Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

UPDATE:
You can see video of the B-17 prototype in-flight going from the Boeing plant in Seattle, Washington (state) to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio in the 1938 movie Test Pilot with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy. I happened to turn the TV on to this last night and nearly fell out of my chair when the video came on!

In fact, here is the salient part of the movie on YouTube!



Tommy

PNK;69945 wrote:

I liked the drinking straws

Or were they the pee tubes?

Hookah hoses

Another development of the B17 was this. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YB-40_Flying_Fortress . I didnt even know about these until a few years ago, great idea! but didnt work out.

I bought this small piece of Hang The Expense !! from the 100th BG museum about 1987-8.

I'm working on it !!

And what one Paul? I have it on good authority that the pilot wrote off two or three aircraft, hence the name 'Hang The Expense'

Hi Denis, According to my Century Bombers book Hang the Expense III was returned to the USA in june 1945 ? But Roger Freeman's Mighty Eighth War Diary shows a photograph of a battle damaged Fourth Hang the Expense. The rear turret was blown apart the gunner gone, but somehow he managed to survive and was made a pow. The actual piece I have came from the one that crashed into the farmyard close to it's own dispersal. This accident happened while Frank Valesh was attempting a take-off with two civilian girls onboard, but as far as any authority was concerned he was slow-timing an engine. As there were still parts of this aircraft to be found in the early eighties the 100 BG museum decided to mount and sell small pieces. When I asked my mate who loved to make models to 'Stick' a B17 together for me he said choose which one you want. I eventually whittled it down to three from the 100th BG. Fools Rush In, Hang the Expense or Our Gal Sal. I chose the last of these three.