Safety keeps ‘Flying Fortress’ grounded

The tight formations of U.S. bomber groups allowed them to use their machine guns to protect other aircrafft nearby. But it could also lead to accidents. In this 1944 photograph, a B-17 Flying Fortress has had one of its vertical stabilizers near the tail sheered off by a bomb dropped from a B-17 above that had been spaced incorrectly. Incredibly, the damaged plane was able to limp back to its base in England.

Two explosions caused by these two B-17 Flying Fortresses of U.S. Air Force on their way over Frankfurt/Main. This is the attack of Dec. 29th. (AP Photo)

A favorite sight of a Flying Fortress crews was squadrons of P-51 Mustang escort fighters above, below and to their sides. The increasing range of American fighters towards the end of the war meant bomber crews no longer had to spend large amounts of time undefended from German fighter attack.

Railroad yards near Frankfurt are the destination of these bombs just dropped from a B-17. The United States policy was precision daylight bombing, though bombs sometimes fell far from targets due to smoke, winds and the disruption of attacking German planes.

In a rare image, a B-17 passes by the contrail of a V-2 rocket launched from a pad on the North Sea toward England in November 1944. The missile was the brainchild of Wernher von Braun, who within six months was captured by the Allies and went on to lead the successful U.S. effort to put a man on the moon.

B-17 air crews in Europe had some of the highest casualty rates of U.S. troops during the war. Here a Flying Fortress of the Eighth Air Force is shot down Merseburg, Germany on Nov. 2, 1944. Any crew who could bail out likely ended up in POW camps run by their airborne adversaries, the Luftwaffe.

A B-17 bomber in a following wave of planes drops its bombs above an already burning ordnance plant near Kassel. The city in the present day German state of Hesse was largely flattened by repeated bombings from 1942 to 1945. German officials after the war said 10,000 people in and around the city were killed by Allied bombing.

Even late in the war, the Nazis were able to put up sometimes ferocious attacks on the B-17s. On June 17, 1944, a twin-engine Messerschmitt 410 was photographed peeling away less than 25 feet from a Flying Fortress. It was one of over 100 fighters that attacked U.S. planes bombing Brux, another area that Hitler had annexed into Germany. Today it is the city of Most in the Czech Republic.

A burning B-17 holds formation over Berlin in June 1944, the month of the D-Day invasion. After the long, dangerous flight to the German capital, the crew likely would have wanted to deliver their bombs on the target before bailing out.

B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb a Messerschmitt fighter assembly plant outside of Vienna in May 1944. Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, who was born in Austria and once lived in Vienna, had merged the country into Germany just before the outbreak of World War II. Following World War II, Austria was one of the rare areas where the Soviets withdrew from territory they had conquered in Eastern Europe.

A B-17 disintegrates after being hit by anti-aircraft fire over Nazi-held Yugoslavia in May 1944. The German's 88mm gun was one of the most potent and versatile weapons of the war. Developed as an anti-aircraft weapon, the German Wehrmacht found it to be an excellent tank killer.

A photo full of history and irony. In the largest attack of the war, B-17s and B-24 Liberators bomb Berlin on April 29, 1944. A year and a day later, Adolf Hitler would commit suicide in his bunker in the bombed out city to avoid capture by the advancing Soviet Red Army. Visible in the photo, just below the B-17 in the left of the frame, is Tempelhof Airport, Berlin's main airport and a Nazi archictural showcase. A little more than four years after this photo was taken, Tempelhof would be the scene of the Berlin Airlift to bring supplies to a city cut off by our ally-turned adversary, the Soviet Union. Some of the same flight crews who dropped bombs to kill Germans in 1944 would risk their lives to bring food and medicine to save the lives of those same Germans in 1948-49.

There are beautiful days even in war. Here a squadron of B-17s flies over the North Sea amid rays of morning light in June 1944.

The "Fuddy Duddy" switches on its four Wright Cyclone engines at the Lyon Air Museum at John Wayne airport in 2010. The plane was supposed to fly over Orange County on Saturday, but mechanical issues kept it grounded. The museum hopes to get the 68-year-old warbird back in the air soon.

B-17 Flying Fortresses attacks a Nazi ball bearing and aircraft engine repair plant on the outskirts of Paris on New Years Eve 1943. The following June, Allied forces landed in Normandy and in August 1944, Paris had been liberated.

Flak from gunners on the ground blew off part of the wing of this B-17 during an attack on Naples, Italy in September 1943. Five crew members were able to escape the flaming plane before it hit the ground.

U.S. Gen Douglas MacArthur poses for a photograph in the waist gunner position of a B-17 during the September 1943 operation to wrest control of New Guinea from the Japanese. MacArthur was one of the top military brass who flew on "Fuddy Duddy," the B-17G that will fly over Orange County this weekend during an event at the Lyon Air Museum near John Wayne Airport. "Fuddy Duddy" wasn't built until 1944.

B-17 crews felt safest when accompanied by fighter escorts, like these P-38 Lightnings. Because of limited range, the fighters would have to turn back on longer missions, leaving the bombers vunerable to attack by German ME-109 and FW-190 fighters, and later the jet powered ME-262. Later versions of the P-51 Mustang could accompany the bombers on longer missions, increasing the odds of survival for flight crews.

The B-17 was designed by Boeing and first flew in 1935. With the U.S. entry into World War II in December 1941, all competition among manufacturers was put aside. Here Ventura twin-engine patrol bombers roll off the Vega assembly plant in Burbank in late 1942. Soon the plan would be building B-17s. Douglas was also recruited to build its peacetime rival's design. Vega was merged into into Lockheed in 1943. Douglas was also recruited to build its peacetime rival's B-17.

The bombadier of a B-17 would sit in the nose area and use a Norden bomb sight to find the target. The sight, designed by a Dutch engineer, was said to be up to eight times more accurate than the bombsight used by the Royal Air Force. The Royal Air Force, bombing at night, did not attempt precision bombing, preferring to attack with area bombing that carpeted a wide area with bombs.

A group of B-17 bombers arrived at Pearl Harbor in the middle of the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941. Stripped of guns to make the long flight from California, the planes were forced to try to get on the ground at Hickam Air Field and Haleiwa, on the North Shore of Oahu. Some of the earliest photos of the attack were taken by B-17 crew members.

With the French out of the war and the British defending their home island, the B-17 bombers was one of the few ways the U.S. could aid its new ally in the war against Nazi Germany. Here newly arrived B-17s in Britain are lined up, probably in 1942. Some Flying Fortresses were flown by the Royal Air Force. But soon large numbers of air crews from the United States arrived. The Allies set-up an around-the-clock bombing system with the U.S. attacking German-held Europe by day while the British attacked at night.

The B-17's ceiling topped out at just under 37,000 feet, making it a target for German fighters and anti-aircraft guns. Here B-17 Flying Fortresses fly toward the German Navy bases at Kiel and Wilhelmshaven. The bombers, based in southern England, often flew missions for days at a time.

A World War II B-17G Flying Fortress bomber nicknamed "Fuddy Duddy" is a feature attraction at the Lyon Air Museum near John Wayne Airport. It will take to the air on Feb. 11, 2012.

Nose art for "Fuddy Duddy," the B-17G Flying Fortress bomber that will fly over Orange County this weekend. The cartoon figure on the right is Elmer Fudd, the hunter forever chasing Bugs Bunny.