Over 75 years ago, the Boeing Airplane Company designed the B-17 for a contract that called for 200 of the aircraft, and by the end of production, Boeing had built a total of 6,981 B-17s. The Douglas Aircraft Company and the Vega Aircraft Corporation (a subsidiary of the Lockheed Aircraft Company) together built another 5,745 B-17s under license from Boeing. About 50 assorted B-17 variants survive today, most being on static display at museums or on air force base air park displays. Of those numbers, only about 10 are flyable at any given time.