The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft
developed for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) introduced in
the 1930s. Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build
200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both competitors and more
than met the Air Corps' expectations. Although Boeing lost the contract
because the prototype crashed, the Air Corps was so impressed with
Boeing's design that they ordered 13 B-17s. The B-17 Flying Fortress
evolved through numerous design advancements. The B-17 was primarily
employed by the United States Army Air Forces in the daylight precision
strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial,
civilian, and military targets. The United States Eighth Air Force
based in England and the Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy
complemented the RAF Bomber Command's nighttime area bombing in
Operation Pointblank to help secure air superiority over the cities,
factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for
Operation Overlord. The B-17 also participated to a lesser extent in
the War in the Pacific where it conducted raids against Japanese
shipping and airfields. With a service ceiling greater than any of its
Allied contemporaries, the B-17 established itself as a superb weapons
system, dropping more bombs than any other U.S. aircraft in World
War II.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-17_Flying_Fortress>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
618:
Lǐ Yuān became Emperor Gaozu of Tang, initiating three centuries of the
Tang Dynasty in China.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_Dynasty>
1815:
War of the Seventh Coalition: Napoléon Bonaparte fought and lost his
final battle, the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo>
1858:
Charles Darwin received a manuscript by fellow naturalist Alfred Russel
Wallace on evolution, which prompted Darwin to publish his theory.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Russel_Wallace>
1908:
The University of the Philippines, the national university of the
Philippines, was established.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_the_Philippines>
1940:
World War II: General Charles de Gaulle , leader of the Free French
Forces, made an appeal to the French people following the fall of
France to Nazi Germany, rallying them to support the Resistance.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_of_June_18>
1972:
British European Airways Flight 548 crashed near the town of Staines
less than three minutes after departing from London Heathrow Airport,
killing all 118 aboard, at the time the worst air disaster in the UK.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_European_Airways_Flight_548>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
lenticular (adj):
1. Of or pertaining to a lens.
2. Shaped like a biconvex lens
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lenticular>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The history of a battle, is not unlike the history of a ball. Some
individuals may recollect all the little events of which the great
result is the battle won or lost, but no individual can recollect the
order in which, or the exact moment at which, they occurred, which
makes all the difference as to their value or importance.
--Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Wellesley%2C_1st_Duke_of_Wellington>
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