B-17G Flying Fortress Tail

At the late, lamented Yakima, WA airshow about 20 years ago. The B-17 is an icon of WWII: Tough, reliable, and forgiving. Thousands of USAAF veterans owe their very lives to its sturdy construction and stable handling. (There are pictures of B-17s like this one flying all the way back to England from harrowing missions over Nazi Germany with this entire vertical fin blown completely off.)