B-17 Flying Fortress
Probably one of the most famous bombers ever, the mighty B-17 was designed in the 1930s and is known for "Flying Fortress" because of the enormous amount of machine guns on board. It was thought that the machine guns should provide enough defense for bombing-raids without escort, but that turned out to be wrong. The guns on board were not enough, and lots of Fortresses were brought down during the war. However, the Fortress is still well-known for its very sound construction and its ability to bring its crew back to base--even if the plane suffered terrible damage
Pictures of B-17 during the war