3 Things You Didn’t Know About The B-17

There’s no doubt that the B-17 is one of America’s best WWII bombers with over 12,000 models produced for combat. It also dropped more bombs than any other US aircraft during the war.

Here are three interesting facts about this famous bomber: 

1. The B-18 Actually Won The Competition Against The B-17 In 1935

What’s amazing is that there were only 350 B-18s built compared to more than 12,000 B-17s.

This was due to the fact that Boeing made many improvements to the initial design.

One of those improvements would have prevented the crash of the prototype – the pre-flight checklist. As military needs changed, the B-17 became the better plane, by far. 

2. The term, “Flying Fortress”, was originally coined by a Seattle reporter

When the plane first rolled out, many flight journalists were impressed.  

Seattle Times reporter Richard Smith exclaimed, ‘Why, it’s a flying fortress!’

Eventually, Boeing adopted the nickname and trademarked it. 

3. It had a relatively small bomb load

Although the plane is massive, it has a smaller bomb load. In fact, earlier models only had bomb loads of 4,000 pounds.

Later models like the B-17Gs doubled to 9,600 pounds.

Still, it’s relatively small compared to planes like the Avro Lancaster which has a normal bomb load of 14,000 pounds.