Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
The Fortress
“The bomber that brought its crews home.”
Boeing · military
The Flying Fortress dropped over 640,000 tons of bombs on Nazi Germany — more than 40 percent of the Allied total — and earned its real reputation by coming home full of holes. Crews trusted the Fort to absorb damage that should have been fatal and still make England. Of 12,731 built, about 45 survive complete, and only a handful still fly.
Of the roughly 1.5 million tons of bombs Allied aircraft dropped on Nazi Germany, over 640,000 tons fell from B-17s.
Four radial engines, one huge rounded tail fin with a long dorsal fillet, and the ball turret under the belly. Single tail separates it instantly from the twin-tailed B-24.
One might be overhead right now.
Bogey turns the The Fortress from a dot in the sky into a card in your logbook.
