Working In The Tail Section Of a B-17F Bomber

Today’s picture is another 4×5 Kodachrome transparency taken by Alfred Palmer in October 1942. Workers installing fixtures and assemblies in the tail section of a B-17F bomber
at the Douglas Aircraft Company plant in Long Beach, California.

The B-17F variants were the primary versions flying for the Eighth Air Force to face the Nazis in 1943, and had standardized the manned Sperry ball turret for ventral defense, along with an enlarged, nearly frame-less Plexiglas bombardier’s nose enclosure for much improved forward vision. IN total 3,405 B-17F Flying Fortress were built.