Detailed tour through a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress (as featured on Masters of the Air)

As featured in Masters of the Air. Join me in this walkaround tour of a B-17G Flying Fortress in Tucson, Arizona. This WW2 heavy bomber was probably the most important bomber of the war and it an incredible piece of military aviation engineering.

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#aviation #avgeek #b17 #flyingfortress

0:00 intro
0:50 nose
1:30 communication and navigation equipment
1:48 bombay
2:16 landing gear
2:50 Wright R-1820-97 "Cyclone" turbosupercharged radial engines and wing
4:54 ball turret
6:16 waist gunner
6:40 tail gunner
8:11 entering inside
8:50 tail gunner position from inside
10:07 two waist gunner positions
11:30 radio operator position
12:05 bombay cat walk
12:30 flight engineer position
13:17 captain's position
14:35 copilot's seat
15:30 navigator's position
16:25 bombardier's position

[PaulStewartAviation]

Thanks for watching everyone. Check out my tour through a Lancaster and B-29 to compare the different designs. And I've got a whole lot more videos coming soon... X-15, F-14, B36, B47, B58, VC-137C, first 747/727/737, YF12, F-22 and many others so make sure you have subscribed :)/

[theoldscout]

My Dad was the copilot on the Boeing B-17F "Peg O My Heart". Only flew one mission. Aug. 17, 1943. Lost an engine due to flack over Schweinfurt and another at the Swiss border from a Luftwaffe fighter. Belly landed in a potato field in Switzerland. All survived.

[evr-mrcp]

Thanks for doing this video. My father was a top turret gunner on the “Glittering Gal” and flew 50 mission out of Foggia Italy. Several years before dad passed I was able to fly in a B-17 with him as he took over the in flight tour of the plane to the delight of the other passengers. As we lifted off the ground I saw tears coming down my father’s face. He said “this plane plane brought me back more than once when it shouldn’t have”. I will always cherish that memory and count it as one of the best days of my life. I knew he had a purple heart from being wounded by flak; however it wasn’t until after he passed that we found more of his medals including the DFC and Silver Star. Sadly I was never able to talk to him about what he did to merit these medals. Later we found a journal he had kept which described the experience which lead to him being awarded these medals. Watching this today brought back memories of the ride I took with my dad and brought a smile to my face, thank you!

[BurtSampson]

My grandpa was a bombardier/navigator on one of these during the war. He flew 34 missions, with 2 being no balls(targets covered by clouds or something else). You had to fly 35 at that time to go home. First it was 25, then 30, then 35 by the time he was doing it. He got shot down over Misburg Germany on 26 November 1944. Flak. It hit one of their engines and caused a fire. They tried making it back home, but the pilot realized it wasn't going to make it. He gave the order to bail while he and the copilot held her steady. Everyone got out, but before the pilot and copilot could escape the entire aircraft went up in a ball of flame, killing the pilot and copilot. Their names were(are) pilot 2nd Lt Frank Boettcher, and copilot F/O Edward Walota. WIthout them holding it steady while everyone bailed, the aircraft probably would have started spiraling, pinning my grandpa to the bulkhead in his aircraft, preventing him from bailing out, and killing him in the process. They saved his life, and made mine possible. And they deserve to be known. My grandpa ended up landing in the middle of a German Command Post, wind caught his chute, dragged him into some barbed wire, where he instantly had a German Mauser in his face while a German screamed for his "pistola." He finished the war out from Stalag Luft 1 before being liberated by the Soviets. He died on his birthday in 2003. I got all this information from a combination of me being a kid who loved history and was always begging his grandpa for stories from THE war. And also through official after action reports and eye witness accounts. Even up to and including the original debrief my grandpa gave after finally making it back home. My grandpa was a bigger hero to me than any lame ass superhero, or ninja turtle, or anything like that. He helped save the world, literally. They all did.

[leemeadows]

My father was a bombardier on a B-17 in World War II. He recently passed two months shy of his hundredth birthday. He flew 35 successful missions.

[sasqwatch]

My Grandfather was a ball turret gunner and flew many missions in the Mighty Eighth Air Force. I'd seen photos of the ball turret but never truly realized how small and exposed they were. The courage these men had is incredible. I can remember him telling me stories of how unbelievably cold it got at altitude. He said you could spit and it would freeze before it hit the floor. He met my Grandmother who was a Land Army girl stationed in the airfields in England. They married shortly after the war. I'm thankful for that generation of men and women that fought with such amazing bravery and grit.

[Throttle.Therapy.]

My grandfather was a pilot of one of these during the war. He passed away before I was born, but my dad has told my stories about him!

[PAS_]

These guys were only 19 and 21 years old. My heart is thumping as I think of these guys and the adrenaline that was pumping in their veins as they took off for Germany. I am so grateful for what they did. Thank you.

[bluskytoo]

im 66 yrs old, my father flew B-24s in WWII, i asked him once what was the scariest thing on missions, flak? fighters?, i was surprised by his answer and have not heard it anywhere. He said it was the noise over the target area. He said the flak fragments after exploding rained down like a metal hailstorm, empty cartridge casings fell from fighters and other airplanes all hitting the plane and propellors, he said when all fifty caliber machine guns were going the plane was shaking and vibrating and the noise was deafening. He said that made it terrifying. Just sharing with yall.

[Davidfierbaugh]

My dad was a ball turret gunner in a B-17, with the 15th Army Air Corps, 2529th, out of Foggia, Italy. He flew 51 combat missions, flew of a grass strip, lived in a tent, and due to the excellent navigator, flew in the lead plane. Even though he was in the 15th, his picture was on the History channel documentary “Suicide Missions, the Ball Turret Gunner” which was about the 8th AAC. Pictured near the end, he is kneeling beside his turret, with a cover he made to cover his sight window so the mud would not freeze, and cover his sight window. Some other crew members John Hidelbaugh, “Red “Pettit,

[phillipellis]

Thanks for a terrific tour. Very moved by comments below. My dad was a radio operator/gunner on a B-17, flying out of Kimbolton, UK, with the 379th Bomber Group. Crash landed twice. Following is from his flight log on his 30th mission, April 10, 1945: 'About 20 miles from Berlin-
some flak before & after target –
attacked by 4 ME-262s immediately
after target – ‘Kid’ possibly credited
with one destroyed & Jimmy with
one damaged.
'
These men were so brave. His log is full of hair-raising action. But he never talked about it -- except when his crew friends had their occasional reunions. So grateful for them.

[mtnbike]

I checked out this plane earlier this year and when the guides showed me how cramped the ball turret was it made my Abrams seat feel spacious. Took a ton of fortitude to get in that turret. I got tons of respect for those guys.

[JohnSmith-qmgo]

My dad flew B-17s, B-24s, B-25s, and a night fighter I don't know the designation for. All my time growing up he would have bad nightmares. I left home at 18 & he was still having them. PBS show said that during the 1st 2 years of the war, the US lost 50% of its planes - every quarter. No wonder Dad had nightmares. BTW while Dad was flying, Mom was a Rosy Riveter working for North American Aviation in Ft. Worth TX. They met after the war. Dad would seldom talk about his experiences but he did tell me about 3 times the B-17 had so much damage they had to bail out once they were where they could, and 1 time when he had to belly land one because it was damaged so much they couldn't get the gear down.

[Shadowfax-]

I had a chance to ride in one of these at an air show a few years ago. We got to move around during the flight including in the cockpit behind the pilots. What amazed me was how much work is involved in flying the plane even in level cruise. There are no computers to monitor, let alone control, the mechanical systems, so the pilots were constantly monitoring all the gauges and making fine adjustments to fuel mixture and throttle. They would also periodically take notes to keep track of fuel and oil consumption and other performance factors.

[jameshaswell]

Thank you for the tour. My great-uncle was a waist gunner on one of these. His plane was shot up in April 1944, and all but the pilot were killed in action. Every chance that a B17 come close to where I live, I try to go see it. When I first saw the movie "Memphis Belle" it gave me a chance to see what he would have endured when on a mission. I realize the movie may not depict the actual hell that these crewmen went through, it did allow a glimpse of what could have been. I will be forever grateful to the men and women who fought for this country, especially those from WWII! Even though I never had the chance to meet my great-uncle, I am proud of what he did for this country! He and two of his crewmates are buried in Denmark.

[alexbiery]

The casualty rates were so high, that the United States put a 25-mission limit on crews. If a crew flew 25 combat missions and survived, they were rotated back to the states. Most crews didn't survive that long.

My grandfather was a B-17 pilot and flew 29 bombing missions in Germany over Berlin, Pilzen, Wittlich, Bitburg, Cologne, Coblenz, Mannheim, Nuremberg and others. After the war ended he helped fly starving British POWs back home. Each mission he took a framed picture of my Grandmother up with him, and wrote the location and date on the frame surrounding her picture. It's one of our family's most precious heirlooms. He even kept a piece of flak that came through the fuselage, nearly missing his right leg - he said it was still hot when he picked it up off the floor and put it in his pocket. I'll never forget his stories and heroism. United States Army Air Corp. 1st Lieutenant Dale Smith was assigned to the 91st Bomb Group, 322nd Squadron, 3rd Air Force.

I miss you, Papa ❤RIP 1921-2019
Off Into the Wild Blue Yonder!

[BDanner]

My 3rd cousin was on the "DEAR MOM", B17. He was a ball turret gunner. The plane was attacked by enemy fire, and the crew of 10 were killed on July 17, 1943. They are buried somewhere in the North Sea. They are recognized on the "wall of the missing" in the Netherlands. Thank you for your sacrifice, cousin, and crew!

[straybullitt]

The B17 did in fact come equipped with a autopilot. It was mainly used to transfer directional control of the aircraft to the bombardier during bomb runs, to increase target accuracy.
As you can imagine, using a autopilot while flying in tight formation with many other aircraft is a recipe for disaster, so, for the majority of the aircraft, the entire mission was hand-flown, with the exception of the lead planes which were the ones doing the bomb aiming.
Great video!

[afp]

I flew the F-16 in the US Air Force and now fly the Boeing 777 for a major air carrier...and these are the most fascinating videos I've ever seen. Thank you so much for making these!

[rogerdailey]

Great tour of this iconic plane. My uncle flew the F model. I made a tribute to him on YouTube “3 Days in May 1943”. He was not one of the lucky ones but he did save the CoPilot, Navigator, Bombardier and Flight Engineer by getting his plane close to the German coast then he took his full bomb load to the North Sea to avoid civilian casualties. Bombay doors were damaged so he could not jettison his bombs. His body was found 2 weeks later at Cuxhaven Germany only identification on him was a Bible. Bible kept his name off the wall of the missing. His body was sent home 1949 and he is buried in American soil