Boeing YB-40 Flying Fortress March 1944. All of the aircraft were sent to reclamation, mostly at RFC Ontario in May 1945, being broken up and smelted. (A couple of the YB-40s can be seen in the 1946 movie "The Best Years of Our Lives", in the famous scene shot at the Ontario "graveyard".) No airframes were sold on the civil market. Boeing YB-40 Flying Fortress The Boeing YB-40 Flying Fortress was a modification for operational testing purposes of the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber aircraft, converted to act as a heavily armed gunship for other bombers during World War II. At the time of its
Bomber Mafia Bomber Mafia The Bomber Mafia were a close-knit group of American military men who believed that long-range heavy bomber aircraft in large numbers were able to win a war. The derogatory term 'Bomber Mafia' was used before and after World War II by those in the military who did not share their belief, and who were frustrated by the insistence of the men that the heavy bomber should take a primary position in planning and funding. After World War II, the 20 years of foundational work by the bomber mafia resulted in the separation of the United States Air Force