Boeing B-17E Flying Fortress
|
Crew |
10 |
|
Dimensions |
103’9” by
67’11” by
15’5” 1.62m by 22.50m by 5.84m |
|
Wing area |
1420 square feet 131.9 square meters |
|
Weights |
33,280-53,000 lbs 15,096-24,040 kg |
|
Maximum speed |
317 mph at
25,000 feet. 510 km/h at 7620 m |
|
Cruising speed |
210 mph 338 km/h |
| Landing speed | 84
mph 135 km/h |
|
Climb rate |
22 feet per second 6.7 m/s |
|
Service ceiling |
36,600
feet 11,155 m |
| 4 1200hp (895kW) Wright Cyclone R-1820-65 Cyclone 9-cylinder radial exhaust-turbocharged engines | |
|
Armament |
1 nose 0.30
machine gun 2 waist 0.50 machine guns 2 paired dorsal turret 0.50 machine guns 2 paired ventral ball turret 0.50 machine guns 2 paired tail 0.50 machine guns |
|
Bomb load |
4,000 lbs 1815 kg |
|
Range |
2000 miles at 250 mph (3218 km at 402 km/h) with 4000lb (1800
kg) bomb load. Up to 3400 miles (5500 km) with reduced bomb load. |
|
Maximum fuel |
1700 gallons 6400 liters |
|
Production |
12,731 of all types at Boeing Airplane Co, Seattle, WA;
Vega Aircraft
Corporation, Burbank, CA; and Douglas Aircraft Company, Tulsa, Oklahoma. 119 B-17B, C, and D 512 B-17E 3405 B-17F 8680 B-17G |
|
Variants |
The B-17B, C, and D lacked tail guns and
had a ventral
blister rather
than the
ball turret. They also had smaller tails, which reduced
stability
for
accurate bombing. The B-17F used R-1820-97 engines giving it an emergency speed of 314 mph (505 km/h), and it added two 0.50 waist guns. It had extra wing fuel cells ("Tokyo tanks") extending its range slightly. The B-17G was the definitive model, with an added chin turret having two 0.50 machine guns for increased forward protection. The PB-1W was under development by the Navy at the time of the Japanese surrender. It would have carried a powerful airborne radar and fighter controllers, prefiguring the modern AWACS aircraft. |
The legendary B-17 Flying Fortress
was the first true
strategic bomber. It was
an extremely rugged and reliable
aircraft, with
very sedate handling that allowed many a pilot to bring his badly
damaged aircraft
home. However, the B-17 failed to live up to expectations that it
could defend
itself in enemy airspace, though it gave the Japanese a
harder time than the Germans
because the German
fighters were armored and much
studier than Japanese
fighters. Its Norden
bombsight was amazingly accurate – in the absence of cloud
cover, wind shear,
and flak. Under real combat
conditions, accuracy varied from
fair to
abysmal. The B-17 also never lived up to expectations that it
could
interdict shipping:
Its crews found that
hitting a moving target from
five
miles up was almost impossible. However, under the right
conditions, the
B-17 could do massive damage to stationary targets, such as airfields,
ports,
and troop concentrations.
The B-17 was dubbed the Flying Fortress by a
newspaper reporter when the prototype was rolled out for its first
flight on 28 July 1935. The aircraft went extensive modification over
its production run, so that the original B-17 and the B-17G hardly
appeared to be the same aircraft. The B-17C, which was the first model
to see combat, incorporated some but not all of the lessons of the
early years of the Second World War, while the B-17E was the first
fully modernized model. The definitive B-17G model went into
production in mid-1943, and most B-17s were equipped with bombing radar by the beginning of 1944.
Two squadrons of B-17s were in the Philippines when war broke out, with additional squadrons on the way. The reinforcements were diverted elsewhere (mostly Australia and the Netherlands East Indies) when it became clear that the Japanese were firmly in control of the air over Luzon. Over half of all B-17 crews were deployed to the Pacific during the first year of the war, but by mid-1943 the B-17 was being rapidly replaced by the B-24, whose longer range made it more suitable for the vast distances of the Pacific. Virtualy no new B-17 squadrons were deployed to the Pacific thereafter.
References
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2009 by Kent G. Budge. Index
