Warbird Information Exchange

Allied Fighters just posted of P-47 Dottie May getting its wings getting installed. More pictures at the link.


https://mustangrestorations.wordpress.com/2016/06/30/allied-fighters-p-47-dottie-may-gets-wings/

Wow, she's sure come a long way since I last saw an update. Wonderful!

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This is for me one of the most anticipated restorations to see completed/flying. I'm excited just thinking about seeing the colorful, original markings/nose art reproduced (the original nose art/cowl panels are preserved).

As I've referred to it before, it is the "Sierra Sue II" of P-47 restorations, for its expansion on what a fully accurate/historically-authentic P-47 is, down to the smallest of details. All photos below, taken over the past couple years, by Vintage Airframes, posted via the Allied Fighters' Facebook page.

I wish Jeff Harris was still with us. He'd like to see the progress. We talked often of Dottie Mae.

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Stunningly beautiful!

Can anyone post a picture of the way the barrel jacket/shrouds go over the barrels in this installation (P-47). Are standard aircraft barrels used, and if so, is there a barrel bushing at both the muzzle and receiver end on the jacket/shroud?

Thanks.

I love seeing new restorations to flight status.
Can anyone say how much of the original airframe was retained in the rebuild?

Regardless, the workmanship is a thing of beauty!

Thanks,
Leon

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Phormer Phantom Painter

She is an absolute beauty and I can't wait to see her in person!

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Thats looking really nice.

Don't have a photo, but the aircraft guns had a bushing in the end of the shroud like the .30 BMG ground guns.

<Edit> Found some photos...

The .50 BMG aircraft gun is very similar to the .30 BMG ground gun, just on a smaller scale.



The bushing in the end of the shroud is called a "booster." It helped to push the barrel backwards from gas pressure and acted as the front barrel bushing. You can see the cylindrical machined feature on the front of the barrel that rides inside the bushing. The M2HB ground gun had a heavy barrel that I doubt would have functioned well at high g-loadings cantilevered out from the receiver with the relatively short barrel support. The receiver itself was the same though. If you remove the barrel support and barrel from an M2HB you can install the barrel and shroud with the aircraft parts.



FYI, The M3 was a post-war .50 BMG variant used in aircraft like the F-86 that had a higher rate of fire due to some different internal components, a slightly different receiver and a larger diameter buffer on the back plate.

Thanks for posting those pictures.

Actually, the WWII M2 aircraft gun uses just a plain bushing in the muzzle end of the barrel jacket, and is the reason why you see the barrel protruding from the bushing (at least when the barrel extension is forward). It is about flush when the barrel/extension have recoiled rearward.

The M3 post war gun used the "booster" you have pictured. It is one of the reasons for the increased cyclic rate of the M3 over the M2 aircraft gun, as you stated. It is still used on the GAU-21 and M3M today.

I was curious if the M2 aircraft barrel jacket was replaced with different type outer jacket on the P-47 (and other fighter types) or if it was just a thin slip over sleeve that covered the standard aircraft barrel jacket.

I have several different aircraft barrel and jackets (both M2 and M3), but they are the type you normally associate with an aircraft flexible gun. I have never had a chance to find out what makes the P-47 gun look the way it does, protruding from the wing. From the original photo showing the assembled P-47 guns, I still can't tell.

On the P-47, the standard, ventilated barrel jacket is replaced with the stainless, non ventilated type. This has a bushing in the muzzle end to support the barrel and is retained on the receiver by the sleeve nut which is loose on the jacket.

That explains it very nicely, thank you!