The Swoose is a Boeing B-17D-BO Flying Fortress, USAAF serial number 40-3097, that saw extensive use in the Southwest Pacific theatre of World War II and survived to become the oldest B-17 still intact.

It is the only early "shark fin"-tailed B-17 known to exist, and the only surviving B-17 to have seen action in the 1941–42 Philippines Campaign, operating on the first day of the United States entry into the war.

In response to the perceived hostile activities of the Japanese military, in September 1941 the War Department sent nine B-17s with hand-picked crews from their base in Hawaii to Clark Field in the Philippines.

The two squadrons sent to Del Monte, including "40-3097" (at that point named Ole Betsy), were pressed into bombing action for the next two months, as newer B-17Es began to be dispatched to the Pacific in January 1942.

The last combat mission flown by "40-3097" was a raid on the east coast of Borneo on 11 January 1942, piloted by the commander of the 19th Bomb Group, Major Cecil Combs.

In late January 1942, "40-3097" was flown to a Royal Australian Air Force Base at Laverton, near Melbourne, Australia, where it underwent depot repairs.

A depiction of the chimerical bird was soon painted on the starboard fuselage, just aft of the main entrance door, with the statement "It Flys" [sic].

It carried various military brass for the next four months, including future president Lyndon B. Johnson, then a congressman and active-duty US Navy lieutenant commander.

On a flight from Darwin on 11 June 1942, the crew had navigation problems and Kurtz had to make a forced landing at Carisbrooke Station near Winton, Queensland.

Queens Die Proudly is a journalistic account of the air war in the Philippines, the Netherlands East Indies, and Australia, from December 1941 through the spring of 1942; Captain Frank Kurtz and The Swoose are prominently featured.

While this would normally result in an aircraft being scrapped, Brett's pilot at the time, Captain Jack Crane, located a pair of B-17B wing spar panels in the local air depot.

Like thousands of other B-17s, The Swoose was caught in the rush to disarm, ending up at the extensive War Assets Administration facility at Kingman, Arizona, slated to be melted down for its aluminium.

It was finally dismantled and moved several miles overland to the National Air and Space Museum's Paul E. Garber Restoration Facility in Suitland, Maryland, where it suffered additional weather damage while stored outside.

Amidst mounting criticism about the treatment of historic artifacts like The Swoose and the B-29 Enola Gay, the Smithsonian finally moved "40-3097" indoors in a dismantled state in the mid-1970s.