Warbird Information Exchange

Scott, you should give Jack a seperate page so he can post his photo's for us...Please


Lynn

Good idea!
Or he can have his own coppermine gallery at my website. I would not mind.
Do you have some P-39 photo's Jack?

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http://www.warbird-hangar.com links and gallery &
http://www.yakkes.com Yakkes Foundation, Yak-52

If he doesn't, I have some from Flying Legends '05.

Mudge the helpful

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Land of the free because of the brave

Even though I've got 4 sites already.
http://groups.msn.com/354thFighterGroupTributePage
http://communities.msn.com/SUPERRABBITB25JMITCHELLBOMBER
http://groups.msn.com/NOSEARTATWAR/
http://groups.msn.com/44thFighterSquadronTributePage
If Scott's wants to set up a page I may be convinced to share some
photos with my loyal subjects.

Yes, I have P-39 photos 70th FS Torokina 1944

B-29 40th BG

B-29A flak damage 40th BG

#2 in sequence

B-29A #3 in sequence

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Don't touch my junk!!

Reason I came up with the ideal as I was looking for the P-38 that
he posted last week with the Indian running on the nose
to use as my screen page...

Lynn

Far be it for me to claim to know more, but that looks like runaway prop damage, not a flak hole. The prop's departure may perhaps have been caused by flak but the 'damage' was the aircraft's whirly thing coming off, dinging the cowl front (a clue, Watson... ) and chewing the fuselage side before whizzing away...

I'd say.

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Raven

Flak damage was the cause.
Also look at the nose. The bombardier was killed
along with the radio operator I believe. It seems that a lot
of these photos have a sad story behind them but
but they also send a strong message of the sacrifice made
by our veterans!

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Don't touch my junk!!

Update, found it, duh, its a lil' mule kickin butt, LilBuckaroo. Now I need to find my glasses, again. Thanks again Jack.

Lynn

Jack, the B-29 that was next to Last Resort, was the damage due to a bomb going off during loading? Plus it must have been full of fuel to burn like that and wrinkle the skin of The Last Resort.

Lynn

Good point about the other nose damage (and the crew injuries). Let's have some precision. However, the gashes in the fuselage side were caused by the prop coming away from the engine. What caused the prop to detach may have been a flak hit (given the nose damage, a mechanical failure at the same time is unlikely).

Is that how you read it? Do you have any further info on the story?

My take from the photo is that a flak hit in the nose did the damage there, and killed the unfortunate crew. Then, or subsequently, damage to the starboard inner engine or prop caused it to come off, still spinning and to flatten the cowl front so characteristically, before climbing up and tearing the holes in the fuselage side.

None of the main engine / mid fuselage damage and witness marks are characteristic of flak damage, and are highly characteristic of a runaway prop.

Perhaps a minor difference (it was all down to flak in the end) but IMHO an important one. And a hole that side in the fuselage shows what a tough bird it was. I'm surprised they opted for a gear down landing; had one of the gear legs failed to extend, with a damaged nose and fuselage it would've been a bad do surviving.

As it was, credit to Boeing, I think.

Regards

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Raven

My guess would be that's blast effect wrinkling rather than heat, as there's no melting, the fabric is stripped from the rudder, but the light alloy frame's not melted/warped, and no soot or blackening or fire marking on the ground. However a bomb load going off would fit the visible signs.

Tragic, either way. Certainly several guys would've been killed instantly.

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Raven

I'm being a little to general in my discriptions. Sorts like the captions on the photos themselves. I prop on #3 did come off and do all the ripping and tearing but a flak hit started the chain reaction.

B-29? What B-29? Oh, the vaporized one!
Come we all agree the last has a lot of flak holes?
Boeing sure made them tough!

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Don't touch my junk!!

It would depend on whether the props on the B-29 were Hamilton Standard or Curtiss Electric,but the domes on the bomb explosion photos appear to be Ham Standards.

Photo 3 certainly appears to be flak damage which might have punctured the engine oil tank.If the oil was exhausted before the prop was feathered with Ham Standard props,there would be no way to prevent the engine from turning and without oil the nosecase would eventually sieze.Then the prop would most likely shear off at some time.

There's no way to tell for sure without additional information,but it is probably as good a theory as any.If they were Curtiss Electric props,anything is possible,with or without flak damage.

Ummm. OK then.

Thanks for sharing the pics, and thanks for the insight Larry.

Regards

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Raven

I just looked through most of your pics in the 4 links you posted.

So cool... Thanks for sharing!