Hi again
I wonder if there is some confusion here between payload and bomb load. Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Edweirdo/Maximum_reported_B-17_%26_B-24_bomb_loads
which suggests that based on USAAF records the heaviest bomb load carried by a B17 was 8000lbs. The balance of the 17,600lbs quoted is I suspect made up of fuel, crew and defensive armament. And to reinforce what another poster has quoted - why risk 9 or 10 men in a B17 to deliver the same payload as two Mosquitos which would only risk 4 men who would probably have a much better chance of a safe return home?
Both the RAF and USAAF started from the same starting point - "The bomber will always get through". The RAF thought their power operated turret aircraft at the beginning of the war - the Wellington - would reinforce this but soon learnt painful lessons. Each time a significant development came along - the Stirling and the Lanc - they tried again in daylight but nothing changed despite some heroics by crews incl. Sqd Leader Nettletons in Lancs in 1942 that earned him a VC.
The Americans failed to learn from this and assumed that RAF strategies must be wrong - their tight box formations with withering heavy calibre defensive fire must surely suceed! Unfortunately they came up against the Luftwaffe day fighter force at its strongest time and it was not until air superiority - initially local but then more widespread - was achieved that daylight bombing by heavy bombers became a reasonably safe operation. That is not to detract from USAAF operations. The fact that they flew in daylight meant that they often knew exactly what happened to their colleagues who went missing yet still pressed on. For the RAF once night bombing became the norm with aircraft in a loose stream it was fairly rare for another crew to know exactly what happened to colleagues. They might see a big explosion in the night sky but would not know what it was - indeed the RAF propoganda machine had it that the Germans used a "scarecrow" shell to make crews think that an aircraft had just blown up. The truth was - there was no such shell and it was indeed an aircraft. And it was only once air superiority was achieved that the RAF could again comtemplate day time ops with Lancs carrying Tallboys and Grand Slams which were after all precision daylight weapons.
So the B17 and the Lanc followed very different paths. Both paid a significant part in the Allied victory.
As to the other element of this tread - the night sky - try sewin fishing at night in a remote Welsh valley completely devoid of light pollution on a cloudless night (not usually much good for fishing!) The night sky is very humbling.....
Regards
Phil