The B-17 story starts in the mid-1930s when Boeing set out to build a fast, high-flying heavy bomber for the USAAC. Its prototype, the Model 299/XB-17, flew in 1935 and outperformed rivals but crashed on takeoff, costing it the initial contract. Still, the Air Corps ordered 13 more for evaluation, and by 1938 production B-17s began entering service. From the outset the Flying Fortress carried heavy defensive armament—multiple .50-calibre machine guns in nose, waist, dorsal, ventral and tail positions—in exchange for a somewhat smaller bomb load. Pilots and crews soon came to trust its rugged airframe after tales of badly damaged B-17s limping home under a hail of bullets. Early in the Pacific War B-17s struck Japanese ships and airfields, but their greatest impact came in Europe. With the Eighth Air Force in 1942–45 they pioneered daylight strategic bombing, hitting Germany’s factories, oil refineries and rail yards. Of the roughly 1.5 million tons of bombs the Allies dropped on Nazi targets, B-17s carried out over 640 000 tons—more than any other type. Despite fierce flak and fighter attacks, formations of Flying Fortresses pressed on, earning a reputation for toughness if crews flew in tight combat boxes. As escort fighters like the P-51 Mustang joined the raids, bomber losses fell and the daylight campaign crippled German war production. By war’s end in 1945 some 12 731 B-17s had been built, making it the third-most-produced bomber ever. Today only four still fly, about fifty more sit in museums or storage, and wrecks occasionally surface. Their legacy lives on every time one of these legendary Fortresses takes to the sky.

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B-17 Flying Fortress