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,
74th Flying Training Wing (World War II) 74th Flying Training Wing (World War II) The 74th Flying Training Wing was wing of the United States Army Air Forces. It was last assigned to the Eastern Flying Training Command, and was disbanded on 30 December 1945 at Maxwell Field, Alabama. The wing's mission was to provide classification and preflight testing of aviation cadets. It was one of three such centers, the others being at Maxwell Field, Alabama and Santa Ana Army Air Base, California. The mission of the wing was to provide both Classification and Preflight stage training to air cadets which had completed Training Command basic indoctrination