The Flying Fortress

As the second world war wore on, Allied and Axis forces began to fight on a whole new front in the skies. There was an infatuation with air power as countries found the appeal of deploying high damaging machinery away from their homeland, especially for America who sought keep the war away from her mainland at all costs. Strategic bombings have been seen in WW1, and many powers began developing state-of-the-art bomber fleets during the interwar years. In 1934, the US Army Corps proposed a new four-engine bomber (at the time, most bombers had just two) that would replace the Martin B-10 as a response to rising tensions in the Pacific.

Enter the B-17 Flying Fortress.

The Boeing model 299 was produced as the B-17, a powerful bomber intended for strategic precision bombings by day. Four turbo-supercharged radial engines gave the plane power to fly at high altitude outside of anti-aircraft guns, with heavy armaments to protect the plane against any counterattacks. The Norden bombsight, which was a telescopic sight with a stabilized gyroscope and electromechanical computer which read flight data from the Fortress to greatly improve accuracy, was mounted at the front glass nose. The plane was equipped with turrets in the upper fuselage, belly, and tail, sporting .50 caliber guns. After finding it hard to fend off head on attacks, B-17 model G had extra chin turrets, carrying 13 guns total, with a crew of 10 people needed to operate the Fortress. Cruising altitude for the B-17 was 25,000 to 35,000 feet, and could carry up to 8,000 pounds as bomb load, usually lighter for faraway missions where the Fortresses were escorted by either P-51 Mustangs or Spitfires. The bombers flew in “box” formations of 9 to 12 planes, three squadron boxes formed a group, and three groups formed a combat wing. The Fortress had great flight characteristics, great damage resistance, and was almost universally well regarded by pilots. 

 

Further along the war, the B-29 Superfortress, a larger and more powerful bomber, would take over the role of the B-17. Bockscar and Enola Gay were B-29s that dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nevertheless, the Flying Fortress proved to be a crucial turning point for the front in the air during the Second World War.

Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/technology/B-17

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https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/b-17-flying-fortress-top-facts-wwii.html
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