Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress NAN10-50.jpg|thumb|B-17 modified for testing of the [[Pratt & Whitney T34|XT-34 turboprop]]. When testing concluded, the aircraft was restored to stock configuration as the "[[Liberty Belle (B-17)|Liberty Belle]]", but was lost in a post-forced-landing fire near [[Oswego, Illinois]] on 13 June 2011.]] [[Category:Boeing aircraft|B-17 Flying Fortress]] [[Category:United States bomber aircraft 1930–1939]] [[Category:Four-engined tractor aircraft]] [[Category:Low-wing aircraft]] [[Category:World War II bombers of the United States]] [[Category:Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress| ]] [[Category:Aircraft first flown in 1935]] 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
B-17 Flying Fortress units of the United States Army Air Forces Liberators Was primary operator of B-17 Flying Fortresses in overseas combat theaters during World War II. The B-17 may have first seen combat in American markings in the Philippines, but it would earn its enduring fame with the Eighth Air Force, based in England and fighting over Occupied Europe. The story of the B-17 would become the story of the VIII Bomber Command (later Eighth Air Force) strategic heavy bombardment campaign of the European Theater of Operations (ETO) during World War II Initially equipped with B-17Es in 1942, the Eighth Air Force received B-17Fs in Jan 1943 and B-17Gs in