Gift KirovRampager Pt.2: Bartlebee the XB-17R Anth

(Convenient Censorship is Convenient)

Part 2 of KirovRampager's Birthday Gift. Check out the fuel tanks on that bombshell!

*Gets Slapped*

OW!!!

Bartlebee: The 'bombshell' has a name!

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General characteristics (Most technical specifications are for the B-17G, save the powerplants and crew complement)

Name: Bartlebee

Species: XB-17R (fictional experimental variant of the B-17G)

Gender: Female

Age: 71 Human Years

Crew: Typically 7 (Pilot, Navigator, Radar Operator*, 3 Turret Operators and Flight Engineer*). NOTE: the Radar Operator also functions as the bombardier or photographer, while the Flight Engineer doubles as a Co-Pilot

Length: 74 ft 4 in (22.66 m)

Wingspan: 103 ft 9 in (31.62 m)

Height: 19 ft 1 in (5.82 m)

Wing area: 1,420 sq ft (131.92 sq m)

Empty weight: 36,135 lb (16,391 kg)

Max Takeoff Weight: 65,500 lb (29,700 kg)

Powerplant: 2 x Turbo-supercharged Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major 28-Cylinder Radials in push-pull configuration.

8 x BMW-003A-1 Turbojets mounted in adjacent pairs in four paired nacelles under the wings.


Performance

Maximum speed: 520 mph (under ideal conditions)

Rate of climb: Unknown

Combat radius: 1500 miles

Maximum range: 3000 miles

Service ceiling: 51,440 feet** NOTE: This is after modifications were made to counter the MiG-15 jet fighter used over the Korean Peninsula



Armament:

10 x M-3 20 mm cannons, 8 mounted in paired remote turrets, 1 mounted to fire through the prop hub on both piston engines, cameras helping to aim each cannon.

Approximately 3,500 lbs of ordinance or 1 Mark 5 Tactical Nuclear Device

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Excerpt from Wikipedia:

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the then United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both competitors and more than met 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.

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Bartlebee has one of the most unusual stories of any plane ever to exist. Expected not to survive her first mission, she pulled through during the 8th Air Force's bombing campaign on Nazi Germany, surviving every imaginable combat scenario. She was once slated for the scrap heap, only to be saved, on insistence from her war-time crew and later from the famed German aircraft designer Claudius Dornier to be used experimentally. Perhaps most impressive of all was that her second salvation came from her pilot, and a suicidal gamble that miraculously paid off, allowing her to survive to this day.

Initially conceived as a B-17D, Bartlebee was born not long before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, on December 7th, 1941. After a hasty crash-course in flying and bombing, with emphasis on 'crash', she was given modifications and turned into a B-17E before being shipped off to Great Britain to join the US 8th Air Force, and take part in the strategic bombing campaign in April, 1942.

She was assigned to a deadbeat crew who was more interested in booze, gambling and risque pictures of young women than flying in combat, a death sentence to a heavy bomber flying long missions without escort. She was quite frightened with the prospect of death, but alas on April 29th, 1942, Bartlebee taxied onto the flight line and took off for her first mission over Europe, aimed at attacking a supply depot in Eastern France.

The escorting Spitfires gave her a bit of comfort for the first leg of the trip, but when they neared the town of Le Havre, the fighters turned away from lack of fuel, leaving them alone. One of them in particular said to her, "Good luck, Yank; you'll need it."

Sure enough, as soon as the fighters were gone, the Luftwaffe pounced on the helpless bomber formation. Had Bartlebee's crew been sober, maybe they would have taken this seriously sooner...that was until her outboard right engine was hit by cannon fire from a passing Fw-190. Coming to their senses, they frantically started fighting back, but alas their panic wasn't doing anything to help their situation, the only reason they made it to the target being that Bartlebee was at the trailing edge of the formation and not the front. Most of the bombers fell back, but Bartlebee kept going, unaware that an ace squadron of JG 26 awaited her arrival.

Despite her disdain for her crew, she kept going, taking hits the whole way but refusing to give up despite the searing pain all over her airframe. At last she was able to drop her bombs and escape; her attack had been a lucky hit, scoring a fuel stockpile and destroying the entire depot in a raging inferno as a result. She had also been lucky to live, as 25% of her comrades had been killed by fighters alone. She touched down and wearily taxied to the hangar for repairs, having earned the respect of her crew, particularly her pilot, Alexander Falkner, who even opted to sleep in the cockpit rather than in the barracks out of affection.

A similar trend continued for the entire war, though the arrival of P-51 escort fighters and the success of the Normandy landings helped to ease Bartlebee's tensions on missions. She protected her crew to the end, and they returned the favor in kind. This was the main reason why Bartlebee, a B-17G in 1945, survived the war.

In 1947, however, Bartlebee had a new enemy, this one an opponent that never tires and is always on the attack: the changing of the times. She was obsolete compared to the B-29 Superfortress and the then-new B-36 Peacemaker, a fact that hit home the worst when she was informed that unlike some of her wartime colleagues, who were sold to Brazil, she was to be scrapped. A Colonel in the newly formed United States Air Force, however, received the papers on his desk for her decommissioning; when he recognized the name, Colonel Alexander Falkner ripped the papers up and stormed out of his office. A week later, he appeared at Edwards AFB, where Bartlebee was being kept and relieved the base commander of duty with an executive order supposedly signed by President Harry S. Truman, though it was revealed two decades later to be a forgery.

This gave Falkner the authority to save his comrade in arms when he heard of a project being headed by the USAF on a hybrid-powered plane intended as a high-altitude bomber and recon plane. With her consent, he had Bartlebee be given a complete overhaul, fitting her with jets and a pair of Wasp Major radials, creating the XB-17R Sky Fortress.

In testing she did extremely well, but this only saved her until 1954, when the B-47 Stratojet was placed into service, her work considered to be complete. At a complete loss as to what to do, the now Brigadier General Falkner sought help from his colleague Scott Davis (the Bombardier from WWII), whom then directed him to a 'friend' of his. This friend was Claudius Dornier, a German aircraft designer who initially retired to the Phillipines and was visiting the US to speak with USAF officials. At first reluctant, the engineer was inspired by Falkner's tenacity and looked her over. What he said next was astonishing enough that Falkner knew it would save Bartlebee.

The following day, a week before Bartlebee was scheduled for decommission, the General made an impossible wager with the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Bartlebee was to be handed over to him instead of scrapped, provided he could accomplish something she was never meant to do: break the sound barrier, throwing in a whole year's pay should he lose the gamble. Reluctantly, his superior agreed, and Falkner took Bartlebee into the air personally for the ultimate test of endurance. He knew she'd never break Mach 1 in level flight, but he never said it had to be level; in a high-speed dive from her maximum service ceiling at full-power, on the other hand, might work.

So it was, that on July 19th, 1954, Bartlebee, after extensive modifications to her control surfaces and structure, took to the air. From her service ceiling, she dove down at an 80 degree angle, and at 15,000 feet, broke Mach 1. Miraculously, she was able to pull up from her dive with only 4 feet of clearance between her props and the ground. It was this moment that lead some to hypothesize that 'living machines', may be able to increase performance due to a strong bond with their pilot(s).

As per the wager, Falkner was given ownership of Bartlebee upon his formal retirement a month later. She stayed at his home in Illinois until Falkner's death in 1999 before being transfered to the Air Force museum at Wright-Patterson AFB. When the revolution began, she was reluctant at first to fight, but in the end settled into an agreement with her fellow machines to conduct recon, but refusing to drop a bomb in anger.