Production-block:
B-17F-15-VE: 42-5745 to 42-5764
Manufacturer:
Lockheed/Vega
- Bomb Squadron:
- 322nd Bomb Squadron
- 327th Bomb Squadron
- 813th Bomb Squadron
- RCL: UX-H, LG-C
History of
B-17 42-5745 / The Fuhrer The Better
(YB-40) Delivered Tulsa 21/11/42; Homestead 18/12/42; Assigned 305BG Chelveston 18/3/43, sent to RAF Wyton, pathfinder base for installation of Oboe Mk I radar equipment; transferred 327BS/92BG [UX-H] Alconbury 20/4/43; taxi accident with John Hamilton 25/5/43; 813BS/482BG Alconbury 25/8/43, ret 30/11/43; 322BS/91BG [LG-C] Bassingbourn 20/12/43; AFSC 27/4/44; Returned to the USA 6/5/44; 3036 BU Yuma 4/5/44; Reconstruction Finance Corporation (sold for scrap metal in USA) Albuquerque 19/6/45. THE FUHRER THE BETTER.
Last updated: 26. March 2018
22. November 2025 access_time 20:17
My research contradicts three (3) fundamental statements and quantities in you statement.
You state:
Although the XB-40 prototype was a Boeing project, all productions YB-40s were built by Douglas but identified as Vega-built aircraft! Twenty-three aircraft were built – one XB-40 and twenty-two YB-40s.
1) True, the XB-40 was a Boring airframe, however Lockheed did the initial conversion.
2) the YB-40 were indeed Vega B-17F-VE airframes of various blocks starting with -10 and later blocks. The candidates were neither continuous nor consecutive. Douglas Tulsa did the modifications on a modification line basis however, like other modification lines, there is no evidence the plant code changed (to DT). So , yes, the YB-40 seem to have remained identified as Vega aircraft.
3) AAF study #62 on the US based commercial modification centers shows 25 each YB-40 modification. These were in two batches: 13 and 12. However the candidates were neither necessarily contiguous nor consecutive.
Careful review of Koku Fan and Osborne will yield the 25 each YB-40.
N.B. the XB-40 mid-upper turret housing and perhaps other features were reworked at Douglas Tulsa to create the assembly line example for the YB-40 program run.
V.R
Phil M.