by "You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much" (youcantellafinn)
Published 06/13/2017 at 07:26
by "You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much" (youcantellafinn)
Published 06/13/2017 at 07:26
Tags: What's up Doc?
STARS: 7
Neat! I find it interesting that the rotation is just about imperceptible. One second its rolling down the runway, the next it’s airborne.
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"WilliamsSW" (williamssw)
06/13/2017 at 07:44, STARS: 0
Awesome! The rotation is barely perceptible - I know the B17 and B25 are the same way. They look so graceful -
"AuthiCooper1300" (rexrod)
06/13/2017 at 07:53, STARS: 0
Well, it is unladen... I suppose at maximum take-off weight (i.e., full of bombs) the sequence would be different (much longer).
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
06/13/2017 at 07:55, STARS: 0
The B-29 always looked like it had a little bit of Carolina Squat to me — ie, it’s already nose-up when all three wheels are on the ground. Could be my imagination. How many airworthy B-29s are left in the world? I think it’s just one or two...
"You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much" (youcantellafinn)
06/13/2017 at 08:06, STARS: 1
Yeah, they do seem to sit nose high. Doc is the second airworthy B-29. IIRC it first flew last summer after being restored.
"415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)" (415s30)
06/13/2017 at 08:46, STARS: 0
There was a B24 flying around Marin a couple days ago. I head the engines and went out, they didn’t sound like the usual ones.
"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
06/13/2017 at 08:50, STARS: 1
Two: Fifi, flown by the Commemorative Air Force, and now Doc. And they built nearly 4,000 of them.
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
06/13/2017 at 08:52, STARS: 0
I’m just amazed that with the whole “build ‘em for 25 missions” mentality during the war that any of them are still around at all. I hadn’t heard that Doc was completed, that’s great to know.
"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
06/13/2017 at 08:54, STARS: 2
Unladen, you say?
That’s a good point, as is Ash78's. Not only was it not bombed up, it probably had a low fuel load and fewer than its normal complement of crew.
"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
06/13/2017 at 08:58, STARS: 2
I’m not speaking from any expert’s point of view, but I would wager that the construction of the B-17 was minimal to 1930s standards, while the B-29, pressurized and all, was a much sturdier aircraft. In the end, the USAF simply needed all that aluminum. They didn’t have the luxury of nostalgia.
"Jcarr" (jcarr)
06/13/2017 at 09:04, STARS: 1
Looking forward to seeing her up close in a month or so.
"user314" (user314)
06/13/2017 at 09:05, STARS: 1
There could have been three, but.... Kee Bird
"AuthiCooper1300" (rexrod)
06/13/2017 at 09:43, STARS: 1
And yet the actual mission profile for the B-29 during the firebombing of Japan must have been extremely taxing from a structural stress point of view.
Designed for high-altitude bombing, yes, but LeMay forced its use at 5,000 feet.
"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
06/13/2017 at 09:49, STARS: 1
RIP Kee Bird
"Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now)" (bman76-4)
06/13/2017 at 10:06, STARS: 2
There’s my plane! (I’m on the team designing the new hangar/museum)
He flew over the parade last weekend at low altitude, it was unbelievably awesome.
"You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much" (youcantellafinn)
06/13/2017 at 10:59, STARS: 0
I knew someone around here was working on the hangar project for Doc. Consider me jealous that you get to see Doc on a regular basis, and more so that you’re working on an awesome project like the hangar.
"Bourbon&JellyBeans" (bourbonandjellybeans)
06/13/2017 at 11:03, STARS: 1
Well, the B-29 didn’t really have a pressurized cabin like with think of today. Only the nose and tail were pressurized and connected together through a long pressurized tube that the crew had to crawl through. So, the fact that it was pressurized probably didn’t have much of a bearing on its fuselage construction. Crews were given wooden wedges to plug holes with in the case of decompression, much like sailors on a leaking ship. Both the B-17 and B-29 were built to take incredible damage. Luckily for B-29 crews, they often flew high enough to not need to worry about enemy fighters and flak was pretty inaccurate at such a long range. Of course, they were completely outclassed in Korea. We brought props to a turbine fight.
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
06/13/2017 at 11:20, STARS: 1
I took photos of it when it was circling around Wichita last weekend.
"Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now)" (bman76-4)
06/13/2017 at 12:42, STARS: 0
Lol, I haven’t seen the plane up close. The flyover was the first (and only) time I’d actually seen it in person. That should change as we get closer to starting construction. (Hell, I haven’t even been to the proposed site)
"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
06/29/2017 at 17:02, STARS: 0
That is, indeed, a thing rarely seen.