How many B-17s were used in the filming of the 1990 movie ‘Memphis Belle’?

Five airworthy B-17s were used in the filming of the 1990 British-American war drama film ‘Memphis Belle’. Two were from the US (N-17W, now on display in the city of Seattle and ‘Movie Memphis Belle’ 44-83546), the B-17 ‘Sally B’ was from the United Kingdom and two were French geographic survey B-17Gs, one of which crashed on take-off near the end of the filming.

Some modifications and conversions had to be made on the planes for the filming.

The movie is a fictionalized version of the 1944 documentary ‘Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress’ by director William Wyler, about the 25th and last mission of an American Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. The 1990 version was co-produced by David Putnam and Wyler’s daughter Catherine and dedicated to her both her father and at the end of the movie a further attribution and dedication appears on the screen to all airmen, friend and foe, who fought in the skies above Europe during WWII.

With the exception of the aircraft’s name, this film is a fiction based very loosely on facts about the men who flew the ‘Memphis Belle’, their life situations, the actual nature of her final mission, the accuracy of strategic bombing, or Allied policy on the bombing of civilians.

The aircraft's participation in the Bremen campaign occurred in April 1943; the final 25th mission of the ‘Memphis Belle’ was a month later to Lorient, France before being flown back to the United States.