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BOEING B-17 FLYING FORTRESS
Variants - B-17C/Fortress I

The B-17C was a B-17B with a number of improvements, including more powerful R-1820-65 engines. To boost crew safety, the waist-mounted gun blisters were replaced with teardrop-shaped sliding panels flush with the fuselage, and the ventral gun blister by a metal housing dubbed a 'bathtub turret', similar in appearance and general location on the fuselage, to the Bola ventral gondola then being used and introduced on the He 111P model of German medium bomber. Some of the most important additions were self-sealing fuel tanks and defensive armor.

With the passage of the Lend-lease Act in 1941, the Royal Air Force began clamoring for use of the B-17. At that time, the Army Air Corps was suffering from shortages of the B-17, but hesitantly agreed to provide 20 planes to the RAF. Though the Army Air Corps did not consider the B-17C ready for combat, it was desperately needed in Britain. They were modified Boeing production B-17C, given the company designation Model 299T. The modifications were the addition of self-sealing tanks and replacement of the single nose gun with 0.5 inch Brownings.

Fortress I
Royal Air Force Fortress I.
[Source: USAF Photo]

The twenty planes were placed immediately into frontline service as the Fortress Mk I.

In Britain, the plane performed unremarkably. By 1941 September, 39 sorties had made up 22 missions. Nearly half of the sorties were aborted due to mechanical problems. Eight of the twenty were destroyed by September, half to accidents. Their guns tended to freeze at high altitude and were generally unable to effectively protect the Fortresses. Their success as a bomber was also limited, largely because they were unable to hit anything from the altitudes at which they flew.

The first "C" series flew in July 1940; 38 were built. The eighteen remaining after twenty were transferred to the RAF were modified to the configuration used in the B-17D. However, one of these, B-17C 40-2047, crashed while being ferried from Salt Lake City, UT, to Mather Army Air Base, CA, on November 2, 1941.

First Flight: July 21, 1940
Produced: 39

Sources:
Wikipedia
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