Memphis Belle: The Story of a B17 Flying Fortress | Upscaled original footage documentary.
This film, shot by Hollywood director William Wyler is a memorable testimony of the missions of WWII. insisted on using only genuine footage and soldiers, showing civilian audiences a more startlingly realistic view of the war than they'd seen before.
This film is about the crew of a B17 "flying fortress" bomber as it approaches its 25th mission.
They were often under enemy fire, but the cinematographers kept filming, and one lost his life.

The Boeing B17 Flying Fortress is a fourengined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and highflying for a bomber of its era, the B17 was used primarily in the European Theater of Operations and dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during World War II. It is the thirdmostproduced bomber of all time, behind the fourengined Consolidated B24 Liberator and the multirole, twinengined Junkers Ju 88. It was also employed as a transport, antisubmarine aircraft, drone controller, and searchandrescue aircraft.

In a USAAC competition, Boeing's prototype Model 299/XB17 outperformed two other entries but crashed, losing the initial 200bomber contract to the Douglas B18 Bolo. Still, the Air Corps ordered 13 more B17s for further evaluation, and then introduced them into service in 1938. The B17 evolved through numerous design advances but from its inception, the USAAC (later, the USAAF) promoted the aircraft as a strategic weapon. It was a relatively fast, highflying, longrange bomber with heavy defensive armament at the expense of bomb load. It also developed a reputation for toughness based upon stories and photos of badly damaged B17s safely returning to base.

The B17 saw early action in the Pacific War, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields. But it was primarily employed by the USAAF in the daylight strategic bombing campaign over Europe, complementing RAF Bomber Command's nighttime area bombing of German industrial, military, and civilian targets. 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 B17s.

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 Dseries flown in combat in the Pacific on the first day of the United States' involvement in World War II.

General characteristics

Crew: 10: Pilot, copilot, navigator, bombardier/nose gunner, flight engineer/top turret gunner, radio operator, waist gunners (2), ball turret gunner, tail gunner
Length: 74 ft 4 in (22.66 m)
Wingspan: 103 ft 9 in (31.62 m)
Height: 19 ft 1 in (5.82 m)
Wing area: 1,420 sq ft (131.92 m2)
Airfoil: NACA 0018 / NACA 0010
Empty weight: 36,135 lb (16,391 kg)
Gross weight: 54,000 lb (24,500 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 65,500 lb (29,700 kg)
Aspect ratio: 7.57
Powerplant: 4 × Wright R182097 "Cyclone" turbosupercharger radial engines, 1,200 hp (895 kW) each
Propellers: 3bladed HamiltonStandard constantspeed propeller
Performance

Maximum speed: 287 mph (462 km/h, 249 kn)
Cruise speed: 182 mph (293 km/h, 158 kn)
Range: 2,000 mi (3,219 km, 1,738 nmi) with 6,000 lb (2,700 kg) bombload
Ferry range: 3,750 mi (6,040 km, 3,260 nmi)
Service ceiling: 35,600 ft (10,850 m)
Rate of climb: 900 ft/min (4.6 m/s)
Wing loading: 38.0 lb/sq ft (185.7 kg/m2)
Power/mass: 0.089 hp/lb (150 W/kg)
Armament
Guns: 13 × .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns in 9 positions (2 in the Bendix's chin turret, 2 on nose cheeks, 2 staggered waist guns, 2 in upper Sperry turret, 2 in Sperry ball turret in belly, 2 in the tail and one firing upwards from radio compartment behind bomb bay)
Bombs:
Shortrange missions; Internal load only (400 mi): 8,000 lb (3,600 kg)
Longrange missions; Internal load only (≈800 mi): 4,500 lb (2,000 kg)
Max Internal and External load: 17,600 lb (7,800 kg)

Credits: For more information and to download this film, please visit https://www.loc.gov/item/mbrs00009301/

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