DESIGNED BY:

Boeing Company, Seattle, Washington

BUILT UNDER LICENSE BY:

Vega Aircraft Company (now Lockheed)

MODEL:

B-17G Flying Fortress

ARMY AIR CORPS SERIAL NUMBER:

#44-85740

DELIVERY DATE:

May 18, 1945

REQUIRED CREW:

Ten—Pilot, Co-pilot, Navigator, Bombardier, Flight Engineer (top turret gunner), Radio Operator, 2 Waist Gunners, Tail Gunner and Ball Turret Gunner

POWER:

The B-17G is powered by four 1,200-horsepower Wright Cyclone Model R-1820-97 engines. These engines are nine cylinder, radial, air-cooled type with a 16:9 gear ratio. The propellers are three-bladed Hamilton Standard propellers, 11 feet, 7 inches in diameter.

WEIGHTS:

Basic Empty Weight 34,000 lbs.

Gross Weight (Wartime) 65,500 lbs.

FUEL CAPACITY:

1,700 gallons

RANGE:

1,850 miles. Range could be extended when equipped with “Tokyo Tanks” which provided a total capacity of 3,630 gallons.

WING SPAN:

103 feet, 9 inches

LENGTH:

74 feet, 4 inches

HEIGHT:

19 feet, 1 inch

SERVICE CEILING:

35,600 feet

ARMAMENT:

Thirteen Browning M-2 .50 caliber machine guns. Fire rate approximately 13 rounds per second. No gun on a B-17 carried more than one minute’s supply of ammunition.

BOMB LOAD:

Depending on types of bombs, maximum normal load could go to 8,000 lbs. If B-17 was fitted with special external racks, maximum normal short-range bomb load could go as high as 17,600 lbs.

NUMBER BUILT:

12,732. Production peaked at 16 airplanes a day in April 1944. Today there are about a dozen B-17’s still flying.

SPEEDS:

Maximum 300 mph. at 30,000 ft.

Maximum continuous 263 mph. at 25,000 ft.

Cruising speed 170 mph.

Landing 74 mph.

Rate of Climb 37 minutes to 20,000 ft.

COLORS:

398th Bomb Group