Heavy Metal

[amazinblue82]

Sorry . another potential NERD ALERT Three, big topics here if you have time to follow the "breadcrumbs".

All of this stuff was nearly 90 years ago. Amazing.

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A B-29 USAAF/Boeing movie of ground crew maintenance/mooring between flights. Early 1940's. That was interesting. Also, a lot of technical learnings about how the plane was engineered, its strenghts/weaknesses ... the decisions made in its design/construction.



About 20 minutes if you have interest/time. And this doesnt even include the magnificant/technically challenging story of the XB-39 (pic immediately below).

Because the most strategic heavy bomber in the WWII US fleet was dependent on the initially UNreliable Wright 3350. In the event the kinks could NOT be worked out in that engine, military figured they needed another validated engine ready to go.

Anyway, when dust settled, they kinda (there's a debate about that to this day) made the Wright 3350 work, and the B-29 went on to help Allies win WWII and become one of the most storied airplanes ever made.

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Enter the Allison_V-3420.

24 cylinder (two V12's, two cranks/two cams, supercharged, sandwhiched together in ONE engine blocki), 3,421 cubic inches, 2,500 HP. Pics/narrative here.

This was intended to be the potential replacement (if needed) for the Wright 3350 in the B-29 if needed. A piston-engine, engineering marvel -- right before jets made it obsolete (for high performance military use at least).

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Keep following the breadcrumbs, and you will get to the Fisher_P-75_Eagle. Not a bomber, but was intended to use Allison V-3420

Yes, Fisher, as in GM Fisher Body, built a fighter, never saw service, and unforunately some consider one of the worst (in terms of not much juice from the squeeze to build it) planes ever conceived. Only one left on display in a Dayton, OH museum..

 

[3175375]

The Lockheed S-3 Viking's first flight was on this day, January 21, 1972. That prototype is shown here with the example at Pima, one of the last built S-3Bs. The Viking was a crucial component of Cold War naval aviation spanning four decades. Its primary mission was anti-submarine warfare initially, but was placed in many other roles through its versatility.

VX-30 and the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland were the last organizations to operate the S-3 ‘Hoover’

 

[amazinblue82]

A heavy metal "favorite" for obvious reasons. Its in this thread at least 10 times.

Heavy Metal B-36 "Peacemaker"l

below, 25 minute video narrative about the B-36 "Peacemaker" on static display at SAC museum near Omaha. Long-ish but fascinating.

the more i learn, nearly 80 years after it all happened, the more amazing this colossus gets.

plus how cool it would have been to be an aircraft engineer in the "go-go" 1940's -'50's.

Anyway, I gotta get there to SAC museum one day. buncha cool planes there it seems

 

[amazinblue82]

Always wondered how some of these machines work?

This is one type of design I see most often -- the Canadair/BombardierCL-415 ("Super Scooper") -- in worldwide use.

Its topical .. the devastation in CA (my daughters are in Santa Monica and Palmdale and so far all is well for them, but I did have friend in the Palisades lose his home but thankfully with no loss of life) has made it more personally topical.

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I hear/see reports they can pick up over 1,600 gallons in 10 seconds, deploy to drop on the fire, and re-fill in mere minutes.

They obviously do it safely without stopping, but I always wondered what the collecting mechanism (pick up water at speed, without flipping/tearing bottom of the plane, on the underside looked like.

Real good eight minute overview minutes of video explanation. Quite ingenious, simple design relatively, and obviously works.

Four, 5 inch by 8 inch "scoops" are in the water (picture show pilot pulling one open by hand to demonstrate size/operation), plane is going on a 100 mph "skim" of the water, grabs the fast-miving water through the relatively small scoops, and flies off for the drop.

They are very specialized planes in some non-obvious ways, much larger/agile than they appear, cost $30 Million USD apiece, and clearly take experienced pilots to fly safely and do the firefighting job.

 

[3175375]

A heavy metal "favorite" for obvious reasons. Its in this thread at least 10 times.

Heavy Metal B-36 "Peacemaker"l

View attachment 703513

below, 25 minute video narrative about the B-36 "Peacemaker" on static display at SAC museum near Omaha. Long-ish but fascinating.

the more i learn, nearly 80 years after it all happened, the more amazing this colossus gets.

plus how cool it would have been to be an aircraft engineer in the "go-go" 1940's -'50's.

Anyway, I gotta get there to SAC museum one day. buncha cool planes there it seems

I believe that there’s one in Dayton and I have seen one at the Pima Air Museum.

 

[3175375]

Always wondered how some of these machines work?

This is one type of design I see most often -- the Canadair/BombardierCL-415 ("Super Scooper") -- in worldwide use.

Its topical .. the devastation in CA (my daughters are in Santa Monica and Palmdale and so far all is well for them, but I did have friend in the Palisades lose his home but thankfully with no loss of life) has made it more personally topical.

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View attachment 703541View attachment 703540View attachment 703550View attachment 703551View attachment 703537
View attachment 703538

I hear/see reports they can pick up over 1,600 gallons in 10 seconds, deploy to drop on the fire, and re-fill in mere minutes.

They obviously do it safely without stopping, but I always wondered what the collecting mechanism (pick up water at speed, without flipping/tearing bottom of the plane, on the underside looked like.

Real good eight minute overview minutes of video explanation. Quite ingenious, simple design relatively, and obviously works.

Four, 5 inch by 8 inch "scoops" are in the water (picture show pilot pulling one open by hand to demonstrate size/operation), plane is going on a 100 mph "skim" of the water, grabs the fast-miving water through the relatively small scoops, and flies off for the drop.

They are very specialized spanes in some non-obvious ways, much larger/agile than they appear, cost $30 Million USD apiece, and clearly take experienced pilots to fly safely and do the firefighting job.

And Kalifornia rents them. Being the 7th largest economy in the world, that’s unfathomable.

 

[3175375]

YB-49

 

[3175375]

Clockwise from the F-82 Twin Mustang in the front at 6 o'clock position, F-80, YB-49, B-47 Stratojet, B-36 Peacemaker, B-45 Tornado, F-84 Thunderjet.

 

[3175375]

Pilots nicknamed the B-47 Stratojet "the aluminum overcast" because it was so large, and flying it was notoriously difficult. The aircraft required special training to handle its long, slender wings and demanding flight controls.

 

[amazinblue82]

Pilots nicknamed the B-47 Stratojet "the aluminum overcast" because it was so large, and flying it was notoriously difficult. The aircraft required special training to handle its long, slender wings and demanding flight controls.

View attachment 703963

JATO lit no less

Heavy Metal

 

[3175375]

Something that some might not think about is the large amount of support activities and personnel that are required to operate a complex aircraft and all of its systems.

This is a write up from a gent who was in the Navy at Point Mugu, who uncovered some artifacts of a sliver of the efforts involved in the development and operation of the F-14.

The last: pictures are taken in the SITS lab that eventually had 4 front sections of the F-14 A and D models on the 4th floor of a building right on the coast that was used for system development. That lab had the ability to ‘roll out’ each frame to conduct ‘flyovers’ and radiate and track targets.
I remember working during a rollout and one of the greybeards said that if we could lock up the radar in low PRF track (range measurement mode) on Santa Barbara Island, some distance away, we would know that the low PRF system was good.
I also spent a lot of time working with the missile stand that’s in the pictures.



Here's a fun story. Mentioned before that I took care of Point Mugu's missile museum collection from 1995 to 1999. I was an E-5 at the time, working in the paint shop at AIMD. Point Mugu PAO needed missiles repainted for the 50th Anniversary airshow in 1996, and my leadership volunteered me. I dove head-first into the project and started refurbishing missile shapes from scratch.

One of those shapes was an AIM-54 display shape. I got the missile in the shop and started disassembling it for paint removal. The nose cone was porcelain and threaded off. When I got the nose off, found that the original radar assembly was still installed. Removed it and set it on my work bench. A buddy from Avionics AIMD came by and was marveling over it. He went back and told his LPO about it. An hour later, I had NCIS in the paint shop. Got to keep the missile shape, but they took the radar assembly.

After the airshow, I got hooked on Mugu history. Had dozens of boxes of 8x10 official Navy photos in the storage warehouse. Going through photos, I came across this black and white of an open house with the test Tomcats. The Phoenix display shape was right there in the photo, along with a Sidewinder and Sparrow that were also in the museum collection.

Hughes Aircraft Company had pilots and radar operators who actually flew the F-14s and 7 aircraft were actually ‘bailed’ (loaned) to Hughes and were based at the Hughes Culver City facility (10,000 foot long privately owned runway- now gone) and at Point Mugu.