B-17 Flying Fortress

[Jarink]

Again, these aren't at the perfect angle for profiling, but they are decent close-ups of what a wartime B-17F cockpit looked like from the outside.
The odd angled shape in front of the turret is armor plate.

Clifford McIlveen
Clarence McIlveen
(These were two brothers that were both pilots in the 385th BG - Clifford was copilot in my grandfather's crew)

I'm pretty sure the bracket on the instrument panel was for the pilot's compass panel.
Compass Panel

[JMSmith]

knew i would find it sooner or later,

now check you drawings

[Otterkins2]

Check how John? Very few of the measurements are readable.

[Jarink]

That's page 4 of the Erection and Maintenance manual. The station numbers for the empennagel are inches from the centerline.

I blew it up, but it's still pretty fuzzy.
Fuselage station numbers 1
Fuselage station numbers 2



I have the whole E&M manual in 4 PDFs. It's about 180MB. If anyone wants a copy, PM me.

[JMSmith]

hi otter,

go to specsavers i can read them on the original.

here's the tail, so GM and others can see the real height it should be.

[gamary]

For the nose section, I won't be doing too much correction work because I know it's wrong but I have to produce two drawings before Tuesday. I also have to do a Liberator nose. I don't like having to work that quickly because it generally means mistake. In any case, I'm trying to do something that will still be acceptable, and the focus is on the nose art rather than the rest.

For the complete B-17 profile, my overall shape is good, because it's not based on scale plans. It's based on pictures and unless preserved B-17s have been warped, the shape should be good. My difficulty is in getting the rivets and panel lines right. The station measurements will come in handy for this.

@Jarink: I'd be interested in the E&M manual if it's not too inconvenient to transfer (I'm thinking depositfiles or something like that).

Remind me to make a profile of your grandfather's B-17 when I finish the full profile, to thank you for your help. I'll also draw Mr Smith to thank John for his helpful abuse (but I won't do the nipples thing ).

Would you mind telling us more about your grandfather's time in the 385th BG? I'm sure many of us would be interested.

[Jarink]

My grandfather was a bombardier in the 550th BS, 385th BG and was with the group from the time of its formation in the States. He completed 10 missions, missing the Aug 17th '43 shuttle mission to N Africa and back because he had been hit in the hand by flak. He did fly on the Oct 14th "Black Friday" mission to Schweinfurt. He was shot down over Echt, Holland on a mission to Duren on Oct 20th. They were flying a plane from the 551st (Shack Bunny) as they were originally not scheduled to fly that day. It had engine trouble and they turned back short of the target only to be hit by flak and thus had to bail out. 9 of the crew were immediately turned over to the Germans by some turncoat Dutch (to this day that's a sore subject with people I've talked to from that area). The 10th, Chester Lisiewski, evaded capture for a while until he was eventually picked up in Paris.

All of the officers went to Stalag Luft I near Barth, Germany. I'm not certain where the enlisted crew ended up. The navigator, John Durakov, spoke some Russian and helped with translation duties when the camp was liberated by the Red Army in May '45.


This isn't the one they flew in combat (they did fly it across the Atlantic), but the nose art is much prettier!




For the E&M manual, I actually remembered where I got my copy!
Check out this thread on ww2aircraft.net, second post from the bottom!

[inkworm]

Hope you don't mind me crashing this thread, saves starting a new B17 one and all the previous stuff was a good starting point plus I didn't have to ask, found some mistakes with the drawings though, or it could just be the modifications she's received over the years.

Anyway some bits still to do and I don't have a good profile photo of the inner engine's exhaust system but do your worst.

[Jarink]

Ask and Ye Shall Receive!

Aluminum Overcast from fall of last year.

[RAF_Loke]

Just the pic I needed to get on with my profile .