Portal:United States Air Force/article/2007April
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The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed for the US Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 planes, the Boeing entry outperformed both the other competitors and more than met the Air Corps' expectations. The B-17 Flying Fortress went on to enter full-scale production and was considered the first truly mass-produced large aircraft, eventually evolving through numerous design advancements, from B-17A to G.
The prototype B-17, designated Model 299, was designed by a team of engineers led by E. Gifford Emery and Edward Curtis Wells and built at Boeing's own expense. The first flight of the Model 299 was on 28 July 1935, with Boeing chief test-pilot Les Tower at the controls. Although the next test flight on 30 October 1935 ended in a fatal crash, the aircraft so impressed the Army Air Corps that an order was made in spite of this setback.