Hi Acdii ,

Great for you to be restoring such a historic aircraft ! Also I'd like to say that I agree 100% with your post and am myself lucky to have never personally witnessed a turbine engine being destroyed by foreign object damage . I have , however , seen films during my A&P training of both "destructive" testing done in laboratory conditions and films of real world foreign object damage taken from airport security video as well as from bystanders who happened to be there and have a camera running at the instant the damage happened . The one bit of aircraft damage I have personally witnessed , one of the things that really opened my eyes at to the fragility of aircraft was ;

My A&P school , "East Coast Aero Tech" was located mostly on the civilian side of Hanscom AFB in Lexington/Concord Massachusetts . The civilian side was called "Bedford Airport" and we had classes in various buildings on both the Air Force and civilian sides of the airfield . For lunch on warm days we would sit out a distance from the runway and watch the action . A small twin turboprop that ferried mail had landed and the van that was to receive the mail sacks backed up to the parked jet so the mailbags could be thrown from the plane to the back of the van . The van driver had already opened the back doors and was backing slowly up to the plane when his foot accidentally slipped off the brake and at no more than a very slow roll (barely 1 MPH tops !) the van struck the side of the plane . This resulted in the side of the plane being totally caved in , rumpled metal everywhere , and the most incredible thing was THAT THE VAN'S DOORS STILL PROPERLY CLOSED AFTERWARD !!!! It was right there that I got MY healthy respect for just how fragile an aircraft is and why I find Sport's assertions of the "Army Tank" like strength of aircraft to be so absurd . Just like your mention of the dent in the B-17's skin , everybody who has actually mechanically worked on aircraft has seen the incredible fragility of aircraft structures firsthand , and knows JUST how lucky are the folks who have safely landed after their aircraft has sustained in air damage of any sort .