Boeing Aircraft
Being B-17 Flying Fortress
Fighter Aircraft
Boeing Aircraft
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC)
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
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, eastern and southern England, and the Fifteenth Air Force, based in Italy, complemented the RAF Bomber Command‘s night-time 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.[6] 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.[
Design
The aircraft went through several alterations in each of its design stages and variants. Of the 13 YB-17s ordered for service testing, 12 were used by the 2nd Bomb Group of Langley Field, Virginia, to develop heavy bombing techniques, and the 13th was used for flight testing at the Material Division at Wright Field, Ohio.[35] Experiments on this aircraft led to the use of a quartet of General Electric turbo-superchargers which would become standard on the B-17 line. A 14th aircraft, the YB-17A, originally destined for ground testing only and upgraded with the turbochargers,[56] was redesignated B-17A after testing had finished
| Role | Heavy bomber |
|---|---|
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | Boeing |
| First flight | 22 July 1935[1] |
| Introduction | April 1938 |
| Retired | 1968 (Brazilian Air Force) |
| Status | Retired |
| Primary users | United States Army Air Forces Royal Air Force |
| Produced | 1936–1945 |
| Number built | 12,731[2][3] |
| Variants | |
| Developed into | Boeing 307 Stratoliner |
Deployment
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, eastern and southern England, and the Fifteenth Air Force, based in Italy, complemented the RAF Bomber Command‘s night-time 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.[6] 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
General characteristics
- Crew: 10: Pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier/nose gunner, flight engineer/top turret gunner, radio operator, waist gunners (2), ball turret gunner, tail gunner[221]
- Length: 74 ft 4 in (22.66 m)
- Wingspan: 103 ft 9 in (31.62 m)
- Height: 19 ft 1 in (5.82 m)
- Wing area: 1,420 sq ft (131.92 m2)
- Airfoil: NACA 0018 / NACA 0010
- Empty weight: 36,135 lb (16,391 kg)
- Gross weight: 54,000 lb (24,500 kg)
- Max takeoff weight: 65,500 lb (29,700 kg)
- Aspect ratio: 7.57
- Powerplant: 4 × Wright R-1820-97 “Cyclone” turbosupercharged radial engines, 1,200 hp (895 kW) each
- Propellers: 3-bladed Hamilton-Standard constant-speed propeller
Specifications (B-17G)
Performance
Performance
- Maximum speed: 287 mph (462 km/h, 249 kn)
- Cruise speed: 182 mph (293 km/h, 158 kn)
- Range: 2,000 mi (3,219 km, 1,738 nmi) with 6,000 lb (2,700 kg) bombload
- Service ceiling: 35,600 ft (10,850 m)
- Rate of climb: 900 ft/min (4.6 m/s)
- Wing loading: 38.0 lb/sq ft (185.7 kg/m2)
- Power/mass: 0.089 hp/lb (150 W/kg)
Armament
Armament
- Guns: 13 × .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns in 9 positions
- Bombs:
- Short range missions (<400 mi): 8,000 lb (3,600 kg)
- Long range missions (≈800 mi): 4,500 lb (2,000 kg)
- Overload: 17,600 lb (7,800 kg)
Aircrafttoaal encyclopedia
The JSC Sukhoi Company (Russian: ПАО «Компания „Сухой“») is a major Russian aircraft manufacturer, headquartered in Begovoy District, Northern Administrative Okrug, Moscow, and designs both civilian and military aircraft. It was founded by Pavel Sukhoi in 1939 as the Sukhoi Design Bureau (OKB-51, design office prefix Su). The Russian government merged Sukhoi with Mikoyan, Ilyushin, Irkut, Tupolev, and Yakovlev as a new company named United Aircraft Corporation.