The story of a famous Flying Fortress, The Swoose recounts the history of the oldest surviving B-17 aircraft not only to have flown in combat during World War II but also to have fought from the very first day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It continued to fly as General George Brett's command ship in Australia and Central and South America until the end of the war and afterward. Like its namesake from a popular l94Os song ("Alexander the Swoose, Half Swan-Half Goose"), the Swoose was a hybrid, with a tail structure, rudder, and elevators from another aircraft and, later, with wings, wheels, and brakes from still other B-17s.
Herbert S. Brownstein highlights the Swoose's pioneering flights across the Pacific from the United States, its round-trip flight between Australia and Hawaii that broke speed records, and its celebrity passengers, including Lyndon B. Johnson, General George Brett, and Lowell Thomas. The Swoose recalls the dark days shortly after Pearl Harbor, when a handful of men in their early-model B-17s fought vainly to halt the advance of the invading Japanese forces in the "backyard war" in the Philippines. During the first forty-four days of the war, the Swoose and its counterparts in the 19th Bombardment Group shot down fifty fighters and sank or damaged sixty ships.
Drawing on historic photographs and firsthand accounts of pilots, crew members, and passengers, Brownstein chronologically follows the Swoose from its maiden flight in April 1941 to its last, almost thirteen years later, on December 5, 1953, and then to its permanent home in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum.