Large wing tanks, from the factory to the field ...

[Dan K]

Which begs the question: Can any warbird restoration now win a trophy at Oshkosh or Reno without them?

[bdk]

Which begs the question: Can any warbird restoration now win a trophy at Oshkosh or Reno without them?

Can't win without the fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror!

[Cvairwerks]

I darn sure don’t have enough room for a couple of pallets of microwave ovens right now

[BigGrey]

Great pictures Mark. The gal working the press with the tail cone sections looks like she is gluing the thin wood veneer to the outside of the tanks. I think they used more wood building the shipping crates than on the tanks themselves.

[airnutz]

Plys were fitted to the mold, a sheet of adhesive was laid in and the next ply fitted. When complete, the second half of the mold was applied and clamped and the entire assembly run thru a microwave curing tunnel, with 30kW+ of energy focused on the curing section. Just a couple of minutes later, the part could be removed from the mold and be ready for the next assembly process.

Cvair, when did this microwave process technique come into use?

[Cvairwerks]

Cvair, when did this microwave process technique come into use?[/quote]


The process became widely used by Fairchild in late 1941 or early 1942. Here is a video about the AT-21, with some XC-82 stuff at the front. There is some shots of building up parts, including a spar, showing the dry layup and going to the curing chamber. It also shows both the autoclave method for dry layup as well as some of the older wet layup work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhyYrbxR0gE

[Chris Brame]

Craig, having seen that video and knowing of your AT-21 project, all I can say is good luck!

By the way, did Col. Rohr ever find his way to that Gunner crash site? Was anything recovered?
I'm guessing from the AAIR listings it was 41-11737 in Rhode Island or 42-11732 in New Jersey?

[menards]

pretty soon they realized it didn't use much more wood to crate the entire P-47 and they just shipped the entire plane across the drink.

[Cvairwerks]

Thanks Chris...it is a project, not as big as Ray's and Don's are tho. As to Rob finding one of those wrecks....I don't have a clue if he was ever able to physically chase it down. The last I heard about him was that he was recovering from the heart transplant. Have not heard anything else about him or from him since then. I hope he is doing well and would like a chance to talk to him one of these days.

[airnutz]

Cool video of the AT-21 and Ranger particulars. Thanks Craig! The comments section below the AT-21 vid was also interesting for the wayward exclamation of one fellow claiming, "Not a great aircraft" with a link to another discussion. That discussion link it turned out was about the Fairchild Metroliner. Luckily there was a couple of folks who knew the Metro pretty well which made for some interesting reading.