Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress – RAF Coastal Command (First Issue)

Boeing 299 Fortress of 220 Squadron, RAF Coastal Command. Mint and boxed early first issue from 1999. Very sought after and highly accurate 1/144 scale. Has to be seen to be appreciated; Perfect if you don’t have room to display the larger 1/72 scale model of this plane.

Length 6.25 inches Wingspan 8.75 inches

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the then-United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both competitors and more than met the Air Corps’ expectations. Although Boeing lost the contract because the prototype crashed, the Air Corps was so impressed with Boeing’s design that they ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation. From its introduction in 1938, the B-17 Flying Fortress evolved through numerous design advances.

The B-17 was primarily employed by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial and military targets. The United States Eighth Air Force based at Thorpe Abbotts airfield in England and the Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy complemented the RAF Bomber Command’s nighttime area bombing in Operation Pointblank to help secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for Operation Overlord. The B-17 also participated to a lesser extent in the War in the Pacific where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields.

From its pre-war inception, the USAAC (later USAAF) touted the aircraft as a strategic weapon; it was a potent, high-flying, long-range bomber that was able to defend itself, and to return home despite extensive battle damage. It quickly took on mythic proportions, and widely circulated stories and photos of B-17s surviving battle damage increased its iconic status. With a service ceiling greater than any of its Allied contemporaries, the B-17 established itself as an effective weapons system, dropping more bombs than any other U.S. aircraft in World War II. Of the 1.5 million metric tons of bombs dropped on Germany by U.S. aircraft, 640,000 tons were dropped from B-17s.

As of early November 2023, there are six airworthy and registered B-17 aircraft still flying. Five of these are in the US, and one is based in the UK. There are 19 examples that have a current (November 2023) registration with the US FAA. These are not all airworthy, but some have the potential to fly again or have in the past. Note that many of these aircraft have been renamed in preservation – they do not necessarily have their original war names or liveries. Approximately 45 airframes survive in total.