Doc taking off

"You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much" (youcantellafinn) 06/13/2017 at 07:26 • Filed to: What's up Doc?

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Neat! I find it interesting that the rotation is just about imperceptible. One second its rolling down the runway, the next it’s airborne.

WilliamsSW > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/13/2017 at 07:44

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Awesome! The rotation is barely perceptible - I know the B17 and B25 are the same way. They look so graceful -

AuthiCooper1300 > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/13/2017 at 07:53

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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 > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/13/2017 at 07:55

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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 > Ash78, voting early and often 06/13/2017 at 08:06

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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 ( •_•))°) > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/13/2017 at 08:46

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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 > Ash78, voting early and often 06/13/2017 at 08:50

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Two: Fifi, flown by the Commemorative Air Force, and now Doc. And they built nearly 4,000 of them.

Ash78, voting early and often > ttyymmnn 06/13/2017 at 08:52

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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 > AuthiCooper1300 06/13/2017 at 08:54

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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 > Ash78, voting early and often 06/13/2017 at 08:58

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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 > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/13/2017 at 09:04

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Looking forward to seeing her up close in a month or so.

user314 > Ash78, voting early and often 06/13/2017 at 09:05

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There could have been three, but.... Kee Bird

AuthiCooper1300 > ttyymmnn 06/13/2017 at 09:43

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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 > user314 06/13/2017 at 09:49

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RIP Kee Bird

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/13/2017 at 10:06

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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 > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) 06/13/2017 at 10:59

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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 > ttyymmnn 06/13/2017 at 11:03

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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 > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/13/2017 at 11:20

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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) > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/13/2017 at 12:42

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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 > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/29/2017 at 17:02

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That is, indeed, a thing rarely seen.