A B-17 "Flying Fortress" banked-over hard left; a maneuver employed when fleeing the target after dropping a bomb load. This is the airplane made famous in movies like "Memphis Bell," "Twelve o’clock High" and "The war lover." Memphis Bell is the true story of the first B-17 crew to survive the mandatory 25 missions over Europe and get to go home alive. No mean feat when you consider that in 1942, with the German air force still a significant factor in the theater, the causality rates on some raids ran 20-40 percent. That meant the odds were you WOULD get shot down once every 5 missions. In order to survive 25 missions you had to beat these odds not once but five times in a row! Jimmy Stewart, one of my favorite actors, was one of the pilots who beat those odds and came home after his 25 missions. Pretty gutsy for a guy who obviously could have spent the war entertaining the troops. Ex Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry also beat the odds on 25 missions, but, I believe, in a B-24.