Content note: Shows a bombing run on a burning industrial city and a downed Japanese fighter. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Biggest, Fastest, Deadliest... Superfortress
Landscape U.S. Army poster: a B-29 drops a string of bombs over a burning industrial coast while a Japanese fighter falls in flames; three inset photographs carry captions on speed, wing design and engine power. Glittering-generalities: superlatives ('Biggest Fastest Deadliest'). Card-stacking: only the aircraft's strengths and the enemy's losses are shown.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1944
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Army (Official Poster); artist Heaslip
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- War and the military, Science and technology
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. Army (Official Poster). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-487 (NAID 513968).
Text on the object
U. S. ARMY OFFICIAL POSTER Biggest Fastest Deadliest... SUPERFORTRESS SILVER GNATS IN THE SKY. Soaring higher than any other bomber, majestic B-29's are the tiniest of targets, mere silver specks, to enemy gunners far below. Fast as fighter planes, they need no escort. B-29 SUPER STREAMLINES show up vividly in comparison with the smaller B-17. Note the slender, 141-foot wings, brand-new in design. They lift a heavier weight than any other plane's wing. 8800 POUNDING HORSES--nearly twice the B-17's horsepower--in the Superfort's four Wright Cyclone engines. Four-bladed, 16 1/2-foot Hamilton propellers dwarf those of every other plane. [signature: Heaslip] [imprint: ISD NO. 189] [imprint: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1944, [illegible]]
