The history of the B-17 reveals how the aircraft evolved into the USAF's most lethal bomber in World War II's European and Pacific campaigns. The Women Airforce Service Pilots organization transported Flying Fortresses, which delivered food to the German-occupied Netherlands in Operation Chowhound in the last days of the war.

Despite its early reputation for being unsafe, engineers evolved the F-100 Super Sabre into a supersonic powerhouse and the USAF's go-to fighter-bomber that carried out daily attack missions throughout the Vietnam War.