ahead of the customs officials. One was interned by the Portuguese when it landed in the Azores for refuelling, but the other three made it to Czechoslovakia whey they were fitted with hand-held machine guns and loaded with bombs. On their way to Israel, they passed over Egyptian targets and unloaded their bombs. The three Israeli B-17s served in the 1948 war of independence and again in the 1956 war with Egypt over Suez. They were withdrawn from service in the late 1950s, and all were scrapped in 1961.

Israeli B-17s:

USAAF serials	Civil registry

44-83753  	N5024N
44-83811	N5014N
44-83842	N7712M, interned in Portugal
44-83851	N1098M