B-17 Flying Fortress/44-83735 ~ the Duxford resto thread

[B-17 guy]

Thank you sir!

[SPANNERmkV]

If you figure out the trick to changing the light bulb through that leeeedle panel you let us know down here in Texas!

We had a replacement plexi-glass made because the old cover was cracking and made the BIG SPLIT when we pulled it out of the cavity. It was ANOTHER, "Oh fiddlesticks" moment.

Entirely irrelevant to the subject at hand--- Guinness brewed in Canada is not as scrumptious as the real stuff you get over there! One must count one's blessings mustn't one?

SPANNER the thirsty

[The Inspector]

Guiness two blocks from the brewery is different from the stuff in the brewery-that's one of reasons they put the C02 dispenser in the cans.

[6trn4brn]

Simply marvelous thread! Mustangdriver and the fellas getting ready to do the work on MLB at the Grissom Air Museum could glean tons of info from your posts here Peter when they begin work on their monumental task.

I have pitched in monies over the years to your museum and it is so wonderful to see the work you gentlemen are doing...seeing the money put to very good use

I do have a question if you have a second...seeing how much work you are doing on Mary Alice and all of the work that was done on Dugan, are there ever open cockpit days like the one's they have on occasion at the NMUSAF?

Thank you so much for your time and effort in keeping the updates coming

[bomberflight]

Let's do a quick Q & A session

SPANNERmkv wrote

If you figure out the trick to changing the light bulb through that leeeedle panel you let us know down here in Texas!

I got a pm message on this very subject this week ......

"Just for reference, you change the landing light with a short, short screwdriver or ratchet with a screwdriver tip. Somewhere I've got a WWII socket set
that has just the thing for this job"

Guinness tastes slighty different depending on where it's brewed because the water is slightly harder or softer ..... the stuff brewed in Ireland is the best I've tasted so far !

6trn4brn wrote

are there ever open cockpit days like the one's they have on occasion at the NMUSAF?

As far as I know ~ the IWM don't have organised tours inside their aircraft. I think this is to minimize wear and tear and to avoid the dreaded health and safety issues with sharp edges and instrumentation radiation exposure. I know there's a log inside the one WW2 bomber and anyone going inside is limited to 10 mins in the cockpit

I've been working on the next picture update ~ it's coming soon !

[bomberflight]

It's time for another look behind some of the inner wing access panels



Let's get started with door number 1 .....

















Let's take a closer look at the stencil on the fuel tank ......





And so we move to door number 2 ~ located to the rear of the outer engine nacelle .....



So what's lurking in here ?





Control cable pulleys









I'm not sure I'm actually any the wiser as to what that one's for

So let's move on to door number 3













Hmmm ~ just access for control cables ~ again ????

Maybe I'll have more luck behind door number 4 .....













And that concludes this picture post from the "cable guy"

[CrewDawg]

Regarding the replacement of the landing lights, here's what I found in the B-17 Field Service Manual page 415:

Landing Lights
A landing light is installed in an aperture in the nose of each wing, outboard of each outboard nacelle. Each light receives power through a 40 ampere fuse and a relay in the outboard nacelle junction shield. The relays are controlled by two toggle switches on the central control panel. Access to the lights is provided by a door above each aperture, through which the position of lights may be adjusted by removing the four wing-screws and the spacers which support the assembly. The spacers are of unequal length so that they may be arranged to adjust the light to the desired position. This is a factory adjustment. The lamp is an all-glass sealed beam unit, held in place by an adapter ring. The six screws which hold the adapter ring can be removed, the ring lifted out and the lamp replaced. The sealed beam unit must be installed with the deflector, which partially shields the filament, on the inbcard side. Seal the plexiglas lens with a suitable compound when it
is reinstalled.

So it seems that you can take the 4 screws holding the assembly to the wing, being mindful to mark which spacer goes where, disconnect the wires and remove the entire assembly. Once removed, you can disassemble the adapter ring, change the bulb and reverse the process. I never had to change one on Chuckie while she was in my care, but that looks like the way I would do it. With my luck somebody would have replaced the nutplates for the 4 screws with rusty self-locking nuts.

[CrewDawg]

WOW! That's a boxcar load of slotted screws installed in that center wing panel!!

Those are structural screws that hold the fuel tank access panels on. Those are stress panels that require jacks to be placed on the inboard jacking points (just outboard of the fwd bomb bay door hinge) and on the jacking support points on the outboard engine mounts. I'd be willing to stick my neck out and say that all flying B-17's have long since replaced them with the modern NAS phillips head equivalent hardware. I know we did on Chuckie.

BTW, on the pictures on page 15 of the thread, the assembly on top of the oil coolers is not a pump, its the oil temp regulators. They regulate the flow of oil through the cooler based on the temperature of the oil. On the early B-17's they had a small actuating piston on them that actuated a set of shutters on the back side of the cooler to control the amount of air flow that passes over the cooler. Very problematic and not very effective so they were removed.

[The Inspector]

What works remains. The wings on DC-9/MD-80/90's require shoring too before any lower wing access panels can be removed as they are stressed panels.
This gets more and more fascinating as it goes along, those are some pretty nasty looking linkages and fasteners behind door #4, I'm begining to feel like Monty Hall with all the doors to explore-

[bomberflight]

Thanks for the input CrewDawg

I'm always happy to have input / corrections Bill !

We've got two more doors to open in today's post ~ so let's get cracking

This access panel is located on the outer engine nacelle .....



Let's start with the rear of the firewall



This is a zoomed / cropped view of the chart at the back ....



And now we'll move upwards looking left ~ as we see the interior standing in front of the access panel







This looks to be an air filter on the ducting for the turbo / supercharger



Back down to the bottom again ~ this time climbing the right side.



The right hand section of pipe on this tap / valve leads outside the engine nacelle .....





I'm not sure if it's connected to the oil tank or to the fuel tank pipework though .....



I got all excited when I discovered that there was a stencil on the oil tank. This image was taken in total darkness. I was holding the
camera all the way inside at arms length "exploring" for pictures ~ I didn't know it was there until I fired the camera and it illuminated
the stencil. I wonder when was the last time anyone had read the text on it .....



If you cast a glance back to the first picture in this post ~ you'll find there's another small access panel located above and to the right



This is home for the oil filler cap



And it's been "inscribed" at some point in it's history .....



Stay tuned for the next update

[lmritger]

"Bordeaux - the good wine of France"? C'mon, if you're gonna scratch graffiti into the plane, shouldn't it be something more, I dunno, *aggressive*? That's more like a poorly placed advertisement...

Astoundingly good shots Peter, I'm learning much as you go through this process- and I'd dare say this is the most exhaustive photo essay ever done of a B-17, at least online. Keep up the great work!

Lynn

[B17news]

great pics as usual, its amazing how complete this plane appears to be.

[B-17 guy]

great pics as usual, its amazing how complete this plane appears to be.

Agreed, and saddens me a bit that she wont fly again.

[Warbird Kid]

great pics as usual, its amazing how complete this plane appears to be.

Agreed, and saddens me a bit that she wont fly again.

Saddens me even more that the 24 wont fly.

[bomberflight]

The eagle eyed among you will have noticed that the last post had an image of an air filter and behind it appeared to be another access panel .....



Which is this one on top of the outer engine nacelle



Before we delve inside ~ let's just pause to look at the access cover itself





OK ~ in we go ! The strangely shaped "thing" in the middle holds air filters that will creep into a number of the pics in this post



We start this tour at what's currently the "floor" ~ the rear of the firewall





A look at the left side of the interior ~



and more air ducting







Hmmm and a filler cap .....





And that would be for ........ Ahem ! I don't know !

Let's swing around to the right ..... ( Behind the oil tank ~ we can see the access panel we used in the last post )







The oil tank stencil ~ very sneaky of me ~ we're actually in the other wing section this time !



Which just leaves me with the task of taking a picture of the data plate on the air duct ~ which I only noticed when putting this post together !

More soon