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,
The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship The Flying Ship (Russian title "Летучий корабль"), or The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, is a Russian fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in "The Yellow Fairy Book" and Arthur Ransome in "Old Peter's Russian Tales". Uri Shulevitz illustrated a version of Ransome's tale, "The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship", for which he won the Caldecott Medal in 1969. Also, a made-for-television stop motion-animated film with the same name was released in the United Kingdom in 1990. It aired as part of WGBH's children's series,