If alignment was poor, a go-around might be extremely dangerous because applying power and changing configuration would create more stress.
The crew needed to make the first approach count.
Lowering the Landing Gear Changed Drag and Handling
A bomber's landing gear creates substantial drag when extended.
Flaps change lift and pitching moment.
Power settings change airflow.
A normal pilot expects these changes.
A pilot flying a nearly severed airplane cannot be sure the damaged structure will respond normally.
Every configuration change becomes another experiment.
That is why bringing the aircraft to the runway is only part of the miracle.
Landing it without breaking the weakened fuselage apart required continued precision.
The runway did not automatically mean safety.
People on the Ground Could Finally See What Had Been Coming Toward Them
Ground crews watching damaged bombers return became accustomed to frightening sights during the war.
Engines stopped.
Landing gear stuck.
Holes in wings.
Hydraulic fluid streaming.
Crewmen wounded.
But All American's rear fuselage was different.
The damage looked fundamental.
A person might understand how an airplane flies with holes.
It is harder to understand how an airplane flies while appearing cut nearly in two.
As the B-17 approached, the men on the field could see the tail still attached.
They could also see how little seemed to be holding it.
The airplane descended.
Nobody on the ground could help yet.
The crew still had the final responsibility.
The Landing Was Completed
The wheels met the runway.
Weight transferred gradually from wings to landing gear.
The engines came back.
The aircraft rolled.
As speed decreased, aerodynamic forces on the tail changed again.
Normally, slowing an airplane reduces structural loads from airflow.
That was good.
But taxi movement, braking, and uneven runway surfaces could introduce different stresses.
The crew brought the bomber to a stop.
Only then did the impossible-looking flight truly end.
The engines could be shut down.
Men could climb out.
For the first time since the collision, the crew no longer needed the damaged structure to keep them alive.
The airplane had done its job.
Now everyone could step back and look at what they had been flying.
The Damage Looked Worse From the Ground
Photographs preserve the reaction modern viewers still experience.
How?
How could the tail remain attached?
How could enough control survive?
How could the fuselage carry those loads?
The answer is not one thing.
A few remaining structural members.
Surviving skin and framework.
Control connections that escaped complete destruction.
Low-stress handling.
Working engines.
A crew that understood what not to ask from the airplane.
And chance.
The word chance belongs there.
Not as an insult to skill.
As an acknowledgment of reality.
A different tear pattern would have killed them.
A stronger gust might have killed them.
Another fighter attack might have killed them.
A rougher landing might have killed them.
They survived because the damage stopped just short of several irreversible thresholds.
The Famous Photograph Became Evidence of Those Thresholds
Military photographs often flatten events.
A still image shows one instant.
All American's famous photograph shows the bomber airborne with the terrible wound visible.
What it cannot show is how the tail moved.
How the pilot adjusted power.
What the controls felt like.
What the crew said over interphone.
How long the return felt.
How carefully people moved inside.
How the engines sounded.
How many times somebody looked toward the damaged section expecting it to change.
The photograph captures the structure.
The story restores time.
And time is what makes the achievement impressive.
The tail did not need to stay attached for one photographed second.
It needed to remain attached all the way home.
The Story Later Became Part of the Larger B-17 Legend
The Flying Fortress earned a reputation for toughness throughout World War II.
Photographs showed aircraft returning with huge sections of wing damaged.
Vertical stabilizers partly missing.
Engines destroyed.
Noses torn open.