Relic B17 Fortress Belly Panel

Description

Relic B17 Fortress Belly Panel

Large piece of panel from a crashed American B17 , came from a crash site in Holland, and bought from a collector in Holland.

Piece is 35 inches long x 28 inches width. Piece has an original number stencilled in to the top, 4371.

Relic condition , slight outer curved shape, all original inc the strengthening spars inside,sorry i no nothing of the crash site just the info i’ve been given.

See Photo’s

Heavy and bulky item so postage will have to be paid for.

These two pieces the B17,and JU88 both came from one collector and the info i’ve been given is the info i detail.

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater of Operations and dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during World War II. It is the third-most produced bomber of all time, behind the four-engined Consolidated B-24 Liberator and the multirole, twin-engined Junkers Ju 88. It was also employed as a transport, antisubmarine aircraft, drone controller, and search-and-rescue aircraft.

In a USAAC competition, Boeing’s prototype Model 299/XB-17 outperformed two other entries but crashed, losing the initial 200-bomber contract to the Douglas B-18 Bolo. Still, the Air Corps ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation, then introduced it into service in 1938. The B-17 evolved through numerous design advances^[4][5] but from its inception, the USAAC (later, the USAAF) promoted the aircraft as a strategic weapon. It was a relatively fast, high-flying, long-range bomber with heavy defensive armament at the expense of bombload. It also developed a reputation for toughness based upon stories and photos of badly damaged B-17s safely returning to base.

The B-17 saw early action in the Pacific War, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields.^[6] But it was primarily employed by the USAAF in the daylight strategic bombing campaign over Europe, complementing RAF Bomber Command‘s night-time area bombing of German industrial, military and civilian targets.^[7] Of the roughly 1.5 million tons of bombs dropped on Nazi Germany and its occupied territories by U.S. aircraft, over 640 000 tons (42.6%) were dropped from B-17s.^[8]

As of November 2022, four aircraft remain airworthy, none flown in combat. Dozens more are in storage or on static display. The oldest of these is a D-series flown in combat in the Pacific on the first day of the United States’ involvement in World War II.

Relic B17 Fortress Belly Panel