Cassi Creek: We drove
into Jonesborough for dinner and the Halloween dance last night.
Gloria was well
costumed, using a Rockwell cover as her guide for a “Rosie the riveter”
appearance.
Keeping to
the era, I turned out as an AAF air crewman that could have matched any of several
jobs other than Pilot/Co-Pilot on a heavy bomber.
Gloria’s
costume was, sadly, not well recognized by most of the under 60 group. Mine was somewhat more recognized as aviation
related but, again, the same younger folks didn’t manage to make the tie to
WWII. A few people wanted to know if my
hat was genuine and were surprised when I told them it is older than I am.
There are only a few of these behemoths surviving. If you have the chance to see one, please
take it. It will surprise you that the
aircraft were so Spartan in nature and so vulnerable to enemy aircraft and
guns. The odds were against any aircrew
making a round trip without sustaining crew losses and plane damage. Heroes, all!
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft primarily employed
by the United States Army Air
Forces (USAAF) during World War II. Developed by Boeing,
a total of 12,731 aircraft had been produced by Boeing, Douglas and Lockheed from 1936 until 1945. A
vast majority (over 8,000) of these aircraft were lost in either combat
operations or training accidents. The remaining combat veterans and early production modelswere
stored and later scrapped in the vast scrap drives of the late 1940s.
The majority of the aircraft that survive
today came from the last batches of aircraft produced by both Douglas and Lockheed,
which had better corrosion control practices. These aircraft had found use in
the 1950s and early 1960s as DB-17 Drone Director
and QB-17 target aircraft with the USAF,
as U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard early warning, air sea rescue or weather aircraft (known
by the naval aircraft designations PB-1W or PB-1G), or overseas as photo
mapping aircraft with French National
Geographic Institute. After retirement from active service, these
aircraft were converted during the 1960s to the late 1980s as bulk cargo
transport, aerial sprayer, and water tanker aircraft.
During the late 1970s when the warbird movement began, these survivors were eagerly
anticipated and as each came on the civilian market many were restored to
original combat configuration. In the 1990s, as intact, existing airframes became increasingly rare
(only 46 intact B-17's are known to exist as of August 2013); restorers began
seeking out airframes that were previously considered unrecoverable.
Specifications (B-17G)
Data from the
Encyclopedia of World Aircraft
General characteristics
·
Crew: 10: Pilot,
co-pilot, navigator, bombardier/nose gunner,top turret gunner, radio operator,
waist gunners (2), ball turret gunner,
tail gunner[193]
·
Length: 74 ft 4 in (22.66 m)
·
Height: 19 ft 1 in (5.82 m)
·
Wing area: 1,420 sq ft (131.92 m2)
·
Loaded weight: 54,000 lb (24,500 kg)
·
Powerplant: 4 × Wright R-1820-97 "Cyclone"
turbosupercharged radial engines, 1,200 hp (895
kW) each
Performance
Armament
·
Guns: 13 × .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning
machine guns in 8
positions(2 in the Bendix chin turret,2 on nose cheeks ,two staggered waist
guns,2 in upper Sperry turret,2 in Sperry ball turret in belly,2 in the tail
and one in the nose)
·
Bombs:
·
Short range missions (<400 mi="" span=""> 8,000 lb (3,600 kg)
·
Long range missions (≈800 mi): 4,500 lb (2,000 kg)
·
Overload: 17,600 lb (7,800 kg)
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