Description
Original Item: One-of-a-kind. This is a display board that measures 48″ W x 30″ H and is mounted with relics from a crashed B-17 BOEING Flying Fortress. The board has a tag on it that reads:
U.S.A.A.F. Boeing B-17 that crashed near Rochester, England. All crew bailed out.
Features various instruments and pieces of a B-17.
On July 28, 1935, a four-engine plane took off from Boeing Field in south Seattle on its first flight. Rolling out of the Boeing hangar, it was simply known as the Model 299. Seattle Times reporter Richard Smith dubbed the new plane, with its many machine-gun mounts, the Flying Fortress, a name that Boeing quickly adopted and trademarked. The U.S. Army Air Corps designated the plane as the B-17.
In response to the Army’s request for a large, multiengine bomber, the prototype, financed entirely by Boeing, went from design board to flight test in less than 12 months.
The B-17 was a low-wing monoplane that combined aerodynamic features of the XB-15 giant bomber, still in the design stage, and the Model 247 transport. The B-17 was the first Boeing military aircraft with a flight deck instead of an open cockpit and was armed with bombs and five .30-caliber machine guns mounted in clear blisters.
The first…
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