Beautiful bird!
My father was an aircraft/rocket designer. He said back then, “If it looked good, it flew well.”
Spitfire. Mustang. Mosquito. Fortress. All are aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
The B-17F had a sleeker nose than earlier E. G ruined it, and slowed it down while hurting handling. The frontal assaults - which included suicidal Rammkomandos - necessitated power turret.
Before the end of WWII, there was an experimental model with an integral power nose turret firing the new .60 gun, with a recessed bombardier window. It actua!ly looked much like the original YB-17 and early pre-war models. War’s end killed development.