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Postwar Flying Fortress variants
By the end of World War Two in the Pacific, Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress had effectively become the US Army Air Force’s principal four-engined long-range heavy bomber. As told by Malcolm V. Lowe in his book B-17G Flying Fortress, despite its excellent war record, for this reason, the B-17G did not continue long in a frontline role after the cessation of hostilities.
Many Eighth and Fifteenth Air Force B-17s were subsequently flown back in stages to the US by their returning crews after the war ended, with a large proportion of these later broken up at huge desert depositories. Some surviving B-17s were converted for photographic reconnaissance and cartographic work, while others were used in various trials or as transports -these were usually low airframe-hours aircraft that went through little, if any, proper action. Sadly, many veterans that had amassed impressive records in air combat, including several that had survived more than 100 missions, were unceremoniously scrapped.
The B-17’s role as a transport commenced early in World War Two, and a dedicated variant, the C-108, had been created. For the B-17G, there were two specific conversions – the CB-17G, which was a troop transport, and the VB-17G. The latter was an umbrella term covering various B-17Gs made into staff transports, often with their armament reduced or removed, and well-appointed interiors added. No two conversions were alike, as they were mainly created at theater level, and a number of top-brass used these ad hoc conversions both during the war and afterwards.
SAR aircraft
B-17 production ended with the G-model. All subsequent Flying Fortress versions were therefore conversions of already-existing airframes. Important among these was the B-17H. This B-17G derivative (after 1948, it was redesignated as SB-17G) was a search and rescue (SAR) designation covering a variety of aircraft for several of the US armed services, including airborne lifeboat-carrying. Developed during World War Two, the B-17H was converted initially in small numbers from the B-17G, to carry an air-droppable Higgins A-1 airborne lifeboat mounted beneath the fuselage. Small numbers of these aircraft operated in both northwest Europe and the Pacific theater during the latter stages of World War Two. At that time, these aircraft were armed.
Approximately 130 B-17Gs were eventually modified, or intended to be modified, to B-17H standard. although opinions differ as to exactly how many. After the war ended, the defensive armament was removed and a search radar was installed in some examples, where the B-17G’s chin turret had previously been fitted. Some served in the Korean War and were armed with flexible-mounted machine guns in several positions, making them the last armed US-operated Flying Fortresses.
The last official operational flight made by a USAF B-17
During and after World War Two, a number of weapon systems were tested on specially converted B-17s. Included were Ford-Republic JB-2 Loon unguided missiles, which were US reverse-engineered I examples of the German V-1 flying bomb, Other Flying Fortresses were employed on various other trials programs. One of these involved testing the AN/ APQ-7 radar, later fitted successfully to Boeing B-29 Superfortresses of the 315th BW in precision raids against Japanese targets, in the latter stages of World War Two. By the later 1950s, the final B-17Gs in USAF service were DB-17 drone controllers and unmanned QB-17 drones, together with a dwindling number of VB-17G transports.
The last official operational flight made by a USAF Flying Fortress was on Aug. 6, 1959, when DB-17P 44-83684 directed a QB-17 (identified in some sources as 44-83717 or 44-83727) from Holloman Air Force Base (AFB), New Mexico, as a target for a live air-to-air guided missile firing test. A retirement ceremony was held several days later at Holloman AFB, after which 44-83684 was sent for storage at Davis-Monthan AFB-it was subsequently preserved and later flew as Piccadilly Lilly II with the Planes of Fame collection at Chino, California; the aircraft had served during the latter stages of World War Two as Piccadilly Lilly with the 447th BG.
It seems possible, however, that at least one target drone B-17 was shot down in 1960; apparently, a QB-17L was recorded as destroyed by an IM-99 Bomarc ground-to-air missile.
B-17G Flying Fortress is published by Key Publishing and is available to order here.
Photo credit: Bill Larkins via Wikipedia and U.S. Air Force
