Whats going on here? C-119 on a turn table?

[Nathan]

Found a set of photos on ebay with a C-119 on some sorte of turn table. Could someone tell me what going on?
http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-3-Orig-Press-Ph ... 439f8d2377

[hercules130]

Looks like a compass swing.

[m charters]

Interesting if it is.
The idea is to get the aircraft away from as much ferrous metal as possible to not cause interference. This to me would induce more issues...which is maybe why you don't see it today if that is what it is.
Would be interesting to hear more about this.

[Chris Brame]

Interesting... I zoomed in on the car (a '51 Kaiser!) in the first picture; the lettering on the doors reads "Flight Test Dept." but something else above that has been censored out. Base name?

[eagle21]

Completely a WAG, but, here goes.

When I was stationed at Edwards, we had to do a static thrust test on the GE engines installed on my F-15E. On the edge of the ramp was the static thrust test stand, which basically is a big scale. We positioned the plane on the scale, and put big steel blocks in front of the mains, and then I ran the engines. The jet pushed against the steel blocks, which transferred the force to the scale, which translated that into pounds of static thrust on the instrumentation in the control room. It was a big, circular pad, very similar to the one in the picture, and that was the first thought I had when I saw it-thrust stand.

However, that is completely a guess, and it does look like a turntable. As far as I know the one at Edwards didn't turn in a circular fashion.

Good luck with this mystery!

JMC

[bigdogmark]

The picture appears to have been taken at Willow Run. Kaiser built C-119's there for a short period of time (52-53).
I don't know what the turntable is, but I do see that it seems to be made of wood.

[hercules130]

Interesting if it is.
The idea is to get the aircraft away from as much ferrous metal as possible to not cause interference. This to me would induce more issues...which is maybe why you don't see it today if that is what it is.
Would be interesting to hear more about this.

Looks to be mostly wood and concrete, but you are correct about wanting the least amount of ferrous metal.

Interesting... I zoomed in on the car (a '51 Kaiser!) in the first picture; the lettering on the doors reads "Flight Test Dept." but something else above that has been censored out. Base name?

Wall to the right of Transit Aircraft Service says Kaiser-Frazer (I assume all that is visible is Fr) and 51-8103 is a Kaiser Michigan built bird. Also a quick search of the Internet found a Kaiser-Frazer Shipping Document from Willow Run. All starting to add up.

Gary

[Todd Hackbarth]

This photo was definately taken at Willow Run! The Ford built B-24 Liberators and Kasier-Frazer C-119s were delivered through the two doors (one of which is open) in the building on the right. Hangar one is shown on the left side of the photo. The Yankee Air Force's B-17 "Yankee Lady" is temporarily housed in Bay 2 of this hangar which is out of view to the left.

This turntable was originally built for the Ford B-24 Bomber Plant. It was constructed almost entirely of wood with large bronze(?) bolt and cables. Behind the car was a covered trench which is barely visible. The cables wrapped around the turntable and ran to a gasoline engine which was about 200' away in a small shed. A large gun butt was just out of the photo into which the machine guns on the Liberators were test fired.

See:
http://public.fotki.com/Kos/members_pho ... 199-4.html
http://public.fotki.com/Kos/members_pho ... 199-3.html
http://public.fotki.com/Kos/members_pho ... 199-5.html

Todd

[Nathan]

Thank you very much! But what would a C-119 be doing on it if it had no guns?

[eagle21]

This turntable was originally built for the Ford B-24 Bomber Plant. It was constructed almost entirely of wood with large bronze(?) bolt and cables. Behind the car was a covered trench which is barely visible. The cables wrapped around the turntable and ran to a gasoline engine which was about 200' away in a small shed.
Todd

Being built out of bronze and wood makes me think that maybe it is for compass swings. Bronze is a non-ferrous (thus non-magnetic) metal. I think that makes more sense.

JMC

[RareBear]

The captions on Todd's photos say that the B-24 is on a compass rose.

Walt

[earnie]

this is definatly a compass swing as is depicted by the 3rd photo as the mechanic is shown calibrating the magnetic comass
in the pic

[Second Air Force]

Willow Run had two or three of these compass calibration turntables. Somewhere I've got a photo of a couple of B-24s on the turntables.

Scott

[dc8jet]

A lot of people are not aware that they built C-119s at the old B-24 plant. They built a few
C-123s there as well. The interesting thing for me in the photo is at that time Willow Run was Detroit's commercial airport. You can see Capital and TWA airliners in the backround. You often see photos related to B-24s at Willow Run but very few showing the old airliners.