DESIGNED BY: Boeing Company
MODEL: Boeing Company
DESIGNED BY: B-17G Flying Fortress
ARMY AIR CORPS SERIAL NUMBER: 44-83563
BUILT UNDER LICENSE BY: Douglas Aircraft Company
DELIVERY DATE: April 7, 1945
PROTOTYPE FIRST FLIGHT: July 28, 1935 (as Model 299)
CREW: Boeing
DESIGNED: Ten—Pilot, Co-pilot, Navigator, Bombardier, Flight Engineer / Top Turret Gunner, Radio Operator, 2 Waist Gunners, Tail Gunner and Ball Turret Gunner
POWER: Four 1,200-horsepower Wright Cyclone R-1820, 9-cylinder radial piston engines driving 11 feet, 7 inches in diameter Hamilton Standard propellers
WEIGHTS: Basic Empty Weight – 34,000 pounds, Gross Weight (Wartime) – 65,500 pounds
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 inches
SERVICE CEILING: 35,600 feet
TYPICAL ARMAMENT: Thirteen Browning M-2 .50 caliber machine guns. Fire rate approximately 13 rounds per second, per gun
TYPICAL BOMB LOAD: Maximum normal load – 8,000 pounds With special external racks, maximum normal short-range bomb load – 17,600 pounds
NUMBER BUILT: 12,731, with production of the “G” Model by Boeing, Douglas and Lockheed reaching 8,680
SPEEDS: Maximum – 300 miles per hour at 30,000 feet
COLORS: 447th Bomb Group

The B-17 Flying Fortress, “Fuddy Duddy,” was used as a VIP transport in the Pacific at the end of World War II. It once carried General Dwight D. Eisenhower who later became the 33rd President of the United States. In civilian life, it worked as a fire bomber and was occasionally used for motion picture filming, flying on screen in movies such as the 1962 Steve McQueen movie, “The War Lover” and the 1970 blockbuster, “Tora Tora Tora.”