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,
RAF Bomber Command aircrew of World War II although 9,838 became prisoners of war. During World War II 156 aircrew taken prisoner of war successfully escaped from German prisoner of war camps in Western Europe and 1,975 airmen evaded capture being hidden by local resistance groups after being shot down in Western Europe. It is reported that more than half of the escapers and evaders were RAF Bomber Command airmen. A recent specialized study of airmen "evaders" shot down over Western Europe states that a post-war summary prepared by British Military Intelligence (MI9) recorded that 695 officers and 1,270 enlisted men had evaded capture; however, the study identified