The most Damaged B-17 you'll ever see Flying

That is not a B-17. That is a flak trap.

Man that thing is shredded & it kept going. Impressive

これだけ攻撃を受けても飛行を続けているとは、パイロットの腕が凄すぎる❗️Good Operation ❗️

True heroes, God bless you all.

My grandmother worked on the assembly line manufacturing the Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet radial engines in E. Hartford, CT, during the war...

Wonder if the pilot flying that wonder about his pronouns?

My grand father was a B-17 mechanic in southern England, with the 8th air force. Some B-17s would come back from Germany .with so many bullet holes in them that they looked like Swiss cheese.

THe Boeing Flying Fortress......Built to take a licking and keep on ticking!

I'm surprised they didn't go crazy. After this nightmare

My father was a waist gunner on a 17 his unit patch was a skull in a leather flight helmet that read clay Pigeons he got out joined the reserves and got pulled back in for Korea ended up staying in and got sent to Vietnam 18 months before retiring truly the greatest generation. We just keep getting weaker every year

Crazy part was they were 21...22..23 years old

It's hard to even imagine what these brave young men experienced.
My Dad was in Lancasters.
He didn't talk much about it.

How on earth is it still in the air???
What a aircraft and what a pilot!

Can’t say for sure, but Queenie might have been named after the subject of the Andrews Sisters song “Strip Polka”.

Boeing built 'em tough.

Angels holding it up. Lord What a miracle!

That’s not a plane. That’s a fucking tank.

Aerei terroristi! Ammazzavano solo donne, vecchi e bambini, vergogna!

I do remember seeing .

God bless America 🇺🇸

This is why it's called the flying fortress.

One german pilot excorted and spierd a b17 the german pilots name was Hans stigler he escorted the b 17 out of german territory

Flying Forts is a great book written by Martin Caiden

Brave men

Kind of gives the lie to the proposition that the main value of German Flak, was that it forced opposing bombers to fly too high to bomb accurately!

This is why they call her the "Flying Fortress", they can absorb so many cannon, flak, and machine gun rounds its incredible.

All American?

It was best said you could chop that bird up with an axe and she’ll still fly

😂😂😂nice,from John Robert Bruffett Junior USA 🇺🇸 USA 🇺🇸 USA 🇺🇸 USA 🇺🇸!

Greatest bomber of all time.

El piloto no creo que entregue en buen estado el avion..

My grandpa riding bicycle anyway...

REAL men back then! not liberals sissies like we have now days!

Weakest B-17 vs Strongest B-2

Weakest B-17: was one of americas best bombers, could still fly even with one engine working and almost without a Wing and could carry nuclear weapons but sadly it never did it

Strongest B-2: cant fly in the rain because it could ruin its """stealth""" coating(skill issue)

I think "Snake Hips" might have sustained even more & got home?

She surely was shot full of holes.

The comments on this thread are truly inspiring.

meanwhile in war thunder a single .50 cal will blow the wing right in half.

Made in America

I've said this before about the B-17 it was basically a giant glider many times all of the crew would bail out and the plane would actually fly all the way across England before it crashed with no motors going they used to have to shoot them down all the time cuz they were afraid they were going to land and England someplace many models of the RC and all and they all fly

My dad was on the flight crew of these in North Africa, then Foggia Italy during WW2.

That is absolutely amazing. I am in my 60s, have been fascinated about WWII all my life, as I had uncles that fought through it and survived but I have never seen this footage ever before.

If it ain't a Boeing, I ain't going. ✌🏻🇺🇸

Murders machine

Meanwhile in war thunder:

Very brave men. Can you imagine the snowflakes of today managing to cope with the trauma of war?

Pratt and Whitney radials pulled through once again 💪

The Allies commissioned a study on how to make these planes and other bombers more survivable from taking hits. A few different fields of study from different people, like statisticians, aircraft engineers, weapon designers, etc...
They went out to look at the planes that were damaged that we able to land. Some just had a few holes in them, others had giant chucks missing.
One fellow noted that all of the hits and major damage were in certain areas of the planes. So he stated that all of the other areas not hit my flak or bullets, should be up-armored and made stronger.
The fact that these planes were all hit in the same general area proved to them that the planes can take a great deal of damage in these locations.. but, the planes that get hit in the other areas are not coming back.
It was a pretty neat study and used an almost reverse logic. You fix up what you can't see and leave the other areas alone. I believe after that some planes had to get rid of a a crew member or 2 to make way for the weight of the new armor and supports. Two men and two .50 machine guns weighs a lot.