The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft primarily employed by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II. Developed by Boeing, a total of 12,731 aircraft had been produced by Boeing, Douglas and Lockheed from 1936 until 1945. Over 8,000 were lost in either combat operations or training accidents. The remaining combat veterans and early production models were stored and later scrapped in the vast scrap drives of the late 1940s, many going to aircraft boneyards like Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, the largest of its kind within the United States' borders.
The majority of the aircraft that survive today came from the last batches of aircraft produced by both Douglas and Lockheed, which had better corrosion control practices. These aircraft had found use in the 1950s and early 1960s as DB-17 Drone Director and QB-17 target aircraft with the USAF, as U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard early warning, air sea rescue or weather aircraft (known by the naval aircraft designations PB-1W or PB-1G), or overseas as photo mapping aircraft with French National Geographic Institute. After retirement from active service, these aircraft were converted during the 1960s to the late 1980s as bulk cargo transport, aerial sprayer, and water tanker aircraft.
During the late 1970s when the warbird movement began, these survivors were eagerly anticipated and as each came on the civilian market many were restored to original combat configuration. In the 1990s, as intact, existing airframes became increasingly rare (only 46 intact B-17s are known to exist as of August 2013), restorers began seeking out airframes that were previously considered unrecoverable.
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