Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry (prototype Model 299/XB-17) outperformed both competitors and exceeded the air corps' performance specifications. Although Boeing lost the contract (to the Douglas B-18 Bolo) because the prototype crashed, the air corps ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation. From its introduction in 1938, the B-17 Flying Fortress evolved through numerous design advances, becoming the third-most produced bomber of all time,
81st Flying Training Wing (World War II) 81st Training Wing, established on 15 April 1948 at Wheeler Field, Hawaii, and this organization. The mission of the wing was to provide both Classification and Preflight stage training to air cadets which had completed Training Command basic indoctrination training. Once the cadet successfully completed the training at the center, they would be assigned to one of the AAF primary flight schools for initial flying training. 81st Flying Training Wing (World War II) The 81st Flying Training Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the Western Flying Training Command, and was disbanded on