B-29

[WyrTwister]

Last night I watched another youtube video on the B-26 .

Does any one know if they solved the engine overheating problem ? At least on the early models .

Was it an engine problem or a problem with the cowling ?

Also read , they had problems swallowing their valves . If exhaust valves , this could be caused by overheating , too , I think .

Read another article saying the crank case halves were magnesium . If that caught on fire , it could bring down the plane .

All in all , an amazing story . The B-29 program cost more than the Manhattan Project . And without it , we would not have had a viable way to deliver Little Boy and Fat Man . Both were terribly heavy . And , large too .

Uncle Sugar started ordering the B-29's in quantity before the prototype rolled out the factory doors . A VERY BIG risk that had to be taken . B-17 & B-24 really did not have the range for going to Japan .

Merry Christman & Happy New Year !

 

[Number_35]

WT, I read quite a bit about the B-29 when I was younger. As I recall, the Superfortress was conceived, initially, as a longer-range B-17 to allow the US to bomb occupied Europe from North America, in the event England fell. It was never used in the ETO, but proved an excellent fit for the immense Pacific distances. The electromechanical gun-aiming computers were a marvel in their day, and very effective.

The air-cooled engines tended to overheat under full load. By staying low until a significant amount of the fuel had been burned off, crews were able to triple the engines' lives.

Here's a replica atop the Legion in Walker, Minnesota.

A blessed Christmas to you and family!

 

[WyrTwister]

Wondering if the thinner air at high altitude cooled less well ?

You may be correct , it may have been envisioned to bomb western Europe ? Did the operational B-29's fave sufficient range ?

Once saw a PBS documentary on the B-29's the Russians interned and the clones they ended up building . Very interesting .

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted by WyrTwister
Wondering if the thinner air at high altitude cooled less well ?

You may be correct , it may have been envisioned to bomb western Europe ? Did the operational B-29's fave sufficient range ?

Once saw a PBS documentary on the B-29's the Russians interned and the clones they ended up building . Very interesting .


I believe it was something like 4 that crashed/landed in Russia and the US asked for them back, but they never gave them back. Instead Stalin ordered that they make an exact copy of the plane and I think there was some story where they even reproduced the bullet holes because they were too afraid to ask him what he meant by exact. So even though they knew about the overheating problem, they still went ahead and made the exact copy. They only managed to produce 847 of them whereas the US made 3970 of them.

 

[Astro14]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-4

It's an interesting story....

 

[Win]

Quote
... the Superfortress was conceived, initially, as a longer-range B-17 to allow the US to bomb occupied Europe from North America, in the event ...


According to Wikipedia, the B-36 was to be the Berlin bomber. The requirement was issued before Pearl Harbor ...

" The United States would need a new class of bomber which would reach Europe and return to bases in North America,[4] necessitating a combat range of at least 5,700 miles (9,200 km), the length of a Gander, Newfoundland-Berlin round trip. The USAAC therefore sought a bomber of truly intercontinental range ..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_B-36_Peacemaker

 

[A_Harman]

Originally Posted by WyrTwister
Last night I watched another youtube video on the B-26 .

Does any one know if they solved the engine overheating problem ? At least on the early models .

Was it an engine problem or a problem with the cowling ?

Also read , they had problems swallowing their valves . If exhaust valves , this could be caused by overheating , too , I think .

Read another article saying the crank case halves were magnesium . If that caught on fire , it could bring down the plane .

All in all , an amazing story . The B-29 program cost more than the Manhattan Project . And without it , we would not have had a viable way to deliver Little Boy and Fat Man . Both were terribly heavy . And , large too .

Uncle Sugar started ordering the B-29's in quantity before the prototype rolled out the factory doors . A VERY BIG risk that had to be taken . B-17 & B-24 really did not have the range for going to Japan .

Merry Christman & Happy New Year !


The early Wright R3350's were disasters. The first B29's to be deployed to China were all dispatched with an extra engine in the bomb bay in case one on the wings needed to be replaced during the journey. It was a really tense flight when they had to go over the Himalayas on the way to China. The biggest problem with the early engines was poorly fitting and insufficiently sealed baffles between the cylinder jugs. They allowed cooling air to bypass going through the closely-spaced cooling fins. The upper rear cylinder was always the first one to fail, so that was the one that had the thermocouple that read out on the flight engineer's panel. If it was getting hot they would open the cowl flaps and richen the mixture. Early in my career, I worked with brilliant graybeard engineers from Curtiss-Wright, and they told me the stories. Eventually the R3350 became a reliable engine, but it was long-sought and hard-won knowledge.

 

[kschachn]

Was what you watched the NOVA episode "Frozen in Time"?

 

[Linctex]

Originally Posted by WyrTwister
The B-29 program cost more than the Manhattan Project .


That seems impossible to believe.

The plants at Hanford and at Oak Ridge were wicked, wicked expensive to build.

 

[SonofJoe]

It's a mute historical point but it sounds like the Avro Lincoln, a successor to the Lancaster & a contemporary of the B-29, could conceivably have been used to drop the earliest versions of The Bomb on Japan. It had the grunt to get the thing into the air & the range to carry it the requisite distance.

Unlike the B-29, the Lincoln was developed on a shoestring & was sort of obsolete when it entered service in 1945. By the time The UK had it's own free fall nuclear bombs, its role had been taken over by the Canberra, the world's first jet bomber & the V-bombers.

If you're interested in old aircraft, read about the Lincoln here...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Lincoln

 

[Linctex]

Originally Posted by Wolf359

I believe it was something like 4 that crashed/landed in Russia and the US asked for them back, but they never gave them back. Instead Stalin ordered that they make an exact copy of the plane and I think there was some story where they even reproduced the bullet holes because they were too afraid to ask him what he meant by exact. So even though they knew about the overheating problem, they still went ahead and made the exact copy.


It was a repair patch that was reproduced -
- yes, they wanted it EXACT because "he asked for" EXACT

............ but it wasn't exact,
because their aluminum mills and usable metal stock was all metric.

They didn't have .032" and .063" aluminum sheets like we do,
they had to go with the NEXT SIZE THICKER - and HEAVIER

However, even though they inherited a ton of "built in problems" -
it was still a HUGE technological breakthrough for them.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted by Linctex
Originally Posted by WyrTwister
The B-29 program cost more than the Manhattan Project .


That seems impossible to believe.

The plants at Hanford and at Oak Ridge were wicked, wicked expensive to build.


Hard to believe, but yes, including design and production over 3 billion. Unit cost was $639,188 x 3970 built.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-29_Superfortress

Manhattan project was about 2 billion.

 

[ArrestMeRedZ]

3970 units vs. 3 units. Sounds like the B-29 was a bargin.

 

[Wolf359]

Well as the saying goes, a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you're talking real money.