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The B-17 Flying Fortress remains a legend in the history of the Second World War. It was the bomber that struck deep into occupied Europe, in daylight, taking on the might of the Luftwaffe, braving the ferocious German flak defenses. It was the bomber that could hit precision targets from five miles up then return home, sometimes with massive structural damage. It was the bomber that held ten flyboys, many still teenagers, and bound them into a though fighting unit.
Ad these two paragraphs to the pop-up page:
Commissioned by the US Army Air Force, her specifications were those of a "battleship of the skies"; a multi-engined bomber capable of 200 to 250 mph at 10,000 feet with a cruising speed of 170 to 200 mph, a range of 6 to 10 hours and a service ceiling of 25,000 feet. Some designers of the Boeing Airplane Company showed great vision by not deciding as usual in favor of two but in favor of four jet engines. The work on the drawing-board started on June 18th, 1934.
When newspaper reporters were first shown the Model 299 in Boeing´s Seattle factory on 16th July 1935, the aircraft simply took their breath away. "A regular fortress", one of them said, "a fortress with wings!" The Boeing Airplane Company liked the name used in the headlines, so decided to register it as a trade mark. "The Flying Fortress" was born.
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