“Flying Fortress”

This past week-end the B-17 Liberty Belle arrived in town. For a paltry $430.00 you could take a 30 minute ride. I realized right away that the cost of riding in this plane was not in the family fund's. So, I settled on taking my camera out and took picture's.

Arriving at Meadow's Field

Flying overhead

Landing gear down

The Boeing B-17 is by far the most famous bomber of World War II. In 1934 the Boeing Aircraft Company of Seattle Washington began construction of a four engine heavy bomber. Known as the Model -299, first flight was achieved on July 28th 1935. As a result, the U.S. Government placed an order for production of 13 of these aircraft and began to take delivery of the 13 production aircraft between January 11th and August 4th 1937.

The B-17, dubbed the “Flying Fortress” as a result of her amount of defensive firepower, underwent a number of improvements over its ten-year production run. B-17 Models ranged from the YB-17 to the B-17G model. Throughout the war the B-17 was refined and improved as the combat experience showed the Boeing designers where improvements could be made. The Final B-17 production model, the B-17G was produced in the largest quantities (8,680) than any other previous model and is considered the definitive “Flying Fortress”. With its 13 .50-caliber machine guns, Chin, top, ball and tail turrets; waist and cheek guns the B-17 was indeed an airplane that earned the respect of its combatants. In addition, the flight crews loved the B-17 for her ability to take and withstand heavy combat damage and return safely home.

The above picture is looking forward from the door opening which is on the right side of the plane about a third way from the rear.

This picture was shot from the same door looking to the rear of the plane. This is the hole the tail gunner had to climb through to get into position. The hump is the rear wheel recess.

During WWII, the B-17 saw service in every theater of operation, but was operated primarily by the 8th Air force in Europe and participated in countless missions from bases in England. A typical B-17 Mission often lasted for more than eight hours and struck targets deep within enemy territory. During the war, B-17’s dropped 640,036 tons of bombs on European targets in daylight raids. This compares to the 452,508 tons dropped by the B-24 and 464,544 tons dropped by all other U.S. aircraft. The B-17 also downed 23 enemy aircraft per 1,000 raid as compared with 11 by B-24’s and 11 by fighters and three by all U.S. medium and light bombers.

There were a total of 12,732 B-17’s that were produced between 1935 and May 1945. Of these 4,735 were lost in combat. Following WWII, the B-17 saw service in three more wars. B-17’s were used in Korea, Israel used them in the war of 1948 and they were even used during Vietnam.

Today, fewer than 100 B-17 airframes exist and fewer still are in airworthy condition. At one time, more than 1000 B-17’s could be assembled for mass combat missions, now less than 15 of Boeings famous bombers can still take to the sky.

This gentleman's name is Robert Charles Osborne. He is a local veteran that was a gunner on this specific plane. He told me that he had flown 16 missions on this plane. He has a book titled "Bail Out"
I asked him about his book title and he told me a story I could not understand, I guess I will need to go buy the book and read it.

Thank you Mr. Osborne and all veterans for your service to our country.