The B-17 was developed in response to the US Army Air Corps’ request for a large multi-engine bomber primarily for coastal defense. The prototype Model 299 first flew on July 28, 1935 and was financed solely by the Boeing company.
The Model 299 was the first Boeing military aircraft to employ a closed-cockpit. It was initially armed with Browning .30-cal machine guns in blister mounts. Twenty B-17Cs, armed with 7 .50-cal Brownings, were delivered to the RAF who found the defensive armament lacking. The E variant was armed with 9 machine guns and was capable of carrying a 4,000lb bomb load. It was the first mass-produced version and introduced the large, distinctive tail that is identifiable by warbird lovers the world over. As the variants progressed, more armor and armament was added. The G model carried 13 .50-cal Browning machine guns, having added a chin turret to add better protection from frontal attacks.
The B-17 airframe was very resilient and could absorb a tremendous amount of damage. Many B-17 crews owe their lives to the 17’s ability to stay in the air and make it back to base even with huge chunks of fuselage and control surfaces missing.
Nearly 7,000 B-17 airframes were built by Boeing plants, but Douglas and Lockheed’s Vega subsidiary also built another 5,700 to bring the total to nearly 13,000 units by the end of it’s production run. After WWII, many B-17s wound up in the scrap heap, but some soldiered on filling roles such as transports, fire bombers, and target drones. A few survive today in the hands of various museums around the world.
Credits: The FDG2 crew would also like to thank everyone who contributed to this project.
Martin Wright - For the use of his GSLMan.exe utility for editing the Global Scenery Layer.
Gary (gary20) Burns - British base scenery.
Willy McCoy - training base scenery and ferry flight,
Herman Boltz - krazy_ effects,
Henry - effects and flight dynamics work,
Fliger747 - flight dynamics
Milton Schupe - bulging tire modeling technique
Sandydog - CFS2 flight dynamics and DP
All the beta testers - We couldn't do it without ya!!!
Copyright info: This package is "donation-ware". That is, our work and the small fee charged for it go to support server costs for www.sim-outhouse.com and www.combatfs.com.
No parts may be used for or included in other works, or files altered for this plane or other planes without written permission from the authors. You may make a copy of these files for your own personal backup, but you may not share them or the registration password with another person or upload it to any site other than donationware.net.
New skins can be done without permission, but only the skins may be uploaded. You must call them "repaints". Except for the texture files, no files in this package may be altered, including the readme.txt and any other documentation!
This plane is NOT to be uploaded to any site other than www.donationware.net.
Although we have done extensive testing, you use this product at your own risk! We accept no liability, real or implied, under any circumstance.
Thank You,
Fightertown Design Group 2
