While the second World War took hold of continental Europe, What would be the B17 made its first flight in Sweden on this day in aviation history. First flight of a B17 in Sweden, yes a B17. It started its life as an L-10 as a design by ASJA, which would be Saab after a merger. Once introduced into the Swedish airforce it became the B17.
With a crew of two, powered by a 9 cylinder air-cooled radial engine, it could cruise at 32.200 ft at a speed of 200 knots and had a range of about 1000 miles. It was build in different versions with different engines and duties., a total of 326 airframes were built of the different variants, of which 5 are known to survive to this day. During its operational life, it saw duty in the airforces of:
- Sweden ~250 airframes - Finland, 2 airframes
- Ethiopia, 47 airframes
- Denmark, 15 airframes
- Austria, one airframe
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