Length: 16 1/2"
Wingspan: 22 1/2
Scale: 1/56
Includes desk stand.
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC), introduced in the 1930s. Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both competitors and more than met the Air Corps' expectations. Although Boeing lost the contract due to the prototype's crash, the Air Corps was so impressed with Boeing's design that they ordered 13 B-17s. The B-17 Flying Fortress went on to eventually evolve through numerous design advancements.
The B-17 was primarily employed by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial, civilian, and military targets. The United States Eighth Air Force based in England and the Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy complemented the RAF Bomber Command's nighttime area bombing in Operation Pointblank, to help secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for Operation Overlord. The B-17 also participated, to a lesser extent, in the War in the Pacific, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields.
From its pre-war inception, the USAAC (later USAAF) touted the aircraft as a strategic weapon; it was a potent, high-flying, long-ranging bomber capable of unleashing great destruction, able to defend itself, and having the ability to return home despite extensive battle damage. It quickly took on mythic proportions. Stories and photos of B-17s surviving battle damage widely circulated, increasing its iconic status. Despite an inferior range and bombload compared to the more numerous B-24 Liberator, a survey of Eighth Air Force crews showed a much higher rate of satisfaction in the B-17. With a service ceiling greater than any of its Allied contemporaries, the B-17 established itself as a superb weapons system, dropping more bombs than any other U.S. aircraft in World War II. Of the 1.5 million tonnes of bombs dropped on Germany by U.S. aircraft, 640,000 were dropped from B-17s.
Sentimental Journey (44-83514) is the nickname of a B-17G Flying Fortress bomber. It is housed at the museum at Falcon Field, Arizona by the Commemorative Air Force. The aircraft is regularly flown to airshows around the country.
Nose art features Betty Grable, the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. The aircraft's name takes after a song made very popular by Doris Day in 1945.
Over the years, this aircraft has served performed many different missions from military reconnaissance through drone "mother ship" during nuclear testing before being retired to storage at Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona in 1959. Aero Union Corporation of Chico, California acquired and converted the aircraft into a firefighter, which it remained until donated to the CAF in 1978
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