B 17 facts?

[Lusekofte]

Most iconic plane from US must be B 17 and P 51. 
There are some known facts and even more  myths about the B 17. I read a lot about it but I fear History channel and Facebook has mixed into better sources I had previous

1. B 17 could maintain formation with only 3 engines even with bombload provided they where in level flight

 

2. B 17 could fly with only two engines. 

 

lets say it had only one engine working and was at a altitude of 30 000 feet.  How far could it go? 
is it controllable if all control surfaces intact. 
Have anyone read anything on returning planes with only one working engine. I have not

Edited February 29, 2020 by 216th_LuseKofte

[Amiral_Crapaud]

Well there's this testimony here
https://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2010/july/i_history.pdf

 

No reason to doubt it, although I can find the right plane. Still, even this very mission over Magdeburg shows another plane probably made the trip back in the same condition.

http://www.americanairmuseum.com/aircraft/6815

Here is Mr Klanecky's unit, btw
http://www.americanairmuseum.com/unit/470

 

At any rate, going through the B-17 loss reports in an empirical way will show that everything around 2 engines incapacitated and more was pretty much a death sentence (or at least meant that the plane wouldn't make it back to England). Then again, not every case is recorded on this marvelous website, but a good chunk of them certainly is.

Edited March 1, 2020 by Amiral_Crapaud

[Tyberan]

I found this website ages ago, it's pretty details as they have tried to database every b17 made an it's history

 

https://b17flyingfortress.de/en/

 

It might have details you're after

Edited March 4, 2020 by Tyberan