Chief_10Beers
Blackhawk
Caution, lots of Pilot PrOn going on here :mrgreen: ...................................
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSIsoj1QPAc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSIsoj1QPAc
How to fly a B-26 and then some
- Thread starter Chief_10Beers
- Start date
Yep "One a day in Tampa Bay". Called the Widow Maker, Flying Coffin and such. Took the Women of the W A S P to show the guys how to fly it. As it turned out it had the best combat loss record of any other bomber. 
OK now I'm ready to go fly a B-26 :wink:
OK now I'm ready to go fly a B-26 :wink:
Selena
Hunter
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Chief_10Beers said:
OK, probably a dumb question but why were they so fixated on the batteries being charged? Enough so they had a motor generator in the craft to charge them? Where they restarting the engines in mid flight?
OP
Chief_10Beers
Blackhawk
Selena said:
It is like a early APU ( Aircraft Power Unit ) that is common on 95% of jet Aircraft. As for the B-26, it takes a lot of Battery to turn those Pratt&Whitney Radial Engines...............................
Because it had electric props. The gens don't come on line until around 1500 RPM or so. Soooooooooooo if you lose an eng. on take off and you don't have enough power to feather it makes for a very bad day. Remember batteries at the time were not as good as todays. So you just started the engs. do a lot of radio work and other stuff that drains the batters. Now we take off lose an eng can't feather so we do a slow roll into the dead eng. 
OP
Chief_10Beers
Blackhawk
Wyandot Jim said:Because it had electric props. The gens don't come on line until around 1500 RPM or so. Soooooooooooo if you lose an eng. on take off and you don't have enough power to feather it makes for a very bad day. Remember batteries at the time were not as good as todays. So you just started the engs. do a lot of radio work and other stuff that drains the batters. Now we take off lose an eng can't feather so we do a slow roll into the dead eng.
That would make for a bad day fer sure.................................
The Blackhawk Kid
Blackhawk
Cool video! Is the B-26's electrical system similar to a B-29? My Uncle was a aircraft mechanic in the 509th BG. He would tell us his flying stories. We owe alot to those guys in WW2. They saved the world. Thanks for sharing.
Tweety Bird
Single-Sixer
I love those old AAC training videos. I'm afraid of getting lost in YouTube again now that I've watched that.
Yeah, electrical power is kinda important.
A DC-6 was lost in NY because the #4 prop went into reverse during takeoff roll of a training flight. Once airborne, the electric motor for the prop reverser wouldn't run any more so; the prop was stuck in reverse after liftoff. I've been away from the R2800 engines for nearly 3 decades so a lot of the details are gone from my alleged mind (I need to dig out my old DC-6 handbook from the crawlspace), but here's a link to the accident report:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_MacArthur_Airport_United_Airlines_crash
Yeah, electrical power is kinda important.
A DC-6 was lost in NY because the #4 prop went into reverse during takeoff roll of a training flight. Once airborne, the electric motor for the prop reverser wouldn't run any more so; the prop was stuck in reverse after liftoff. I've been away from the R2800 engines for nearly 3 decades so a lot of the details are gone from my alleged mind (I need to dig out my old DC-6 handbook from the crawlspace), but here's a link to the accident report:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_MacArthur_Airport_United_Airlines_crash
Yea A prop can do a lot of bad things to ruin your day. One that was quite common in WWII was a run away prop. If you couldn't feather a prop on a dead eng. the prop would continue to turn until the eng. froze do to lack of oil. Most of the time the crankshaft would break and away goes the prop. Sometimes into the fuselage or a good eng. The eng. could also get hot enough to catch the oil on fire.
A B-17 was limited to around an airspeed of 130 because of a dead eng. It could fly faster on three when light. So it would have to leave formation and become an easy target for the fighters
A prop is nothing but a big fan. Just watch a Pilot sweat when it stops turning.
A B-17 was limited to around an airspeed of 130 because of a dead eng. It could fly faster on three when light. So it would have to leave formation and become an easy target for the fighters
A prop is nothing but a big fan. Just watch a Pilot sweat when it stops turning.
Tweety Bird
Single-Sixer
Especially the Curtiss Electrics, IIRC.
The ones I was most familiar with (but it still goes back 3 decades) were the HS props on the DeHavilland DHC-7 and Twin Otters. They went to high pitch if control was lost, so a runaway prop wasn't so much a concern.
The ones I was most familiar with (but it still goes back 3 decades) were the HS props on the DeHavilland DHC-7 and Twin Otters. They went to high pitch if control was lost, so a runaway prop wasn't so much a concern.
