Discovery Channel-Great Planes: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress (1988)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1988
Running Time	57:35 (Case: 52)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Discovery Channel Magna Home Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Click
RPI	$19.95	Music	None Given

    After a brief flurry amongst the most recent releases in the Great Planes series, as time permits we will be wandering through the back catalogue releases in this interesting series. The first of those back catalogue releases to come under the microscope is Great Planes: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.

    Whilst there little about war that can be called glamorous, it would be true to say that if the word could be so applied to war, its application would be with respect of the fighter aces. These were the guys that drew a lot of the attention of the media and to this day we can probably recall great fighter aces more readily than any other wartime pilots. At the end of the day though, it was the unsung heroes who went to war in the bombers that deserve the plaudits. Often without adequate fighter coverage, especially during the earlier part of the Second World War, the four-engined long range bombers were easy prey for enemy fighters. A tour of duty in bombers was generally twenty five missions - such was the attrition rate of planes and crews that it was a very difficult task to get through those twenty five missions. Yet the new concept of strategic bombing saw hundreds upon hundreds of American bombers by day and British bombers by night heading over Axis-occupied Europe to wreak havoc upon the industrial might of the Axis. Despite the at times atrocious casualty rate - 60% or 70% was by no means unusual - the loss of life and material was deemed acceptable, for the sacrifice of the bomber crews ensured that the Axis ability to wage war was diminished further every day. It might seem callous today, but the Allies could readily replace every bomber the moment it was shot down - the Axis did not have the same ability with its aircraft and aircrew.

    The 1930's was a rapidly changing time in aviation and one of the changes coming was the concept of strategic bombing. Up until the mid-1930's, bomber aircraft tended to be small, slow, vulnerable twin-engined aircraft that could barely drop a couple of hundred pounds of high explosive. The United States Army Air Force could see the need for change and produced a specification for a four-engined bomber capable of delivering higher bomb loads at higher speed over longer ranges than hitherto. Boeing Aircraft Company responded to the specification by designing its Model 299, a long range four-engined bomber that could just about outrun the outdated fighters of the period. It first flew on 28th July, 1935. The USAAF was extremely excited by the new aircraft, but circumstances conspired against Boeing as the prototype was lost during the trials. Notwithstanding this, the aircraft was clearly the most successful of the competing designs and Boeing were authorised to produce a number of pre production YB-17 aircraft, which were eventually redesignated B-17As, before a production run of 39 B-17B aircraft was produced. At that time, the need for long range bombers was questioned in the US (this was of course pre-1941) and operationally the aircraft was not successful at this time. The British, however, were well into the war and needed every aircraft they could lay their hands on and ordered the B-17C Fortress I for the Royal Air Force. Whilst the B-17C was not an operational success, its shortcomings being woefully exposed during bombing raids over Germany, it did result in design changes to the series that served the aircraft well in later years. These comprised better armour and self-sealing fuel tanks (B-17D) and the much more extensively redesigned B-17E and B-17F which first introduced the now-famous tail design of the aircraft, with the tail turret beneath the rudder. The B-17E was the first of the mass-produced B-17 models, able to carry bomb loads of 4,000 pounds and with nine machine guns for defensive purposes.

    By this time the United States were now at war too, and the B-17E and B-17F were made operational in Europe in July, 1942 with the USAAF's 8th Air Force. Interestingly the only other American four-engined bomber in Europe was the less successful B-24 Liberator - the perhaps more famous and slightly later B-29 Superfortress served only in the Pacific Theatre. Its initial operational experiences were not good, with the aircraft suffering amazing losses, even by bomber standards. It soon became apparent that despite what was considered fairly formidable defensive armament, the B-17 was woefully exposed to a frontal attack. The solution to this was of course the forward-facing chin turret that graced what will always be considered the definitive version of the Flying Fortress - the B-17G. The "G" could carry a bomb load of up to 9,600 pounds with between 11 and 13 machine guns for defense.

    Notwithstanding the continued improvement in the aircraft's defensive armament, the losses suffered by the 8th Air Force were always high until fighter escorts with the necessary range to escort the bombers on the bulk of their journey were available. These predominantly were the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and the North American P-51 Mustang, although the Lockheed P-38 Lightning also served in this role. However, the role the Flying Fortress played in the defeat of Germany was not to be underestimated.

    The later models of the B-17 were built like the proverbial concrete outhouse and could absorb enormous punishment - not unlike their P-47 Thunderbolt escorts. Many a bomber was flown back to English and Pacific bases with damage that would have seen most aircraft crashing to the ground. In many cases the damage was simply too great to repair and the returned bomber was simply pushed to the edge of the airfield where it languished as a source of spare parts. But at least the aircraft did its job - it delivered its payload and brought its crew home safely enough. Total production ran to 12,726 aircraft according to Boeing: they themselves built 6,981 aircraft whilst Lockheed and Douglas built a further 5,745. Of that production run, 8,680 were of the definitive B-17G model and well over 5,000 were lost in combat. Whilst predominantly known as a bomber, the aircraft also served in support roles such as air-sea rescue, maritime patrol and anti-submarine duties. After the war, several dozen B-17s lived on as fire-bombers and aerial surveyors in the United States until the 1970s. Today, a few B-17s have been restored to their wartime splendour. There are currently about ten flying in the United States, one in the United Kingdom and I believe another in France (although I lost track of this one many years ago).

    Whilst I have never seen one of these aircraft in the air myself, I have seen plenty of footage of the air displays of the Confederate Air Force, of which the B-17 appearances are very much the highlight. Judging by those films, these aircraft at low level are extremely impressive. By any way you judge it, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a Great Plane.

Video

    Considering that this is a Second World War aircraft, the overall presentation is surprisingly good in quality at times. Some relatively recent footage of preserved aircraft is included - this is significantly better looking footage obviously, but does allow more detail to be seen than otherwise would be the case. Some of the included material is surprisingly interesting: wind tunnel footage of the 299, some ground test footage and some footage of the plane's use as a drone for instance.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and it is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is somewhat variable, ranging in quality from average to very good, reflecting the relative age of some of the source material. Some of the archival footage, though, is quite pristine. Definition is okay in general, although as usual some of the in-flight footage is a tad variable. Detail is pretty good. Shadow detail is not much of an issue. The clarity is decent, with grain an issue at times in some of the source material. There does not appear to be any problem with low level noise.

    Comprising mixed footage, the colours are obviously a bit of a mixture, with the new stuff being very good and the old stuff being somewhat lacking. Given the nature of the material though, this is about as good as we could expect and there is nothing much to quibble about.

    There does not seem to be any introduced MPEG artefacting in the transfer, nor anything significant in the way of film-to-video artefacts. The source material is variably affected by film artefacts, but certainly nothing more than is expected in material of this nature.

    This is a single sided, single layered DVD. There are no subtitle options to accompany the narration.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is just the one soundtrack on the DVD, being an English Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack.

    The narration comes across very well and is easy to understand.

    The small amount of musical accompaniment is not credited.

    There is nothing really wrong with the soundtrack, which again does enough to carry the narration and little else. It is reasonable clean and clear, with the usual lack of the underlying aircraft dynamic. It remains very similar in style to the previous DVDs reviewed from the series.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The usual menu audio that is consistent for this series.

Menu

    It would appear that this DVD has not yet been released in Region 1 - although this is by no means certain.

    Great Planes: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an interesting look at one of the classic bomber aircraft of the Second World War. Whilst I would have liked to have seen more footage of the restored aircraft, what we have is decent enough. I found the whole thing quite interesting and some of the material included is decidedly better looking than I expected.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall