Posted on 08/02/2009 5:32:54 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
oops. radio was who knows what, finches were japanese. that makes more sense.
flying fortress name.
surprised to see it used here. i only knew it to aply to the B-17
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-17_Flying_Fortress
I’m not sure if he did. It wasn’t until October 19th before he even responded to it. Now that may be that he didn’t really get it until then or just was too tied up with other actions at the time which would make sense concidering the current events.
At any rate I would say that once he made the commitment to research the bomb he threw a ton of resources at it. That alone leads me to believe that he did take it pretty seriously. I also image that the sense of urgency probably got worse once V weapons began appearing on the scene even though we had already landed on mainland Europe the week before.
It just occurred to me. Today is the 100th anniversary of the purchase of the first military plane by the United States. 70+30 eh?
That is a B17, a flying fortress. The silhouette is unmistakable.
Well at least Japan made the tweeter.
How about that other short article - "Three British Fliers Killed."
Since Jan. 1, 175 men have died in 103 R. A. F. crashes.
Yikes! The air force is almost as dangerous as the submarine service.
i am thinking that the article B-39 designation is wrong. i cant find any B-39 on the boeing website, other than more advanced aircraft that came out many years later. so maybe it really is a B-17 or some earllry variant of it.
It is a B17. There was no B39(at least not one that made it into production). The B29 Super fortress came out late in WWII and was used to bomb Japan from bases in the Pacific. The B29 dropped the A bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. There was a B36 after the war, a huge 6 engined propeller driven giant that was the first bomber used by SAC. After that came the B47 and then the B52(which is still with us), the BUFF.
I was going to say that it was probably a 10 key error. (on a 10 key pad you would hit 1 and 7 with the index finger or if you followed the same pattern with the ring finger you would hit 3 and 9) I then realized that they were not typing on keyboards with ten key pads. The only place you saw a ten key layout was on an adding machine. The only B-39 I can find is a variant of the B-29 called the Spirit of Lincoln.
The Flying Fortress (B-17) was a Boeing 299. It was a good bit smaller than the XB-15 (which suffered from being grossly underpowered for its size). The wings on the XB15 are noticeably much larger in area when pictured from above, as well.
B-17 G
Span 103’9”
Length 74’4”
XB-15
Span 149’
Length 87’7”
I'm just going to forget I read that.
Early model B-17C versions, which saw service early in the Pacific war and with the British in limited service, had the narrow tail end.
i stand corrected... i know they redesigned it as a critical failure point, was it because of combat losses then?
YB-17 first of the service test models after the crash of the Model 299.
A couple of shots of tail #105, note the Wright Field insignia just behind the waist window.
A "C" Model B-17 not sure where pic was taken.
This is a B-17D and the picture was taken in the Philipines according to the caption I had.
Well gotta run, I iwll close out with this pic of a YB-17 at Langely Field
Thanks for the ping Loud Mime
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Thanks much. That was worth waiting for.
Glad to be of service.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Love these old aircraft...especially the sweet sound of their powerplants and the smell of the oil and avgas.
I love these threads!
Hard to believe that was a ‘huge’ plane in those days, doesn’t seem so big nowadays
have some great pic’s of Aluminum Overcast B-17 but can’t get them to post
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