Seventy-five years ago this month,
on July 28, a four-engine plane
took off from Boeing Field in South
Seattle on its first flight.
Rolling out of the Boeing hangar, it was
simply known as the Model 299. Seattle
Times reporter Richard Smith dubbed the
new plane, with its many machine-gun
mounts, the “Flying Fortress,” a name that
Boeing quickly adopted and copyrighted.
The U.S. Army Air Corps designated
the plane as the B-17. And during the
Second World War, individual planes
carried names that reflected the affection
of crews: Memphis Belle, Homesick Angel
and Lucky Lady, to name a few.
Along with its many names, the Flying
Fortress was also a plane of many people.
The list begins with Boeing Chairman
Claire Egtvedt, the “father” of the B-17,
who set Boeing on a new course to build
“big” airplanes, rather than the smaller
models popular at the time. Along with
Boeing designers C.N. “Monty” Monteith,
Robert Minshall, E.G. Emery and a young
Ed Wells, they had the vision of interpreting
the U.S. Army’s request for a multi-engine
bomber to be one with four engines rather
than the standard two-engine design—a
decision that saved the 299 from being
a footnote to aviation history.
Another on that long list was Boeing
test pilot Les Tower, who took the 299 for
its first flight that July day and later made
a record-breaking flight from Seattle to
Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, where the airplane
was to fly against its competition, the
Douglas DB-1 (B-18). He died from injuries
sustained when the Model 299 crashed.
There were also tens of thousands
of employees at Boeing, Douglas and
Lockheed-Vega who contributed to
the war effort by building 12,731 Flying
Fortresses for the “Arsenal of Democracy.”
They included thousands of women
who joined the war effort working at nontraditional
jobs who collectively became
known as “Rosie the Riveters.”
Assuredly the most important people
in the B-17 story are the young men
who flew them in combat. The success
of the daylight bombing campaign over
Germany hung on their courage—and
the ruggedness of the Flying Fortress.
There are volumes of stories of shot-up
B-17s that returned crews safely to their
bases, some so badly damaged they
never flew again.
The effort and sacrifice of all of the
people behind the B-17—and those who
flew in them—is perhaps best summed up
by General Carl Spaatz, the American air
commander in Europe, who said: “Without
the B-17 we may have lost the war.”
Extensively used during the war,
the Flying Fortress became an icon of
American air power and helped establish
Boeing’s global reputation.
The B-17 story is also one about
the partnership between Boeing and
the Seattle community, whose support
and generosity ensured that Boeing built
Plant 2, the “Fortress Factory” at Boeing
Field in South Seattle. It was a team effort
that involved employees, unions and the
local community that made it possible
for Boeing to produce 6,981 B-17s at
that Seattle plant.
Finally, a big part of the success of the
B-17 was the working-together relationship
between Boeing and the U.S. military that
resulted in the bomber earning a reputation
for performing missions with precision and
success—a tradition of quality and excellence
that has continued with each new generation
of Boeing planes for the warfighter.
After 75 years, the few B-17s that
remain are greeted at air shows and
museums with a kind of reverence—an
enduring tribute for those who designed,
built and maintained the Flying Fortress, for
those young airmen who flew it in combat,
and especially for those who gave their
lives defending freedom.
michael.j.lombardi@boeing.comB-17 production by the numbers
B-17 production: Boeing Douglas Lockheed Total
Model 299 1 1
YB-17/Y1B-17 13 13
Y1B-17A 1 1
B-17B 39 39
B-17C 38 38
B-17D 42 42
B-17E 512 512
B-17F 2,300 605 500 3,405
B-17G 4,035 2,395 2,250 8,680
Total 6,981 3,000 2,750 12,731
http://www.boeing.com/history/boeing/b17.html
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