Official Images taken by Bonneville Power Administration for the War Production Board
These are used with permission by BPA from their archives.
All images link to a larger version.
B-17 cockpits under construction on the Seattle production line.
Workers riveting parts to fuselage.
"Rosie"
riveting skin onto the tail of a B-17.
FDR
touring Seattle B-17 plant
FDR, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, did lots of wartime tours.
This was in September 22, 1942 of him touring the Boeing Seattle plant while B-17Fs
were under production.
FDR passing in front of a nose of a B-17 in his car.
Touring the last part of the production line of B-17Fs before painting.
Looking down into FDR's car at Boeing
Someone on an airplane perhaps took this image of FDR at Seattle.
Colorized
version of a monochrome photograph showing women workers in the bomb
bay area of a B-17.
G model Flying Fortresses just off the
production line in Seattle await delivery
to combat modification center in Kansas. Foreground tail number 297384,
then 298385, 297386 and so on.
The very last B-17 rolled off the production
line on April 13, 1945. On that date all the Boeing factories had now
converted to the production of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress with the
Seattle plant being the last one to convert from B-17 to B-29 production.
Going with natural metal saved time of production, cost of the paint and time to paint the a/c, and saved weight also.
Our combat crew had the job of removing paint from our B-17. The paint weighed 65 pounds and we removed the paint with 100 octane fuel. Unusual duty for a combat crew.
Eldon Bevens, Ball Turret Gunner, 390 BG 570 BS