Resurrecting the B-17 "City of Savannah". Restoring a B-17 Flying Fortress.
On Dec. 3, 1944, a rare pause interrupted the assembly line at Hunter Field as soldiers and civilians gathered on the flight line to christen one of the gleaming B-17Gs as the City of Savannah.
Now known as Hunter Army Airfield, the post was then a training base for the Army Air Corps. During the last two years of World War II, its 10,000-man work force processed 9,000 aircraft and 70,000 crewmen to assignments throughout the world.
The City of Savannah, however, was a singular endeavor.
Men, women and schoolchildren throughout Savannah participated in a war-bond drive to finance a B-17 and train and equip its crew. The goal of $500,000 was actually "oversubscribed," a Treasury Department official said.
When it came time to present the plane and its crew, several thousand Savannahians crowded onto the base for the ceremonies. They listened as the Hunter Field Band presented a concert of military tunes, watched as pilot Lt. Ralph W. Kittle and the rest of the B-17's crew were introduced, and bowed their heads as the base chaplain bestowed his blessings on the bomber.
The City of Savannah then took off for England.
There, it was assigned to the 388th Bomb Group at Knettishall Air Base. This 8th Air Force unit flew over targets in France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Czechoslovakia.
On its 13th mission, the City of Savannah flew deep into Germany and lost three engines to enemy fire. It nonetheless made it to the target and dropped its bombs, but it didn't have enough power to make the return trip to Knettishall.
In a USAAC competition, Boeing's prototype Model 299/XB-17 outperformed two other entries but crashed, losing the initial 200-bomber contract to the Douglas B-18 Bolo. Still, the Air Corps ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation, then introduced it into service in 1938. The B-17 evolved through numerous design advances but from its inception, the USAAC (later, the USAAF) promoted the aircraft as a strategic weapon. It was a relatively fast, high-flying, long-range bomber with heavy defensive armament at the expense of bombload. It also developed a reputation for toughness based upon stories and photos of badly damaged B-17s safely returning to base.
The B-17 saw early action in the Pacific War, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields. But it was primarily employed by the USAAF in the daylight strategic bombing campaign over Europe, complementing RAF Bomber Command's night-time area bombing of German industrial, military and civilian targets. Of the roughly 1.5 million tons of bombs dropped on Nazi Germany and its occupied territories by U.S. aircraft, over 640 000 tons (42.6%) were dropped from B-17s.
As of November 2022, four aircraft remain airworthy, none flown in combat. Dozens more are in storage or on static display. The oldest of these is a D-series flown in combat in the Pacific on the first day of the United States' involvement in World War II.
General characteristics
Crew: 10: Pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier/nose gunner, flight engineer/top turret gunner, radio operator, waist gunners (2), ball turret gunner, tail gunner
Length: 74 ft 4 in (22.66 m)
Wingspan: 103 ft 9 in (31.62 m)
Height: 19 ft 1 in (5.82 m)
Wing area: 1,420 sq ft (131.92 m2)
Airfoil: NACA 0018 / NACA 0010
Empty weight: 36,135 lb (16,391 kg)
Gross weight: 54,000 lb (24,500 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 65,500 lb (29,700 kg)
Aspect ratio: 7.57
Powerplant: 4 × Wright R-1820-97 "Cyclone" turbosupercharged radial engines, 1,200 hp (895 kW) each
Propellers: 3-bladed Hamilton-Standard constant-speed propeller
Performance
Maximum speed: 287 mph (462 km/h, 249 kn)
Cruise speed: 182 mph (293 km/h, 158 kn)
Range: 2,000 mi (3,219 km, 1,738 nmi) with 6,000 lb (2,700 kg) bombload
Ferry range: 3,750 mi (6,040 km, 3,260 nmi)
Service ceiling: 35,600 ft (10,850 m)
Rate of climb: 900 ft/min (4.6 m/s)
Wing loading: 38.0 lb/sq ft (185.7 kg/m2)
Power/mass: 0.089 hp/lb (150 W/kg)
Armament
Guns: 13 × .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns in 9 positions (2 in the Bendix chin turret, 2 on nose cheeks, 2 staggered waist guns, 2 in upper Sperry turret, 2 in Sperry ball turret in belly, 2 in the tail and one firing upwards from radio compartment behind bomb bay)
Bombs:
Short range missions; Internal load only ( less than 400 mi): 8,000 lb (3,600 kg)
Long range missions; Internal load only (≈800 mi): 4,500 lb (2,000 kg)
Max Internal and External load: 17,600 lb (7,800 kg)
#B17 #bomber #aircraft
21 фев 2023
