Thursday, April 28, 2005
Steve's Video Of The Day: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Suffering Battle Damage
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was the most important aircraft used by Bomber Command in WWII to smash the Nazis. Once Germany was "on the ropes", the B-17 kept pummelling them, like a good prize-fighter. I still love the movie 12 O'Clock High starring Gregory Peck as General Savage, and then the series made after with Robert Lansing in the title role. Anyway, the men who crewed the B-17s were "Real Men Flying Real Airplanes". My hat is off to them. They could take a lot of abuse and keep flying!
(Video shot from a German fighter. Damn, I would hate to be the tail-gunner.....!)
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Suffering Battle Damage
(and she kept flying, even with all the "parts" abandoning her.....!)
The Boeing B-17G "Flying Fortress"
DESIGNED BY:
Boeing Company, Seattle, Washington
MODEL:
B-17G Flying Fortress
REQUIRED CREW:
Ten; -Pilot, Co-pilot, Navigator, Bombardier, Flight Engineer (top turret gunner), Radio Operator, 2 Waist Gunners, Tail Gunner and Ball Turret Gunner
POWER:
The B-17G is powered by four 1,200-horsepower Wright Cyclone Model R-1820-97 engines. These engines are nine cylinder, radial, air-cooled type with a 16:9 gear ratio. The propellers are three-bladed Hamilton Standard propellers, 11 feet, 7 inches in diameter.
WEIGHTS:
Basic Empty Weight 34,000 lbs.
Gross Weight (Wartime) 65,500 lbs.
FUEL CAPACITY:
1,700 gallons
RANGE:
1,850 miles. Range could be extended when equipped with "Tokyo Tanks" which provided a total capacity of 3,630 gallons.
WING SPAN:
103 feet, 9 inches
LENGTH:
74 feet, 4 inches
HEIGHT:
19 feet, 1 inch
SERVICE CEILING:
35,600 feet
ARMAMENT:
Thirteen Browning M-2 .50 caliber machine guns. Fire rate approximately 13 rounds per second. No gun on a B-17 carried more than one minute's supply of ammunition.
BOMB LOAD:
Depending on types of bombs, maximum normal load could go to 8,000 lbs. If B-17 was fitted with special external racks, maximum normal short-range bomb load could go as high as 17,600 lbs.
NUMBER BUILT:
12,732. Production peaked at 16 airplanes a day in April 1944. Today there are about a dozen B-17's still flying.
SPEEDS:
Maximum 300 mph. at 30,000 ft.
Maximum continuous 263 mph. at 25,000 ft.
Cruising speed 170 mph.
Landing 74 mph.
Rate of Climb 37 minutes to 20,000 ft
A little known fact is that the "Polish Otter" is powered by a Pezetel M18 1820 CI radial engine, which is actually a copy of the Wright 1820 CI Cyclone engine, the engines on the B-17, and is made under license in Poland and Russia to this day.......
(Video shot from a German fighter. Damn, I would hate to be the tail-gunner.....!)
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Suffering Battle Damage
(and she kept flying, even with all the "parts" abandoning her.....!)
The Boeing B-17G "Flying Fortress"
DESIGNED BY:
Boeing Company, Seattle, Washington
MODEL:
B-17G Flying Fortress
REQUIRED CREW:
Ten; -Pilot, Co-pilot, Navigator, Bombardier, Flight Engineer (top turret gunner), Radio Operator, 2 Waist Gunners, Tail Gunner and Ball Turret Gunner
POWER:
The B-17G is powered by four 1,200-horsepower Wright Cyclone Model R-1820-97 engines. These engines are nine cylinder, radial, air-cooled type with a 16:9 gear ratio. The propellers are three-bladed Hamilton Standard propellers, 11 feet, 7 inches in diameter.
WEIGHTS:
Basic Empty Weight 34,000 lbs.
Gross Weight (Wartime) 65,500 lbs.
FUEL CAPACITY:
1,700 gallons
RANGE:
1,850 miles. Range could be extended when equipped with "Tokyo Tanks" which provided a total capacity of 3,630 gallons.
WING SPAN:
103 feet, 9 inches
LENGTH:
74 feet, 4 inches
HEIGHT:
19 feet, 1 inch
SERVICE CEILING:
35,600 feet
ARMAMENT:
Thirteen Browning M-2 .50 caliber machine guns. Fire rate approximately 13 rounds per second. No gun on a B-17 carried more than one minute's supply of ammunition.
BOMB LOAD:
Depending on types of bombs, maximum normal load could go to 8,000 lbs. If B-17 was fitted with special external racks, maximum normal short-range bomb load could go as high as 17,600 lbs.
NUMBER BUILT:
12,732. Production peaked at 16 airplanes a day in April 1944. Today there are about a dozen B-17's still flying.
SPEEDS:
Maximum 300 mph. at 30,000 ft.
Maximum continuous 263 mph. at 25,000 ft.
Cruising speed 170 mph.
Landing 74 mph.
Rate of Climb 37 minutes to 20,000 ft
A little known fact is that the "Polish Otter" is powered by a Pezetel M18 1820 CI radial engine, which is actually a copy of the Wright 1820 CI Cyclone engine, the engines on the B-17, and is made under license in Poland and Russia to this day.......
