Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress: American Heavy Bomber

Boeing B-17C Flying Fortress (105/MD), assigned to Wright Field in pre-war natural metal finish, USAAF, circa 1941.

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater of Operations and dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during World War II. It is the third-most produced bomber of all time, behind the American four-engined Consolidated B-24 Liberator and the German multi-role, twin-engined Junkers Ju 88. It was also employed as a transport, antisubmarine aircraft, drone controller, and search-and-rescue aircraft.

In a USAAC competition, Boeing's prototype Model 299/XB-17 outperformed two other entries but crashed, losing the initial 200-bomber contract to the Douglas B-18 Bolo. Still, the Air Corps ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation, which were introduced into service in 1938. The B-17 evolved through numerous design advances but from its inception, the USAAC (from 1941 the United States Army Air Forces, USAAF) promoted the aircraft as a strategic weapon. It was a relatively fast, high-flying, long-range bomber with heavy defensive armament at the expense of bomb load. It also developed a reputation for toughness based upon stories and photos of badly damaged B-17s safely returning to base.

The B-17 saw early action in the Pacific War, where it conducted air raids against Japanese shipping and airfields. But it was primarily employed by the USAAF in the daylight component of the Allied strategic bombing campaign over Europe, complementing RAF Bomber Command's night bombers in attacking German industrial, military and civilian targets. Of the roughly 1.5 million tons of bombs dropped on Nazi Germany and its occupied territories by Allied aircraft, over 640,000 tons (42.6%) were dropped from B-17s.

At the start of 2024, six aircraft remain in flying condition. About 50 survive in storage or are on static display, the oldest of which is The Swoose, a B-17D which was flown in combat in the Pacific on the first day of the United States' involvement in World War II. There are also several reasonably complete wrecks, such as underwater, that have been found. B-17 survivors gained national attention in 2022 in the United States, when one was destroyed in a fatal mid-air collision with another warbird at an airshow.

Development

Origins

On 8 August 1934, the USAAC tendered a proposal for a multi-engine bomber to replace the Martin B-10. The Air Corps was looking for a bomber capable of reinforcing the air forces in Hawaii, Panama, and Alaska. Requirements were for it to carry a "useful bombload" at an altitude of 10,000 ft (3,000 m) for 10 hours with a top speed of at least 200 mph (320 km/h).

They also desired, but did not require, a bomber with a range of 2,000 mi (3,200 km) and a speed of 250 mph (400 km/h). The competition for the air corps contract was to be decided by a "fly-off" between Boeing's design, the Douglas DB-1, and the Martin Model 146 at Wilbur Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio.

The prototype B-17, with the Boeing factory designation of Model 299, was designed by a team of engineers led by E. Gifford Emery and Edward Curtis Wells, and was built at Boeing's own expense. It combined features of the company's experimental XB-15 bomber and 247 transport. The B-17's armament consisted of five .30 caliber (7.62 mm) machine guns, with a payload up to 4,800 lb (2,200 kg) of bombs on two racks in the bomb bay behind the cockpit. The aircraft was powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet radial engines, each producing 750 hp (600 kW) at 7,000 ft (2,100 m).

The first flight of the Model 299 was on 28 July 1935 with Boeing chief test pilot Leslie Tower at the controls. The day before, Richard Williams, a reporter for The Seattle Times, coined the name "Flying Fortress" when – observing the large number of machine guns sticking out from the new aircraft – he described it as a "15-ton flying fortress" in a picture caption. The most distinctive mount was in the nose, which allowed the single machine gun to be fired toward nearly all frontal angles.

Boeing was quick to see the value of the name and had it trademarked for use. Boeing also claimed in some of the early press releases that Model 299 was the first combat aircraft that could continue its mission if one of its four engines failed. On 20 August 1935, the prototype flew from Seattle to Wright Field in nine hours and three minutes with an average cruising speed of 252 miles per hour (406 km/h), much faster than the competition.

At the fly-off, the four-engined Boeing's performance was superior to those of the twin-engine DB-1 and Model 146. In March 1935 Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur created GHQ Air Force and promoted lieutenant colonel Frank Maxwell Andrews to brigadier general to become the head of GHQ Air Force. MacArthur and Andrews both believed that the capabilities of large four-engined aircraft exceeded those of shorter-ranged, twin-engine aircraft, and that the B-17 was better suited to new, emerging USAAC doctrine. Their opinions were shared by the air corps procurement officers, and even before the competition had finished, they suggested buying 65 B-17s.

On 30 October 1935, a test flight determining the rate of climb and service ceiling was planned. The command pilot was Major Ployer Peter Hill, Wright Field Material Division Chief of the Flying Branch, his first flight in the Model 299. Copilot was Lieutenant Donald Putt, while Boeing chief test pilot Leslie R. Tower was behind the pilots in an advisory role. Also on board were Wright Field test observer John Cutting and mechanic Mark Koegler. The plane stalled and spun into the ground soon after takeoff, bursting into flames. Though initially surviving the impact, Hill died within a few hours, and Tower on 19 November. Post-accident interviews with Tower and Putt determined the control surface gust lock had not been released. Doyle notes, "The loss of Hill and Tower, and the Model 299, was directly responsible for the creation of the modern written checklist used by pilots to this day."

The crashed Model 299 could not finish the evaluation, thus disqualifying it from the competition. While the Air Corps was still enthusiastic about the aircraft's potential, Army officials were daunted by its cost; Douglas quoted a unit price of $58,200 (equivalent to $1,018,000 in 2023) based on a production order of 220 aircraft, compared with $99,620 (equivalent to $1,743,000 in 2023) from Boeing. MacArthur's successor, Army Chief of Staff Malin Craig, canceled the order for 65 YB-17s and ordered 133 of the twin-engined Douglas B-18 Bolo, instead. Secretary of War Harry Hines Woodring in October 1938 decided that no four-engine bombers, including B-17s, would be purchased by the War Department in 1939.

The loss was not total... But Boeing's hopes for a substantial bomber contract were dashed. — Peter Bowers, 1976

Initial Orders

Despite the crash, the USAAC had been impressed by the prototype's performance, and on 17 January 1936, through a legal loophole, the Air Corps ordered 13 YB-17s (designated Y1B-17 after November 1936 to denote its special F-1 funding) for service testing. The YB-17 incorporated a number of significant changes from the Model 299, including more powerful Wright R-1820-39 Cyclone engines. Although the prototype was company-owned and never received a military serial (the B-17 designation itself did not appear officially until January 1936, nearly three months after the prototype crashed), the term "XB-17" was retroactively applied to the NX13372's airframe and has entered the lexicon to describe the first Flying Fortress.

Between 1 March and 4 August 1937, 12 of the 13 Y1B-17s were delivered to the 2nd Bombardment Group at Langley Field in Virginia for operational development and flight tests. One suggestion adopted was the use of a pre-flight checklist to avoid accidents such as that which befell the Model 299. In one of their first missions, three B-17s, directed by lead navigator Lieutenant Curtis LeMay, were sent by General Andrews to "intercept" and photograph the Italian ocean liner Rex 610 miles (980 km) off the Atlantic coast. The mission was successful and widely publicized. The 13th Y1B-17 was delivered to the Material Division at Wright Field, Ohio, to be used for flight testing.

A 14th Y1B-17 (37-369), originally constructed for ground testing of the airframe's strength, was upgraded by Boeing with exhaust-driven General Electric turbo-superchargers, and designated Y1B-17A. Designed by Sanford Moss, engine exhaust gases turned the turbine's steel-alloy blades, forcing high-pressure ram air into the Wright Cyclone GR-1820-39 engine supercharger. Scheduled to fly in 1937, it encountered problems with the turbochargers, and its first flight was delayed until 29 April 1938. The aircraft was delivered to the Army on 31 January 1939. Once service testing was complete, the Y1B-17s and Y1B-17A were redesignated B-17 and B-17A, respectively, to signify the change to operational status. The Y1B-17A had a maximum speed of 311 miles per hour (501 km/h), at its best operational altitude, compared to 239 miles per hour (385 km/h) for the Y1B-17. Also, the Y1B-17A's new service ceiling was more than 2 miles (3.2 km) higher at 38,000 feet (12,000 m), compared to the Y1B-17's 27,800 feet (8,500 m). These turbo-superchargers were incorporated into the B-17B.

Opposition to the Air Corps' ambitions for the acquisition of more B-17s faded, and in late 1937, 10 more aircraft designated B-17B were ordered to equip two bombardment groups, one on each U.S. coast. Improved with larger flaps and rudder and a well-framed, 10 panel plexiglass nose, the B-17Bs were delivered in five small batches between July 1939 and March 1940. In July 1940, an order for 512 B-17s was issued, but at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, fewer than 200 were in service with the army.

A total of 155 B-17s of all variants were delivered between 11 January 1937 and 30 November 1941, but production quickly accelerated, with the B-17 once holding the record for the highest production rate for any large aircraft. The aircraft went on to serve in every World War II combat zone, and by the time production ended in May 1945, 12,731 B-17s had been built by Boeing, Douglas, and Vega (a subsidiary of Lockheed).

Though the crash of the prototype 299 in 1935 had almost wiped out Boeing, now it was seen as a boon. Instead of building models based on experimental engineering, Boeing had been hard at work developing their bomber and now had versions ready for production far better than would have been possible otherwise. One of the most significant weapons of World War II would be ready, but only by a hair. — Jeff Ethell, 1985

Design and Variants

The aircraft went through several alterations in each of its design stages and variants. Of the 13 YB-17s ordered for service testing, 12 were used by the 2nd Bomb Group at Langley Field, Virginia, to develop heavy bombing techniques, and the 13th was used for flight testing at the Material Division at Wright Field, Ohio. Experiments on this aircraft led to the use of a quartet of General Electric turbo-superchargers, which later became standard on the B-17 line. A 14th aircraft, the YB-17A, originally destined for ground testing only and upgraded with the turbochargers, was redesignated B-17A after testing had finished.

As the production line developed, Boeing engineers continued to improve upon the basic design. To enhance performance at slower speeds, the B-17B was altered to include larger rudders and flaps. The B-17C changed from three bulged, oval-shaped gun blisters to two flush, oval-shaped gun window openings, and on the lower fuselage, a single "bathtub" gun gondola housing, which resembled the similarly configured and located Bodenlafette/"Bola" ventral defensive emplacement on the German Heinkel He 111P-series medium bomber.

While models A through D of the B-17 were designed defensively, the large-tailed B-17E was the first model primarily focused on offensive warfare. The B-17E was an extensive revision of the Model 299 design: The fuselage was extended by 10 ft (3.0 m); a much larger rear fuselage, vertical tailfin, rudder, and horizontal stabilizer were added; a gunner's position was added in the new tail; the nose (especially the bombardier's framed, 10-panel nose glazing) remained relatively the same as the earlier B through D versions had; a Sperry electrically powered manned dorsal gun turret just behind the cockpit was added; a similarly powered (also built by Sperry) manned ventral ball turret just aft of the bomb bay – replaced the relatively hard-to-use, Sperry model 645705-D remotely operated ventral turret on the earliest examples of the E variant. These modifications resulted in a 20% increase in aircraft weight. The B-17's turbocharged Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9 engines were upgraded to increasingly more powerful versions of the same powerplants throughout its production, and similarly, the number of machine gun emplacement locations was increased.

The B-17F variant was the primary version used by the Eighth Air Force to face the Germans in 1943, and standardized the manned Sperry ball turret for ventral defense, also replacing the earlier, 10-panel framed bombardier's nose glazing from the B sub-type with an enlarged, nearly frameless Plexiglas bombardier's nose enclosure for improved forward vision.

Two experimental versions of the B-17 were flown under different designations, the XB-38 'Flying Fortress' and the YB-40 'Flying Fortress.' The XB-38 was an engine testbed for Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled engines, should the Wright engines normally used on the B-17 become unavailable. The only prototype XB-38 to fly crashed on its ninth flight, and the concept was abandoned. The Allison V-1710 was reallocated to fighter aircraft.

The YB-40 was a heavily armed modification of the standard B-17 used before the North American P-51 Mustang, an effective long-range fighter, became available to act as escort. Additional armament included an additional dorsal turret in the radio room, a remotely operated and fired Bendix-built "chin turret" directly below the bombardier's accommodation, and twin 50 caliber (12.7 mm) guns in each of the waist positions. The ammunition load was over 11,000 rounds. All of these modifications made the YB-40 well over 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) heavier than a fully loaded B-17F. The YB-40s with their greater weight, had trouble keeping up with the lighter bombers once they had dropped their bombs, so the project was abandoned and finally phased out in July 1943. The final production blocks of the B-17F from Douglas' plants did, however, adopt the YB-40's "chin turret", giving them a much-improved forward defense capability.

By the time the definitive B-17G appeared, the number of guns had been increased from seven to 13, the designs of the gun stations were finalized, and other adjustments were completed. The B-17G was the final version of the Flying Fortress, incorporating all changes made to its predecessor, the B-17F, and in total, 8,680 were built, the last (by Lockheed) on 28 July 1945. Many B-17Gs were converted for other missions such as cargo hauling, engine testing, and reconnaissance. Initially designated SB-17G, a number of B-17Gs were also converted for search-and-rescue duties, later to be redesignated B-17H.

Late in World War II, at least 25 B-17s were fitted with radio controls and television cameras, loaded with 20,000 lb (9,100 kg) of high explosives and designated BQ-7 "Aphrodite missiles" for Operation Aphrodite against bombing-resistant German bunkers. The operation, which involved remotely flying the Aphrodite drones onto their targets by accompanying CQ-17 "mothership" control aircraft, was approved on 26 June 1944, and assigned to the 388th Bombardment Group stationed at RAF Fersfield, a satellite of RAF Knettishall.

The first four drones were sent to Mimoyecques (V-3 site), the Siracourt V-1 bunker, and the V-2 Blockhaus d'Éperlecques at Watten, and La Coupole at Wizernes on 4 August, causing little damage and two pilots were killed. On August 12, a Consolidated B-24 Liberator, part of the United States Navy's contribution ("Project Anvil"), en route for Heligoland piloted by Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (future U.S. president John F. Kennedy's elder brother) exploded over the Blyth estuary. Blast damage was caused over a radius of 5 miles (8.0 km). Naval flights stopped but a few more missions were flown by the USAAF. The Aphrodite project was effectively scrapped in early 1945. 

Production Numbers
Variant	Produced	First flight
Model 299	1	28 July 1935
YB-17	13	2 December 1936
YB-17A	1	29 April 1938
B-17B	39	27 June 1939
B-17C	38	21 July 1940
B-17D	42	3 February 1941
B-17E	512	5 September 1941
B-17F (total)	3,405	30 May 1942
B-17F-BO	2,300
B-17F-DL	605
B-17F-VE	500
B-17G (total)	8,680	16 August 1943
B-17G-BO	4,035
B-17G-DL	2,395
B-17G-VE	2,250
Total	12,731
B-17s were built at Boeing Plant 2, Seattle, Washington (BO), Lockheed Vega, Burbank California (VE) and Douglas Aircraft, Long Beach California (DL)

Role: Heavy bomber

National origin: United States

Manufacturer: Boeing

First flight: 28 July 1935

Introduction: April 1938

Retired: 1968 (Brazilian Air Force)

Status: Retired

Primary users:

United States Army Air Forces

Royal Air Force

Produced: 1936–1945

Number built: 12,731

Variants:

Boeing XB-38 Flying Fortress

Boeing YB-40 Flying Fortress

Boeing C-108 Flying Fortress

Developed into: Boeing 307 Stratoliner

Operational History

The B-17 began operations in World War II with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1941, and in the Southwest Pacific with the U.S. Army.

During World War II, the B-17 equipped 32 overseas combat groups, inventory peaking in August 1944 at 4,574 USAAF aircraft worldwide. The British heavy bombers, the Avro Lancaster and Handley Page Halifax, dropped 608,612 long tons (681,645 short tons) and 224,207 long tons (251,112 short tons) respectively.

RAF Use

The RAF entered World War II without a sufficient supply of modern heavy bombers, with the largest available long-range medium bombers in any numbers being the Vickers Wellington, which could carry 4,500 pounds (2,000 kg) of bombs. While the Short Stirling and Handley Page Halifax became its primary bombers by 1941, in early 1940, the RAF agreed with the U.S. Army Air Corps to acquire 20 B-17Cs, which were given the service name Fortress Mk.I. Their first operation, against Wilhelmshaven on 8 July 1941 was unsuccessful. On 24 July three B-17s of 90 Squadron took part in a raid on the German capital ship Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen anchored in Brest from 30,000 ft (9,100 m), to draw German fighters away from 18 Handley Page Hampdens attacking at lower altitudes, and in time for 79 Vickers Wellingtons to attack later with the German fighters refueling. The operation did not work as expected, with 90 Squadron's Fortresses being unopposed.

By September, the RAF had lost eight B-17Cs in combat and had experienced numerous mechanical problems, and Bomber Command abandoned daylight bombing raids using the Fortress I because of the aircraft's poor performance. The experience showed both the RAF and USAAF that the B-17C was not ready for combat, and that improved defenses, larger bomb loads, and more accurate bombing methods were required. However, the USAAF continued using the B-17 as a day bomber, despite misgivings by the RAF that attempts at daylight bombing would be ineffective.

As use by Bomber Command had been curtailed, the RAF transferred its remaining Fortress Mk.I aircraft to Coastal Command for use as a long-range maritime patrol aircraft. These were augmented starting in July 1942 by 45 Fortress Mk.IIA (B-17E) followed by 19 Fortress Mk II (B-17F) and three Fortress Mk III (B-17G). A Fortress IIA from No. 206 Squadron RAF sank U-627 on 27 October 1942, the first of 11 U-boat kills credited to RAF Fortress bombers during the war.

As sufficient Consolidated Liberators finally became available, Coastal Command withdrew the Fortress from the Azores, transferring the type to the meteorological reconnaissance role. Three squadrons undertook Met profiles from airfields in Iceland, Scotland, and England, gathering data for vital weather forecasting purposes.

The RAF's No. 223 Squadron, as part of 100 Group, operated several Fortresses equipped with an electronic warfare system known as "Airborne Cigar" (ABC). This was operated by German-speaking radio operators to identify and jam German ground controllers' broadcasts to their nightfighters. They could also pose as ground controllers themselves to steer nightfighters away from the bomber streams.

Initial USAAF Operations Over Europe

The air corps – renamed United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on 20 June 1941 – used the B-17 and other bombers to bomb from high altitudes with the aid of the then-secret Norden bombsight, known as the "Blue Ox", which was an optical electromechanical gyrostabilized analog computer. The device was able to determine, from variables put in by the bombardier, the point at which the bombs should be released to hit the target. The bombardier essentially took over flight control of the aircraft during the bomb run, maintaining a level altitude during the final moments before release.

The USAAF began building up its air forces in Europe using B-17Es soon after entering the war. The first Eighth Air Force units arrived in High Wycombe, England, on 12 May 1942, to form the 97th Bomb Group. On 17 August 1942, 12 B-17Es of the 97th, with the lead aircraft piloted by Major Paul Tibbets and carrying Brigadier General Ira Eaker as an observer, were close escorted by four squadrons of RAF Spitfire IXs (and a further five squadrons of Spitfire Vs to cover the withdrawal) on the first USAAF heavy bomber raid over Europe, against the large railroad marshalling yards at Rouen-Sotteville in France, while a further six aircraft flew a diversionary raid along the French coast. The operation, carried out in good visibility, was a success, with only minor damage to one aircraft, unrelated to enemy action, and half the bombs landing in the target area. The raid helped allay British doubts about the capabilities of American heavy bombers in operations over Europe.

Two additional groups arrived in Britain at the same time, bringing with them the first B-17Fs, which served as the primary AAF heavy bomber fighting the Germans until September 1943. As the raids of the American bombing campaign grew in numbers and frequency, German interception efforts grew in strength (such as during the attempted bombing of Kiel on 13 June 1943), such that unescorted bombing missions came to be discouraged.

Combined Offensive

The two different strategies of the American and British bomber commands were organized at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. The resulting "Combined Bomber Offensive" weakened the Wehrmacht, destroyed German morale, and established air superiority through Operation Pointblank's destruction of German fighter strength in preparation for a ground offensive. The USAAF bombers attacked by day, with British operations – chiefly against industrial cities – by night.

Operation Pointblank opened with attacks on targets in Western Europe. General Ira C. Eaker and the Eighth Air Force placed highest priority on attacks on the German aircraft industry, especially fighter assembly plants, engine factories, and ball-bearing manufacturers. Attacks began in April 1943 on heavily fortified key industrial plants in Bremen and Recklinghausen.

Since the airfield bombings were not appreciably reducing German fighter strength, additional B-17 groups were formed, and Eaker ordered major missions deeper into Germany against important industrial targets. The 8th Air Force then targeted the ball-bearing factories in Schweinfurt, hoping to cripple the war effort there. The first raid on 17 August 1943 did not result in critical damage to the factories, with the 230 attacking B-17s being intercepted by an estimated 300 Luftwaffe fighters. The Germans shot down 36 aircraft with the loss of 200 men, and coupled with a raid earlier in the day against Regensburg, a total of 60 B-17s were lost that day.

A second attempt on Schweinfurt on 14 October 1943 later came to be known as "Black Thursday". While the attack was successful at disrupting the entire works, severely curtailing work there for the remainder of the war, it was at an extreme cost. Of the 291 attacking Fortresses, 60 were shot down over Germany, five crashed on approach to Britain, and 12 more were scrapped due to damage – a loss of 77 B-17s. Additionally, 122 bombers were damaged and needed repairs before their next flights. Of 2,900 men in the crews, about 650 did not return, although some survived as prisoners of war. Only 33 bombers landed without damage. These losses were a result of concentrated attacks by over 300 German fighters.

Such high losses of aircrews could not be sustained, and the USAAF, recognizing the vulnerability of heavy bombers to interceptors when operating alone, suspended daylight bomber raids deep into Germany until the development of an escort fighter that could protect the bombers all the way from the United Kingdom to Germany and back. At the same time, the German nightfighting ability noticeably improved to counter the nighttime strikes, challenging the conventional faith in the cover of darkness. The 8th Air Force alone lost 176 bombers in October 1943, and was to suffer similar casualties on 11 January 1944 on missions to Oschersleben, Halberstadt, and Brunswick. Lieutenant General James Doolittle, commander of the 8th, had ordered the second Schweinfurt mission to be cancelled as the weather deteriorated, but the lead units had already entered hostile air space and continued with the mission. Most of the escorts turned back or missed the rendezvous, and as a result, 60 B-17s were destroyed.

A third raid on Schweinfurt on 24 February 1944 highlighted what came to be known as "Big Week", during which the bombing missions were directed against German aircraft production. German fighters needed to respond, and the North American P-51 Mustang and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighters (equipped with improved drop tanks to extend their range) accompanying the American heavies all the way to and from the targets engaged them. The escort fighters reduced the loss rate to below 7%, with a total of 247 B-17s lost in 3,500 sorties while taking part in the Big Week raids.

By September 1944, 27 of the 42 bomb groups of the 8th Air Force and six of the 21 groups of the 15th Air Force used B-17s. Losses to flak continued to take a high toll of heavy bombers through 1944, but the war in Europe was being won by the Allies. And by 27 April 1945, 2 days after the last heavy bombing mission in Europe, the rate of aircraft loss was so low that replacement aircraft were no longer arriving and the number of bombers per bomb group was reduced. The Combined Bomber Offensive was effectively complete.

Pacific Theater

On 7 December 1941, a group of 12 B-17s of the 38th (four B-17C) and 88th (eight B-17E) Reconnaissance Squadrons, en route to reinforce the Philippines, was flown into Pearl Harbor from Hamilton Field, California, arriving while the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was going on. Leonard "Smitty" Smith Humiston, co-pilot on First Lieutenant Robert H. Richards' B-17C, AAF S/N 40-2049, reported that he thought the U.S. Navy was giving the flight a 21-gun salute to celebrate the arrival of the bombers, after which he realized that Pearl Harbor was under attack. The Fortress came under fire from Japanese fighter aircraft, though the crew was unharmed with the exception of one member who suffered an abrasion on his hand. Japanese activity forced them to divert from Hickam Field to Bellows Field. On landing, the aircraft overran the runway and ran into a ditch, where it was then strafed. Although initially deemed repairable, 40-2049 (11th BG / 38th RS) received more than 200 bullet holes and never flew again. Ten of the 12 Fortresses survived the attack.

By 1941, the Far East Air Force (FEAF) based at Clark Field in the Philippines had 35 B-17s, with the War Department eventually planning to raise that to 165. When the FEAF received word of the attack on Pearl Harbor, General Lewis H. Brereton sent his bombers and fighters on various patrol missions to prevent them from being caught on the ground. Brereton planned B-17 raids on Japanese airfields in Formosa, in accordance with Rainbow 5 war plan directives, but this was overruled by General Douglas MacArthur. A series of disputed discussions and decisions, followed by several confusing and false reports of air attacks, delayed the authorization of the sortie. By the time the B-17s and escorting Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters were about to get airborne, they were destroyed by Japanese bombers of the 11th Air Fleet. The FEAF lost half its aircraft during the first strike, and was all but destroyed over the next few days.

Another early World War II Pacific engagement, on 10 December 1941, involved Colin Kelly, who reportedly crashed his B-17 into the Japanese battleship Haruna, which was later acknowledged as a near bomb miss on the heavy cruiser Ashigara. Nonetheless, this deed made him a celebrated war hero. Kelly's B-17C AAF S/N 40-2045 (19th BG / 30th BS) crashed about 6 mi (10 km) from Clark Field after he held the burning Fortress steady long enough for the surviving crew to bail out. Kelly was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Noted Japanese ace Saburō Sakai is credited with this kill, and in the process, came to respect the ability of the Fortress to absorb punishment.

B-17s were used in early battles of the Pacific with little success, notably the Battle of Coral Sea and Battle of Midway. While there, the Fifth Air Force B-17s were tasked with disrupting the Japanese sea lanes. Air Corps doctrine dictated bombing runs from high altitude, but they soon found only 1% of their bombs hit targets. However, B-17s were operating at heights too great for most A6M Zero fighters to reach.

The B-17's greatest success in the Pacific was in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, in which aircraft of this type were responsible for damaging and sinking several Japanese transport ships. On 2 March 1943, six B-17s of the 64th Squadron flying at 10,000 ft (3,000 m) attacked a major Japanese troop convoy off New Guinea, using skip bombing to sink Kyokusei Maru, which carried 1,200 army troops, and damage two other transports, Teiyo Maru and Nojima. On 3 March 1943, 13 B-17s flying at 7,000 ft (2,000 m) bombed the convoy, forcing the convoy to disperse and reducing the concentration of their anti-aircraft defenses. The B-17s attracted a number of Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters, which were in turn attacked by the P-38 Lightning escorts. One B-17 broke up in the air, and its crew was forced to take to their parachutes. Japanese fighter pilots machine-gunned some of the B-17 crew members as they descended and attacked others in the water after they landed. Five of the Japanese fighters strafing the B-17 aircrew were promptly engaged and shot down by three Lightnings, though these were also then lost. The allied fighter pilots claimed 15 Zeros destroyed, while the B-17 crews claimed five more. Actual Japanese fighter losses for the day were seven destroyed and three damaged. The remaining seven transports and three of the eight destroyers were then sunk by a combination of low level strafing runs by Royal Australian Air Force Beaufighters, and skip bombing by USAAF North American B-25 Mitchells at 100 ft (30 m), while B-17s claimed five hits from higher altitudes. On the morning of 4 March 1943, a B-17 sank the destroyer Asashio with a 500 lb (230 kg) bomb while she was picking up survivors from Arashio.

At their peak, 168 B-17 bombers were in the Pacific theater in September 1942, but already in mid-1942 Gen. Arnold had decided that the B-17 was unsuitable for the kind of operations required in the Pacific and made plans to replace all of the B-17s in the theater with B-24s (and later, B-29s) as soon as they became available. Although the conversion was not complete until mid-1943, B-17 combat operations in the Pacific theater came to an end after a little over a year. Surviving aircraft were reassigned to the 54th Troop Carrier Wing's special airdrop section and were used to drop supplies to ground forces operating in close contact with the enemy. Special airdrop B-17s supported Australian commandos operating near the Japanese stronghold at Rabaul, which had been the primary B-17 target in 1942 and early 1943.

B-17s were still used in the Pacific later in the war, however, mainly in the combat search and rescue role. A number of B-17Gs, redesignated B-17Hs and later SB-17Gs, were used in the Pacific during the final year of the war to carry and drop lifeboats to stranded bomber crews who had been shot down or crashed at sea. These aircraft were nicknamed Dumbos, and remained in service for many years after the end of World War II.

Bomber Defense

Before the advent of long-range fighter escorts, B-17s had only their .50 caliber M2 Browning machine guns to rely on for defense during the bombing runs over Europe. As the war intensified, Boeing used feedback from aircrews to improve each new variant with increased armament and armor. Defensive armament increased from four 0.50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns and one 0.30 in (7.62 mm) nose machine gun in the B-17C, to thirteen 0.50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns in the B-17G. But because the bombers could not maneuver when attacked by fighters and needed to be flown straight and level during their final bomb run, individual aircraft struggled to fend off a direct attack.

A 1943 survey by the USAAF found that over half the bombers shot down by the Germans had left the protection of the main formation. To address this problem, the United States developed the bomb-group formation, which evolved into the staggered combat box formation in which all the B-17s could safely cover any others in their formation with their machine guns. This made a formation of bombers a dangerous target to engage by enemy fighters. In order to more quickly form these formations, assembly ships, planes with distinctive paint schemes, were utilized to guide bombers into formation, saving assembly time. Luftwaffe fighter pilots likened attacking a B-17 combat box formation to encountering a fliegendes Stachelschwein, "flying porcupine", with dozens of machine guns in a combat box aimed at them from almost every direction. However, the use of this rigid formation meant that individual aircraft could not engage in evasive maneuvers: they had to fly constantly in a straight line, which made them vulnerable to German flak. Moreover, German fighter aircraft later developed the tactic of high-speed strafing passes rather than engaging with individual aircraft to inflict damage with minimum risk. As a result, the B-17s' loss rate was up to 25% on some early missions. It was not until the advent of long-range fighter escorts (particularly the P-51 Mustang) and the resulting degradation of the Luftwaffe as an effective interceptor force between February and June 1944, that the B-17 became strategically potent.

The B-17 was noted for its ability to absorb battle damage, still reach its target and bring its crew home safely. Wally Hoffman, a B-17 pilot with the Eighth Air Force during World War II, said, "The plane can be cut and slashed almost to pieces by enemy fire and bring its crew home." Martin Caidin reported one instance in which a B-17 suffered a midair collision with a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, losing an engine and suffering serious damage to both the starboard horizontal stabilizer and the vertical stabilizer, and being knocked out of formation by the impact. The B-17 was reported as shot down by observers, but it survived and brought its crew home without injury. Its toughness was compensation for its shorter range and lighter bomb load compared to the B-24 and British Avro Lancaster heavy bombers. Stories circulated of B-17s returning to base with tails shredded, engines destroyed and large portions of their wings destroyed by flak. This durability, together with the large operational numbers in the Eighth Air Force and the fame achieved by the Memphis Belle, made the B-17 a key bomber aircraft of the war. Other factors such as combat effectiveness and political issues also contributed to the B-17's success.

The B-17 adopted early electronic countermeasures, such as Window and Carpet to confuse German radar. This greatly reduced the effectiveness of German Flak, by perhaps as much as 75%, meaning that 450 bombers were saved by these technologies.

Luftwaffe Attacks

After examining wrecked B-17s and B-24s, Luftwaffe officers discovered that on average it took about 20 hits with 20 mm shells fired from the rear to bring them down. Pilots of average ability hit the bombers with only about two percent of the rounds they fired, so to obtain 20 hits, the average pilot had to fire one thousand 20 mm (0.79 in) rounds at a bomber. Early versions of the Fw 190, one of the best German interceptor fighters, were equipped with two 20 mm (0.79 in) MG FF cannons, which carried only 500 rounds when belt-fed (normally using 60-round drum magazines in earlier installations), and later with the better Mauser MG 151/20 cannons, which had a longer effective range than the MG FF weapon. Later versions carried four or even six MG 151/20 cannon and twin 13 mm machine guns. The German fighters found that when attacking from the front, where fewer defensive guns were mounted (and where the pilot was exposed and not protected by armor as he was from the rear), it took only four or five hits to bring a bomber down.

To rectify the Fw 190's shortcomings, the number of cannons fitted was doubled to four, with a corresponding increase in the amount of ammunition carried, creating the Sturmbock bomber destroyer version. This type replaced the vulnerable twin-engine Zerstörer heavy fighters which could not survive interception by P-51 Mustangs flying well ahead of the combat boxes in an air supremacy role starting very early in 1944 to clear any Luftwaffe defensive fighters from the skies. By 1944, a further upgrade to Rheinmetall-Borsig's 30 mm (1.2 in) MK 108 cannons mounted either in the wing, or in underwing, conformal mount gun pods, was made for the Sturmbock Focke-Wulfs as either the /R2 or /R8 field modification kits, enabling aircraft to bring a bomber down with just a few hits.

The adoption of the 21 cm Nebelwerfer-derived Werfer-Granate 21 (Wfr. Gr. 21) rocket mortar by the Luftwaffe in mid-August 1943 promised the introduction of a major "stand-off" style of offensive weapon – one strut-mounted tubular launcher was fixed under each wing panel on the Luftwaffe's single-engine fighters, and two under each wing panel of a few twin-engine Bf 110 daylight Zerstörer aircraft. However, due to the slow 715 mph velocity and characteristic ballistic drop of the fired rocket (despite the usual mounting of the launcher at about 15° upward orientation), and the small number of fighters fitted with the weapons, the Wfr. Gr. 21 never had a major effect on the combat box formations of Fortresses. The Luftwaffe also fitted heavy-caliber Bordkanone-series 37, 50 and even 75 mm (2.95 in) cannon as anti-bomber weapons on twin-engine aircraft such as the special Ju 88P fighters, as well as one model of the Me 410 Hornisse but these measures did not have much effect on the American strategic bomber offensive. The Me 262, however, had moderate success against the B-17 late in the war. With its usual nose-mounted armament of four MK 108 cannons, and with some examples later equipped with the R4M rocket, launched from underwing racks, it could fire from outside the range of the bombers' .50 in (12.7 mm) defensive guns and bring an aircraft down with one hit, as both the MK 108's shells and the R4M's warheads were filled with the "shattering" force of the strongly brisant Hexogen military explosive.

Luftwaffe-captured B-17s

During World War II approximately 40 B-17s were captured and refurbished by Germany after crash-landing or being forced down, with about a dozen put back into the air. Given German Balkenkreuz national markings on their wings and fuselage sides, and swastika tail fin–flashes, the captured B-17s were used to determine the B-17's vulnerabilities and to train German interceptor pilots in attack tactics. Others, with the cover designations Dornier Do 200 and Do 288, were used as long-range transports by the Kampfgeschwader 200 special duties unit, carrying out agent drops and supplying secret airstrips in the Middle East and North Africa. They were chosen specifically for these missions as being more suitable for this role than other available German aircraft; they never attempted to deceive the Allies and always wore full Luftwaffe markings. One B-17 of KG200, bearing the Luftwaffe's KG 200 Geschwaderkennung (combat wing code) markings A3+FB, was interned by Spain when it landed at Valencia airfield, 27 June 1944, remaining there for the rest of the war. It has been alleged that some B-17s kept their Allied markings and were used by the Luftwaffe in attempts to infiltrate B-17 bombing formations and report on their positions and altitudes. According to these allegations, the practice was initially successful, but Army Air Force combat aircrews quickly developed and established standard procedures to first warn off, and then fire upon any "stranger" trying to join a group's formation.

Soviet-interned B-17s

The U.S. did not offer B-17s to the Soviet Union as part of its war materiel assistance program, but at least 73 aircraft were acquired by the Soviet Air Force. These aircraft had landed with mechanical trouble during the shuttle bombing raids over Germany or had been damaged by a Luftwaffe raid in Poltava. The Soviets restored 23 to flying condition and concentrated them in the 890th Bomber Regiment of the 45th Bomber Aviation Division, but they never saw combat. In 1946 (or 1947, according to Holm), the regiment was assigned to the Kazan factory (moving from Baranovichi) to help the Soviet effort to reproduce the more advanced Boeing B-29 as the Tupolev Tu-4.

Swiss-interned B-17s

During the Allied bomber offensive, U.S. and British bombers sometimes flew into Swiss airspace, either because they were damaged or, on rare occasions, accidentally bombing Swiss cities. Swiss aircraft attempted to intercept and force individual aircraft to land, interning their crews; one Swiss pilot was killed, shot down by a U.S. bomber crew in September 1944.

Official Swiss records identify 6,501 airspace violations during the course of the war, with 198 foreign aircraft landing on Swiss territory and 56 aircraft crashing there. In October 1943, the Swiss interned Boeing B-17F-25-VE, tail number 25841, and its U.S. flight crew after the Flying Fortress developed engine trouble after a raid over Germany and was forced to land. The aircraft was turned over to the Swiss Air Force, who then flew the bomber until the end of the war, using other interned but non-airworthy B-17s for spare parts. The bomber's topside surfaces were repainted a dark olive drab, but retained its light gray under wing and lower fuselage surfaces. It carried Swiss national white cross insignia in red squares on both sides of its rudder, fuselage sides, and on the topside and underside wings. The B-17F also carried light gray flash letters "RD" and "I" on either side of the fuselage's Swiss national insignia.

Japanese-captured B-17s

In 1942, Japanese technicians and mechanics rebuilt three damaged B-17s, one "D" and two "E" series, using parts salvaged from abandoned B-17 wrecks in the Philippines and the Java East Indies. The three bombers, which still contained their top-secret Norden bombsights, were ferried to Japan where they underwent extensive technical evaluation by the Giken, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force's Air Technical Research Institute (Koku Gijutsu Kenkyujo) at Tachikawa's air field. The "D" model, later deemed an obsolescent design, was used in Japanese training and propaganda films. The two "E"s were used to develop air combat tactics for use against B-17s; they were also used as enemy aircraft in pilot and crew training films. One of the two "E"s was photographed late in the war by U. S. aerial recon. It was code-named "Tachikawa 105" after the mystery aircraft's wingspan (104 feet) but not correctly identified as a captured B-17 until after the war. No traces of the three captured Flying Fortresses were ever found in Japan by Allied occupation forces. The bombers were assumed either lost by various means or scrapped late in the war for their vital war materials.

Fortresses as a Symbol

The B-17 Flying Fortress became symbolic of the United States of America's air power. In a 1943 Consolidated Aircraft poll of 2,500 men in cities where Consolidated advertisements had been run in newspapers, 73% had heard of the B-24 and 90% knew of the B-17.

After the first Y1B-17s were delivered to the Army Air Corps 2nd Bombardment Group, they were used on flights to promote their long range and navigational capabilities. In January 1938, group commander Colonel Robert Olds flew a Y1B-17 from the U.S. east coast to the west coast, setting a transcontinental record of 13 hours 27 minutes. He also broke the west-to-east coast record on the return trip, averaging 245 mph (394 km/h) in 11 hours 1 minute. Six bombers of the 2nd Bombardment Group took off from Langley Field on 15 February 1938 as part of a goodwill flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Covering 12,000 miles (19,000 km) they returned on 27 February, with seven aircraft setting off on a flight to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, three days later. In a well-publicized mission on 12 May of the same year, three Y1B-17s "intercepted" and took photographs of the Italian ocean liner SS Rex 610 miles (980 km) off the Atlantic coast.

Many pilots who flew both the B-17 and the B-24 preferred the B-17 for its greater stability and ease in formation flying. The electrical systems were less vulnerable to damage than the B-24's hydraulics, and the B-17 was easier to fly than a B-24 when missing an engine. During the war, the largest offensive bombing force, the Eighth Air Force, had an open preference for the B-17. Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle wrote about his preference for equipping the Eighth with B-17s, citing the logistical advantage in keeping field forces down to a minimum number of aircraft types with their individual servicing and spares. For this reason, he wanted B-17 bombers and P-51 fighters for the Eighth. His views were supported by Eighth Air Force statisticians, whose mission studies showed that the Flying Fortress's utility and survivability was much greater than those of the B-24 Liberator. Making it back to base on numerous occasions, despite extensive battle damage, the B-17's durability became legendary; stories and photos of B-17s surviving battle damage were widely circulated during the war. Despite an inferior performance and smaller bombload than the more numerous B-24 Liberators, a survey of Eighth Air Force crews showed a much higher rate of satisfaction with the B-17.

Postwar History

U.S. Air Force

After World War II, the B-17 was quickly phased out of use as a bomber and the Army Air Forces retired most of its fleet. Flight crews ferried the bombers back across the Atlantic to the United States where the majority were sold for scrap and melted down, although many remained in use in second-line roles such as VIP transports, air-sea rescue and photo-reconnaissance. Strategic Air Command (SAC), established in 1946, used reconnaissance B-17s (at first called F-9 [F for Fotorecon], later RB-17) until 1949.

The USAF Air Rescue Service of the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) operated B-17s as so-called "Dumbo" air-sea rescue aircraft. Work on using B-17s to carry airborne lifeboats had begun in 1943, but they entered service in the European theater only in February 1945. They were also used to provide search and rescue support for B-29 raids against Japan. About 130 B-17s were converted to the air-sea rescue role, at first designated B-17H and later SB-17G. Some SB-17s had their defensive guns removed, while others retained their guns to allow use close to combat areas. The SB-17 served through the Korean War, remaining in service with USAF until the mid-1950s.

In 1946, surplus B-17s were chosen as drone aircraft for atmospheric sampling during the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests, being able to fly close to or even through the mushroom clouds without endangering a crew. This led to more widespread conversion of B-17s as drones and drone control aircraft, both for further use in atomic testing and as targets for testing surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles. One hundred and seven B-17s were converted to drones. The last operational mission flown by a USAF Fortress was conducted on 6 August 1959, when a DB-17P, serial 44-83684 , directed a QB-17G, out of Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, as a target for an AIM-4 Falcon air-to-air missile fired from a McDonnell F-101 Voodoo. A retirement ceremony was held several days later at Holloman AFB, after which 44-83684 was retired. It was subsequently used in various films and in the 1960s television show 12 O'Clock High before being retired to the Planes of Fame aviation museum in Chino, California. Perhaps the most famous B-17, the Memphis Belle, has been restored – with the B-17D The Swoose under way – to her World War II wartime appearance by the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

U.S. Navy and Coast Guard

During the last year of World War II and shortly thereafter, the United States Navy (USN) acquired 48 ex-USAAF B-17s for patrol and air-sea rescue work. The first two ex-USAAF B-17s, a B-17F (later modified to B-17G standard) and a B-17G were obtained by the Navy for various development programs. At first, these aircraft operated under their original USAAF designations, but on 31 July 1945 they were assigned the naval aircraft designation PB-1, a designation which had originally been used in 1925 for the Boeing Model 50 experimental flying boat.

Thirty-two B-17Gs were used by the Navy under the designation PB-1W, the suffix -W indicating an airborne early warning role. A large radome for an S-band AN/APS-20 search radar was fitted underneath the fuselage and additional internal fuel tanks were added for longer range, with the provision for additional underwing fuel tanks. Originally, the B-17 was also chosen because of its heavy defensive armament, but this was later removed. These aircraft were painted dark blue, the standard Navy paint scheme which had been adopted in late 1944. PB-1Ws continued in USN service until 1955, gradually being phased out in favor of the Lockheed WV-2 (known in the USAF as the EC-121, a designation adopted by the USN in 1962), a military version of the Lockheed 1049 Constellation commercial airliner.

In July 1945, 16 B-17s were transferred to the Coast Guard via the Navy; these aircraft were initially assigned U.S. Navy Bureau Numbers (BuNo), but were delivered to the Coast Guard designated as PB-1Gs beginning in July 1946. Coast Guard PB-1Gs were stationed at a number of bases in the U.S. and Newfoundland, with five at Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, two at CGAS San Francisco, two at NAS Argentia, Newfoundland, one at CGAS Kodiak, Alaska, and one in Washington state. They were used primarily in the "Dumbo" air-sea rescue role, but were also used for iceberg patrol duties and for photo mapping. The Coast Guard PB-1Gs served throughout the 1950s, the last example not being withdrawn from service until 14 October 1959.

Special Operations

B-17s were used by the CIA front companies Civil Air Transport, Air America and Intermountain Aviation for special missions. These included B-17G 44-85531, registered as N809Z. These aircraft were primarily used for agent drop missions over the People's Republic of China, flying from Taiwan, with Taiwanese crews. Four B-17s were shot down in these operations.

In 1957 the surviving B-17s had been stripped of all weapons and painted black. One of these Taiwan-based B-17s was flown to Clark Air Base in the Philippines in mid-September, assigned for covert missions into Tibet.

On 28 May 1962, N809Z, piloted by Connie Seigrist and Douglas Price, flew Major James Smith, USAF and Lieutenant Leonard A. LeSchack, USNR to the abandoned Soviet arctic ice station NP 8, as Operation Coldfeet. Smith and LeSchack parachuted from the B-17 and searched the station for several days. On 1 June, Seigrist and Price returned and picked up Smith and LeSchack using a Fulton Skyhook system installed on the B-17. N809Z was used to perform a Skyhook pick up in the James Bond movie Thunderball in 1965. This aircraft, now restored to its original B-17G configuration, was on display in the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon until it was sold to the Collings Foundation in 2015.

Operators

This list of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress operators is a list of users who flew and operated the Boeing B-17.

The B-17 was among the first mass-produced four-engined heavy bombers. A total of more than 12,000 were made, making its use as a heavy bomber second only to the B-24 Liberator. Though used at some point in all theatres of World War II, it was most common in the European Theatre, where its lack of range and smaller bombload relative to other heavy bombers was not so detrimental as it was in the Pacific, where most American military airbases were thousands of miles apart.

Military Operators

Australia

Royal Australian Air Force

Proposal to transfer B-17E Flying Fortresses to the RAAF under the A26 designation. None taken on charge.

Brazil

Brazil acquired 13 B-17s in 1951, according to the Rio Pact of 1947. They were used by the 1º and 2º Esquadrões (1st and 2nd Squadrons) of 6º Grupo de Aviação (6th Aviation Group), based at Recife, for search and rescue and photo-reconnaissance until 1968.

Brazilian Air Force

6º Grupo de Aviação

1º Esquadrão

2º Esquadrão

Canada

Canada received six Flying Fortresses including three B-17Es (designated Fortress Mk.III by the RCAF) and three B-17Fs (designated Fortress Mk.IIIA by the RCAF) which flew 240 trans-Atlantic mail flights from Canada to Canadian troops serving in Europe from 6 December 1943 to 27 December 1946. All six belonged to No. 168 Heavy Transport Squadron RCAF which operated out of RCAF Station Rockcliffe, Ontario. Three Mk.IIIA and one Mk.III were lost in crashes, and the remaining two Mk.IIIs were sold to Argentina in 1948 where they received civilian registrations (LC-RTO and LC-RTP), and hauled beef in 1948, but were parked after 1949, and were finally scrapped in 1964.

Royal Canadian Air Force

No. 168 Heavy Transport Squadron

Colombia

Colombian Air Force

Denmark

Danish airline DDL bought two B-17s from Sweden in 1945. One of these planes (B-17G-35-BO 42-32076 "Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby") was transferred to the Danish Army Air Corps in 1948 as 67-672. In 1949, it was transferred to the Royal Danish Navy and in 1952 to the Royal Danish Air Force. It has since been displayed at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, but is currently being transferred to the National Air and Space Museum.

Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic Air Force acquired two B-17Gs in 1947, remaining in use until 1954.

France

French Air Force used one B-17F as an executive transport for Free-French General Marie Pierre Kœnig.

Nazi Germany

During World War II, after crash-landing or being forced down, approximately 40 B-17s were repaired and put back into the air by the Luftwaffe. These captured aircraft were codenamed "Dornier Do 200", given German markings and used for clandestine spy and reconnaissance missions by the Luftwaffe - most often used by the Luftwaffe unit Kampfgeschwader 200, hence a likely possibility as a source for the "Do 200" codename.

Luftwaffe

Kampfgeschwader 200

Israel

When Israel achieved statehood in 1948, the Israeli Air Force had to be assembled quickly to defend the new nation from the war it found itself almost immediately embroiled in. Among the first aircraft acquired by the Israeli Air Force were three surplus American B-17s, smuggled via South America and Czechoslovakia to avoid an arms trading ban imposed by the United States. A fourth plane was abandoned due to malfunctions and confiscated by American officials. On their delivery flight from Europe, in retaliation for Egyptian bombing raids on Tel Aviv, the aircraft were ordered to bomb King Farouk's Royal Palace in Cairo before continuing to Israel. They performed the mission (despite some of the crew fainting due to defective oxygen equipment), but caused little damage. The B-17s were generally unsuitable for the needs of the Israeli Air Force, and the nature of the conflict in which long-range bombing raids on large area targets were relatively unimportant—although the psychological impact of the raids was not lost on the enemy. The aircraft were mainly used in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, flown by 69 Squadron; they were withdrawn in 1958 after seeing minor action in the 1956 Suez Crisis.

Israeli Air Force

69 Squadron IAF

Japan

Three B-17s (one early "D" model and two "E" models) were captured with their top secret Norden bombsights and rebuilt from wrecks to flying status in the Philippines and Netherlands East Indies. The three aircraft were thoroughly flight tested and evaluated at Tachikawa, Japan by the IJAAF Koku Gijutsu Kenkyujo (Air Technical Research Institute). They were also used to develop effective fighter aircraft battle tactics against the Flying Fortress.

Nicaragua

The B-17s were used during the occupation of Nicaragua against the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional)

Peru

Peruvian Air Force

Portugal

The Portuguese Air Force (Força Aérea Portuguesa) operated five SB-17Gs as search-and-rescue planes from 1947 to 1960.

Soviet Union

Late in World War II, RAF and USAAF bombers that had been damaged in raids over the Reich would put down in Soviet-controlled territory rather than try to make it back to Western bases, and in April 1945 the Soviet Air Forces (VVS) issued a directive to its units in the field to report the location of any aircraft of its Western Allies that were in Soviet hands; among the aircraft salvaged were a total of 73 B-17s. The Fortresses that were in the best condition were returned to the USAAF, but a number were retained as interim heavy bombers. Although Russian aircrews and maintenance crews had no experience with such aircraft, the Soviets proved ingenious at keeping them flying, and in fact were delighted with the B-17's handling, comparing it to a "swallow" and the nimble Polikarpov Po-2 biplane trainer. Soviet officials tended to order the "filthy pictures" applied to the aircraft removed or painted out. The B-17s remained in service until 1948, when the Tupolev Tu-4 began to arrive at operational squadrons.

Republic of China

Beginning in 1952, Taiwan (under the guise of the CIA's Civil Air Transport (CAT) and Technical Research Group (TRG) organizations, operated a number of "enhanced" B-17s (with as many as 14 crewmembers at a time) on surveillance and related flights of mainland China. These were crewed by Chinese crews, largely and wore Nationalist Chinese markings. At least one B-17 was shot down by a MiG-15 over mainland China.

Turkey

Turkish Air Force

United Kingdom

The Royal Air Force received 20 B-17Cs in early 1940 from the USAAC, giving them the name Fortress I while in service. By September, after the RAF had lost eight B-17Cs in combat or to various accidents, RAF Bomber Command abandoned daylight bombing, due to the bomber's uneven high altitude performance. The RAF transferred its remaining Fortress I aircraft to RAF Coastal Command for use as very long range patrol aircraft. These were later augmented in August 1942 by 19 Fortress Mk II and 45 Fortress Mk IIA (B-17F and B-17E, respectively). From 1944 the Fortress IIs and IIIs were being used by the specialist electronic countermeasures squadrons of No. 100 Group RAF

Royal Air Force

No. 59 Squadron RAF - Fortress IIA from April 1943 to December 1941, based at RAF Thorney Island and RAF Chivenor.

No. 90 Squadron RAF - Fortress I from 7 May 1941 to February 1942, based at RAF Watton, RAF West Raynham and RAF Polebrook.

No. 206 Squadron RAF - Fortress II from July 1942 to March 1944, based at RAF Benbecula, RAF Lagens.

No. 214 Squadron RAF - Fortress II from January 1941 to July 1945 and Fortress III from November 1944 to July 1945, based at RAF Sculthorpe and RAF Oulton.

No. 220 Squadron RAF - Fortress I from December 1941 to August 1942, Fortress II from July 1942 to December 1944 and Fortress III from July 1944 to April 1945. Based at RAF Wick, RAF Nutts Corner, RAF Ballykelly, RAF Aldergrove, RAF Benbecula, RAF Lagens.

No. 223 Squadron RAF - Fortress II and III from April 1945 to July 1945 at RAF Oulton.

No. 251 Squadron RAF - Fortress II from March 1945 to October 1945 at RAF Reykjavik.

No. 517 Squadron RAF - Operated USAAF B-17Fs from September to November 1943 at RAF St Eval

No. 519 Squadron RAF - Fortress II from October 1944 to September 1945 at RAF Wick

No. 521 Squadron RAF - Fortress II from December 1944 to February 1946, Fortress III from December 1945 to February 1946 at RAF Docking.

United States

The United States Army Air Corps/United States Army Air Forces USAAC/USAAF was the primary operator of all versions of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Most units operating B-17s were based in the European Theatre of World War II, but the aircraft was used at some point in all theatres of the Second World War.

Civil Operators

Argentina

Two ex-RCAF/USAAF B-17E were sold in 1948 and registered as LV-RTO and LV-RTP Both were delivered to Carlos Pérez de Villa at Bernardino Rivadavia Airport (Morón, Buenos Aires) in 1948. Scrapped in 1964.

Bolivia

Used 25 B-17s in civil aviation under different operators.

Canada

Canadian B-17 flown by Kenting Aviation in the 60's for level photo in many parts of the world

Colombia

Denmark

Danish airline DDL bought two B-17s from Sweden in 1945. One of these planes was transferred to the Danish Army Air Corps in 1948.

France

14 B-17s were used between 1946 and 1975 by the French IGN (Institut Géographique National) for aerial photography. One of them is still flying today after restoration as Pink Lady in 2010. It is now on static display à La Ferté-Alais.

Iran

One of Trans World Airlines B-17G was given to the Shah of Iran in 1947.

Mexico

The Mexican government revived several B-17Gs from the United States for internal policing and anti-mafia operations.

South Africa

One B-17G Flying Fortress "44-85718" was registered in South Africa while in service with the Institut Géographique National between 1965 - 1966 performing geographical survey operations. It was registered as ZS-EEC in February 1965 and operated from Pretoria until its return to Creil, France in August 1966. It is currently flying in the United States as Thunderbird with the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston, Texas.

Another B-17G "44-8846" was to be registered as ZS-DXM but this was only reserved and not allocated to the aircraft. It is still flying today after restoration as Pink Lady in 2010. It is now on static display à La Ferté-Alais

Sweden

In an exchange with about 300 interned American crew members, nine intact B-17 were given away for free to the Swedish airline SILA (Svensk Interkontinental Lufttrafik AB) to be operated by ABA (which later became part of Scandinavian Airlines). Seven of these, three B-17F and four B-17G, were converted into 14-seat airliners by Saab. By 1946 all were retired and replaced by the Douglas DC-4. Today, one of them is on static display at National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, restored back to combat figuration.

United Kingdom

Two B-17s have been civil registered in the United Kingdom

G-BEDF Sally B is a B-17G, a former French IGN survey aircraft that operates as a display and memorial aircraft since 1974, originally registered in the United States it became a British civil aircraft in 1984, aircraft is operational with B-17 Preservation Limited from the Imperial War Museum airfield at Duxford as Sally B.

G-FORT was a B-17G, a former French IGN survey aircraft that was based in the United Kingdom from 1984 to 1987 with two private owners, it was sold in the United States. It was flown by the Lone Star Flight Museum as Thunderbird. Now transferred to the Mid America Flight Museum in Mount Pleasant, Texas, it is currently undergoing maintenance at the Erickson Aircraft Collection in Madras, Oregon.

United States

Following the war, Trans World Airlines purchased a surplus B-17G and used it to survey and set up routes in the Middle-East. In 1947, it was given to the Shah of Iran.

Aero Union - began operation of the B-17 as a fire fighting aircraft in 1961.

Notable B-17s

All American – This B-17F survived having her tail almost cut off in a mid-air collision with a Bf 109 over Tunisia but returned safely to base in Algeria.

Chief Seattle – sponsored by the city of Seattle, she disappeared (MIA) on 14 August 1942 flying a recon mission for the 19th BG, 435th BS and the crew declared dead on 7 December 1945.

Hell's Kitchen – B-17F 41-24392 was one of only three early B-17F's in 414th BS to complete more than 100 combat missions.

Mary Ann – a B-17D that was part of an unarmed flight which left Hamilton Air Field, Novato, California on 6 December 1941 en route to Hickam Field in Hawaii, arriving during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The plane and her crew were immediately forced into action on Wake Island and in the Philippines during the outbreak of World War II. She became famous when her exploits were featured in Air Force, one of the first of the patriotic war films released in 1943.

Memphis Belle – one of the first B-17s to complete a tour of duty of 25 missions in the 8th Air Force and the subject of a feature film, now completely restored and on display since 17 May 2018 at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.

Milk Wagon – B-17G. Over the course of its tour of duty, Milk Wagon set a record in the 3rd Division, possibly the war, for 129 missions without aborting for mechanical failure.

Miss Every Morning Fix'n – B-17C. Previously named 'Pamela'. Stationed in Mackay, Queensland, Australia during World War II. On 14 June 1943, crashed shortly after takeoff from Mackay while ferrying U.S. forces personnel back to Port Moresby, with 40 of the 41 people on board killed. It remains the worst air disaster in Australian history. The sole survivor, Foye Roberts, married an Australian and returned to the States. He died in Wichita Falls, Texas, on 4 February 2004.

Murder Inc. – A B-17 bombardier wearing the name of the B-17 "Murder Inc." on his jacket was used for propaganda in German newspapers.

Old 666 – B-17E flown by the most highly decorated crew in the Pacific Theater.

Royal Flush – B-17F 42-6087 from the 100th Bomb Group and commanded on one mission by highly decorated USAAF officer Robert Rosenthal, she was the lone surviving 100th BG B-17 of 10 October 1943 raid against Münster to return to the unit's base at RAF Thorpe Abbotts.

Sir Baboon McGoon – B-17F featured in the June 1944 issue of Popular Science magazine and the 1945 issue of Flying magazine. Articles discuss mobile recovery crews following October 1943 belly landing at Tannington, England.

The Swoose – Initially nicknamed Ole Betsy while in service, The Swoose is the only remaining intact B-17D, built in 1940, the oldest surviving Flying Fortress, and the only surviving B-17 to have seen action in the Philippines campaign (1941–1942); she is in the collection of the National Air and Space Museum and is being restored for final display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. The Swoose was flown by Frank Kurtz, father of actress Swoosie Kurtz, who named his daughter after the bomber.

Ye Olde Pub – A highly damaged B-17 piloted by Charlie Brown that was not shot down by Franz Stigler, as memorialized in the painting A Higher Call by John D. Shaw.

5 Grand – 5,000th B-17 made, emblazoned with Boeing employee signatures, served with the 333rd Bomb Squadron, 96th Bomb Group in Europe. Damaged and repaired after gear-up landing, transferred to 388th Bomb Group. Returned from duty following V-E Day, flown for war bonds tour, then stored at Kingman, Arizona. Following an unsuccessful bid for museum preservation, the aircraft was scrapped.

Noted B-17 Pilots and Crew Members

Medal of Honor Recipients

Many B-17 crew members received military honors and 17 received the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration awarded by the United States:

Brigadier General Frederick Castle (flying as co-pilot) – awarded posthumously for remaining at controls so others could escape damaged aircraft.

2nd Lt Robert Femoyer (navigator) – awarded posthumously

1st Lt Donald J. Gott (pilot) – awarded posthumously

2nd Lt David R. Kingsley (bombardier) – awarded posthumously for tending to injured crew and giving up his parachute to another

1st Lt William R. Lawley Jr. – "heroism and exceptional flying skill"

Sgt Archibald Mathies (engineer-gunner) – awarded posthumously

1st Lt Jack W. Mathis (bombardier) – posthumously, the first airman in the European theater to be awarded the Medal of Honor

2nd Lt William E. Metzger Jr. (co-pilot) – awarded posthumously

1st Lt Edward Michael

1st Lt John C. Morgan

Capt Harl Pease (awarded posthumously)

2nd Lt Joseph Sarnoski (awarded posthumously)

S/Sgt Maynard H. Smith (gunner)

1st Lt Walter E. Truemper (awarded posthumously)

T/Sgt Forrest L. Vosler (radio operator)

Brigadier General Kenneth Walker Commanding officer of V Bomber Command - killed while leading small force in raid on Rabaul – awarded posthumously

Maj Jay Zeamer Jr. (pilot) – earned on unescorted reconnaissance mission in Pacific, same mission as Sarnoski

Other Military Achievements or Events

Lincoln Broyhill (1925–2008) - tail-gunner on a B-17 in the 483rd Bombardment Group. He received a Distinguished Unit Citation and set two individual records in a single day: (1) most German jets destroyed by a single gunner in one mission (two), and (2) most German jets destroyed by a single gunner during the entirety of World War II.

Allison C. Brooks (1917–2006) - a B-17 pilot who was awarded numerous military decorations and was ultimately promoted to the rank of major general and served in active duty until 1971.

1st Lt Eugene Emond (1921–1998) - Lead pilot for Man O War II Horsepower Limited. Received the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters, American Theater Ribbon and Victory Ribbon. Was part of D-Day and witnessed one of the first German jets when a Me 262A-1a flew through his formation over Germany. One of the youngest bomber pilots in the U.S. Army Air Forces.

Immanuel J. Klette (1918–1988) - Second-generation German-American whose 91 combat missions were the most flown by any Eighth Air Force pilot in World War II.

Capt Colin Kelly (1915–1941) - Pilot of the first U.S. B-17 lost in action.

Col Frank Kurtz (1911–1996) - The USAAF's most decorated pilot of World War II. Commander of the 463rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 15th Air Force, Celone Field, Foggia, Italy. Clark Field Philippines attack survivor. Olympic bronze medalist in diving (1932), 1944–1945. Father of actress Swoosie Kurtz, herself named for the still-surviving B-17D mentioned above.

Gen Curtis LeMay (1906–1990) - Became head of the Strategic Air Command and Chief of Staff of the USAF.

Lt Col Nancy Love (1914–1976) and Betty (Huyler) Gillies (1908–1998) - The first women pilots to be certified to fly the B-17, in 1943 and to qualify for the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron.

SSgt Alan Magee (1919–2003) - B-17 gunner who on 3 January 1943 survived a 22,000-foot (6,700-meter) freefall after his aircraft was shot down by the Luftwaffe over St. Nazaire.

Col Robert K. Morgan (1918–2004) - Pilot of Memphis Belle.

Lt Col Robert Rosenthal (1917–2007) - Commanded the only surviving B-17, Royal Flush, of a US 8th Air Force raid by the 100th Bomb Group on Münster on 10 October 1943. Completed 53 missions. Earned sixteen medals for gallantry (including one each from Britain and France), and led the raid on Berlin on 3 February 1945, that is likely to have ended the life of Roland Freisler, the infamous "hanging judge" of the People's Court.

1st Lt Bruce Sundlun (1920–2011) - Pilot of Damn Yankee of the 384th Bomb Group was shot down over Belgium on 1 December 1943 and evaded capture until reaching Switzerland 5 May 1944.

B-17 in Popular Culture

A Douglas Aircraft B-17 assembly line is featured in the 1944 drama An American Romance. Hollywood featured the B-17 in its period films, such as director Howard Hawks' Air Force starring John Garfield and Twelve O'Clock High starring Gregory Peck. Both films were made with the full cooperation of the United States Army Air Forces and used USAAF aircraft and (for Twelve O'Clock High) combat footage. In 1964, the latter film was made into a television show of the same name and ran for three years on ABC TV. Footage from Twelve O' Clock High was also used, along with three restored B-17s, in the 1962 film The War Lover. An early model YB-17 also appeared in the 1938 film Test Pilot with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, and later with Clark Gable in Command Decision in 1948, in Tora! Tora! Tora! in 1970, and in Memphis Belle with Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, Billy Zane, and Harry Connick Jr. in 1990. The most famous B-17, the Memphis Belle, toured the U. S. with her crew to reinforce national morale (and to sell war bonds). She was featured in a USAAF documentary, Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress.

The Flying Fortress has also been featured in artistic works expressing the physical and psychological stress of the combat conditions and the high casualty rates that crews suffered. Works such as The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell and Heavy Metal's section "B-17" depict the nature of these missions. The Ball turret itself has inspired works like Steven Spielberg's The Mission. Artists who served on the bomber units also created paintings and drawings depicting the combat conditions in World War II.

Surviving Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engine heavy bomber used by the United States Army Air Forces and other Allied air forces during World War II. Forty-five planes survive in complete form, including 38 in the United States with many preserved in museum displays. The number of operational B-17s has dwindled over time, but there are still several in flying condition.

Of the 12,731 B-17s built, about 4,735 were lost during the war. After the war, planes that had flown in combat missions were sent for smelting at boneyards, such as those at Walnut Ridge and Kingman. Consequently, only six planes that survive today have seen combat. Most of the other survivors were built too late to see active service and then were used through the 1950s and 1960s in military and civilian capacities. Many are painted to represent actual planes that flew in combat.

Surviving Aircraft

Surviving aircraft including some in the collection of museums, some in private ownership, and some in the ownership of flying clubs. Surviving aircraft may or may not be flight capable. The number of flight-capable B-17s has dwindled as the aircraft have aged. There may also be undiscovered wrecks, such as those lost at sea. Partially complete aircraft or wrecks that have been found are listed below.

As of June 2024, aviation website aerovintage.com lists four B-17s as "Operational (Flying)" (G-BEDF/44-85784, N9323Z/44-83514, N3193G/44-85829, and N3701G/44-8543) and three as "Long Term Maintenance back to Operational" (N5017N/44-85740, N207EV/44-83785, and N900RW/44-85718)—this may vary from content below that is based on other sources updated at differing regularity.

FAA Registered Aircraft

As of December 2022, 18 B-17s were registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). These include Nine-O-Nine (N93012, crashed in October 2019), Texas Raiders (N7227C, crashed in November 2022), and a B-17G registered in Granite Falls, Minnesota (N4960V) that was scrapped in 1962. The other 15 are in the following table.

Of the B-17s registered with a civil aviation authority, such as the FAA, less than 10 are being kept in airworthy condition, and some of those have not been flown for more than five years. Some other B-17s are being restored, and may become airworthy in the future.

Aircraft by Manufacturer (2022)

This is listing of surviving B-17 aircraft registered by the FAA in 2022, noting the status for each (which is periodically updated, per cited sourcing).

Bold denotes a plane that is airworthy at that time, excluding planes that have not been flown for more than five years. There are six as of the early 2020s.

Italics denotes a plane that is potentially airworthy, but has not been flown in the past five years. There are three.

‡ denotes a plane that was used in combat. There are six.

Manufactured		Surviving
Plant	Total	Number	Serial numbers (built as)
Boeing Seattle (BO)	6,981	9	40-3097‡ 41-2446‡ 41-2595 41-9032 41-9210 41-24485‡ 42-29782 42-32076‡ 43-38635
Douglas Long Beach (DL)	3,000	21	42-3374 44-6393‡ 44-83512 44-83514 44-83525 44-83542 44-83546 44-83559 44-83563 44-83624 44-83663 44-83684 44-83690 44-83718 44-83735 44-83785 44-83790 44-83814 44-83863 44-83868 44-83884
Vega Burbank (VE)	2,750	15	44-8543 44-8846‡ 44-8889 44-85599 44-85583 44-85718 44-85734 44-85738 44-85740 44-85778 44-85784 44-85790 44-85813 44-85828 44-85829
Total	12,731	45

The surviving aircraft include examples of four B-17 variants: one B-17D, four B-17Es, and three B-17Fs, with the rest delivered as B-17G. Some B-17G survivors have been modified to represent B-17Fs, such as for filming of the 1990 movie Memphis Belle. B-17G 44-8543 has been modified, including having its chin turret removed, to more closely resemble the B-17F that it wears the livery of ("Ye Olde Pub").

List

The aircraft are listed in ascending order by their serial numbers, which do not necessarily reflect the order in which they were delivered. Serial numbers are linked to the specific aircraft's article, when available. The location column sorts by country, then by state for aircraft in the United States.

 

Serial	Location	Institution	Status	History
40-3097	Dayton, Ohio	National Museum of the United States Air Force	Under restoration for display	1940: built at Boeing Seattle as a B-17D. May 1941: sent to Hawaii. September 1941: moved to the Philippines, where she was known as "Ole Betsy." December 1941–January 1942: used in combat. January 1942: sent to Australia for repairs and given the name "The Swoose." Subsequently, used as a transport plane for George Brett and others. After the war, sent to Kingman, Arizona, for scrapping. April 1946: Frank Kurtz recovered the plane, flying her to Los Angeles. 1949: donated to National Air Museum in Washington. Stored outside at Andrews AFB until 1961. Moved indoors in mid-1970s. July 2008: sent to Dayton. Restoration work was suspended in order to complete work on 41-24485 “Memphis Belle.”
41-2446	Ford Island, Hawaii	Pacific Aviation Museum	Under restoration for display	Built at Boeing Seattle as a B-17E. Delivered to USAAF 6 December 1941. Armament installed at Sacramento Air Depot. Flown to Hawaii 17 December. Attached to USN as search plane. Joined USAAF 19th Bombardment Group in Australia 20 February 1942. During 22 February raid on Simpson Harbor, ditched after attack due to fuel shortage. All crew members survived. Wreck discovered in 1972 by RAAF helicopter pilot. Featured in March 1992 issue of National Geographic. Acquired the nickname "Swamp Ghost." Recovered in May 2006. Wreckage impounded at Lae. Shipped in January 2010 to Long Beach. Transferred to Hawaii in 2013.
41-2595	Marengo, Illinois	Private (Michael W. Kellner)	Under restoration to airworthiness	Built at Boeing Seattle as a B-17E, delivered on 14 April 1942. Nickname "Desert Rat" believed to date from 1942. Converted to an XC-108A cargo plane as of March 1944. Last operated by the military in December 1945. Discovered in a Maine scrapyard in 1985. Moved to Illinois in 1995, where it is being restored.
41-9032	New Orleans, Louisiana	National World War II Museum	Static display	Built at Boeing Seattle as a B-17E. Assigned to 342d Bombardment Squadron, 97th Bombardment Group, and named "My Gal Sal." During a ferry flight on 27 June 1942, crash-landed in Greenland. All crew members survived and were rescued ten days later. Wreck discovered in 1964. Salvaged in the 1990s by Gary Larkins and stored at Tillamook Air Museum. Purchased by Bob Ready. Restoration began in 2000; later placed on display at Cincinnati-Blue Ash Airport. In 2013, transported to National World War II Museum for display.
41-9210	Everett, Washington	Flying Heritage Collection	In storage; registered with FAA	Built at Boeing Seattle as a B-17E. Sold immediately after production on the civilian market in 1943 to a Canadian airline. Sold to a Bolivian airline, crashed. Restored to airworthiness in 1976. Brought back to U.S. in 1990. In the Seattle area since 1998. Undergoing restoration, "about 80 percent complete", as of July 2021.
41-24485	Dayton, Ohio	National Museum of the United States Air Force	Static display	Built at Boeing Seattle as a B-17F. Taken on strength 15 July 1942. Deployed to RAF Bassingbourn 14 October. Named "Memphis Belle" after Captain Robert K. Morgan's girlfriend Margaret Polk, a resident of Memphis, Tennessee. Between 7 November 1942 and 19 May 1943 flew 25 combat missions with the 324th Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group. Returned to U.S. on 8 June and flew 31-city War Bond tour. Purchased by City of Memphis by the efforts of Mayor Walter Chandler. Stored until 1949 when she was placed on display at armory. Donated to USAF in early 1970s and moved to Mud Island in 1987. In 2003, moved to restoration at Naval Air Station Memphis. Moved to Dayton in October 2005, and subsequently underwent full restoration. Appears as it did in late May 1943.
42-3374	Omaha, Nebraska	Offutt AFB	Static display	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach. CA as a B-17F. Delivered May 1943, assigned Dyersburg, Tennessee; involved in two forced landings, written off in September 1944. Post-war, transferred to MGM film studio, planned movie not made, placed in storage. Moved to Planes of Fame Air Museum in 1970, moved to Beale AFB circa 1981. Restored circa 1988. Moved to Offutt AFB in 1989, dedication ceremony 17 August 1990. Wears livery of 42-30230 "Homesick Angel" of 388th Bombardment Group.
42-29782	Seattle, Washington	Museum of Flight	Static display; registered with FAA	Built at Boeing Seattle as a B-17F. Modified in Wyoming and subsequently used by training units at Blythe Field and McClellan Field. On 5 November 1945, shipped to Altus, Oklahoma for disposal, but withdrawn in 1946 and shipped to Stuttgart, Arkansas, for display. Used 1968–1985 as water bomber and air tanker. Acquired in 1988 by Museum of Flight, used in making of 1990 Memphis Belle movie. Restored 1991–1998 by Boeing and given the name "Boeing Bee." Potentially airworthy but not flown since 1998.
42-32076	Dayton, Ohio	National Museum of the United States Air Force	In storage	Built at Boeing Seattle as a B-17G. Sent to RAF Bassingbourn in March 1944. Named "Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby." Flew 24 combat missions between 24 March and 29 May for the 401st Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group. On final mission, force landed in Sweden, crew members interned. Found abandoned in France in 1968. Donated to U.S. by French government, sent to Dover AFB for restoration. After ten-year restoration, flown to Dayton in 1988. Placed in storage in 2018, awaiting transfer to National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
43-38635	Atwater, California	Castle Air Museum	Static display	Built at Boeing Seattle as B-17G. Delivered August 1944, USAAF research work until 1959. Entered private use, converted to airtanker in 1960, used until 1979, then to Castle Air Museum.  Wears livery of 42-3352 "Virgin's Delight" of 410th Bombardment Squadron, 94th Bombardment Group, which was shot down over North Sea on 29 November 1943.
44-6393	Riverside, California	March Field Air Museum	Static display	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G. Delivered July 1944, assigned in August to 97th Bombardment Group at Amendola Airfield, Italy.  Became command aircraft of Lt Gen Ira C. Eaker, replacing his earlier B-17E, and was named "Starduster". Reconfigured and used by Eaker until his 1947 retirement, then VIP transport until 1956. Transferred to government of Bolivia in June 1956, used as cargo transport until 1980. Acquired by USAF in January 1981, restored to 1944 configuration.
44-8543	Madras, Oregon	Erickson Aircraft Collection	Airworthy; registered with FAA	Built at Lockheed/Vega in Burbank,CA as a B-17G-70-VE. Outfitted with AN/APS-15, later modified to TB-17G (training). Retired as surplus in 1959. Purchased by Erickson in 2013 and named "Madras Maiden," formerly "Chuckie." In 2019, repainted and now wears the livery 42-3167 "Ye Olde Pub" of the Brown–Stigler incident. As Brown's plane was a B-17F, the chin turret was removed and the tail was modified to more closely resemble an F model.
44-8846	Cerny, Essonne	Forteresse toujours volante	Static display	Built at Lockheed/Vega in Burbank, CA as a B-17G. Outfitted with AN/APS-15 radar in place of standard ball turret. Flown to RAF Polebrook and assigned to 511th Bombardment Squadron, 351st Bombardment Group, in March 1945. Flown on six missions. Sold in 1954 to Institut géographique national and used until 1985. Purchased by association Forteresse toujours volante in 1988. Wears livery of 44-8846 "Pink Lady". Used in 1989 filming of Memphis Belle. In 2010, transported to musée volant Salis, La Ferté-Alais aerodrome, for display. Classified as a monument historique since 2012.
44-8889	Dugny, Seine-Saint-Denis	Musée de l'air et de l'espace	In storage	Built at Lockheed/Vega Burbank, CA as a B-17G. Assigned to 8th AF but kept in storage. Sold in 1954 to Institut géographique national. Civil registration F-BGSO. Retired to museum in 1976.
44-83512	San Antonio, Texas	USAF Airman Heritage Museum	Static display	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G-105-DL. Delivered May 1945; various domestic postings, retired from military use in 1950. Circa 1972, was on display at Lackland AFB wearing markings of 42-97503 "Princess Pat", but with its own tail number (as later done by 44-83872 "Texas Raiders"). Displayed as 42-97328 "Heaven's Above" of the 388th Bombardment Group, but with its own tail number.
44-83514	Mesa, Arizona	Commemorative Air Force	Airworthy; registered with FAA	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G. Purchased in 1959 by Aero Union Corporation of Chico, California. Used as a water bomber until 1978. Donated to Arizona Wing of CAF in 1978. Following a competition, given the name "Sentimental Journey." Used in Steven Spielberg WW2 comedy film 1941 (1979). Restored to wartime configuration in the early 1980s.
44-83525	Polk City, Florida	Fantasy of Flight	In storage; registered with FAA	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G. Converted to DB-17G in 1950. Struck off 1959. Purchased by Flying Tiger Air Museum in 1972. She was used in the 1977 film MacArthur and painted to represent 41-2489 "Suzy Q" of the 93d Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group. Purchased by Kermit Weekes in 1983 and restored to airworthy status. During Hurricane Andrew in August 1992, the plane was thrown from its hangar and severely damaged. Since that time it has been dismantled and held in storage.
44-83542	Polk City, Florida	Fantasy of Flight	Static display	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G. Delivered April 1945, stored until May 1950. Converted to DB-17G and later DB-17P (drone); assigned Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, and U.S. locations; placed in storage December 1958. Sold in 1959, converted to airtanker in October 1961 and used by Western Air Industries, then Aero Union Corp from 1962 to 1971. Crashed near Benson, Arizona, on 12 July 1971, both crew survived. NTSB report cites partial power loss due to air intake issue. Kept in Tucson as wreckage, moved to California in 1987, acquired by Fantasy of Flight in 1996. Restored and on static display (walk-through) presented as 42-37994 "Piccadilly Princess."
44-83546	Anaheim, California	Military Aircraft Restoration Corp.	Airworthy; registered with FAA	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G-85-DL. Put in storage at end of the war. In 1948 was redesignated as a staff transport plane and used in Germany, and in Korea during the Korean War. Struck off in 1954. Converted to a water bomber in 1960. Restored in 1982 by Military Aircraft Restoration Corporation as a B-17F with the livery of 41-24485 "Memphis Belle". Currently undergoing deep maintenance.
44-83559	Ashland, Nebraska	Strategic Air and Space Museum	Static display	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G. Taken on strength 5 April 1945. Declared excess in October. Modified to drone in March 1950. Used as drone until May 1958. Issued as museum piece. Flown to museum in May 1959. Formerly wore livery of 42-3474 "King Bee."
44-83563	Santa Ana, California	Lyon Air Museum	Static display; registered with FAA	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G-85-DL. Taken on strength 7 April 1945. Used as transport plane in Philippines. Returned to U.S. in 1952, overhauled, and sent to Japan with 6000th Base Service Group. Returned to U.S. in 1955 and stricken off that June. Sold in August 1959 to American Compressed Steel. Used in the film The War Lover. Flown to Hawaii in 1969 and used in the film Tora! Tora! Tora! Sold to Globe Air in 1981 and used as air tanker. Sold in 2006 to Martin Aviation. Wears livery of 42-97400 "Fuddy Duddy". Potentially airworthy but last flown in 2014.
44-83624	Dover, Delaware	Air Mobility Command Museum	Static display	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G-90-DL. Sent to Patterson Field in April 1945. The last B-17 assigned to 532nd BS/381st BG at Ridgewell. Declared excess October 1945, but returned to service in November. Later converted to a DB-17P and used until June 1957. Displayed at National Museum of the US Air Force as "Piccadilly Lilly" before transfer to AMC Museum. Currently wears the nose art and markings of 42-107112 "Sleepy Time Gal," which was part of the 381st Bombardment Group, although the real "Sleepy Time Gal" was an unpainted aluminum plane.
44-83663	Roy, Utah	Hill Aerospace Museum	Static display	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G. Delivered May 1945, domestic use, placed in storage at Pyote Field, Texas, in April 1950. At some point converted to TB-17G (training). Transferred to Brazilian Air Force in 1953, registration B17-5400, retired 1968. Displayed at Yesterdays Air Force (Florida) and Combat Air Museum (Kansas). Acquired in 1987 for move to Hill AFB, via a C-5 Galaxy. Exterior restoration completed in 1991. Wears livery of "Short Bier" of the 493d Bombardment Group.
44-83684	Chino, California	Planes of Fame Air Museum	Under restoration to airworthiness; registered with FAA	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G. Retired from military service in August 1959 as the last B-17 to serve with USAAF/USAF. Later used in various television shows and movies, such as The Thousand Plane Raid in 1969, and became known as "Piccadilly Lilly II." Grounded and on display since 1971. Restoration effort began circa 2008.
44-83690	Warner Robins, Georgia	Museum of Aviation	Under restoration for display	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G. Assigned to USAF Museum in 1961. Displayed at Grissom Air Museum first as "Flak Jacket," then as 44-8385 "Tarnished Angel," and finally as 42-31255 "Miss Liberty Belle." Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. Sent to Museum of Aviation in 2015.
44-83718	Rio de Janeiro	Museu Aeroespacial	In storage	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G. Converted to TB-17H (training) then SB-17G (rescue). Served with 1061st Rescue Flight in Libya during 1948–1949, then returned to Hamilton AFB in 1950. Transferred to Brazilian Air Force, registration B17-5408, in use 1955 to 1968. Displayed in Brazil at Natal AFB 1970 to 1980. Dismantled and in storage.
44-83735	Duxford, Cambridgeshire	Imperial War Museum Duxford	Static display	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G. Delivered late May 1945, placed in storage, dropped from inventory in November. Sold for $13,750 in 1947 to Transocean Air Lines, sold to Assemblies of God USA in 1949, sold to a private party in 1951, sold to IGN of France in December 1952. Stopped flying in 1972, offered for sale without engines in 1973, purchased by Euroworld Ltd in May 1975 and sent to Duxford. Purchased by Imperial War Museum in January 1978, returned to a wartime configuration. Wore livery of 42-31983 "Mary Alice" with 401st Bombardment Group. Conservation project in 2012 supported by 96th Bombardment Group, repainted as generic 96th BG with tail number 42-38133.
44-83785	New Smyrna Beach, Florida	Collings Foundation	long-term maintenance back to airworthy; registered with FAA	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G-95-DL; possibly delivered as 44-85531 (Vega Burbank) with serial number later changed. Used by CIA, later with Intermountain Aviation and outfitted with Fulton Skyhook; appeared at end of James Bond Thunderball. Acquired by Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in mid-1980s, put on static display. Nicknamed “Shady Lady”. Purchased by Collings Foundation in 2015. Undergoing maintenance work in Florida to return to flightworthy.
44-83790	Douglas, Georgia	Private (Don Brooks)	Under restoration for display	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G. Crash landed on frozen Dyke Lake, Newfoundland and Labrador on 24 December 1947. Recovered in 2004 following legal action to secure salvage rights. Under restoration at Brooks Aviation.
44-83814	Pooler, Georgia	Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum	Static display	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G. Sold in 1951 to California Atlantic Airways. Spent most of 1950s and 1960s in Toronto as a photographic survey plane. Returned to United States in 1969 where she was restored at Spearfish, South Dakota using fuselage and wings of 41-2451 and nose and tail from 44-83812. After being displayed in various locations, transferred in 1984 to Smithsonian. Loaned in 2009 to Mighty Eighth Museum and given the name "City of Savannah."
44-83863	Valparaiso, Florida	Air Force Armament Museum	Static display	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA in July 1945 as a B-17G, transferred to the Navy that month, sold in December 1957 for use as a forest fire tanker, acquired for museum display in 1976. Displayed with 96th Bombardment Group livery.
44-83868	London	Royal Air Force Museum London	Static display	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G. Taken on strength 6 July 1945. Transferred to USN 14 July. Sent to NAS Johnsville for conversion. Struck off 10 July 1956. Sold to American Pressed Steel Corporation in December 1957. Changed hands multiple times after this. Traded to TBM Inc. in 1982 and restored to WW2 configuration with marking of 332d Bombardment Squadron, 94th Bombardment Group. Donated to RAF Museum by USAF.
44-83884	Bossier City, Louisiana	Barksdale Global Power Museum	Static display	Built at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as a B-17G. Penultimate Douglas B-17. Navy use as PB-1W from 1945 to 1956. Into private use, airtanker from 1961 to 1979. To Barksdale AFB in 1980. First displayed as "Yankee Doodle II", now wears livery of 42-31340 "Miss Liberty".
44-85599	Abilene, Texas	Dyess AFB	Static display	Built at Lockheed/Vega in Burbank, CA as a B-17G. Moved to Dyess AFB in 1974 for display. Wears livery of 42-38133 "Reluctant Dragon" of the 337th Bombardment Squadron, 96th Bombardment Group.
44-85583	Recife, Pernambuco	Recife Air Force Base	Static display	Built at Lockheed/Vega in Burbank, CA as a B-17G, delivered March 1945. Converted to TB-17H (training) then SB-17G (rescue). Transferred to Brazilian Air Force in 1951, registration B17-5402, retired 1968. Placed on display in 1973 and restored in 1999.
44-85718	Mount Pleasant, Texas	Mid America Flight Museum	long-term maintenance back to airworthy; registered with FAA	Built at Lockheed/Vega in Burbank, CA as a B-17G-95-DL. Delivered the day after VE Day. Registered in France in 1947 and in England in 1984. Returned to United States circa 1987. Wears livery of 42-38050 "Thunderbird". Currently undergoing "extensive rebuild" in Oregon by the Erickson Aircraft Collection.
44-85734	Douglas, Georgia	The Liberty Foundation	Under restoration to airworthiness; registered with FAA	Built at Lockheed/Vega in Burbank, CA as a B-17G-105-VE. Restored in livery of 42-97849 "Liberty Belle" of the 570th Bombardment Squadron, 390th Bombardment Group. On 13 June 2011 made a forced landing at Oswego, Illinois, and was largely destroyed in fire. NTSB investigation found inadequate repair of a fuel tank. Shipped to Brooks Aviation in Douglas, Georgia, to be rebuilt – as of January 2022, fuselage work in progress with much of the aft section being new structure.
44-85738	Tulare, California	Mefford Field	Static display	Built at Lockheed/Vega in Burbank, CA as a B-17G. Given to AMVETS Chapter 56 in 1958. Moved to compound at Perry's Coffee House in 1971. Placed on display at AMVETS again in 1981. Named "Preston's Pride."
44-85740	Oshkosh, Wisconsin	Experimental Aircraft Association	Airworthy; registered with FAA	Built at Lockheed/Vega in Burbank, CA as a B-17G-105-VE. Delivered May 1945, placed into storage, de-militarized in November. Entered private use in 1946. First restoration work circa 1978. Wears livery of 42-102516 "Aluminum Overcast." In 2021, underwent wing spar attachment repairs in Florida. Currently at EAA Headquarters in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, undergoing reassembly.
44-85778	Palm Springs, California	Palm Springs Air Museum	Static display; registered with FAA	Built at Lockheed/Vega in Burbank, CA as a B-17G-105-VE. Delivered to Dallas in June 1945. Used as TB-17G crew trainer for Caribbean Air Command, later converted to VB-17G (staff transport) for use at U.S. Brazilian Command in 1948. To Bolling Field in 1954, then into storage at Davis-Monthan AFB in 1956. Private ownership 1959 to 1990; in storage 1984 to 1990. Restored 1991 and flown as "Miss Museum Of Flying". To Palm Springs Air Museum in 1993, named "Miss Angela." Potentially airworthy but not known to have flown since 2004.
44-85784	Duxford, Cambridgeshire	Imperial War Museum Duxford	Airworthy; registered with CAA	Built at Lockheed/Vega in Burbank, CA as a B-17G-105-VE. Placed in storage after delivery. Sent to Wright Field in 1948. Leased to General Electric in 1950. Sold in 1954 to Institut géographique national, and used until 1975 as survey plane. Purchased in 1975 by Ted White, restored to WW2 configuration and named "Sally B" after his partner, Elly Sallingboe. Used in 1989 filming of Memphis Belle. Still wears livery of 41-24485 "Memphis Belle" on one side.
44-85790	Salem, Oregon	B-17 Alliance Museum	Under restoration to airworthiness	Built at Lockheed/Vega in Burbank, CA as a B-17G-105-VE. Flown to Rome 14 July 1945. Purchased by Art Lacey of Portland, Oregon, 5 March 1947. Used in Milwaukie, Oregon, as gas station canopy, later to advertise Bomber Restaurant, until 2014. Under restoration to airworthy status. Named "Lacey Lady."
44-85813	Urbana, Ohio	Champaign Aviation Museum	Under restoration to airworthiness; registered with FAA	Built at Lockheed/Vega in Burbank, CA as a B-17G-110-VE. Converted to a JB-17G testbed variant by Curtiss Wright. Sold to Curtiss in 1957. Later used as an airtanker; crashed 25 April 1980 during takeoff in Brunswick County, North Carolina. Recovered and placed in storage, acquired by Champaign Aviation Museum in 2005 for restoration to flying condition. Named "Champaign Lady."
44-85828	Tucson, Arizona	390th Memorial Museum / Pima Air & Space Museum	Static display	Built at Lockheed/Vega in Burbank, CA as a B-17G. Placed in storage. Later transferred to U.S. Coast Guard as patrol and rescue plane. From 1978 to 1980 served as a water bomber for Globe Aviation in Mesa, Arizona. Transferred in U.S.A.F Museum in 1980. Wears livery of 42-31892 "I'll Be Around."
44-85829	United States	Private (undisclosed)	Airworthy; registered with FAA	Built at Lockheed/Vega in Burbank, CA as a B-17G-110-VE. Restored in generic livery of 534th Bombardment Squadron, 381st Bombardment Group. Nicknamed "Yankee Lady." Michigan Flight Museum announced the sale of this B-17 in June 2024, however, the new owner was not announced at that time.

Related Aircraft

Known Wrecks

In addition to the 45 surviving planes, there are several known complete or near-complete wrecks around the world. The most recent wreck to be recovered (Swamp Ghost) was removed from a swamp in Papua New Guinea in 2006. There are currently no plans underway to recover any wrecks.

Serial	Location	Coordinates	History
41-2420	Solomon Islands	9.273986°S 159.775272°E	Built by Boeing Seattle as a B-17E. Named "Bessie the Jap Basher." Ditched near Aruliho after attacking a Japanese shipping convoy near Bougainville on 24 September 1942.
41-9234	Papua New Guinea	7.3675°S 146.8042°E	Built at Boeing Seattle as a B-17E. Crash landed on the side of a mountain near Wau on 8 January 1943 after attacking a convoy in the Huon Gulf. Following the recovery of the "Swamp Ghost," this became the most intact wrecked B-17 still on land.
41-24371	Italy	38.160690°N 13.436701°E (approx.)	Built at Boeing Seattle as B-17F. Named "Devils from Hell." Crash landed off coast of Palermo 18 April 1943.
41-24521	Papua New Guinea	9.706844°S 150.064408°E (approx.)	Built by Boeing Seattle as B-17F. Named "Black Jack/The Joker's Wild." Ditched near Cape Vogel during a storm on 11 July 1943. Discovered in 1986.
42-31044	France	42.572058°N 8.762800°E	Built at Boeing Seattle as B-17G. Named "Her Did." Ditched off coast of Corsica 14 February 1944.
44-6630	Croatia	43.013095°N 16.211020°E	Built at Douglas Long Beach as B-17G. Ditched off coast of Vis 6 November 1944.

Re-build Projects

These are projects utilizing salvaged B-17 parts or partial B-17s.

42-3455 Lucky Thirteen – A project to build an airworthy B-17F, incorporating some parts recovered in France from a September 1943 crash.

44-83387 Piccadilly Lily – A surviving B-17G fuselage, used as a prop for the Twelve O'Clock High movie and 12 O'Clock High television series, being rebuilt with elements from other B-17s. Some of this aircraft's fuselage was used to create commemorative luggage tags sold to the public.

Accidents and Incidents Involving the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

This is a partial list of accidents and incidents involving the Boeing-designed B-17 Flying Fortress. Combat losses are not included except for a very few cases denoted by singular circumstances. A few documented drone attrition cases are also included.

Aircraft were constructed by a three-firm consortium, Boeing, Vega and Douglas, known by the acronym BVD. Boeing built aircraft at their plant in Seattle, Washington, and their production models were appended -BO. Douglas Aircraft Company constructed aircraft at Long Beach, California, with a -DL suffix. The Vega Aircraft Corporation, a subsidiary of the Lockheed Aircraft Company, at Burbank, California, delivered aircraft with the -VE suffix.

1930s

30 October 1935: Prototype Boeing Model 299, NX13372, 'X13372', c/n 1963, the future B-17, crashes on take-off from Wright Field, Ohio, due to locked control surfaces, killing early military aviator and test pilot Maj. Ployer Peter Hill. Other engineers taken to hospital with injuries. Boeing test pilot and observer Les Tower died later. Ogden Air Depot, Utah, renamed Hill Field, (later Hill Air Force Base), on 1 December 1939. As the prototype was owned by Boeing, it had no USAAC serial. Some people cite the inadvertent take-off configuration which caused this accident (forgetting to unlock the control surfaces before takeoff) as the origin of today’s ubiquitous aviation “checklist”.

7 December 1936: First Y1B-17, 36-149, c/n 1973, first flown 2 December, makes rough landing at Boeing Field, Seattle, Washington, on third flight, when Army pilot Stanley Umstead touches down with locked brakes, airframe ends up on nose after short skid. Repaired, Flying Fortress departs for Wright Field on 11 January 1937.

1940s

18 December 1940: Boeing Y1B-17 Flying Fortress, 36–157, c/n 1981, formerly of the 2nd Bomb Group, Langley Field, Virginia, transferred to the 93d Bomb Squadron, 19th Bomb Group, March Field, California, in October 1940, crashed E of San Jacinto, California, 3.5 miles NNW of Idyllwild, while en route to March Field. Pilot was John H. Turner.

6 February 1941: B-17B Flying Fortress, 38-216, c/n 2009, crashes near Lovelock, Nevada, while en route to Wright Field, Ohio, killing all eight on board. Pilot Capt. Richard S. Freeman had shared the 1939 MacKay Trophy for the Boeing XB-15 flight from Langley Field, Virginia via Panama and Lima, Peru at the request of the American Red Cross, for delivering urgently needed vaccines and other medical supplies in areas of Chile devastated by an earthquake. General Order Number 10, dated 3 March 1943, announces that the advanced flying school being constructed near Seymour, Indiana, is to be named Freeman Field in honor of the Hoosier native.

22 June 1941: Royal Air Force Boeing Fortress I, AN522, of No. 90 Squadron, RAF Great Massingham, flown by F/O J. C. Hawley, breaks up in mid-air over Yorkshire during a training flight. Single survivor, a medical officer from RAE Farnborough, reports that the bomber entered a cumulo-nimbus cloud at 33,000 feet (10,000 m), became heavily iced-up with hailstones entering through open gunports, after which control was lost, the port wing detached, and the fuselage broke in two at 25,000 feet (7,600 m). Survivor, who was in the aft fuselage, was able to bail out at 12,000 feet (3,700 m).

3 July 1941: Royal Air Force Boeing Fortress I, AN528, of No. 90 Squadron, RAF Polebrook, is destroyed when a troublesome engine catches fire during a late-night ground run.

2 November 1941: B-17C, 40-2047, of the 7th Bomb Group, en route from Salt Lake City, Utah, to McClellan Field, near Sacramento, California, enters a winter storm over the Sierras, stalls at 18,000 feet and spins in, coming down near Georgetown, California, ~30 miles NE of Placerville. Eight of nine crew successfully parachute down, pilot is KWF. Scattered wreckage is still where it fell.

3 April 1942: The 303rd Bomb Group, activated at Pendleton Field, Oregon, on 3 February 1942, suffers its first fatal aircraft accident when three flying officers and five enlisted crew are killed in the crash of a B-17E-BO, 41-9053, six miles (9.7 km) N of Strevell, Idaho during a training mission.

6 April 1942: B-17B, 38-214, of the 12th Bomb Squadron, 39th Bomb Group, Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona, suffers engine failure with one bursting into flame, the bomber crashing into the desert 22 miles SE of Tucson, killing five crew. "The dead and their addresses, as announced by Col. Lowell H. Smith, commander of Davis-Monthan air corps base, who said the tragedy was due to 'engine failure and fire in the air,' were: First Lieut. Donald W. Johnson, the pilot, of Dunning, Neb.; Sgt. Laurel D. Larsen, Minkcreek, Idaho; Pvt. Herbert W. Dunn, Mifflintown, Pa.; Pvt. Emerson L. Wallace, Philipsburg, Pa.; Pvt. Leo W. Thomas, Lemoore, California. Second Lieut. Sidney L. Fouts, of Santa Rosa, California, and Sgt. William F. Regan, of Dunmore, Pa., parachuted to safety, suffering only minor injuries and shock, the air base said."

27 June 1942: During Operation Bolero, the ferrying of combat aircraft from the U.S. to England by air, B-17E-BO, 41-9090, c/n 2562, ditches in a Greenland fjord near Narasak. Attempts have been made to locate the airframe, particularly by noted recovery expert Gary Larkins, but it has yet to be found. Provisionally assigned the FAA registration N3142U if it can be found and retrieved from 1,500 feet of water.

15 July 1942: During Operation Bolero, the ferrying of combat aircraft from the U.S. to England by air, a flight of two B-17E-BO Flying Fortresses, 41-9101, c/n 2573, "Big Stoop", and 41-9105, c/n 2577, "Do-Do", of the 97th Bomb Group and six P-38F Lightnings of the 94th Fighter Squadron, 1st Fighter Group, on the 845-mile (1,360 km) leg between Bluie West 8 airfield and Reykjavík, Iceland, run out of fuel after being held up by bad weather, and all force-land on the Greenland icecap. All safely belly in except for the first P-38 which attempts a wheels-down landing, flipping over as nosewheel catches a crevasse, but pilot Lt. Brad McManus unhurt. All crews rescued on 19 July, but aircraft are abandoned in place. One P-38F-1-LO, 41-7630, c/n 222-5757, now known as "Glacier Girl", recovered in 1992 from under 200 feet (61 m) of accumulated snow and ice and rebuilt to flying status, registered N17630. One B-17 ("Big Stoop") also found, but it is too badly crushed for recovery. Although the USAAF had expected to lose 10 percent of the 920 planes that made the North Atlantic transit during Bolero, losses were only 5.2 percent, the majority being involved in this single incident.

18 July 1942: "It was about 3:20 p.m. on a foggy Saturday afternoon during the World War II years when 16-year-old Leonard (Gig) Stephens heard through the cold mist the sound of an aircraft in trouble near his home by the Red Hill Country Club, not far from Route 62, and he ran outside to see a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber on a descent to death. He will never forget, he says, the sight of an airman standing in an open hatchway as the plane started to clip the tops of pine trees into a wooded area, too low for a parachute to work. The engines were spitting flames. The plane cut a path 200 feet long and 40 feet wide..." B-17B, 39-8, of the 492d Bomb Squadron, flying from Gander Field, Newfoundland, piloted by Marion R. Klyce, comes down at North Reading, Massachusetts; scrapped at North Reading, 2 October 1942. "The Veterans’ Memorial on the town common commemorates the ten crew members who lost their lives in this crash. They were Orville Andrews, Robert Aulsbury, Stephen Bilocur, Archie Jester, Don Johnson, Marion Klyce, Sidney Koltun, William Perkins, James Phillips and Charles Torrence."

23 August 1942: B-17E-BO, 41-9091, of the 427th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bomb Group, operating out of Biggs Field, El Paso, Texas, suffers center fuselage failure in extremely bad weather 12 miles W of Las Cruces, New Mexico, only the radio operator and the engineering officer for the 427th Bomb Squadron, both in the radio room, survive by parachuting. Pilot was James E. Hudson. The 303rd BG was due to deploy overseas from Biggs on 24 August.

17 September 1942: A B-17E, 41-2650, of the 93d Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group, based at Mareeba airfield in north Queensland, Australia, departed Seven Mile Aerodrome at Port Moresby to bomb Rabaul. Piloted by 2nd Lt. Claude N. Burckey, the crew completed the mission and set an initial return path for Port Moresby, which was clouded in, and then for Horn Island. The aircraft became lost and ran out of fuel over Cape York, Australia. The crew bailed out, and the aircraft crashed N of Weipa. 1st. Lt. William F. Meenagh (0-372623) was never found, the other eight crew members survived.

15 October 1942: Nine men are killed when B-17E-BO, 41-9161, of the 459th Bomb Squadron, 330th Bombardment Group, Alamogordo, New Mexico, piloted by John R. Pratt, crashes into Magdalena Peak, 6 miles SE of Magdalena, New Mexico. Forest Ranger Arthur Gibson reported the crash.

21 October 1942: B-17D, 40-3089, of the 5th Bomb Group/11th Bomb Group, with Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, America's top-scoring World War I ace (26 kills), aboard on a secret mission, is lost at sea in the central Pacific Ocean when the bomber goes off-course. After 24 days afloat in three rafts, he and surviving crew are rescued by the U.S. Navy after having been given up for lost, discovered by OS2U Kingfisher crew.

30 December 1942: B-17F-35-BO, 42-5123, of the 20th Bomb Squadron, 2d Bomb Group, Great Falls Army Air Base, Montana, piloted by Edward T. Layfield, crashes near Musselshell, Montana. Capt. John Lloyd, public relations officer at the Great Falls base, said that eleven aboard were killed.

3 January 1943: B-17F-27-BO, 41-24620, "snap! crackle! pop!", of the 360th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bomb Group, on daylight raid over Saint-Nazaire, France, loses wing due to flak, goes into spiral. Ball turret gunner Alan Eugene Magee (13 January 1919 – 20 December 2003), though suffering 27 shrapnel wounds, bails out (or is thrown from wreckage) without his parachute at ~20,000 feet (6,100 m), loses consciousness due to altitude, freefall plunges through glass roof of the Gare de Saint-Nazaire and is found alive but with serious injuries on floor of depot - saved by German medical care, spends rest of war in prison camp.

11 February 1943: B-17F-50-BO, 42-5367, of the 317th Bomb Squadron, 88th Bomb Group, with ten aboard goes missing on flight from Walla Walla Army Air Base, Washington. Civil Air Patrol planes spot the wreckage on 14 February in the Blue Mountains, 17 miles E of Walla Walla, where the bomber apparently flew head-on into a ridge at about the 5,000-foot level. Ground parties reach the site on 16 February and confirm the crew dead. Victims: Lt. John T. Ray, Klamath Falls, Oregon, pilot; Lt. Richard H. Reed, temporarily residing at Walla Walla; Lt. David T. Dunning, Madisonville, Kentucky; Lt. Hans N. Lehne, Glen Ellyn, Illinois; Sgt. Alexander Dee, Buffalo, New York; Sgt. Lloyd I. Ball, Huntington Park, California; Sgt. Milton D. Johnson, Midland, Texas; Sgt. C. W. Seifer Jr., San Jose, California; Sgt. Joseph F. Perkins, Fort Worth, Texas; Sgt. Wilmer C. Fankhavel, Barnesville, Minnesota.

30 May 1943: A B-17F-45-BO, 42-5318, of the 464th Bomb Squadron, 331st Bomb Group, out of Casper Army Air Field, Wyoming, piloted by James O. Westbury, crashes into a mountainside ~10 miles NW of Covelo, California, during a training mission killing all six crew. Some wreckage remains at the site.

3 June 1943: B-17F-55-DL, 42-3399, "Scharazad", of the Plummer Provisional Group, 318th Bomb Squadron, flying to Grand Island, Nebraska, from Pendleton Army Air Base in Oregon crashes on Bomber Mountain in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. 10 crew members were killed. Wreckage finally discovered on 12 August 1945.

14 June 1943: Bakers Creek air crash. B-17C, 40-2072, "Miss E.M.F." (Every Morning Fixing), of the 19th Bomb Group, heavily damaged on Davao mission 25 December 1941 and converted into transport. With 46th Troop Carrier Squadron, 317th Troop Carrier Group, crashed Bakers Creek, Queensland, Australia, this date while ferrying troops to New Guinea. Six crew and 34 GIs killed. One survived. A memorial to the victims of this crash was installed at the Selfridge Gate of Arlington National Cemetery on 11 June 2009, donated by the Bakers Creek Memorial Association. The gate is named for Lt. Thomas Selfridge, killed in a 1908 crash at Fort Myer, Virginia, the first victim of a powered air accident.

16 June 1943: B-17E-BO converted to XB-38-VE, 41-2401, with Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled engines. Wrecked near Tipton, California, on its ninth test flight when the number three (starboard inner) engine caught fire. Attempts to extinguish it were unsuccessful, and as the fire spread to the wing, the pilots bailed out after pointing the aircraft to an uninhabited area. Lockheed test pilot George MacDonald was killed when his parachute did not deploy, and Lockheed test pilot Bud Martin was seriously injured when his parachute did not deploy properly.

1 August 1943: B-17F-95-BO, 42-30326, c/n 5440, of the 541st Bomb Squadron, 383d Bomb Group, piloted by Roy J. Lee, was headed north up the Oregon coast on a routine patrol flight. The plane had left Pendleton Field, near Pendleton, Oregon, at 0900 and was tasked with flying to Cape Disappointment on the Oregon coast. They were then to fly 500 miles out to sea, followed by a direct flight back to Pendleton Field. On arriving at the coast, the crew found the entire area hidden in overcast clouds which extended to an elevation of 8000 feet. The pilot decided to locate Cape Disappointment by flying below the overcast. The overcast proved to reach almost to the level of the sea. The plane was flying at about 50–150 feet above the waves. Deciding that the risk was too great the crew began to climb back up into the overcast. Unfortunately, the plane crashed into the side of Cape Lookout at about 900 feet in elevation. The Aviation Archeological Investigation & Research website lists the crash date as 2 August.

2 August 1943: B-17E-BO, 41-2463, "Yankee Doodle", of the 19th Bomb Group, then to 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bomb Group, crashes on takeoff due mechanical failure at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, Bombardier Sgt. John P. Kruger and navigator Lt. Talbert H. Woolam are killed. Pilot was Gene Roddenberry, future creator of Star Trek. The airframe was stricken on 13 August 1943.

1 September 1943: "GREAT FALLS, Mont., Sept. 2. (AP) - Ten crew members of a four-engined bomber from the Great Falls army air base, killed early today when the ship crashed five miles east of Fort Benton, were identified tonight by Capt. John R. Lloyd, base public relations officer, as follows: Sergeant Robert H. Hall, Coldwater, Mich.; Sergeant John T. Huff, Cherokee, Kan.; Sergeant Carl E. Lower, Van Wert, Ohio; Sergeant Chester W. Peko, Throop, Pa.; Private First Class Paul Peterson, Colfax, Wis.; Sergeant Curio C. Thrementi, Vassar, Mich.; Lieutenant Harold L. Wonders, Waterloo, Iowa; Lieutenant Warren H. Maginn, Glendale, Los Angeles; Lieutenant Jack Y. Fisk, Los Angeles, and Lieutenant Arnold J. Gardiner, New York. The crash occurred during a routine training flight." Boeing B-17F-35-BO Flying Fortress, 42-5128, of the 612th Bomb Squadron, 401st Bomb Group, was flown by Lt. Maginn.

2 September 1943: B-17F-40-VE, 42-5977, of the 540th Bomb Squadron (Heavy), 383d Bomb Group (Heavy), Geiger Field, Washington, on a routine local flight with three aboard, piloted by Robert P. Ferguson, clips the tops of trees for several blocks, crashes into scrub pines two miles S of Geiger Field and burns. Only three were on the bomber, said a report by Lt. R. E. Reed, public relations officer at the field. Names were withheld pending notification of next of kin.

1 October 1943: B-17F "42-6090" of the 612th Bomb Squadron, 401st Bomb Group "...on the morning of October 1st we lost another crew with the exception of their grounded navigator, Lt. Brandt. This was Lt. McIlwain's crew which was in an unfortunate crash on a routine training flight, again near Fort Benton. Their loss was keenly felt by all." "On October 1st, the 612th Squadron lost a Flying Fortress with nine men aboard in an accident over the Big Sandy bombing range. The Fortress was piloted by 2nd Lt. John McIlwain. The plane was flying in formation as they approached the bombing range when observers in other Fortresses saw it go out of control and spin in. All the crew were killed." Crew: 2nd Lt. John W. McIlwain, 2nd Lt. William D. Ford, 2nd Lt. George W. Heaps, S/Sgt. John Cirone, S/Sgt. Edwin B. Young, Sgt. Carl A. Hilton, Sgt. George W Grimes, Sgt. Edward F. Tessier, Cpl. Ambrose E. Mesa.

8 November 1943: B-17F-75-DL 42-3553, c/n 8489, 'QJ-H', "Sad Sack", of the 339th Bomb Squadron, 96th Bomb Group, crashes at Middle Farm, West Harling, Norfolk, United Kingdom shortly after taking off from RAF Snetterton Heath with the loss of all ten crew and four workmen on the ground. A memorial to those killed is due to be unveiled at the Oaksmore Hotel, Brome, on the 80th anniversary of the crash.

10 November 1943: Boeing B-17G-15-DL, 42-37831, c/n 8517, of the 331st Bomb Group, 94th Bomb Group, suffered a hydraulics and brakes failure at RAF Snetterton Heath and was written off.

9 December 1943: B-17G-20-BO, 42-31468, "The Galley Uncle", force landed during ferry flight from Gander in a field adjacent to Graan Monastery, near Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. One crew died and five were saved by local monks.

13 November 1943: Boeing B-17 "Miriam" of the 367th Bomb Squadron, 306th Bomb Group, crashed near Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, England. Shortly after taking off in bad weather, the aircraft flew into a downdraft which sent it into a dive. Most of the crew bailed out, but the pilot, 2nd Lt. Clyde "Sparky" Cosper, stayed with the aircraft and avoided crashing into rooftops before impacting a field. The bomb load detonated on impact, destroying the aircraft and killing Cosper. A plaque dedicated to Cosper was erected outside the Princes Risborough Library.

29 November 1943: Boeing B-17F informally known as the Rikki Tikki Tavi was shot down over Syke in what is now Lower Saxony. despite the rear machine gunner not deploying a parachute. Eight of the ten crew members were killed in the crash, and two survived, including the tail gunner who survived a fall of 28,000 feet inside the tail section of the aircraft.

2 January 1944: "NORNICK, Iowa, Jan. 2 (AP) - Nine crew members of a Flying Fortress based at Sioux City, were killed when the plane crashed and burned on a farm near here late today. Persons within a radius of several miles said they saw the plane explode and crash." B-17F-40-VE, 42-6013, of the 393d CCTS, piloted by Frank R. Hilford, appears to be the airframe involved.

2 January 1944: "SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jan. 2 (AP) - Thirteen army flyers were killed today when a B-17 Flying Fortress, headed for Los Angeles from McChord field, Tacoma, Wash., exploded in flight over McClellan field and plunged 3000 feet to the ground in flames. Thousands of Sacramentans, startled by a terrific explosion, looked skyward and saw the crippled and burning four-motored bomber emerge from the overcast sky and fall. Only one member of the plane's crew of 14 escaped the flaming wreckage, parachuting to safety before the crash. He was Maj. James H. Wergen of Kingman field, Ariz., the bomber's home base. The plane went to pieces in the air as it fell, scattering a wingtip, one of its motors and other parts over a vast area. McClellan field authorities said medical officers were attempting to identify the dead, but that names would be withheld pending notification of next of kin." The B-17G, 42-40024, was piloted by Frederick M. Klopfenstein.

4 January 1944: B-17G-10-BO, 42-31257, flying in formation with other B-17s, catches fire near Alamo, Nevada, while en route between Indian Springs Army Airfield and Las Vegas Army Airfield, Nevada, and twelve of thirteen aboard bail out. One is killed when his parachute fails to open in time, and one aboard the bomber dies in the crash 67 miles NNE of Las Vegas AAF. Other planes circled the spot where the plane went down and radioed the base news of the crash. "Eleven of their number were brought to the airfield hospital last night (5 January), suffering from minor injuries and exposure after having spent the intervening time in heavy snow on a high mountain plateau."

13 January 1944: B-17G-30-DL, 42-38094, flown by Ralph M. Calhoon, and B-17G-10-VE, 42-40038, piloted by Thomas W. Williams, of the 99th Bomb Squadron, collide ~10 miles SW of Brooksville Army Airfield, Florida, killing four officers and five enlisted men, reports Brigadier General Hume Peabody, commander of the Army Air Forces Tactical Center (AAFTAC), at Orlando. One victim is Sgt. Benjamin B. Estes, son of J. M. Estes, Burley, Idaho.

15 January 1944: B-17F-50-VE, 42-6147, of the 818th Bomb Squadron (H), 483d Bomb Group (H), MacDill Field, Florida, piloted by William R. Sablotny, lost in a blizzard over the Allegheny Mountains, crashes three miles N of Rich Mountain, West Virginia, killing six of seven aboard, state police said 16 January.

4 February 1944: B-17F-90-BO, 42-30188, "Temptation", with nose art of a black cat considering dropping a bomb, previously "Kats Sass II", 'MZ S' of the 413th Bomb Squadron, 96th Bomb Group, during takeoff for a Frankfort mission, suffers runaways on Nos. 1 and 2 propellers. Lt. Joseph Meacham attempts landing at near-by as yet unfinished base, but crash lands at East Shropham, Norfolk, NNW of RAF Snetterton Heath. All eleven crew survive but the aircraft is damaged beyond repair and is written off, fit only for parts salvage.

22 February 1944: A B-17F of the U.S. Army Air Force's 1st Radar Calibration Detachment, name undocumented, flying from Bangor, Maine, to Fort Dix, New Jersey, crashed on the Kittatinny Mountains near Millbrook, New Jersey. The accident was due to a radio failure and navigational problems, as well as heavy icing due to the wintry conditions. Pilot inexperience was also a contributor to the accident. All twelve occupants; five Army officers, six enlisted Army members, and one Royal Air Force navigator, were killed. The aircraft was completely destroyed.

9 March 1944: B-17G 42-37781 Silver Dollar was downed over Osdorf en-route to Berlin after the tailplane was blown off by a bomb dropped by an aircraft of the 379th Bomb Group positioned above Silver Dollar in the formation at the time of the accident. Photographs taken from neighbouring aircraft showed Silver Dollar pitching down with its tail empennage missing.

23 March 1944: B17 from 305th BG based at Chelveston crashed shortly after take-off into the Bedfordshire village of Yelden. The aircraft sliced through a barrack block housing men from the airfield and partially demolished a farm bungalow. 21 persons died in the accident, including 2 children (Monica and Keith Phillips) who were asleep in the bungalow. A post-crash fire caused the bomb load to explode blowing out the windows of houses in the village including the nearby church. A plaque in the village church, St Marys, shows the names of those who perished in the crash.

9 April 1944: B-17G-35-VE 42-97854 of the 390th Bomb Group, on a ferry flight from the United States to England, piloted by George L. Williamson, ditches in the Graah Fjord, Greenland this date (another source states that it was ditched in "Lageons Fjord") —probably after Cape Langenæs at the entrance of Graah Fjord. Attempts by noted aircraft recovery expert Gary Larkins to locate the airframe have been unsuccessful. MACR report 3637. FAA registration N9094V to Institute of Aeronautical Archaeological Research of Auburn, California, provisionally assigned to this airframe.

24 April 1944: B-17G-55-BO 42-102685 of the 271st Air Base Unit, Kearney Army Airfield, Nebraska, crashes six miles N of Bertrand, Nebraska, after an oxygen fire breaks out in flight. Six crew bail out but both pilots are killed. Dead were 2d Lt. Thomas G. Eppinger, pilot, of Huntington Woods, Michigan; and 2d Lt. Robert D. Shaw, co-pilot, of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Survivors were 2d Lt. Voris H. Fabik, navigator, of East St. Louis, Illinois; 2d Lt. Lewis E. Louraine, bombardier, of Purcell, Oklahoma; 2d Lt. Robert Durocher, assistant bombardier, hometown not available; S/Sgt. Clifford M. Bowen, engineer, of Jefferson, Oregon; S/Sgt. Obert M. Lay, radioman, of Aurora, Illinois; and Sgt. James T. Grantham, waist gunner, of Phoenix, Arizona.

11 July 1944: B-17G-75-BO 43-38023 en route from Kearney Army Airfield, Nebraska, to Dow Field, Maine, for overseas deployment, crashes into Deer Mountain in Parkertown Township in North Oxford, Maine, during a thunderstorm, killing all ten crew: Sgt. James A. Benson, Sgt. Gerald V. Biddle, 2nd Lt. John T. Cast, 2nd Lt. John W. Drake, 2nd Lt. William Hudgens, Cpl. John H. Jones, Staff Sgt. Wayne D. McGavran, Sgt. Cecil L. Murphy, 2nd Lt. Robert S. Talley, and Sgt. Clarence M. Waln. Locals saw the plane circling before it struck terrain 500 feet below the summit. It apparently descended below the clouds, struck treetops, and cartwheeled across the mountainside. Two days later, after a search by more than 100 spotters from the Civil Air Patrol, the Army Air Force, the Navy, and the Royal Canadian Air Force, the B-17’s wreckage was found on the side of the mountain. This was the second-worst military crash in Maine history, occurring the same day as an A-26 Invader crash at Portland that killed 21.

19 July 1944: B-17G-60-BO 42-102937, "Ready Freddie", of the 412th Bomb Squadron, 95th Bomb Group, crashed at RAF Duxford, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, when attempting to buzz the airfield at too low an altitude. The aircraft clipped a hangar and crashed into a barracks block killing all thirteen on board and one person on the ground.

30 July 1944: B-17G-60-BO 42-102746 departed from Avon Park Army Air Field on a training mission and crashed near St. Marks, Florida. Nine of the ten crew members on board were killed; Pvt. Marvin J. Magee of Sunny Hill, Louisiana, bailed out and was the sole survivor.

17 August 1944: B-17G-60-BO 42-37863 crashed nine miles northeast of Pierre, South Dakota, six miles north of the Pierre army air base, at 10:30 pm. Six crew were killed, and three parachuted to safety, members of the 225 Base Unit Combat Training Squadron, Pierre Army Base, South Dakota. Killed in the crash were 2nd Lt. Arnold Sparmann, pilot, 2nd Lt. Bob M. Biggers Jr., 2nd Lt. John F. Hanzes, 2nd Lt. Arthur M. Lippman, bombardier, Sgt. Samuel J. Lamazzo, and Cpl. Frederick "Fritz" J. Breuning. Cpl. Harry F. Mroch of Detroit, Cpl. Sidney Nylaan of Grand Rapids, and Cpl. George D. Honey of Sonoma parachuted to safety and were hospitalized in Pierre. Witnesses said the bomber was burning before it crashed and that wreckage was strewn over an area of approximately four city blocks. Bodies of the six men who died in the crash were thrown clear of the plane. A board of qualified officers were appointed to investigate the crash.

8 September 1944: 2d Lt. John T. McCarthy, in Republic P-47D-6-RE Thunderbolt, 42-74782, of the 262d FPTS, on a combined interception training mission out of Bruning Army Air Field, Nebraska, at ~1540 hrs. CWT, at 16,000 feet altitude, made a pursuit curve mock attack from the high port side of Boeing B-17G-35-DL Flying Fortress, 42-107159, terminating his attack from about 250 to 300 yards away from the bomber, but "mushed" into the B-17 while breaking away, hitting the port wing near the number one (port outer) engine. "Both planes burst into flames immediately, the B-17 exploding, disintegrating into several pieces, and crashing to the ground. The P-47 hit the ground in a tight spiral, exploding when it hit the ground." The collision occurred ~5 miles NE of Bruning AAF. The fighter pilot was KWF. The B-17, of the 224th AAF Base Unit, out of Sioux City Army Air Base, Iowa, was part of a formation of bombers on a camera-gunnery mission, en route to Bruning AAF, which was flying in several elements. The fighter struck the wing man of the second element of the low formation. Only four crew of ten aboard the B-17 managed to bail out. Killed were 2d Lts. William F. Washburn, and Bernard I. Hall, pilot and co-pilot, F/O George A. Budovsky, Cpl. John E. Tuchols, and Pvt. Henry C. Sedberry. Surviving were Cpls. LeNoir A. Greer (minor injuries), and Walter A. Divan (major injuries), Pvt. Albert L. Mikels (minor injuries), and Pfc. Reuben L. Larson (minor injuries). "It is the opinion of the Aircraft Accident Investigating Committee that responsibility for the accident is 100% pilot error on the part of the pilot of the P-47, in that poor judgement and poor technique was used in 'breaking-off'." A Nebraska historical marker for the accident was erected in 2010 by the Milligan Memorial Committee for the World War II Fatal Air Crashes near Milligan, Nebraska.

16 September 1944: U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 on its way to England loses altitude due to a severe downdraft and crashes on Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland. All ten crew members survive the crash with minor injuries and are able to escape the partial burning plane but have to stay two days in the wreckage due to a storm before they can hike down the glacier. Six of the crew manage to reach a farm after a 13 hour walk, while four have to spend a night in the open, as they were unable to cross the river of Markarfljót, before getting rescued the day after.

21 November 1944: A B-17G Flying Fortress, 43-38545, sustained damage from flak fire over Merseburg, Saxony-Anhalt, causing two of its engines to fail and a third to be close to doing so; in response, the pilot lowered the bomber's undercarriage and gave the order to bail out. The aircraft continued its flight, gradually descending until it landed in a field in Belgium behind Allied lines, sustaining additional damage to a propeller and a wingtip when a main gear wheel became stuck in the ground, causing the aircraft to spin around until it came to a stop. The crew of a nearby Royal Air Force anti-aircraft gun made their way to the aircraft to offer assistance, only to find it empty. Of the ten crew aboard, nine survived and returned to duty.

17 January 1945: A B-17 Flying Fortress on a routine training mission crashed in the forest just outside Bay Minette, AL. All 11 crew members were killed in the crash. 1st Lt Sydney Abramson of Dorchester, Mass; 2nd Lt Richard P. Poe of Ada, OK; 2nd Lt Iavn B. Richey of Braymor, MO; 2nd Lt Douglas W. Mallory of Baytown, TX; 2nd Lt Randall A. Weaver of Nashville, TN; Pfc Clayton E. Popper of Yakima, WA; Corp James B. Fleming of Shady Gap, PA; Pfc Georger H. Smith of Porterville, CA; Corp Thomas M. Rutledge of Nashville, TN; Pfc James C. White of Wichita Falls, TX and Pfc John R. Makfei of San Francisco, CA.

23 April 1945: B-17G-95-BO, 43-38856, 'GD-M', of the 381st Bombardment Group (Heavy), crashed into the east facing slope of North Barrule in the Isle of Man killing 31 US service personnel (2 crew and 29 passengers) en route to Belfast for a week's leave. A memorial plaque was placed at the crash site in June 1995.

5 August 1945: A TB-17G, built as a B-17G-70-BO, 43-37700, of the 325th Combat Crew Training Squadron, Avon Park Army Airfield, Florida, crashes six miles S of Ridgeland, South Carolina, after the number 2 (port inner) engine catches fire at 10,000 feet during a flight from Stewart Field, New York, to its home base in Florida. Pilot Lieutenant Dewey O. Jones orders the crew to abandon ship. An announcement released by the Hunter Field, Georgia, public relations office states that five parachuted safely, three were killed, and that two other men were missing. Listed as fatalities are Flight Officer Alfred Ponessa, of Newburgh, New York, a passenger, Sergeant Leo B. Bucharia, of Long Island, New York, and Technical Sergeant Edwin S. Salas, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, both members of the crew. The missing were listed as Lieutenant William Cherry and Corporal Sidney Podhoretz (addresses not available). The names of the other four survivors were not given.

9 July 1946: Eight USAAF crew, 16 U.S. Coast Guardsmen, returning from duty in Greenland, and one civilian are killed when the B-17G-105-BO, 43-39136, c/n 10114, they are flying in crashes into Mount Tom, Massachusetts, at ~2220 hrs. while attempting to land at Westover Field, Massachusetts. A monument to the victims was dedicated on the crash site on 6 July 1996.

14 January 1947: B-17G-95-VE, 44-85588, of the Flight Test Division, Air Materiel Command, Wright Field, Ohio, crashes through a rain-soaked swamp thicket, cutting a 500-yard swath through the underbrush, rams a tree and burns at ~1810 hrs., coming down ~3 miles NE of Fairfield, and ~3 miles NW of Patterson Field, where the pilot apparently intended to land. The crash, coming at the end of a routine test flight to Lawson Field, Fort Benning, Georgia, and return, kills three crew and leaves one injured. Dead are Maj. Walter L. Massengill of Dayton, the pilot; Master Sgt. Lee P. Hartman, engineer, and Warrant Officer Benedict F. Jacquay. The injured crewman is Lt. Marvin C. Rice, copilot. Other home towns were unavailable, said Wright Field officials.

15 August 1947: B-17H, 43-39473, with 10th Air Rescue Squadron, built as a B-17G-110-BO, crashes after takeoff ~2 miles from Fort Randall Army Airfield, Cold Bay, Alaska, this date, killing all eight on board. Pilot was Marion E. Calender. Some wreckage still there.

24 December 1947: B-17G-95-DL, 44-83790, of the 1385th Base Unit, Bluie West One, Greenland, delivering presents and mail to isolated outposts on Baffin Bay, runs out of fuel on Christmas Eve and pilot Chester M. Karney makes a forced landing on snow-laden frozen Dyke Lake in Labrador. None of the nine aboard are injured and they are picked up on 26 December by a ski and JATO-equipped Douglas C-47. Officers at Atlantic Division headquarters of Air Transport Command, Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts, said that a snowstorm earlier in the day delayed one flight by the C-47 to fetch the seven crew and two passengers off the ice and that they had prepared to spend a third night in the sub-zero temperatures. But a successful rescue was achieved and the marooned flown 275 miles to Goose Bay. Fortress abandoned and sinks to the bottom of lake. Aircraft located in July 1998; recovered from the lake on 9 September 2004. Now under restoration to fly at Douglas, Georgia.

30 January 1948: A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, searching for a Douglas C-47 that went missing on 27 January in France, spots the downed transport on a mountainside, and then itself crashes and burns. Only one member of the ten crew survives, Sgt. Angelo LaSalle, of Des Moines, Iowa. He is aided by a former Luftwaffe pilot, Horst Kupski, a prisoner-of-war working for a French farmer, who lends him garments and helps him down the mountain.

5 November 1948: DB-17G, 44-83678, returning to Eglin AFB, Florida, from Fort Wayne, Indiana, crashes in woods SE of Auxiliary Field 2, Pierce Field due to pilot error, crashing and burning NE of the runway at Eglin main base early Friday. All five on board were killed, including Lt. Col. Frederick W. Eley, 43, of Shalimar, Florida, staff judge advocate at Eglin for nearly three years – he was returning from his grandmother's funeral in Portland, Indiana; Maj. Bydie J. Nettles, 29, who lived in Shalimar, Florida, but was originally from Pensacola, Florida, group adjutant for the 3203rd Maintenance and Supply section; Capt. Robert LeMar, 31, Ben's Lake, Eglin AFB, test pilot with the 3203rd; crew chief M/Sgt. Carl LeMieux, 31, of Milton, Florida; and Sgt. William E. Bazer, 36, assistant engineer, Destin, Florida. Bazer's wife was the Eglin base librarian.

1950s

16 October 1950: A QB-17G, 44-83565, of the 3200th Drone Squadron, piloted by Emerson N. Hixson, is involved in a ground accident at Eglin AFB, Florida, due to weather, receiving moderate damage.

8 November 1950: SB-17G, 43-39364, of the 3d Air Rescue Squadron, is heavily damaged while parked when struck by SB-17G, 43-39365, of the same unit, at Ashiya Air Base, Japan, when its hydraulics failed. The noses of both are wrecked and both are written off.

1 November 1951: 44-83699 is subjected to the Easy shot of the Operation Buster–Jangle atomic weapons tests as a ground target.

19 January 1952: SB-17G, 44-85746, built as B-17G-105-VE, accepted May 1945, based at McChord AFB, Washington, returning from a search and rescue mission, strikes a ridge near Tyler Peak on the Olympic peninsula, killing 3 crew, 5 survive. Wreckage is still there.

11 July 1952: Seven of eight crew survive the crash landing of a Boeing SB-17 Flying Fortress, of the 10th Air Rescue Squadron at Anchorage, Alaska, when it fails to return from a search for an RCAF bomber, missing since 30 June with four aboard. The Fortress had apparently completed its six hour search sweep and was en route to Whitehorse when it crashed. The last radio message, shortly before noon, stated that they were over their search area in fair to good weather. The hunt for the B-17 began at 2015 hrs. when it had not returned by fuel exhaustion limits. An amphibian sighted the downed plane in the night and dropped food and sleeping bags. American parachutists jumped to the downed crew's aid on 12 July and three helicopters - two American and one Canadian - began moving survivors to Snag, Yukon territory, about 30 miles SW of the crash site. A seriously burned crewman was ferried by C-47 to Elmendorf Air Force Hospital at Anchorage. Two other survivors were not as seriously injured.

25 August 1952: An Eglin Air Force Base DB-17G Flying Fortress drone control ship, 44-83680, built as a B-17G-90-DL, is accidentally shot down by F-86D-1-NA Sabre, 50-469, of the 3200th Proof Test Group, flown by Colonel Arthur R. DeBolt, 39, of Columbus, Ohio. Colonel Mac McWhorter was piloting the mother ship with a QB-17 drone in trail over the Gulf of Mexico for a radar-controlled approach by the jet fighter, "which by mistake fired a rocket that sent a B-17 bomber spinning into flames into the Gulf of Mexico. Six of eight crewmen on the bomber may have been killed. The Air Force said the pilot, DeBolt, apparently mistook the B-17 mother" [sic] plane for a radio-controlled drone during a test operation. Col. DeBolt was overcome with grief by the tragic error." Two enlisted crewmen were plucked from the Gulf by USS Seer after 24 hours in a life raft on 26 August. Building 100 on the Eglin flightline is named the Audette Airborne Systems Building. A dedication plaque at the front entrance reads: "In memory of Lieutenant Colonel Leo R. Audette, United States Air Force – in recognition of his contribution in the development of airborne electronics systems – who on 25 August 1952, while a member of this command, gave his life while participating in operations which advanced the development of these systems."

4 January 1953: A VB-17G, 44-85576, of the 6600th Air Base Unit, Pepperrell AFB, St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada, piloted by Joseph H. Huau Jr., suffers moderate damage during a landing accident at Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C., due to mechanical failure.

26 August 1953: U.S. Coast Guard PB-1G Flying Fortress, BuNo 77253, ex-44-85827, loses brakes while landing at NAS Sand Point, near Seattle, Washington, overruns runway, crushes nose as it ends up in Lake Washington. Retrieved and sold for salvage.

26 May 1954: A Republic of China Air Force B-17 crashed near Fujian, People's Republic of China. "Pilot Nie Jing Yuan, four crew members and four agents that were to be airdropped, were all killed. The People's Republic of China did not make a claim to have shot the aircraft down, so it might have suffered an accident."

26 June 1956: An F-89H Scorpion downed a remote-controlled target QB-17 Flying Fortress over the Eglin water ranges with a Hughes GAR-1 Falcon, "the first time the missile has been employed to destroy a target ship in a simulated air defense environment." Lt. Col. Louis E. Andre Jr., from the 3241st Test Group, Interceptor, of APGC and his radar observer, Squadron Leader George T. E. Richards of the Royal Air Force, were credited with the kill. The Falcon is designed to be launched by the F-89H and the F-102A Delta Dagger interceptors. "The missile as well as the Scorpion and the F-102A are presently undergoing operational suitability testing at the Air Force Operational Test Center."

30 June 1956: An F-102A Delta Dagger downed a remotely controlled QB-17 Flying Fortress over the Eglin water ranges with a Hughes GAR-1 Falcon on this date, announced Air Proving Ground Commander Maj. Gen. Robert W. Burns, the second drone to fall prey to the air-to-air missile within a week at the APGC.

1 November 1956: A third QB-17 drone kill was achieved by a Hughes GAR-1 Falcon fired from a F-102A Delta Dagger of the 3201st Test Group (Interceptor), flown by Maj. Robert T. Goetz on this date over the Eglin water ranges. The drone had been previously damaged by an earlier hit during the same mission, fired by Capt. William T. Quirk. Goetz had been credited with one of the two QB-17 kills during June 1956.

1960s

29 August 1967: B-17G-95-DL, 44-83857, later PB-1W, BuNo 77226, to civil register as N7228C. Destroyed in crash at 0927 hrs. at Kalispell, Montana, while in use as a fire bomber, after making wheels-up landing due to smoke in the cockpit, killing two crew according to one source, no fatalities according to an NTSB report, which seems more credible as the co-pilot reported that the fire began in the accessory section of the number three (starboard inner) engine. Jettisoned load before touch down.

1970s

18 August 1970: B-17F-50-VE, 42-6107, c/n 6403, to TB-17F, to civil register as N1340N. Reengined with Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops in 1969. Crashed at 1637 hrs. during fire bomber run while operated by Aero Flite on down slope side of mountain near Dubois, Wyoming, with density altitude of ~13,000 feet, winds of 25-35 mph, updrafts and downdrafts. Pilot misjudged altitude and clearance, failed to maintain flight speed, aircraft stalled and struck trees. Two crew killed.

12 July 1971: B-17G-85-DL, 44-83542, c/n 32183, civil registration N9324Z, operated as fire bomber 'C18' or 'E18' by Aero Union Corp. Crashed near Benson, Arizona, while fighting a fire in the Whetstone Mountains; both crew survived. NTSB report cites partial power loss due to air intake issue. Note: this plane is on display at Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, Florida, as 42-37994 "Piccadilly Princess."

12 July 1972: B-17G-95-DL, 44-83864, c/n 32505, later to PB-1W, BuNo 77232, registered successively N6465D, N5234V, XB-BOE, and finally N73648, operated as a fire bomber 'E56' by Black Hills Aviation. Destroyed 20 mi SW of Socorro, New Mexico, when the pilot misjudged his altitude during his second slurry drop and struck trees at 1605 hrs., killing two crew.

12 July 1973: B-17G-110-VE, 44-85840, c/n 8749, to Bolivian registry with Lloyd Aero Boliviano, November 1956, as CP-620, back to U.S. in 1968 with Aircraft Specialties, Inc. of Mesa, Arizona, as N620L. Used in 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora! Crashed near Elko, Nevada, during fire bomber run, updrafts and downdrafts, 40 knot winds. Following steep turn downwind over downslope of mountain, pilot failed to maintain airspeed, stalled, two crew killed.

5 August 1976: B-17G-110-VE, 44-85812, later PB-1G, BuNo 77246, to civil register as N4710C and used for fire ant spraying by Dothan Aviation, destroyed in accident near Rochelle, Georgia. NTSB report gives cause as fire in or near carburetor, forcing emergency landing at 0815 hrs., airframe burned. Another source cites crash site as Blakely, Georgia.

1980s

23 August 1987: B-17G-85-DL, 44-83575, registered N93012, operated by the Collings Foundation, was caught by crosswinds during a landing at Beaver County Airport near Pittsburgh. Landing too far down the runway, the plane rolled off the end of runway, crashed through a fence and power pole, and came to rest down a 100-foot (30 m) ravine. Various damage including landing gear, wings, and fuselage. There were no fatalities, however three of the twelve people on board were injured. Note: this plane was later destroyed in an accident on 2 October 2019.

25 July 1989: B-17G-100-VE, 44-85643, c/n 8552, F-BEEA, of the Institut géographique national (IGN), destroyed when it hit a tree and a pile of gravel during takeoff at RAF Binbrook, United Kingdom, during filming of Memphis Belle. Aircraft destroyed by fire, but ten on board managed to escape. This airframe had been the camera ship during filming of Dr. Strangelove in 1964, whose shadow makes an accidental cameo on the arctic ice pack below the B-52 Stratofortress attacking Russia.

2010s

13 June 2011: B-17G-105-VE, 44-85734, registered N390TH, previously N5111N, named Liberty Belle and operated by the Liberty Foundation of Tulsa, Oklahoma, as a flying history exhibit, suffered an in-flight fire in port wing behind #2 engine while on a positioning flight from Aurora, Illinois, to Indianapolis, Indiana. The crew made an emergency landing in a field near Oswego, Illinois, 20 minutes after takeoff. Three crew and four passengers escaped safely before fire consumed the airframe.

2 October 2019: B-17G-85-DL, 44-83575, registered N93012, named Nine-O-Nine and operated by the Collings Foundation, crashed at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. Three crew and 10 passengers were onboard at the time; there were seven fatalities. The NTSB investigation cited pilot error as the likely cause.

2020s

12 November 2022: B-17G-95-DL 44-83872, registered N7227C, named Texas Raiders, had a mid-air collision with a Bell P-63 Kingcobra, registered N6763, at the Dallas Executive Airport while performing during the Wings Over Dallas airshow. The P-63 overtook the B-17 on a descending trajectory during low-level maneuvers and impacted the aircraft from the port side, at a point just above and aft of the B-17's wings. The tail section of Texas Raiders was severed from the rest of the aircraft due to the collision and both aircraft were destroyed in the resulting impact with the ground. Six people were killed in the collision, the entire crew of five on board the B-17, as well as the pilot of the P-63. No one was injured on the ground.

Sources

Andrews, C.F. and E.B. Morgan. Vickers Aircraft since 1908. London: Putnam, 1988.

Angelucci, Enzo and Paolo Matricardi. Combat Aircraft of World War II, 1940–1941. Westoning, Bedfordshire, UK: Military Press, 1988.

Arakaki, Leatrice R. and John R. Kuborn. 7 December 1941: The Air Force Story. Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii: Pacific Air Forces, Office of History, 1991.

Birdsall, Steve. The B-24 Liberator. New York: Arco Publishing Company, Inc., 1968.

Bowers, Peter M. Boeing Aircraft Since 1916. London: Putnam, 1989.

Borth, Christy. Masters of Mass Production. Indianapolis, Indiana: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1945.

Bowers, Peter M. Fortress in the Sky, Granada Hills, California: Sentry Books, 1976.

Bowman, Martin W. Castles in the Air: The Story of the B-17 Flying Fortress Crews of the U.S. 8th Air Force. Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books, 2000.

Bowman, Martin W. B-17 Flying Fortress Units of the Eighth Air Force, Volume 2. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2002.

Caidin, Martin. Black Thursday. New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, 1960.

Caldwell, Donald and Richard Muller. The Luftwaffe over Germany: Defense of the Reich. London: Greenhill Books Publications, 2007.

Carey, Brian Todd. "Operation Pointblank: Evolution of Allied Air Doctrine During World War II". historynet.com, 12 June 2006.

Chant, Christopher. Warplanes of the 20th century. London: Tiger Books International, 1996.

Cora, Paul B. Diamondbacks Over Europe: B-17s of the 99th Bomb Group, Part Two. Air Enthusiast 111, May/June 2004, pp. 66–73.

Craven, Wesley Frank, James Lea Cate and Richard L. Watson, eds. "The Battle of the Bismarck Sea", pp. 129–62; The Pacific: Guadalcanal to Saipan, August 1942 to July 1944 (The Army Air Forces in World War II, Volume IV. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950.

Donald, David, ed. American Warplanes of World War Two. London: Aerospace Publishing, 1995.

Donald, David. "Boeing Model 299 (B-17 Flying Fortress)." The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft. Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada: Prospero Books, 1997. ISBN 1-85605-375-X.

Francillon, René J. McDonnell Douglas Aircraft since 1920. London: Putnam, 1979.

Francillon, René J. Lockheed Aircraft since 1913. London: Putnam, 1982.

Freeman, Roger A. B-17 Fortress at War. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1977.

Gardner, Brian (1984). "Flight Refuelling... The Wartime Story". Air Enthusiast. No. 25. pp. 34–43, 80.

Gamble, Bruce. Fortress Rabaul: The Battle for the Southwest Pacific, January 1942 – April 1943. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Zenith Press, 2010.

Garzke, William H.; Dulin, Robert O. (1985). Battleships: Axis and Neutral Battleships in World War II. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.

Gillison, Douglas. Australia in the War of 1939–1945: Series 3 – Air, Volume 1. Canberra, Australia: Australian War Memorial, 1962.

Gordon, Yefim. Soviet Air Power in World War 2. Hinckley, Lancashire, UK: Midland, Ian Allan Publishing, 2008.

Herman, Arthur. Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II New York: Random House, 2012.

Hess, William N. B-17 Flying Fortress: Combat and Development History of the Flying Fortress. St. Paul, Minnesota: Motorbook International, 1994.

Hess, William N. B-17 Flying Fortress Units of the MTO. Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing Limited, 2003.

Hess, William N. Big Bombers of WWII. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Lowe & B. Hould, 1998.

Hess, William N. and Jim Winchester. "Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress: Queen of the Skies". Wings of Fame. Volume 6, 1997, pp. 38–103. London: Aerospace Publishing.

Hoffman, Wally and Philippe Rouyer. La guerre à 30 000 pieds [Available only in French]. Louviers, France: Ysec Editions, 2008.

Jacobson, Capt. Richard S., ed. Moresby to Manila Via Troop Carrier: True Story of 54th Troop Carrier Wing, the Third Tactical Arm of the U.S. Army, Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific. Sydney, Australia: Angus and Robertson, 1945.

Johnsen, Frederick A. "The Making of an Iconic Bomber". Archived 19 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine Air Force Magazine, Volume 89, Issue 10, October 2006.

Knaack, Marcelle Size. Encyclopedia of U.S. Air Force Aircraft and Missile Systems: Volume II: Post-World War II Bombers, 1945–1973. Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1988.

Ledet, Michel (April 2002). "Des avions alliés aux couleurs japonais" [Allied Aircraft in Japanese Colors]. Avions: Toute l'Aéronautique et son histoire (in French) (109): 17–21.

Ledet, Michel (May 2002). "Des avions alliés aux couleurs japonais". Avions: Toute l'Aéronautique et son histoire (in French) (110): 16–23.

Listemann, Phil H. Allied Wings No. 7, Boeing Fortress Mk. I. www.raf-in-combat.com, 2009. First edition.

Maurer, Maurer. Aviation in the U.S. Army, 1919–1939. Washington, D.C.: United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, 1987, pp. 406–08.

Morison, Samuel Eliot (1950). Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Vol. 6. Boston: Little Brown and Company.

Parker, Dana T. Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II. Cypress, California, Dana Parker Enterprises, 2013.

Parshall, Jonathon and Anthony Tulley. Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway. Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books, 2005.

Ramsey, Winston G. The V-Weapons. London, United Kingdom: After The Battle, Number 6, 1974.

Roberts, Michael D. Dictionary of American Naval Aviation Squadrons: Volume 2: The History of VP, VPB, VP(HL) and VP(AM) Squadrons. Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 2000.

Sakai, Saburo with Martin Caidin and Fred Saito. Samurai!. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1996.

Salecker, Gene Eric. Fortress Against The Sun: The B-17 Flying Fortress in the Pacific. Conshohocken, Pennsylvania: Combined Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1-58097-049-4.

Serling, Robert J. Legend & Legacy: The Story of Boeing and its People. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992.

Shores, Christopher, Brian Cull and Yasuho Izawa. Bloody Shambles: Volume One: The Drift to War to The Fall of Singapore. London: Grub Street, 1992.

Stitt, Robert M. Boeing B-17 Fortress in RAF Coastal Command Service. Sandomierz, Poland: STRATUS sp.j., 2010 (second edition 2019).

Swanborough, F. G. and Peter M. Bowers. United States Military aircraft since 1909. London: Putnam, 1963.

Swanborough, Gordon and Peter M. Bowers. United States Navy Aircraft since 1911. London: Putnam, Second edition, 1976.

Tate, James P. The Army and its Air Corps: Army Policy toward Aviation 1919–1941. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 1998.

Trescott, Jacqueline. "Smithsonian Panel Backs Transfer of Famed B-17 Bomber." The Washington Post Volume 130, Issue 333, 3 November 2007.

Weigley, Russell Frank. The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1977.

Wixley, Ken. "Boeing's Battle Wagon: The B-17 Flying Fortress – An Outline History". Air Enthusiast, No. 78, November/December 1998, pp. 20–33. Stamford, UK: Key Publishing.

Wynn, Kenneth G. U-boat Operations of the Second World War: Career Histories, U511-UIT25. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1998.

Yenne, Bill. B-17 at War. St. Paul, Minnesota: Zenith Imprint, 2006.

Yenne, Bill. The Story of the Boeing Company. St. Paul, Minnesota: Zenith Imprint, 2005.

Zamzow, S. L. (2012). Ambassador of American Airpower: Major General Robert Olds. Biblioscholar.

Further Reading

Birdsall, Steve. The B-17 Flying Fortress. Dallas, Texas: Morgan Aviation Books, 1965.

Calegari, Robert (December 1976). "A vendre: B-17G" [For Sale: B-17G]. Le Fana de l'Aviation (in French) (85): 34–36.

Davis, Larry. B-17 in Action. Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1984.

Jablonski, Edward. Flying Fortress. New York: Doubleday, 1965.

Johnsen, Frederick A. Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Stillwater, Minnesota: Voyageur Press, 2001.

Gansz, David M. B-17 Production – Boeing Aircraft: 4 January 1944 – 26 February 1944 B-17G-35 to G-45 42-31932 – 42-32116 and 42-97058 – 42-97407. New Jersey: First Mountain Belgians, 2020.

Gansz, David M. B-17 Production – Boeing Aircraft: 26 February 1944 – 25 April 1944 B-17G-50 to G-60 42-102379 – 42-102978. New Jersey: First Mountain Belgians, 2013.

Gansz, David M. B-17 Production – Boeing Aircraft: 25 April 1944 – 22 June 1944 B-17G-65 to G-75 43-37509 – 43-38073. New Jersey: First Mountain Belgians, 2017.

Lloyd, Alwyn T. B-17 Flying Fortress in Detail and Scale, Vol. 11: Derivatives, Part 2. Fallbrook, California: Aero Publishers, 1983.

Lloyd, Alwyn T. B-17 Flying Fortress in Detail and Scale, Vol. 20: More derivatives, Part 3. Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: Tab Books, 1986.

Lloyd, Alwyn T. and Terry D. Moore. B-17 Flying Fortress in Detail and Scale, Vol. 1: Production Versions, Part 1. Fallbrook, California: Aero Publishers, 1981.

O'Leary, Michael. Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress (Osprey Production Line to Frontline 2). Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 1999.

Stitt, Robert M. & Olson, Janice L. (July–August 2002). "Brothers in Arms: A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Crew in New Guinea, Part 1". Air Enthusiast (100): 2–11.

Thompson, Scott A. Final Cut: The Post War B-17 Flying Fortress, The Survivors: Revised and Updated Edition. Highland County, Ohio: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 2000.

Wagner, Ray, American Combat Planes of the 20th Century, Reno, Nevada, 2004, Jack Bacon & Company.

Willmott, H.P. B-17 Flying Fortress. London: Bison Books, 1980..

Wisker Thomas J. "Talkback". Air Enthusiast, No. 10, July–September 1979, p. 79.

3-view of a B-17G, with inset detail showing the "Cheyenne tail" and some major differences with other B-17 variants.

The Boeing Monomail, a high-speed, single-engined passenger and mail-carrying low-wing monoplane, was the “forefather” of the Flying Fortress.

Loading the Monomail. Without the experience of designing, building, and flying the Monomail, Boeing men could never have built the Flying Fortress.

Operating over the Boeing Air Transport passenger and mail route, the Monomail established a new payload and speed record for single-engine planes.

From the Boeing B-9, the first twin-engined all-metal bomber with retractable gear, engineers obtained the “know-how” to build the Boeing 247.

The Boeing 247 air transport, distinguished ancestor of all heavy airplanes in America.

The passengers’ seats in the 247 were deeply upholstered, the backs reclining.

In the Boeing 247 series, engineers brought the comforts and pleasantries of the Pullman into an airplane.

Compartments for air mail and air express were ingeniously located in the nose of the 247 and in the rear of the fuselage.

Captain Roscoe Turner and his crew took second place in the International Air Race, London-Melbourne, with this 247D in 1934.

Wellwood E. Beall, vice president in charge of engineering, and Edward C. Wells, chief engineer and designer of the Fortress, at the Boeing Aircraft Company.

From the designer’s sketchbook, progress of the 299’s landing gear. This sketch establishes points and determines the size of the nacelle needed to house the retracting wheels.

This sketch shows the actual gear.

An early design sketch.

A later design sketch shows the final model.

The evolution of the Fortress’s tail. In this sketch is seen a radical departure for Boeing. Somebody suggested twin rudders, when the tail guns were added to the bomber, in order to retain the original basic body lines.

Back to a single rudder, in a later sketch. Tail gun position added but the rudder is something like the earlier models.

The dorsal fin has evolved. Two ideas on the length of the stinger turret are shown here, one line showing an extra window.

Final B-17E tail, a distinguishing feature of the Fortress and a potent weapon in aerial combat.

Heavy lines in this and the next sketch show the strong influence of the 247 transport.

The body tapers as it did in the final form. The sighting station (indentation under the nose) was eliminated on later models.

Here the nacelles and gun blisters are in place, but the tail is still in the sketch stage.

This was the way the Boeing Test Unit determined the strength of the airplane wing. The wing, in upside-down position, was broken down with hydraulic jacks in the “Test to Destruction.”

These are the men who actually break the wing. Operating a battery of hydraulic pumps, they applied pressure by means of steel cables to the inverted wing.

Engineers apply heat tests to the Flying Fortress hydraulic accumulators.

No warning—just a deafening explosion, the wing gives way, and engineers have measured its strength.

These little gadgets, finer than hair, are strain gauges. By electrical impulse they told the strain on each portion of the wing.

Aircraft gears are strain-tested before installation in the Flying Fortress.

Engineers conduct strain tests and other experiments on the rudder boost systems.

An engineer gives the strain test to bearings for the Flying Fortress.

Strain test equipment is checked before experimenting with aircraft gears and bearings.

Engines are put through rigid performance tests without leaving the ground.

Front sections of the Fortress are fabricated in jigs in the foreground. Beyond are the installation lines, then the final assembly area.

Fortress fuselage installation lines. Here the interior of the airplane is completed.

Rear section of the Fortress is built in the jig and completed on the installation line where all wiring, controls, cables, and tubing are installed, tail wheel and assemblies attached.

Fortress stingers, or tail gun emplacements, are lined up for final installations before being attached to the fuselage.

Main fuselage bulkheads for the Flying Fortress.

The completed rear section of the Fortress fuselage is moved into position and connected with precision to a complete forward section. This wedding takes place in 15 minutes.

Cyclone 9 engines arrive. They furnish the power for the Flying Fortress.

After they are built in the jigs, wings are removed to the wing installation lines for completion. De-icer boots, engines, cowls, inter-coolers, gas tanks, and flaps are installed.

Tail sections of B-17 during manufacture.

B-17 fuselage interior during manufacture.

Women workers install fixtures and assemblies to a tail fuselage section of a B-17 Flying Fortress at the Douglas Aircraft Company plant, Long Beach, California, October 1942.

Female worker inspecting the nose cone of a B-17 Flying Fortress, California, 1942.

In this manner it is possible to pre-complete an entire, complicated wing assembly…

…including terminal boxes, for quick and efficient installation in the Fortress.

The job of assembling the wires is so simple that even inexperienced persons can match the numbers of the wires with the numbers on the boards and follow the courses which are painted.

The electrical assemblies are now ready for installation in the Fortress.

Largest hydraulic press is a 5,000-ton capacity monster capable of doing the work of a whole battery of drop hammers.

The “Octopus” can produce 45 times as many stiffeners as the outmoded machine it replaced.

Husky is the word for the spar, backbone of the Fortress’s wings.

It is an automatic device added to a conventional electric spot welder that resembles a huge sewing machine.

Workers leaving the Boeing plant after their eight-hour shift.

They are drilling holes for the framework of the mid-section of the Fortress.

One of the first steps on the forward section is the installation of insulation and soundproofing.

When the Fortress fuselage has been joined together, it is removed to the final assembly fixture by a bridge crane where control surfaces and wings are attached.

The fin and rudder are installed on the tail of the Flying Fortress.

Wearing hip boots, these women wash the Fortress’s gleaming skin before camouflage paint is applied.

Taking the silver sheen off the skin, these spray painters are giving the Fortress its war paint.

B-17 assembly line, October 1942.

By 1943, 50 per cent of the entire Boeing factory personnel, numbering many thousands, was comprised of women. They are doing practically all types of work.

The task of building the Fortress became, more and more, a job falling to women.

A Boeing worker makes an adjustment to the de-icer boot on the fin of a Fortress (41-9137). Note the RAF-style fin flash.

Actual conditions of operating equipment at 35,000 feet altitude are studied and worked on here.

Studying the tail stinger turret of a Flying Fortress in the Cold Room.

Science turns on the refrigerator to study conditions of the stratosphere altitudes in the Cold Room.

Watching through thick windows and communicating by telephone, these observers follow the progress of the training of the crew in the Strato-Chamber.

The Cold Room, sometimes referred to as the Boeing LABRRRRatory, where temperatures as low as -80 Fahrenheit could easily be reached and held indefinitely.

Talking things over with the Strato-gremlin, members of the Boeing Flight Test Crew prepare to take off for a flight into the stratosphere.

Pilots “play airplane” in the mock-up.

Chief Test Pilot Leslie R. Tower, who made the first flight tests on the 299.

Flying Fortresses, including “54” (41-9169), on a training mission in the U.S.

The airfield at Biskra, Algeria, was home to the 301st Bomb Group, the 1st Fighter Group, and Headquarters for the 12th Bomber Command in January 1943. The smoke is from B-17s taking off and taxiing.

An American soldier inspects jackknifed locomotive in Germany caused by the heavy air attacks on German transportation.

Fourth echelon maintenance.

Fourth echelon maintenance.

Fog in  England.

Mud in England.

Eighth Air Force bomb dump.

Stacking bombs in an Eighth Air Force bomb dump.

Men from the 100th Bomb Group rehearse Handel’s “Messiah” with local women in Dickelburgh Church, Norfolk, late 1943.

Interrogations, 381st Group, summer 1943.

Eighth Air Force base in rural England.

B-17 munition handling accident.

B-17 Flying Fortress taking off, Algeria, 1943.

‘Fill ’er up and check the oil, please!’ For a raid on Germany, 2,000 gallons of fuel per aircraft was not exceptional.

The 30mm cannon of the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter packed a tremendous punch. This Fortress was lucky to survive.

Wounded Eighth Air Force crewmen being removed from B-17.

Wounded Eighth Air Force crewmen being removed from B-17.

B-17 combat formation.

B-17 Flying Fortresses over Koblenz.

B-17 combat formation.

B-17 high squadron producing contrails.

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses en route to bomb Stuttgart, 1943.

B-17s under attack by Fw 190, 29 November 1943, target: Bremen.

B-17 falling out of formation.

B-17 formation attacking Brunswick.

B-17 contrails.

Flak over a target.

American B-17 bombers hit a German-held aqueduct near Cannes, France.

Formation of B-17s over Europe.

Formation of B-17s over Europe.

B-17s, 457th Bomb Group, head for home.

B-17, 42-37826, flying through flak. 95th Bomb Group.

Wartime art showing B-17s being attacked by Bf 110s.

Blind bombing over Emden, Germany, 27 September 1943.

Devastated marshalling yard at Paris/Juvisy.

The marshalling yard at Rouen, France, after an Allied bombing.

An industrial facility in Czechoslovakia is bombed by the USAAF.

Smoke rises from Erkner factory after raid by Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers on 8 March 1944.

Smokescreen created by Germans rising from Emden during bombing raid of 27 September 1943.

A German ammunition dump near Ingolstadt, Germany, explodes from a direct hit from a B-17, 1945.

An airman illustrates how low-frequency chaff was dispensed from a launching tube mounted in the waist window of a B-17 heavy bomber.

Second Lieutenant Bert Stiles Jr., from Denver, Colorado, a B-17 co-pilot in the Eighth Air Force in the spring and summer of 1944. He flew thirty-five combat missions and between missions he wrote about what it was like to fight four or five miles above the earth. In 1952 his book, Serenade to the Big Bird, was published by W. W. Norton & Company.

Target strike photo, Schweinfurt raid, 17 August 1943.

Enlisted men at opening of an officers’ club at an Eighth Air Force base in England, 25 October 1943.

An airman, 96th Bomb Group, Eighth Air Force, prays in the 12th century Chapel of St. Andrew. The memorial window was dedicated to men of the group, killed during the war and was purchased with over $1,600 of contributions from the airmen.

Bombs falling over Kjeller, Norway, near Oslo, during raid by Eighth Air Force on 18 November 1943.

Smoke rises over German repair and maintenance base at Kjeller after raid on 18 November 1943.

A German soldier and civilian study the Fieseler aircraft factory near Bettenhausen after a bombing by Eighth Air Force.

B-17s attack chemical and synthetic oil plant across the river from Mannheim, Germany.

Photograph made from B-17 Flying Fortress of the Eighth Air Force when they attacked the vital CAM ball-bearing plant and the nearby Hispano-Suiza aircraft engine repair depot in Paris, 31 December 1943.

Sperry K-13 automatic gun sight mounted on a .50-cal. machine gun for use by waist gunners in B-24 Liberators or B-17 Flying Fortresses. 30 December 1944.

Sperry K-13 automatic gun sight mounted on a .50-cal. machine gun. 12 October 1944.

Sperry K-13 automatic gun sight mounted on a .50-cal. machine gun. 12 October 1944.

Sperry K-13 automatic gun sight mounted on a .50-cal. machine gun. 12 October 1944.

B-17s flying through flak “so heavy you could get out and walk.” Believed to be at Merseburg, Germany, circa 1944.

The Ulm, Germany, rail yards after an Eighth Air Force raid in December 1944.

Eighth Air Force bombers hit the oil refineries at Hamburg, Germany.

Part of a 1,000-ship B-17 Flying Fortress bomber stream during World War II.

Nancy Love (left), and Betty (Huyler) Gillies, co-pilot, the first women to fly the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber. The two WAFS were set to ferry a B-17 named Queen Bee to England when their flight was cancelled by General "Hap" Arnold. 1943.

Back of leather jacket worn by crew member of B-17 “The Farmer’s Daughter” from 401st BG, 8th Air Force, England, 1944-45.

Back of leather jacket worn by crew member of B-17 “Miss B. Haven” from 401st BG, 8th Air Force, England, 1944-45.

Back of leather jacket worn by crew member of B-17 “Fancy Nancy” from 401st BG, 8th Air Force, England, 1944-45.

Back of leather jacket worn by crew member of B-17 “heavenly Body” from 401st BG, 8th Air Force, England, 1944-45.

Back of leather jacket worn by crew member of B-17 “Satan’s Chille’n” from 401st BG, 8th Air Force, England, 1944-45.

Back of leather jacket worn by crew member of B-17 “Time’ll Tell!” from 401st BG, 8th Air Force, England, 1944-45.

Back of leather jacket worn by crew member of B-17 “Lovely Lisa” from 401st BG, 8th Air Force, England, 1944-45.

Back of leather jacket worn by crew member of B-17 “Der Grossarschvogel” from 401st BG, 8th Air Force, England, 1944-45.

Back of leather jacket worn by crew member of B-17 “Grin ‘n Bare it” from 401st BG, 8th Air Force, England, 1944-45.

Back of leather jacket worn by crew member of B-17 “Grin ‘n Bare It” from 401st BG, 8th Air Force, England, 1944-45.

Back of leather jacket worn by crew member of B-17 “Tantalizing Takeoff” from 401st BG, 8th Air Force, England, 1944-45.

Back of leather jacket worn by crew member of B-17 “Diabolical Angel” from 401st BG, 8th Air Force, England, 1944-45.

Members of the U.S. Army Air Force stationed in Great Britain are in a good position to appreciate the British end of Lend-Lease arrangements. A visit to an American bomber station "somewhere in England" shows some of the many varieties of equipment with which Britain supplies her American Ally. No.7. British made cash tenders and ambulances wait, ready for an emergency, at the strategic corners of the field, as the B-17 Fortresses land after a mission over the Rhur. The engines of the trucks are kept running, the men stand alert at their posts read to move into instant action should a plane, damaged by enemy action, foul its landing. On the back of the crash tender is an asbestos suit. Its wearer can work in fire for several minutes - vital ones, should a plane catch fire and its crew be trapped. In the background a B-17 has landed. Already the sergeant on the telephone is watching the next plane land. 1943.

B-17 at Sentani airport near Hollandia.

A large group of bomb dump staff at an American airfield somewhere in Britain ride bicycles past several aircraft on their way off-base. According to the original caption: "vast numbers of bicycles are supplied to US Army Air Corps stations where restrictions on motor transport and big areas to be covered make their use essential". The aircraft on the left features the letters NV, indicating that it is an aircraft of 326 Squadron, 92nd Bombardment Group.

Sergeant R Delavance adjusts the valves on one of the many lifting bags supplied to the 8th Army Air Corps at an American airfield somewhere in Britain. The bag is being used to lift the wing of a B-17 Flying Fortress.

Fill 'er Up: Lubricating and servicing a new B-17 Flying Fortress bomber for flight tests at the airfield of Boeing's Seattle plant. 1942.

B-17 on steel mat landing strip on Guadalcanal.

The King talking to a member of a B-17 Flying Fortress air crew during his visit today to one of the b omber squadrons of the U.S. Army Air Corps. His Majesty inspected Flying Fortresses and Liberators and talked to many of their crews. 13 November 1942.

A Messerschmitt Me 410 armed with a BK 5 50mm cannon breaks away after attacking a 388th Bomb Group B-17 over Europe in 1943. It was easy meat for Allied fighters.