1:155 Scale Metal
Die-Cast – Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress "Nine-O-Nine" –
Length: 5.75" Wingspan: 7.75”
This B-17 model is made to be displayed in the inflight configuration. It is mostly made of metal and very heavy/dense. It is certainly not a toy and will not survive been played with or a fall.
Although it is a small scale, the details are very impressive. From the photos one can see and appreciate the transparent cockpit windshield, as well as the other transparent parts in the different gun positions and view ports. Even the belly and tail gun positions look accurate and have gun barrels sticking out, in fact, all gun positions have their respective gun barrels showing. The propellers are free to rotate and very smooth. If one blows onto the front of the plane, all four propellers start spinning. All four engines are part of the wing assembly, which in turn is one single piece; likewise, the vertical fin is also a single piece with the fuselage, so there are really very few gaps visible in the model.
Since there is no option for a landing gear, a stand where the model can be attached for display is included and the model's info (type of airplane and scale).
The maker of the model, Model Power, really did a good job with the model, the panel lines and details are very clear and crisp.What really caught my attention, however, is the way the markings and coloring. Look at the photos and you will see very clear and crisp nose art and markings.
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martinfor a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both competitors and exceeded 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 more B-17s for further evaluation. From its introduction in 1938, the B-17 Flying Fortress evolved through numerous design advances.[5][6]
The B-17 was primarily employed by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial and military targets. The United States Eighth Air Force, based at many airfields in southern England, and the Fifteenth Air Force, based in Italy, complemented the RAF Bomber Command's nighttime area bombing in the Combined Bomber Offensive to help secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for the invasion of France in 1944.[7] The B-17 also participated to a lesser extent in the War in the Pacific, early in World War II, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields.[8]
From its pre-war inception, the USAAC (later, the USAAF) touted the aircraft as a strategic weapon; it was a potent, high-flying, long-range bomber that was able to defend itself, and to return home despite extensive battle damage. Its reputation quickly took on mythic proportions,[9][10] and widely circulated stories and photos of notable numbers and examples of B-17s surviving battle damage increased its iconic status.[11] With a service ceiling greater than any of its Allied contemporaries, the B-17 established itself as an effective weapons system, dropping more bombs than any other U.S. aircraft in World War II. Of the1.5 million metric tons of bombs dropped on Germany and its occupied territories by U.S. aircraft, 640,000 tonnes were dropped from B-17s.[12]
As of May 2015, 10 aircraft remain airworthy. None are combat verterans. Additionally a few dozen more in storage or on static display. The oldest is a D Series combat veteran with service in the Pacific and the Caribbean.