- 6 hours ago
For educational purposes
Great Planes looks into the stories behind the most influential, innovative and intriguing machines that ever took flight.
Seizing the new found role of long range bombing like no other plane, the exploits and image of the B17 are a cornerstone of WWII history.
Great Planes looks into the stories behind the most influential, innovative and intriguing machines that ever took flight.
Seizing the new found role of long range bombing like no other plane, the exploits and image of the B17 are a cornerstone of WWII history.
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LearningTranscript
01:00Each year at the Harlington Air Show in Texas, it's always the flying fortress that the crowds look for.
01:06Steeped in tradition, the Boeing B-17 is more a legend than just an aircraft.
01:11But the legend is as much about men as it is about the fortress.
01:14Men of vision and men of courage.
01:16The first of the men of vision in this story was General Billy Mitchell.
01:27His experience in the First World War convinced him that air power was the only way to protect America in any future war,
01:34and further, that the winner of such a conflict would be determined on the basis of superior air power.
01:39Because this would involve the bombing of naval targets, his new ideas brought him into conflict with the Navy and the administration,
01:46and eventually cost him his career, but not before he'd proved his point on the captured German battleship, the Ostfriesland.
01:53From 1930, staggeringly swift advances in bomber design became the norm,
02:05with the frail biplane technology of World War I swept aside by new metal monoplanes, starting with Boeing's B-9.
02:12But funds for military aircraft were always low, and the role of a bomber in an America committed to peace was hard to see,
02:20especially as the Navy had by now well asserted its responsibility for dealing with any enemy ships at sea.
02:27The inter-service rivalry of this era was to have a continuing influence on the development of the bomber throughout the 30s,
02:33though clearly some bomber force had to exist, even if only of token strength.
02:37The career of the B-9 was short, replaced by the B-10, which itself marked another huge step forward in design.
02:46But apart from exercises, the only action they saw was in use against the effects of natural disasters,
02:52like airdrops to the victims of floods.
02:54In this, they did provide a unique service,
02:57and with the Air Corps always keen to demonstrate its usefulness to the public,
03:00they were rapidly on hand wherever disaster occurred.
03:07In 1933, one major breakthrough did happen.
03:13The Army postulated a plane to carry a tonne of bombs for 5,000 miles,
03:18and Boeing won a contract to design just one enormous bomber, the XB-15.
03:23This plane, it was hoped, would have enough range to attack not enemy fleets, but enemy countries, overseas.
03:29Thus, there was no conflict with the Navy.
03:31Because of its size, the XB-15 was not completed until 1937,
03:36and although it saw considerable service as the C-105, a military transport,
03:40it really was more of a guinea pig to explore the theory of extra-long-range bombing.
03:45And with the Army backing the project,
03:47the engineers were able to develop technologies that were to stand both Boeing and the US
03:52in good stead in the years to come.
03:53First to benefit was Pan American Airways,
03:57who needed long-range for its commercial flying boats,
04:00and Boeing quickly adapted the XB-15's wing and other various parts
04:04to make what was, for many years, the largest airliner in production, the Clipper.
04:09This idea was successful, and Boeing gained more experience with large planes.
04:14A seaplane of a different sort also appeared.
04:27Modified from the B-10, and ostensibly for coastal patrol,
04:31the B-12AM project, backed by General Andrews,
04:35raised the ever-alert eyebrows of the Navy yet again.
04:44The Army
05:09Early in 1934,
05:10the Army called for designs to be prepared to replace the B-10
05:14with a plane that had roughly twice its bomb load and range.
05:18With the decision to be made on the basis of a competition between prototypes
05:22produced at the manufacturer's expense,
05:25Boeing, short of cash, faced a dilemma.
05:28They had the advantage of the B-15's already designed and tested wing,
05:33which could be scaled down,
05:34though this locked the plane into a four-engined format
05:37in the face of the common perception that such planes were,
05:40in addition to their expense,
05:41difficult to fly.
05:44Incorporating features of their successful airliner, the Model 247,
05:48as well as exploiting advances made in developing the XB-15,
05:52their plane was to prove, however, to be relatively easy to handle,
05:56with the extra power being used not to increase the size of the plane,
06:00but to increase its performance.
06:03Through a long series of tests,
06:05the specifications were refined
06:06to what was to be the Boeing Model 299.
06:09.
07:05Gambling on the advantage its design gave it over its rivals, the company proceeded, with borrowed cash, to build the plane. Conditions of strict secrecy were enforced for fear of industrial espionage. Holding the design advantage, Boeing had no desire to reveal their triumph prematurely. The plane took 11 months to build.
07:35On the 1st of July, 1935, the mystery ship was wheeled out of its construction hangar, and immediately it was apparent that this was the most advanced bomber yet built.
07:55Capable of carrying two and a half tons of bombs 2,000 miles at over 200 miles per hour, armed with five machine guns, she was clearly representative of a new generation.
08:06On the 28th, she took to the air for the first time.
08:35The claim, we've got a winner, was one that, with some justification, the Boeing company had made before.
09:02By the time the 299 landed after her first flight, it was evident that, on this occasion, it was an understatement.
09:09On August the 20th, 1935, she was back in the air for the flight to Dayton for the competition, and completed the 2,000 mile journey in the then astonishing time of nine hours, which was faster than any of the Army's fighters of the day could manage.
09:41On August the pursuit planes, the Air Corps was pleasantly excited by Boeing's big new bomber.
09:48The other two prototypes in the competition were both modifications of existing planes.
10:05Martin's B-12 was in fact a variant of the B-10, and Douglas's B-18 was based on its successful DC-2 airliner.
10:13Both were dwarfed by the 299.
10:16The B-18, sharing the DC-2's sturdiness, plodded reliably into history.
10:22By the time conflict came, she'd clearly been superseded, and, modified as an anti-submarine aircraft, she spent the war patrolling the U.S. coasts.
10:31As the competition commenced, the model 299 was re-designated the B-17, and as the trials continued, with the top brass looking on, she proceeded to surpass all the specifications the Army had set.
10:46Then came disaster.
10:49Before take-off, the pilot had omitted to release the locks on the control surfaces, and the plane ploughed into the ground.
10:56Through no fault of the design, the 299 was unable to complete the tests, as there was no back-up plane available.
11:10In the furor that followed, despite the pleading of the Air Corps that they wanted the B-17 regardless of the crash, the service chiefs intervened,
11:18and almost by default, the majority of the orders for new aircraft went to the B-18.
11:26The pleading of the Air Corps did, however, see an order placed for thirteen Boeings, to be known as YB-17s.
11:34The engineers went, literally, back to the drawing board, and the new planes incorporated extensive modifications.
11:41Again, it took eleven months to produce the first plane, and by then it was seven foot longer and one ton heavier than the 299 had been.
11:49With such a small production run, the new aircraft were virtually hand-made,
11:56modern technology being coaxed together with manpower and methods perhaps more appropriate for building buggies.
12:02WSDS EXERCISE
12:06WSDS EXERCISE
12:08WSDS EXERCISE
12:40From the moment the Army first got its hands on the fortresses, they kept the planes very busy. General Andrews was determined to show them off to win public support for an expansion of the Air Corps.
13:10. . . . . . . . . .
13:26In May 1938, General Andrews, perhaps as a challenge to the prevailing views, perhaps simply as a publicity stunt, had his B-17s intercept the Italian liner, the Rex, when she was 800 miles out to sea.
13:39The interception was a great success, so much so that the Navy, infuriated at the intrusion into its realm, had directives made that limited the Air Corps to operations within 100 miles of the coast.
13:51The incident also cost General Andrews his job.
14:03The chief navigator on the flight to intercept the Rex was another man who was to greatly influence not only the B-17 story, but indeed the successful implementation of the whole theory of strategic bombing, Curtis LeMay.
14:15Meanwhile, the evolution of the B-17 had continued with the B-17B . . . .
14:273,000 pounds heavier, 40 miles per hour faster than the YBs . . . .
14:31. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15:01to see action, B-17C's and D's, were those provided to Britain, where they were called
15:07Fortress One. But the early British experience was very unsatisfactory, highlighting, among
15:13other things, the lack of effective rear armament.
15:20Boeing's engineers had foreseen some of the British criticism, and the B-17E, which they
15:26had developed, pre-empted many of the design changes that combat had shown were desirable.
15:31It also incorporated the reshaped tail. The E was so extensively redesigned that it was
15:37almost a new plane, displaying the distinctive lines of the classic B-17.
15:48The Fortress was now bristling with 50mm machine guns, not only from the new tail position,
15:54but with waist guns, upper turret, ball turret below, and more guns in the front of the plane.
15:59Theoretically, she could defend herself against all comers.
16:11But only the earlier shape was available when the US was pulled into World War II by the events
16:17at Pearl Harbour.
16:32Suddenly, demand for the 17 was great. The plane many did not want before, was now vital.
16:38The E.J.
16:39The E.J.
16:50The E.J.
17:05was reorganized and factories mechanized as America turned to the war effort. With the
17:11workforce distorted by the call of the military, for the first time, huge numbers of American
17:16women took the load in the manufacture of US armaments.
17:35To work in confined areas, aircraft manufacturers deliberately hired little people.
18:05For more information visit www.fema.org
18:35With the automation of so many processes that had previously been exactingly carried out by hand,
18:40the scale and speed of production reached levels that would have been inconceivable only a few years before.
18:47At the peak of B-17 production, the three companies involved in building them were turning out 130 per week,
18:54with Boeing's Seattle plant producing 16 per day.
19:05As fast as they were turned over to the army, they were sent into action.
19:35For most B-17s, going to war meant going to war,
20:04going to war meant going first to England to join the strategic bombing offensive against Nazi Germany.
20:34So I'll see you in the next video.
20:36I'll see you in the next video.
20:41I have 4 years of training,
20:48and we're going to be full likely to work here,
20:51and I'm going to have the courage to do this,
20:52and I'm not going to be able to do that.
20:54Ground crews worked ceaselessly on the fortresses, readying them for their missions over enemy
21:12territory, ensuring that the planes gave their crews the best possible chances of success
21:17and survival.
21:24With the great height that the missions were flown at, the crews needed special clothing
21:28to help combat the extreme cold.
21:36As preparations for a raid continue, bombs are loaded into the bomb bays, guns are armed
21:41with freshly unpacked ammunition belts.
21:44Each man readies himself and his equipment.
22:12The plane comes to life with the business of war and the men talk among themselves, trading
22:18stories and information about their jobs.
22:21The pilots engage in last minute discussions with the ground liaison officers.
22:28Another essential garment for the gunners.
22:35Cumbersome and ungainly, the flak jacket, an investment in human lives.
22:42Another essential garment for the gunners.
22:51Cumbersome and ungainly, the flak jacket.
22:54The throat microphone made for uncomfortable vital communications, especially when teamed with the oxygen mask.
23:01The throat microphone made for uncomfortable vital communications.
23:08The throat microphone made for uncomfortable vital communications, especially when teamed with the oxygen mask.
23:20And the mission was away.
23:27And the mission was away.
23:35The first instinct was away...
23:47The third task was away...
23:51The first task was away...
23:54Flying towards Germany, weighed down by their bomb loads, the B-17's gunners have an all-important
24:09role.
24:10Their alertness and skill is the plane's only protection.
24:26Without effective radar triangulation, the early phases of the bombing offensive relied
24:52upon the navigators.
24:54The British night time operations had earlier failed to refine their navigation and specific
24:59targets had been abandoned in favour of area bombing.
25:03The US however, bombing by day, threw responsibility onto the navigators and persisted with specific
25:09attacks.
25:24Thanks for listening!
25:26It soon became evident that the expectation
25:54that the fortresses could fight their way to their targets and back were wildly optimistic.
26:00What had not been realised was that, for a strategic air offensive to succeed, the prerequisite
26:05is control of the air.
26:07The British had mastered their airspace during the Battle of Britain and repulsed the Luftwaffe.
26:13But, similarly, without effective long-range fighter protection for the attacking bombers,
26:18this air offensive faced similar defeat.
26:21The Germans controlled their airspace and their fighters cut swathes through the massed
26:25fortresses, leading to several pauses in the campaign and to fears that the whole concept
26:30would have to be abandoned.
26:45On many missions, whole squadrons were annihilated as the losses grew to staggering proportions.
26:51Many more men owed their lives to the almost incredible ability of the B-17 to absorb damage
26:57and continue flying, no matter how roughly.
27:01Many planes that made it back did so in condition such that they were scrapped, but their crews
27:05still owed them their lives.
27:08Well, 한번 saw TREWS GUILTY STREET sobre a surger's attack.
27:08Thank you all!
27:09Thank you!
27:22Thanks, Mike.
27:24Bye for now.
27:24Bye!
32:45Also tried was the twin-engined P-38 Lightning, but the first to be effective and probably
33:15overall the plane that turned the battle was the famous P-51 Mustang.
33:20But all three of these planes played some part, all having long range, high manoeuvrability
33:25and heavy firepower.
33:27They became known as the bomber's little friends.
33:41Still after D-Day they could take off from airfields in France, all of the escorts relied upon
33:46drop tanks for the extra fuel they needed.
33:49These tanks were jettisoned, either when empty or when the plane needed to be unencumbered
33:53to go into combat with the enemy.
34:00So when you have used all these planes in the press, you should pull towards your foes,
34:07and if you're a little bit more like that.
34:13Then you see the enemy on the side is not too close.
34:20Now we are going to be a little bit better.
34:24For most of the war, however, even with drop tanks, US fighter pilots were able to sweep
34:37the air of enemy fighters only for the first part of bomber missions.
34:41For the last part of the run, the 17s were on their own, and after the fighters finally
34:48had to turn back, they had only LeMay's tactics, the gunner's skill and luck to protect them.
35:02Almost as deadly as the enemy fighters, in terms of overall losses of fortresses during
35:07the war, was the German flak.
35:10Unfortunately the LeMay formations, which were effective against the fighters, only presented
35:15the flak gunners with fat, juicy, massed targets, and there was no defence against them.
35:32The final approach was always the worst point of the mission, as the plane was locked into
35:37the bombsite on a form of automatic pilot and guided by the bombardier.
35:42It was impossible to change course, and luck became their only ally.
35:47Eventually, their bombing campaigns were to be one of the deciding factors of the war,
35:52much as the planners had originally thought, as they crippled Germany's war production and
35:57devastated her transportation systems.
36:00They even served their own ends, too, in that the German petrol shortages became so severe,
36:06that the Luftwaffe eventually was hard pressed to keep what few planes it still had in the
36:11air to fight them.
36:32Here is what the mission was all about, what the B-17 was all about, the bomb drop.
36:39They were distracted, too.
36:47They set off their security stares with tolerance at all sides of theIB.
36:55Families are shocked.
36:58They Além, it was disappointing because they won't leave it, the built-in-in.
37:04So, let's go.
37:34Lighter and faster without their bombs, the returning 17s were still prey for German
38:00day fighters, with only the gunners for protection.
38:07Despite the efforts of the gunners, for very many planes, the protection they could give
38:27was ineffective against the excellent German fighters.
38:37Because of the weight of the ammunition, the bombers normally took off with about 500 rounds
38:41per gun, slightly more for the rear gunner.
38:45This meant that there was about enough ammunition for the gunners to fire for one minute.
38:52We're at 10.30, coming around.
38:53We're at 10.30 up or lower?
38:59B-17 out of control at 3 o'clock.
39:02Come on, you guys.
39:07Get out of that plane.
39:09Bail out.
39:10There's one.
39:11He come out of the bomb bay.
39:12Yeah, I see him.
39:27Even badly damaged, the strength of the B-17s often brought them home.
39:32Perhaps the B-17s greatest asset was its ability to take the flak and survive.
39:39Come on, you guys.
39:40I saw that.
39:41I might have been different from the beach.
39:42I saw that there was one.
39:43The monoun's figure must have been taken from his return, the bed.
39:47He was a companion from the beach.
39:48The boat was a little bit of the wind, but he could have completely blown away.
39:53He looks like a little bit of the wind.
39:59He was a little bit of the wind.
40:04He could have been cleaned down when he was Moreland.
40:08Not all B-17 damage was caused by the enemy.
40:12The close box formation caused some collisions.
40:15Here, hell and high water has survived being hit by another B-17.
40:20The tail gunner, a very lucky man, also survived,
40:24having just left his position to check the tail wheel before the crash.
40:38Many B-17s that struggled back too damaged to be repaired
40:51were used to cobble together composite planes, patchwork bombers,
40:55to help make up the heavy losses.
40:57Another use to which tired B-17s, too old for refurbishment, were put
41:10was as radio-controlled flying bombs, packed with 22,000 pounds of explosive
41:16and controlled from a parent plane, or, in this test, from the ground.
41:27More successful was their use as launch platforms for guided bombs.
41:57During the war, the US obtained unexploded German V-1 flying bombs.
42:07And, although they were never used,
42:09the US experimented with its own versions.
42:12Some launched from ground ramps,
42:14but more often to obtain maximum range from B-17s.
42:23While the fortress is most often associated with the European theatre,
42:26it saw much service in the Pacific.
42:29In fact, it was the only four-engined bomber on hand when war broke out.
42:33The 17 saw service at Midway, Rabaul,
42:36and in countless other attacks against the Japanese,
42:39who, like Germany, really did not have an equivalent in range,
42:43lifting capacity or versatility.
42:46This remarkable footage shows a practice attack by a B-17 at extremely low altitude.
43:01This in a plane that was specifically designed for high-altitude flying.
43:07The vast expanses of the Pacific, however, required more range than the fortresses could offer,
43:12and soon B-24 Liberators, which had still greater range and fully automatic pilots,
43:17were to take over much of the heavy bomber role in the Pacific.
43:20The Allied commander in the Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur,
43:35who was ultimately to accept the Japanese surrender,
43:38used several specially converted B-17s as his transport.
43:42Here, under the watchful eyes of his aides and military police,
43:45the General's luggage and doubtless top-secret information
43:49is being loaded aboard one of his personal planes.
44:15The transport application of Model 299 was actually considered well before the war,
44:23when Boeing used its wing and tail plane in its Stratoliner.
44:27This, the first pressurised transport aircraft ever built,
44:31was to use a new fuselage, but in most other ways was a B-17.
44:35Many saw service throughout the war,
44:38where their four engines helped them cross the Atlantic with little fear of attack.
44:42No Stratoliner's were produced during the war,
44:59as Boeing's main Seattle plant, like that of several other manufacturers,
45:03was committed to fortress production.
45:05.
45:12.
45:26.
45:28.
45:32The pre-war lessons Boeing had learned from the pressurised high-flying Stratoliner
45:43was still to be used in the war effort, but in a different plane.
45:47Even before the war, Boeing and the Army were testing the effects of pressurisation on crew and aircraft,
45:53because a totally new bomber was on the way.
45:56This plane, the B-29, would fly much higher and further than the B-17,
46:02and pressurisation offered the only alternative to the uncomfortable and restricting oxygen mask.
46:08The B-29 Superfortress was a new generation of bomber,
46:20able to bridge the Pacific that had previously protected Japan from effective allied bombardment.
46:25Thousands were built, but it took only two to bring the war to an end,
46:30using new tools of destruction with unprecedented power.
46:33.
46:34.
46:35.
46:36.
46:37.
46:38.
46:39.
46:40.
46:41.
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46:48.
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46:52.
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46:54.
46:55.
46:56.
46:57.
46:59.
47:00.
47:02.
47:05.
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47:10.
47:14?
47:16.
47:17.
47:20.
47:21.
47:22weapons against naval targets in a test that is a far cry from intercepting the
47:27wrecks in the pre-war YB-17s. The drop will, of course, be made by a B-29 at a
47:33test site in the Pacific, but its effects are not predictable and much
47:37information on this new type of weapon remains to be gathered.
47:42As the super fortresses pilot and crew make their preparations for the bomb drop,
47:53other preparations are being made back at base. A converted drone B-17, much
48:00modified and completely radio controlled from the ground, takes off.
48:12Once in the air, another B-17, refitted as a mother ship and carrying airborne radio
48:28controllers, will direct the drones to the test site.
48:42The drones and the mother ship approach the outer edge of the test area, where
48:46scores of surplus naval vessels are to be sacrificed in the explosion.
48:51The B-29 makes its final approach over the target, and the bomb aimer adjusts his
48:56sight. While miles away, naval crews prepare to watch a new kind of terror.
49:03Seconds after the shockwave, the mother plane directs the drones into the atomic cloud, through
49:32which they fly, gathering data and samples in special collectors. The remotely controlled
49:38drones can go where no manned aircraft can safely venture, into the radioactive aftermath
49:44of the test.
50:02The drones are returned to base, and the mother plane hands over to ground control for landing.
50:14Once down, the drones are carefully tendered by specially trained crew, who remove the samples
50:20collected by what is now a very contaminated aeroplane. The samples are dispatched, and the aircraft
50:38given a thorough hosing down with special equipment. The radio controlled drone could hardly have been
50:45envisaged by the designers of the Model 299.
51:05Hardly had the West obtained a monopoly on atomic warfare than it was lost, and thus began another war, the Cold War.
51:12From the 50s on, the United States was to constantly watch for Soviet aircraft which could bring devastation to America,
51:19with ground-to-air missiles ever ready to answer the bombers' threat.
51:27Ground-to-air tactics had to be tested, and again the pilotless B-17 drone was used.
51:33Here the controller, in the mother plane, watches a television screen, showing the cockpit of a drone
51:40that is about to be sacrificed to demonstrate ground-to-air efficiency.
51:46In this, the fortress's last service role, many of the B-17s were shot down with the BOMARC,
51:52one of the most successful ground-to-air missiles, and, perhaps ironically, perhaps fittingly, also built by Boeing.
51:59so looking at Boeing
52:26It may seem sad to think that the fortresses were used as disposable items after the war,
52:32but they had been designed strictly as bombers,
52:35and their cramped interiors did not lend themselves to peacetime purposes.
52:39So, being superseded as military tools,
52:42at the end of the World War, most of them were simply scrapped.
52:46Perhaps this was an ignominious end, but perhaps it was fitting.
52:50After all, they had done what they were designed to do and done it well.
52:55They had been produced in great numbers.
52:58More than 12,000 had been made,
53:01and they'd borne the brunt of terrible losses, with over 5,000 destroyed in combat.
53:07They had been so important that enormous production capacity had been devoted to them,
53:12with three aircraft manufacturers building them,
53:15with their motors being made by two companies, including Studiebaker,
53:19with the farming equipment manufacturer Alice Chalmers turning their plant to making superchairs.
53:24for them, and with a brassier manufacturer making nacelles for their engines.
53:31The job they did, especially over Europe, helped make the war winnable,
53:36and the design breakthroughs involved in their development live on in civil and military aircraft of newer generations.
53:43The few that still fly are treasures, not just because of the memories,
53:49but because they are, with their grace and power, still great planes.
53:53The first part of the big asset to the dark openly is to the German coast.
53:56It takes the time to create a journey,
53:58but they have to replace the ship.
54:00After the complete project, the ship is to control the ship.
54:01It takes the time to release the ship.
54:02Here we go.
54:03We have the boat in the moon,
54:04and we have to put a slide.
54:05The ship is to control the ships.
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