Official Aviation Thread...

[cbouchez]

Collings Foundation was in Seattle a few weeks ago.^

[BlackbirdM3]

We just roasted ourselves at our airport touring a B-25, a B-24, a B-17, and a P-51. Heat stroke warnings and we’re on a black taxiway.

The Mustang has an elongated bubble - converted in 1951 to a dual control trainer. They took passengers up for $3000/hour. We demurred. But we got to see it from 50’ away, firing up, pivoting around one wheel, taxiing, and taking off on a little taxiway in no time. Completely impressive. We’ve only seen them at 5000 feet or in a museum. They were concerned about overheating (it's almost 100 today) so they gave it light throttle until about 8000', then it ran pefectly. I was totally impressed with how well tuned it was and how easily it started up each time.

I recognized a friend who has since moved back home to the east coast. He was a pilot while I knew him here (had a 172). Just visiting, with his kids. I was about to ask, Who drops $3000 for a ride in an airplane?…when he said, Wow, that was great, that’s something I’ve always wanted to do!!

They flew all the way down the Bitterroot valley, and the pilot (who is 21) let him fly level from the back, then some big banked turns. He then said, Well you seem pretty comfortable, want to do a roll? Yike!

The B-24 took a load of paying passengers (now that's a starting sequence, turning over all the engines by hand), sat at the end of the runway for 20 minutes, and taxied back and unloaded. Then guys with a ladder climbed up and took an engine panel off and scratched their heads. Probably a big insurance risk to take it up with passengers if not 100%.

You seriously need to come to the Reno Air races in September. If you thought this stock mustang was cool, wait till you hear a race prepped one pushing 4000 hp, 140" of manifold pressure at 3800 rpm. Or a Hawker Sea fury with an R4360 running 450 mph laps. Or, all of the above running at once.

Seriously, this is a magical, experience.






One of my favorite things to do is wander through the pits after hours.

Sometimes you get to witness some really cool stuff at night.



I'll wager right now that there will be a good bit of this happening Friday and Saturday nights this year.


The Texas Legends of flight are bringing out a handful of planes, a Griffon powered Spitfire being one of them. An Allison powered Yak3 is coming from New Zealand, and there will be at least one more surprise that is in the works. I don't know what it is, but the pilot says it will be very very cool. (And he gets to fly some seriously cool stuff.)

Will

[2mAn]

A few pics from the Travis AFB airshow.


Will

This is an awesome pic

[LateFan]

Converted in 1951 to a dual-control trainer.

These people paid $3200 for an hour flight. The pilot is 21. I was told the little trim tab in the rudder is set several degrees off straight on takeoff to counteract the prop torque.

[LateFan]

The only flying B-24 in the world. They had magneto troubles on the far left engine (#1?), so it came back before taking off. They had to get it running before leaving for the next city, so we didn't get to tour the interior.





Starting sequence


Get in line. The Mustang took off on a short little cross runway.

[LateFan]

B-17

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[LateFan]

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Imagine German planes coming at you and you're a sitting duck. There is zero protection in these things - aluminum sheet metal and some ribs.
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I love that these are real planes that get flown every day.
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[flyboyx]

someone went to an airshow? awesome pics! it was said by those that flew them in the war that the b17 was an awesome machine. the b24 on the other hand was far from that.

your last pic is one of the 4 the turbo compound units. instead of using exhaust gas to force charge the intake, they used exhaust to help spin the crank shaft. if i remember right, this unit was responsible for about 1/3+ of the engine's horsepower.

[LateFan]

They came to the Missoula airport for three days, heading east from here. We've been in a B-25, so we didn't go in that one. The Mustang pulled up and swung around into position about 50' from us every time it landed. It's cool the way those guys clamp one brake, spin the thing around to a stop, and shut the engine down in one smooth motion.

B-24 looks like a flying whale. My son tells me it's by Consolidated, the people who built the Catalina flying boats, and the designs were related to share some structure.

Superchargers yes. Didn't know about the shaft idea. They're up on top of the booms on a P-38.

[LateFan]

Basic basic lift question for you plane guys -

On a smallish plane, like the Mustang, or a Cessna (or big I guess), does the horizontal stabilizer push up, or push down in flight, or is it just neutral and the elevators provide pitch control? Does the wing do all the lifting, or is the horizontal stabilizer helping?

Are all traditional layout planes the same there?

[ThatM20Guy]

In general, the horizontal does produce lift, but it doesn't really contribute any significant lift to the overall lift of the airframe. So yes it does, but no it doesn't kinda thing. Elevator is doing all of the pitch movements unless it is a full flying stab.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[flyboyx]

technically the elevator normally pushes down in level flight. the center of gravity is in front of the wing pushing down. the wing pushes up and the tail counteracts this force.

[BlackbirdM3]

your last pic is one of the 4 the turbo compound units. instead of using exhaust gas to force charge the intake, they used exhaust to help spin the crank shaft. if i remember right, this unit was responsible for about 1/3+ of the engine's horsepower.

Actually, These aren't turbo compound engines. those are turbo-superchargers. http://www.airpages.ru/eng/mn/b17_18.shtml



The some R3350s are turbo compound, and yes they did drive the crankshaft. Those specific variations of the 3350 were found on the Lockheed Constellations, DC7s, P2V Neptunes, and C119 Flying Boxcars.
This is a -3350 turbo compound engine.

and a cutaway version.




Will

[FLYNAVY]

Collings Foundation was in Seattle a few weeks ago.^

My dad flew some of the leg from Eugene to Olympia in the B-17. Judging by the pics he sent me, looked like a good time was had.

[george graves]

Engines like that are amazing. And lest you not forget - all done with a slide ruler, intuition, and what not.