The Boeing B-17

The B—17 Flying Fortress, a term coined by a Seattle Daily Times report in 1935, was a quantum leap in offensive air power. Designed for a nation whose foreign policy was still deeply isolationist, and an Air Corps whose in—service bomber fleet was dominated by bi—planes, the B—17, with its four engines, huge wingspan, enviable payload – almost double that of contemporary bombers – and all metal construction, ushered in a new age.

For an aircraft of its size and relative complexity the B—17’...