The Mighty Eighth obtained the shell of the turret that was used on the B-17 in the 1990 film "Memphis ... Its usual cruising speed was 170 mph, and its top speed was 300 mph.

His job as a top turret gunner in a B-17 required him to make sure that all the bombs the plane was carrying had been dropped. “I went in as an air cadet but they washed out so many of them that ...

CEDAR RAPIDS - With a belch of white smoke, the four 1,200-horsepower propeller engines of the Boeing B-17 rumbled to life ... back to his experience as a top turret gunner in a similar aircraft ...

(Air Force) The remains of a B-17 Flying Fortress top turret gunner, shot down over Germany in World War II, have been recovered. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Willard R. Best, 24, of Staunton ...

Once the B-17 was in the air, the gunner would enter ... finishing his tour in Europe with a couple of missions in the top turret. “That was a lot nicer,” Duran said.

Edward Kenneth Fox was a B-17 top turret gunner who earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and almost lost his right leg to flak during the infamous 1943 attack on the Schweinfurt ball-bearing factory.

In World War II, Gissler was a flight engineer and top turret gunner in a B-17, stationed in England. He flew 31 missions, he said, and came home each time. Eventually, he walked up and explored ...

The ball turret, like this one on a B-17 in England in 1943, was designed small to reduce drag, so its gunner usually was the shortest man in the crew. Gunners on World War II bombers had only a ...