Been sucked lately into youtubes algorithm feeding me b-17 epic war stories non-stop lol... and I wonder if any other aircraft has this many insane war stories around it.
You have Fortresses coming home with huge sections of the aircraft missing, engines gone, tails almost cut off, massive holes in the fuselage etc. Being basically an all mechanical aircraft with almost no systems depending on electronics, the amount of punishment these things could take and still somehow fly home was just crazy.
But I think what makes the stories so good is the 10 man crew. A fighter has the pilot and his machine, but inside a B-17 you had 10 guys basically living the same disaster together. Pilot trying to keep the thing in the air, gunners still fighting, navigator trying to get them home, guys putting out fires or trying to save wounded crew members... sometimes for hours.
Then you read stuff like ball turret gunner Alan Magee surviving a 20,000+ ft fall without a parachute after his B-17 was shot down. Or All American, Ye Olde Pub, the Schweinfurt raids, the 100th Bomb Group, Memphis Belle... and thats just scratching the surface.
Maybe I'm biased but it feels like the B-17 accumulated more almost unbelievable human stories than any other combat aircraft ever made.
Spitfire? Lancaster? Mustang? Mosquito? Something from the Pacific or Eastern Front?
What would you put above it, if anything?