Fifi Makes a Trip

[Unisaw]

Here's a great documentary video of Fifi making the trip to Oshkosh.

http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=1143348987001

I can't believe the control inputs that are required.

[grampster]

Kinda nice just sitting here watching that with a big grin on my face.  Cooool.

[robear]

Kinda nice just sitting here watching that with a big grin on my face.  Cooool.

My thoughts exactly.  Great video.  Thanks.

[rcnixon]

The control excursions are massive.  As explained in the video, it is the result of built-in mechanical advantage because the controls on the 50 ton aircraft are not boosted in any way.  Phew!  I wonder which engines Fifi uses.  It was said the more B-29s were lost to engine fires than to enemy fire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-29

Also linked from the same page is a video about the Seafire Mk. 15, the Fleet Air Arm version of the the Spitfire, possibly the most beautiful aircraft ever.  It is sad that Reginald Mitchell, the designer of the Spitfire, never knew of it's sucess; he died during the testing of K5054, the prototype.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitfire

Russ

[RocketMan]

Entirely too cool.  Tears in my eyes cool.

[Brad Johnson]

The mechanic in my home town spent a chunk of his air force service working on 29s, and later 36s.  His "elaborations" on what it took to keep one in the air are... colorful.

Brad

[Jocassee]

Seeing the four P-51s on the wing made it for me.

[AZRedhawk44]

@2:04:

Did they use a B29 cockpit as part of the Millennium Falcon cockpit set?

[DustinD]

From EAA's Sport Aviation august 2011: They use a  Curtiss-Wright R-3350-95W engine with the R-3350-26WD (from the Douglas Skyraider) blower along with a few other parts. The 28 cylinder engines cost $150,000 each. They are expecting about 2000 between overhauls instead of the few hundred hours between failures that the previous engines gave. The new engines are carbureted, run cooler, and produce about 1,000 more hp than the previous engines.

[Boomhauer]

From EAA's Sport Aviation august 2011: They use a  Curtiss-Wright R-3350-95W engine with the R-3350-26WD (from the Douglas Skyraider) blower along with a few other parts. The 28 cylinder engines cost $150,000 each. They are expecting about 2000 between overhauls instead of the few hundred hours between failures that the previous engines gave. The new engines are carbureted, run cooler, and produce about 1,000 more hp than the previous engines.

Especially significant because the first gen R-3350s were very troublesome and one of the major bugaboos of the B29 program. The prototype was lost due to an engine fire that burned through the main spar.

[coppertales]

The Wright R3350 radial engine had 18 cylinders.  The P&W R3360 had 28 cylinders.  The B29 had 3350s and the B50 had 3360s..............chris3

[RocketMan]

Saw the vertical stabilizer of a B50 lying out in the desert in the Foxtrot area of Stumps when I was stationed there in '77.  There were no other parts around.  I have often wondered what the story was.  Some research on the web hasn't turned up anything.
(For the uninitiated, 'Stumps' is is Marine Corps Base Twentynine Palms in Marine-speak.)

[kgbsquirrel]

Perhaps all that was left of a range target? As I understand it Fi-Fi was salvaged out from a Navy bombing range.

[RocketMan]

Perhaps all that was left of a range target? As I understand it Fi-Fi was salvaged out from a Navy bombing range.

There were no other remains out there, of the B50 or anything else that might have been used for range targets.  It wasn't a live fire area as I remember, no dud ordinance laying around. Puzzling, it was.