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This is the place where the majority of the warbird (aircraft that have survived military service) discussions will take place. Specialized forums may be added in the new future
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Re: PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

Thu Nov 24, 2016 9:18 am

HOT RUN! HOT RUN! Sorry, a wee flashback... :shock:
I've really enjoyed this thread from day one. Always something interesting!

Re: PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

Tue Dec 20, 2016 5:57 am

'062 in the trailer for the USS Indianapolis movie:
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Re: PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

Tue Dec 20, 2016 2:14 pm

Seeing '062 was the highlight of that trailer for me! I don't think the movie is getting a theatrical release in NZ so I doubt I'll get to see and hear a Harpoon on the big screen.

Re: PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

Tue Dec 20, 2016 6:43 pm

Zac,
The film is available on line. Film reviews weren't so hot but still great to see Taigh's aircraft get the publicity it rightly deserves. When I was a kid, I remember one our neighbors brother's was on the Indy.
Don't know if he was a survivor.

Re: PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

Wed Dec 21, 2016 9:12 am

Wow verry nice screen shots Chris, thanx for share those. 8)
Are there any updates about the PV-2D??? Always a pleasure to see progress about this bird.

Re: PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

Tue Jan 24, 2017 9:03 am

the movie USS Indianapolis is now available on Red-Box

Re: PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

Wed Apr 26, 2017 9:01 pm

Bomber Camp 2017 announcment on Warbird News

Re: PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

Tue Jun 13, 2017 4:09 pm

You guys got an article on World War Wings. Nice Ventura :wink:

http://worldwarwings.com/ventura-bomber ... nt=engines

Re: PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

Thu Jun 15, 2017 4:24 pm

Ventura eh? Is that an upgrade or a demotion? Ahhhh, they are all the same...

Re: PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

Thu Jun 15, 2017 4:58 pm

We have flown the Harpoon a few times to shows and most recently for our Torpedo Camp which was held the Friday after Bomber Camp. The old gal is running nicely.

A few things to report on:

We finally have new fabric on the rudders. They look and fly great. One more project knocked out.

The guns are pretty much finished and we decided to use them in the B-17G and B-24J for Bomber Camp. The new sim fire system worked great. Here is a video of them installed in the tail of the B-17G 909:

https://www.facebook.com/taigh.ramey/videos/10155327329097640/

Now we are pressing forward with fabricating the mountings for the guns to get them in the nose of the Harpoon. We made the guns just like the originals so that we can change them back and forth for the different types of mountings found in different WWII aircraft which will make them more versatile for fun museum projects like Bomber Camp and our upcoming Aerial Gunnery Symposium.

The front gun mount fittings in the Harpoon are roughly circular castings that mounted to edgewater adapters for recoil and allowed the guns to pivot in azimuth and elevation for boresighting. We have made the edgewater adapters and now are looking at the ring mounts. I made one pattern and casted up the prototype that was covered a while ago in a previous post which will work but now we are looking at machining them. We will replicate the same quick release type of mounting as per the original installation which is great for authenticity as well as ease of removal for cleaning, service and use elsewhere.

Having all 8 guns going off in the nose of the Harpoon has been an exciting prospect for a while now and thanks to the generous donations of a few gracious individuals we are closer than ever.

Jon has spent countless hours designing and testing the guns, much to the consternation of our neighbors here at the airport! The guns look and sound great as you can see in the video above. Next stop; a set of 8 fireballs out the front of the Harpoons nose at a cyclic rate of 650 rounds per minute per gun. That's 5200 muzzle flashes per minute or 86.6 per second! I'm all giddy at the thought.

We also have made progress on the torpedo restoration front and I will post more on that in the future. I will also post photos of the above mentioned projects and well as the other progress by our volunteers.

More to come.

Re: PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

Thu Jun 15, 2017 6:50 pm

Wow, that's going to be an amazing sight! Are the guns gas-powered or blank-firing?

Re: PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

Thu Jun 15, 2017 7:09 pm

Gas powered. Propane and oxygen which are computer controlled for mixture, rate and over temp.

All steel guns

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Jon working on the sim fire mechanisms

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After parkerizing

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Re: PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

Fri Jun 16, 2017 12:57 am

Have you tried firing the gas gun with the backpressure of higher speeds say 200 knots or so? We are wondering what it might do to the mixture or ignition. Had considered a design we got from Mt Pleasant, but then decided to wait for more info. Sure would be impressive if it works as well as a static firing! JR

Re: PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

Fri Jun 16, 2017 1:16 am

We were concerned about the same thing so we set up a ground test stand and shot high volume shop air at the muzzle with zero negative effect.

We then installed one of the first guns in the nose of the Harpoon for testing on the way to an air show. At cruise power I was amazed how loud just one gun was over the sound of two R2800's.

We fired it on our low passes at decent speed at the show and asked what people thought. They heard it and gave positive feedback. They also worked in the B-17 and B-24 in flight and they are quite reliable so far.

Jon wants to do some more tweaking of the software and is contemplating configuration changes if we make more. I think they have good commercial potential myself.

As loud as one was, eight up front should be amazing.

Re: PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

Fri Jun 16, 2017 11:33 am

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