TheBoeing B-17 Flying Fortressis a four-engineheavy bomberaircraft developed in the 1930s for theUnited States Army Air Corps(USAAC). Competing againstDouglasandMartinfor a contract to build 200 bombers, theBoeingentry outperformed both competitors and more than met the Air Corps' expectations. Although Boeing lost the contract because the prototype crashed, the Air Corps was so impressed with Boeing's design that they ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation. From its introduction in 1938, the B-17 Flying Fortress evolved through numerousdesign advances.

The B-17 was primarily employed by theUnited States Army Air Forces(USAAF) in the daylight precisionstrategic bombing campaign of World WarIIagainst German industrial and military targets. The United StatesEighth Air Force, based at many airfields in southern England, and theFifteenth Air Force, based in Italy, complemented theRAF Bomber Command's nighttime area bombing in theCombined Bomber Offensiveto help secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation forthe invasion of Francein 1944.[4]The B-17 also participated to a lesser extent in theWar in the Pacific, early in World War II, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields.

From its pre-war inception, the USAAC (later USAAF) touted the aircraft as a strategic weapon; it was a potent, high-flying, long-range bomber that was able to defend itself, and to return home despite extensive battle damage. It quickly took on mythic proportions,[5][N 1][8]and widely circulated stories and photos of B-17s surviving battle damage increased its iconic status.[9]With aservice ceilinggreater than any of its Allied contemporaries, the B-17 established itself as an effective weapons system, dropping more bombs than any other U.S. aircraft in World WarII. Of the1.5 millionmetric tonsof bombs dropped onGermanyand its occupied territories by U.S. aircraft, 640,000tons were dropped from B-17s.[10]

As of September 2011,13 aircraftremain airworthy, with dozens more in storage or on static display.

-wikipedia

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