Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress | Wikipedia audio article
Channel: wikipedia tts
Date: 2019-06-23

This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-17_Flying_Fortress


00:03:19 1 Development
00:03:28 1.1 Origins
00:09:10 1.2 Initial orders
00:14:23 2 Design and variants
00:23:00 3 Operational history
00:27:15 3.1 RAF use
00:30:49 3.2 Initial USAAF operations over Europe
00:33:43 3.3 Combined offensive
00:39:47 3.4 Pacific Theater
00:48:47 3.5 Bomber defense
00:53:43 3.6 Luftwaffe attacks
00:58:45 3.7 Luftwaffe-captured B-17s
01:01:01 3.8 Soviet-interned B-17s
01:02:03 3.9 Swiss-interned B-17s
01:04:18 3.10 Japanese-captured B-17s
01:06:04 3.11 Postwar history
01:06:13 3.11.1 U.S. Air Force
01:10:27 3.11.2 U.S. Navy and Coast Guard
01:13:56 3.12 Special operations
01:15:55 4 Operators
01:16:39 5 Surviving aircraft
01:16:49 6 Fortresses as a symbol
01:20:32 7 Notable B-17s
01:26:03 8 Accidents and incidents
01:26:13 9 Noted B-17 pilots and crew members
01:26:26 9.1 Medal of Honor recipients
01:28:50 9.2 Other military achievements or events
01:34:12 9.3 B-17 in popular culture
01:37:06 10 Specifications (B-17G)
01:40:51 11 Notable appearances in media
01:41:02 12 See also



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SUMMARY
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The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry (prototype Model 299/XB-17) outperformed both competitors and exceeded the air corps' performance specifications. Although Boeing lost the contract (to the Douglas B-18 Bolo) because the prototype crashed, the air corps ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation. From its introduction in 1938, the B-17 Flying Fortress evolved through numerous design advances, becoming the third-most produced bomber of all time, behind the four-engined B-24 and the multirole, twin-engined Ju 88.
The B-17 was primarily employed by the USAAF in the daylight strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial and military targets. The United States Eighth Air Force, based at many airfields in central and southern England, and the Fifteenth Air Force, based in Italy, complemented the RAF Bomber Command's nighttime area bombing in the Combined Bomber Offensive to help secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for the invasion of France in 1944. The B-17 also participated to a lesser extent in the War in the Pacific, early in World War II, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields.From its prewar inception, the USAAC (by June 1941, the USAAF) promoted the aircraft as a strategic weapon; it was a relatively fast, high-flying, long-range bomber with heavy defensive armament at the expense of bombload. It developed a reputation for toughness based upon stories and photos of badly damaged B-17s safely returning to base. The B-17 dropped more bombs than any other U.S. aircraft in World War II. Of the 1.5 million tonnes of bombs dropped on Nazi Germany and its occupied territories by U.S. aircraft, 640,000 tonnes were dropped from B-17s. In addition to its role as a bomber, the B-17 was also employed as a transport, antisubmarine aircraft, drone controller, and search-and-rescue aircraft.
As of May 2015, 10 aircraft remain airworthy, though none of them were ever flown in combat. Dozens more are in storage or on static display. The oldest of these is a D-series flown in combat in the Pacific and the Caribbean.