Production. B-17F heavy bombers. A foreman at the Long Beach, California, plant of Douglas Aircraft Company, instructs two new women employees in the technique of sheet metal assembly work. Better known as the "Flying Fortress," the B-17F is a later model of the B-17, which distinguished itself in action in the South Pacific, over Germany and elsewhere. It is a long range, high altitude, heavy bomber, with a crew of seven to nine men with armament sufficient to defend itself on daylight missions