The PB-1W brings airborne early warning radar to the US Navy

After the war, the Naval Aircraft Modification Unit (NAMU) at Johnsville, Pennsylvania, converted a number of B-17s into PB-1Ws, sealing the bomb-bay doors and fitting an under-fuselage search radome along with extra drop tanks. Painted in the standard dark-blue scheme adopted in late 1944, the PB-1Ws served the US Navy as an airborne early warning platform until 1955, when they began to be replaced by the Lockheed WV-2.