Boeing B-17H Flying Fortress

Boeing SB-17G "Ready Teddy," Morotai Island, 1945. (City of Coffs Harbour, Accession Number mus07-8837)

About 130 B-17Gs were converted for air-sea rescue missions for the USAAF, carrying an airborne lifeboat. Of these, twelve received the new designation B-17H, with five B-17Hs becoming TB-17Hs. The B-17H and TB-17H were redesignated SB-17G in 1948.

 

A Flying Dutchman B-17 awaiting its next mission at Ie Shima in August 1945. 5th Rescue Group.

A 5th Rescue Group B-17H at Ie Shima, July 27, 1945.

4th Emergency Rescue Squadron, Iwo Jima.

Boeing B-17H Flying Fortress equipped with search radar and a lifeboat underneath the fuselage, 6th Emergency Rescue Squadron, Florida Blanca Airstrip, Luzon, June 1945.

Boeing/Douglas B-17H-DL (44-83719) taxi at Hayward Airport, California, on April 20, 1947. (Bill Larkins)

B-17H Flying Fortress, serial number 44-83722, converted from a B-17G to serve as a search and rescue aircraft with the addition of an airborne lifeboat carried underneath and, in some cases, a search radar replaced the chin turret, as seen here.

B-17H Flying Fortress search and rescue aircraft converted from a B-17G by adding an airborne lifeboat beneath the fuselage and a radar dome in the nose in place of the nose turret.

B-17H equipped with search radar and a lifeboat underneath the fuselage, 6th Emergency Rescue Squadron, Florida Blanca Airstrip, Luzon, June 1945.

The Sikorsky R-5 and Boeing B-17H from the Air Rescue Service Squadron at Hamilton Field arriving at Hayward Airport on April 20, 1947 for an open house exhibit. (Bill Larkins)

A U.S. Army Air Force Boeing SB-17G-95-DL (S/N 44-83773) Flying Fortress SAR-plane in flight over Diamond Head, Oahu, Hawaii, in the late 1940s. (USAF)

51st Rescue Squadron SB-17s, Narsarsuaq Air Base, Greenland, 1950s. B-17G-110-BO Fortress 43-39362 visible. (USAF)

Boeing SB-17G of the 5th Rescue Squadron, Flight D, circa 1950. (USAF)

Top view of Boeing SB-17G-95DL (44-83722), assigned to the 2nd ERS as a Search and Rescue aircraft, with Stinson L-5 (42-98578). (USAF)

SB-17G (44-82700), south end of Hamilton Field in 1949. The Air Force Reserve was using the hangar in the distance flying C-46s and B-26s. (Bill Larkins)