The B-17 bomber was America's flying icon, from its inauspicious start (the prototype crashed a mere two months after its launch in 1935) to its starring role in World War II (serving first the RAF and then the U.S. Army Air Force, in every combat zone) to its eventual status as the grand old bomber without peer. Noted aviation author Bill Yenne takes readers through the hits and misses of the B-17's development, the deployment of the different models, the missions flown, and the men who flew them. Book features military equipment and elite military units, including exciting first-person accounts and descriptions of combat and equipment as seen through the eyes of military personnel.