1. B-17 World War II PhotosGetting a Sense of What it Was
Like
2. Viewing the B-17 As part of my preparation for participating
inthe June 2013 event honoring the B-17 inNoirmoutier, France, I
sought some originalphotos or good copies from original negativesto
shape a portfolio of images to understandwhat the plane and the
experience was like What follows are some of those originals
orcopies made from the original negatives
3. Flying Close to the Deck
4. Flak Attack
5. Flak and Bomb Drop Over Germany
6. 96th Bomb Group Bombing Bremen
7. Bombing of Avions Potez Aircraft Factory at
Meaulte,France
8. Bombing Through the Formation
9. Original AP Photo of Bombing StrikingBridge Ahead of Train
in France
10. B-17 Ice Cold Katy during RAID onRocket Center in
Peenemnde.
11. Abbeville/Drucat Airfield Bombing
12. Original AP Photo of AbbevilleBombing August 19, 1942
13. B-17 on the Ground
14. 10 B-17s Lined Up for Take-Off91st Bomb Group
15. Bombardier Station on Nine ONine
16. Nine O Nine At UK Base
17. Making a Point
18. Looking Out From theCockpit
19. Front Gunner Position
20. Returning from Mission
21. A B-17 Factory
22. Variants and Factories With Boeing, Vega, and Douglas all
building B-17s in different locations(Boeing was in Seattle, WA
while Douglas and Vega were both in SouthernCalifornia) it was
impossible not to have differences in aircraft built ondifferent
production lines at different times and in different locations. It
was thus decided to come up with a system to determine what model
ofB-17 the aircraft was along with when it was built and where it
was built.Block numbers would begin with the model of the aircraft
such as B-17F.Next would be the Block number itself and would be
started with thenumber one. For example: B-17F-1 would be the first
block of B-17Fs. These numbers would be increased by five per block
so that the secondblock of B-17Fs would be numbered B-17F-5. The
reason for this is so thatif changes were made at the field
modification centers that the planeswere shipped too following
production that these modifications could betracked as well using
the block number.
23. Variants and Factories (2) Lastly, the plant ID was
incorporated into the block numberas well. BO was Boeing in
Seattle, DL was the Douglas plantin Long Beach, CA, and VE was the
Vega plant inBurbank, CA. With the B-17F, there were 27 line
blocksfrom Boeing, 17 from Douglas, and 11 from Vega. So,
B-17F-80-BO was the 12th block from Boeing, B-17F-25-DL was the 6th
block from Douglas and B-17F-30-DL wasthe 7th block from Vega.
Other improvements to the B-17F were made to thelanding gear,
brakes, oxygen system, bomb racks, ballturret, bombsight/autopilot
link, astro-compos, and a nosebubble in the upper nose
section.
24. B-17 Transfer to UK 1944
25. B-17 in flight with Missing Part of Wing onBombing
Raid