Before aircraft like the B-17 Flying Fortress ever entered combat, armorers had to make sure every weapon system worked flawlessly.
In this footage, the testers are women, part of the thousands who stepped into critical wartime roles during WWII. With many men deployed overseas, women took on highly technical and often dangerous jobs that directly impacted combat readiness. As armorers, they were responsible for checking bomb racks, release mechanisms, and targeting systems during test flights.
In some cases, they even carried out controlled drops to ensure everything worked exactly as intended. A single failure could cost a mission or lives. These flights were the final step before war, where their work helped ensure bombers could operate with precision and reliability.