Plane #5 - Boeing B17 Flying Fortress.

Well, of course, this is a Boeing B 17. Dubbed by Hollywood as the 'Flying Fortress'. Probably the most famous plane of the War. At least it got more publicity. It was a Boeing designed plane but built (under license) by Lockheed and Douglas as well. My Mother worked at Douglas during the War. She operated a Rockwell Hardness Tester, testing aluminum forgings for the B 17's that Douglas built at thier Long Beach plant.

The crew, per the AAF, was Pilot, Coplilot and Flight Engineer on the upper deck and a Navigator and Bombardier in the nose, and the Radio Operator back in the radio rooom. In the pix, the door I am about to 'spring' through is really an escape hatch for the two guys in the nose (Navigator and Bombardier). If your work station was in the cockpit area you would crawl back a few feet and then stand up in front of the 'upper local' gun turrent. (I never knew why it was so named). If you turned forward one step you put you in the cockpit. If the guns were either fore or aft positioned, you could walk through the turrent and on to the catwalk, through the bomb bay and into the radio room, the only warm place on the plane at 37000 feet! The most significant thing about the bomb bay was that the relief tube was located there! You opened the rear bomb bay door into the radio room. The radio operators station was on the left side of the plane and he had a very small window to see outside. The ceiling of the room opened up to make room for a 50 caliber gun to be 'slid' into position. It was also an escape hatch for water or belly landings. (I have a funny story about that) If you continued back of the radio room into the waist area, there were 2 guns (called waist guns) mounted near two large windows that must have been 2x3 feet in area. One on each side of the plane. You fired out of those windows. Further back there was a door on the right side much like a passenger door on an airliner,albiet much smaller. Then there was the tail wheel assembly. An oleo strut and retracting gear and extension mechanism. The tail gunner had to crawl around all of this to get back to his tail gunners position. There was a door to the outside at his position, but that could only be used for bailing out in flight. At first there were two waist gunners, but later they dropped one and one gunner manned both guns. Just past the radio room and into the waist gun area there was a mechanism to operate the lower ball sufficiently to help the lower ball gunner This was done with gears and a hand crank. The lower ball had to have its guns pointed straight down for the gunner to enter or leave the turret from inside the plane. As a practical matter it cannot be entered from the ground as the guns had to be pointed parallel to the bottom of the plane to avoid ground contact. That close off the entry to and from the lower ball to the rest of the plane. The mechanism to do this was located at the rear bulkhead between the waist area and the radio room. The lower ball had the most accurate and effective guns on the plane. Possibly because the gunner moved with the guns.

It also had a Sperry computerized gun sight. When you looked into the sight you would see two little blips that could be separated and widened or contracted. When an enemy fighter was advancing on you, you layed the blips on his wing tips. As he got closer the gunner widened the blips holding onto the wing tips. Then the computer would analyze the speed and route of the enemy fighter and adjust the gun sights accordingly. The theory being that he could not hit you unless he maintained a set pattern known as a 'pursuit curve'. So the Sperry gunsight always knew where the enemy was !(in theory) and where he was going. The upper local turret back of the cockpit had the same Sperry sight. (This was the turret manned by the Flight Engineer.)

The B17 was powered by four 1820 (cubic inches) nine cylinder Wright Cyclone, turbo supercharged to 1200 HP engines.They burned about a total of 350 GPH. The exhaust air was driven down through a turbine wheel known as a 'bucket wheel' The hot exhaust would spin the bucket wheel up to many thousands of RPM. Exhaust heat made it white hot. This was connected to a turbine arrangement that forced air into the fuel system (carburetor) which could then maintain maximun power for higher altitudes. I have been as high as 40,000 in training. However with full tanks and bomb bay the ceiling was much lower. I believe most missions went out at below 30,000 feet.

The plane was a pussy cat to fly, though a little heavy on the controls. It landed much easier than a Cub! It was stable as a church with no surprises. Except for the heavy controls it worked well in close formations.

I managed to get a few hours in the right seat after getting assigned to Doc Schelters crew. He believed the FE should be able to get the plane on the ground. The plane was nearly all electric. Most planes had hydraulic flaps, landing gear retraction, cowl flaps etc. But the only thing on the '17 that was hydraulic were the brakes. And even there the pressure was supplied by an electric motor driving a geared pump.

Addendum: The B17 was used in the heaviest aerial combat of the war.It's losses were incredible. More than 2 divisions of Airman were lost. Raids in the last year often totaled nearly a thousand planes. Losses of 20 to 30 planes per raid were almost routine. The RAF had long given up daylight raids. But the US Generals all felt the B17 had protective armament to make it possible. And of course the much publicized Norden bombsight was expected to bring fantastic results. While these things were good they did not live up to the Generals dreams. They should have dreamed for a long range fighter to escort the bombers to the target. Not wait until the War was on its last half.

It is hard to believe that when the war started we had only a few G models. And the G model sported the first tail gun position. During the first year of active combat they discovered the German fighters were attacking from the front and were very effective. This produced the 'chin' gun which placed two 50 caliber guns under control of the Bombardier.The first B 17's with a tail gunner position were modified model F's. many of these and the first one I beleive, were performed at United Air Lines Overhaul base then at Cheyenne Wy. They were of course called Cheyenne Tails.

Dad thanks so much for the great description! I've posted it to the blog. At least one question - it was a B17 that we saw at Oshkosh in '91 wasn't it? Also - dumb question - does the "B" always mean Boeing? Were there other plans there were designed by one company and built by others?

B stands for Bomber. The AAF never gave any designation to the manufacture. Only the Navy did that. The AAF gave notice of what the airplane was designed for . P Pursuit, B Bomber ,A Attack, O for Observation and so on. An Attack plane was designed to attack ground forces. Bombers were for strategic targets. The Navy did it differently. A fighter was F, then came to model number like # 4, and then the manufacturer. U, which stood for United Aircraft. They sometimes also had a name like Corsair. Somewhere down the line after the Air Force broke away from the Army, they dropped the old designation and used F for fighter, ergo the F 16. Observation was a big deal when the very old Army Air Corp existed. The first use they could think of was to be able to locate the enemy. They could locate the enemy and then send a bomber out to destroy it. I know they built Observation planes up to O47 which was new in 1940. That was the sad state of affairs when the war started in Europe in 1939. I could go on and on.



At least one question - it was a B17 that we saw at Oshkosh in '91 wasn't it?

Now I remember. We did go through a B 17 one year at OSH. I remember explaining some of the things to you.