Warbird Information Exchange

This last summer during the week of Oshkosh in the EAA Museum, on the 2nd floor in a quonset hut theater room, a documentary played (from memory) with a segment involving asymmetrical aircraft, asymmetrical cockpit layouts, and most unusually - a B-17 rigged with a set of controls for a pilot encapsulated on the wingtip of the aircraft. This seemed too astounding to be true, but I'm curious to hear from any of you who may have further information.

It's in several B-17 books, in one they admit it's exact function wasn't known (at least to that author).
One theory was it was a test unit at Wright-Patterson to judge physiological factors if an asymmetric cockpit.
With the lack of a conventional fuselage, a wingtip nacelle would have made sense on a flying wing.
Less so on a B-36, and with the advent of gun less jet bombers (except the tail guns), the need for turrets had passed.

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I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

That was an AeroCinema documentary. Not sure which one, as they had a paid sponsorship to use that particular theater space throughout the week. You might be able to track down the documentary at their website, http://aerocinema.com/.

Cheers,
Zack Baughman
EAA Curator of Collections

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I'm sure the Sally B at Duxford, UK is the machine in question.

Or did I dream that?

No, you didn't dream it. 44-85784 was so modified while being operated as an ETB-17G at Wright Field beginning in April 1949. Two pods were mounted, one on each wing tip. The pods were fitted for a crewmember. The best information I could find was that it may have been testing the feasibility of such a cockpit for a nuclear powered airplane, with the pilot flying the airplane from the wingtip. Reportedly anyone riding in the pod became airsick quickly.

Another take, from the October 2009 B-17 update at http://www.aerovintage.com/b17news9.htm with this photo:



I would be sorely remiss if I did not mention the article in the October 2009 issue of FlyPast magazine that covers a bit of the history of B-17G 44-85784 (G-BEDF), better known as Sally B. The article by Herr Webmaster covers the airplane in USAF service when it was assigned to the GE Flight Test Center for the development of a new radar unit. At that time the B-17 had some unusual wing tip pods. This led to an interesting email exchange with Lars Kambeck of Hanover, Germany, who tells me of a wartime German aircraft designer named Richard Vogt who did pioneering work for the Luftwaffe for the Blohm & Voss Aircraft, and in particular its P163 design. Though never built, the P163 featured wing tip cockpits. Part of the reason for the unusual arrangement, as per an interview with Vogt, was that the Germans were trying to figure out how to use more steel in airplane construction as aluminum was getting harder to procure as the war went along. Apparently the structure needed for the wing tip pods lent itself to using steel. There were other advantages, one of which was the reduction of wake turbulence from the wing tips and its associated drag; kind of like a precursor of winglets. The interesting thing is that Vogt went to Wright-Patterson AFB after the war and continued his research in different areas. It seems but a short step to think that the unusual wing-tip pods on 44-85784 are associated with Vogt's work for the USAF

The pods may have stayed on the airplane after that test program was completed, and may have been used to mount electronic equipment as the apparent radome in the photo above would suggest.

And, here is a wikipedia article on Richard Vogt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Vogt_(aircraft_designer)

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Scott Thompson
Aero Vintage Books
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WIX Subscriber Since July 2017

Thank you to all who have responded!!! - This IS exactly what I was trying to validate! This is exactly what WIX is all about.
I wonder to what extent flight controls may have been rigged or how it would have been accomplished.

Even more exciting to me is how the specific B-17 in question is still among us!

Aerovin, your Final Cut Editions on the surviving B-17s are my FAVORITE warbird books. The sections on the Swoose, Films, New Built Projects, and those in various degrees of preservation/flying, etc really are the best in print (and the photos are stellar). Consider me a happy customer for the next addition to come.

To Mr. Baughman - the EAA museum is very well put together, and never ceases to capture the imaginative spirit for me. I eagerly look forward to coming back. I will check out the AeroCinema link you shared - showing films like that which give a deeper perspective on these machines and show the lesser-seen material make it all the more spectacular.

Thanks again to all for the timely responses!