B-17 in WW II -- production and specifications

In 1934, the U.S. Army Air Corp was looking for a bomber to replace biplane bombers. To that end, they had a competition. Boeing responded to this competition when they developed an the airplane that was later known as the B-17.  In June of 1935, the first prototype, aka model 299, was unveiled at the Boeing plant in Seattle WA, ready for testing, go here for a photo of model 299).  A press release written shortly afterwards on model 299 may be found here.

Edward Jablonski describes model 299 in his 1965 book, Flying Fortress:

It was a beautifully designed, streamlined, gleaming giant of a plane. The wings spread to more than a hundred and three feet, the cylindrical fuselage stretched almost sixty-nine feet from turret to tail. Immediately striking, was the array of four giant Pratt and Whitney engines protruding, from the wind, each with a three bladed, eleven and a half foot in diameter, propeller. ... These five gun emplacements won the 299 the name of Flying Fortress. So did the size ... . One of the main wheels was almost as tall as a man and the elevator spanned thirty-three feet--three feet more than the wingspan of the Boeing’s F4B-4 Fighter (Jablonski 1965: 6).

Added on September 4, 2017, the video of the model 299 prototype that I posted in March 2011 is no longer available on youtube. But I did some information on the model 299 from Historic Wings.

The Air Corp wanted a heavy bomber and liked what they saw leading to the production of the model 299 series, later to be designated the B-17. The rest is history.  

There were a total of eight different B-17 models (aka Flying Fortress) beyond the single “model 299 prototype”. These were the: Y1B-17, Y1B-17A (1 only), B-17B, B-17C, B-17D, B-17E, B-17F, and B-17G. Including the one model 299 prototype, there were a total of 12,731 B-17’s built from 1935 through 1945. Of the 12,731 B-17’s manufactured, 3,405 were model B-17F and 8,680 were Model B-17G. Douglas (3,000) and Vega/Lockheed (2,700) began producing B-17s with the F models. Just over one-third or 4,750 B-17s were lost in combat (Jablonski 1985: 308-9). Note that I do not think that Jablonski's figure includes B-17's lost in training and other non-combat related accidents.

In addition to the models that I just listed, I just found out that there was also a model known as the B-17H. Apparently this variation was used in rescue operations with a life raft that was carried underneath the forward section of the fuselage. The National Museum of the US Air Force has a fact sheet on the B-17H that may be found here. In addition, the National Museum of the US Air Force has a fact sheet for each of the B-17 models. Go to their bomber page, scroll down to the section on the left side of the page for 1930s development and you will see listings for the B-17 models.

Added on September 4, 2017, the information that I found in 2011 on the B-17H from the National Museum of the US Air Force is no longer available, but I did find a short description of the conversion of B-17-G's to B-17-H for rescue operations on this wikipedia page on B-17 variants.

A nice discussion of the production history along with a summary of the B-17’s role in the U.S. Eighth Air Force in Europe, an account of a German Luftwaffe pilot on his impressions of a B-17 captured by the Luftwaffe, and some specifications may be found here. Boeing has  a nice webpage on the B-17 that includes a short history and specifications. I encourage you to spend a few minutes on these two sites as well as the US Air Force pages on the B-17 referenced in the last paragraph. In doing so, I hope that you will start to get to know and love the Flying Fortress as I have.

Note: The specifications on the two sites that include specifications are for the B-17 in her military configuration. Certain specifications such as cruise speed along with other performance specifications are likely to be different when the B-17 was reconfigured for use as a firebomber. You will note the the cruise speeds on the two sites are different (182 mph and 150 mph). I will leave it to those of you who are aficionados to sort these differences out. Finally, there are numerous sites around the web listing specifications for the B-17, I have only listed two.

Reference: In preparing this article, I have linked to some websites. In addition, I found a good reference in The Flying Fortress: The Illustrated Biography of the B-17s and the Me Who Flew Them by Edward Jablonski (1965, Doubleday and Co.: Garden City NY. My copy was a gift, and I understand that copies may still be available through the second hand book market.

Edited on September 4, 2017 to strike out dead links and add current links where available.

Next up: B17 in WW II - the crew