To me, the B-17 was not overbuilt, it was built as designed for a life of (approx 25 missions). How thick were the skins, less than 0.020”?
You want to see overbuilt? :-) Then someday crawl thru the wings and bowels of a disrobed DC-8. What will ground the DC-8 though is the old 7075-T6 alloys and how they were made. Inter-granular corrosions causes them to ‘go poof’ (turn to powder) at some point
The only skin on a 17 that is .020 is the nose back to frame three right forward of the cockpit.They were not designed to survive 25 missions but were expected to last 50 hours.Remember Boeing built it so it was built tough.None of the jets will be flying as long as a B-17.The oldest is 65 years and flying and the youngest is 63 years iold. I was thinking jets used 7075 T7351 because of the resistance to corrosion that T-7 offered.
What about B-52’s. (the ones made by Boeing-not the ones with big hair)