Warbird Information Exchange

Everyone always talks about fighters, so lets hear it for the bombers.

Anyone have an idea what the cruise speed is in todays civilian owned A-26, B-17, B-24, B-25, B-26, B-29, LB-30?
I know it's a fuel burn issue. Just wondered what a normal cross country speed might be.

Regards,
Mike

With the B-29, we typically only cruise about 200 mph (more or less)........that is because we have to keep it slowed down for the B-24 to stay with us.

It's really just a matter of how much fuel you want to run through 'em though.

Gary

B-17 160
B-24 170-180
B-25 180-200

Thats econo cruise so to say. We don't push them at all, especially around mountains.

Jim Harley

A-26 210-230 mph

F-4 500 kts

TA-4 425 kts

Hey! They're bombers too !

Eric should probably step in here if I'm wrong, but I was thinking the Skyraider (bomber too ) cruises at around 190 kts. @ 2000 rpm and 30" m.p.

Gary

Really more like 180kts at that power setting. The "fat face" Spad is about 10-15Kts slower that the "little" one.

But you can take 5 of your friends and do aerobatics!

P.S. I didn't know I had 5 friends until I got the Spad. It's always interesting how many more people like to ride than wipe oil.

_________________
Eric

"I spent most of my money on alcohol, women and skyraiders....and the rest of it I just wasted."

160mph in the B-17? Thats seems a little slow. I would of guessed it would have been closer to 180mph with the low civilian gross weight.

What the heck does "we don't push them at all, especially around mountains" mean? You don't fly over them??? No low canyon bashing in a B-17??? I'm going to guess that no one with a WWII bomber is going IFR thru the Rockies.
How do you push them when a mountain range isn't around?

Regards,
Mike

Eric, check your e-mail and/or call me please.

Gary

So what kind of range to do you get in a B-17 these days?

Most, if not all B-17's today do not have oxygen systems operational, which limits the altitude achievable in civillian missions.

_________________
If God had wanted man to fly behind a flat motor, Pratt Whitney would've built one.

Obviously.

Last Flight I was on, we cruised at 160-ish. I've heard that ATC will occasionally ask the pilots what kind of Boeing is cruising at 160.

As for pushing them...you'd be surprised. Like anything with an internal combustion engine there's babying them, and there's pushing harder than you need to. Running a higher manifold pressure than is required comes to mind. With regard to mountains, I'm guessing you have to run higher pressures to compensate for the thinner air, being even higher above sea level? Could be wrong on that.

There's just no point in firewalling the throttle and letting rip. Screwing around means more time in the shop, which means less time in the air, which leads to less money coming in the door.

_________________
Phil K.
Yankee Air Museum
Systems Admin / Ramp Crew / Professional Photo Ruiner

A B-17 is a good example of discussing 'absolutes' like cruise speed.

!60 is a good number reflecting on several variables like;
1. Gross weight/payload
2. Altitude
3. Old engines and airframes in the formation, which migh slow the formation a littel trying to compensate!
4. whether you were inbound to target or on the way home after the airframe had lost 10,000 pounds of payload, fuel and ammo.

We run no more than 40-44" for take off and around 28" for cruise in all three bombers. If you look at the manuals for all three aircraft those are the standard cruise settings. The throttle quandrant on the B-17 has a range of power settings for different configurations for range, weight and best cruise speed. The middle ground is for the airplane is right at 160mph. As for not pushing the airplanes, we don't, no reason to when parts are becoming more and more rare (expensive) and there is no need to be in a hurry to get anywhere. I've been up to 13,000ft in the B-17 and it was not fun. It is miserably cold and drafty. It did give me a new appreciation for what the vets endured in combat. There is also no such thing as going "thru" mountains IFR...MEAs. We normally go around the mountains VFR, we take NO chances, these airplanes are too valuable, not to mention the crew.

Jim Harley

I don't know Neon; he may have you on this one, his name even has Wing Commander listed below it.

Your knowledge and flight time in bombers might be OUT RANKED.