B-17 — The Flying Fortress Survivors
Museum Static Displays

The recognized authority on the surviving B-17 airframes is a book called Final Cut by Scott Thompson. Thompson researched every B-17 airframe that survived World War Two, and determined their ultimate fates. That is no small feat given that there were nearly 13,000 B-17's produced during the war years.

Aviation historians use the following sets of numbers when discussing the B-17 Flying Fortress. They may have slightly different categories or definitions, but the bottom line number of airframes is pretty well agreed upon:

Category	Count
Operational Or Airworthy	13
Static Display	21
Under Restoration To Flight	4
Under Restoration To Display	2
In Storage	6
Hulks And Partial Airframes	7
Total Recovered B-17 Airframes	53

I count 15 active, including two Flying Forts that are down for long term maintenance but are basically airworthy. I have high hopes that these B-17's will be back in the air sooner or later. To compensate, I count 19 on static display. Finally, there are perhaps 25 or so known B-17 crash sites that have not been recovered yet.

A list such as this is hard to maintain up-to-date in that these aircraft change owners, change status, and new wrecks are discovered or recovered. Please let me know if you know of additional aircraft or status changes as you hear about them. While I do appreciate people sending photos to me, I generally only use my own photography on this web site. Getting around to visit all of these aircraft in person is the big trick, but it is also most of the fun.