'FLYING FORTRESS’ HERE WITH RECORD (8/2/39)

Microfiche-New York Times archives, McHenry Library, U.C. Santa Cruz | 8/2/39 | Hanson W. Baldwin

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

If you would like to be added to or deleted from the Real Time +/- 70 Years ping list, send me a freepmail. You can also search for these articles by the keyword realtime, going back to the first one on January 27, 2008. These articles are posted on the 70th anniversary of their original publication date. See my profile for additional information.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The main story describes the plane as a “Boeing 39.” The picture looks exactly like an XB-15 I found at the Boeing website. (I will post a link on the following reply.) That model is named in the second article in this post.

. . . for about two hours the flight was continued in a light fall of snow, so fine that it drifted through the windshield.

I have a little trouble believing that. What happens when it rains? Does that cabin crew don slickers?

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.boeing.com/history/boeing/xb15.html

[bill1952]

Dad

728th squadron, 452nd Heavy Bombardment Group
Deopham Green, England

[CougarGA7]

Another significant event of today is a letter written to FDR by Albert Einstein. This letter was written with the help of Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard.

Szilard, Einstein, and other prominent physicists like Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner had a genuine concern that with the recent advances in nuclear physics that it would soon be possible to create a sustained chain reaction in which the immediate release of energy would be enormous. This release could be used as a bomb of unspeakable power. They warned of the dangers of Hitler obtaining this capability before the United States and the consequences of such a weapon in the hands of Nazi Germany.

[Spirochete]

Yesterday, I got a closeup inspection of the B-17 at the Lone Star flight museum. Ah, the smell of gun grease :) Outside the planet looking forward from the tail gunner's position, the machine looks truly gigantic.

I was there for my dad's birthday flight on their T-6 Texan. He loved it.

[PeterPrinciple]

so fine that it drifted through the windshield.

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Just a thought. Theses were multi piece glass. Might be difficult, especially on the early models to get a complete air seal. Water might actually help seal the system.

[PeterPrinciple]

Here is a reference to Boeing 39

http://www.aero-web.org/specs/boeing/xb-39.htm

Would it be that Boeing and the military had dif numbers. did Boeing have commercial plans for this?

[SERKIT]

Memphis Belle at the Air Force Museum

[Chode]

it is definitely XB, simply look at how thin/narrow the tail end is compared to the production planes

they knew a quick burst from a fighters guns would saw it right off...

[beebuster2000]

yeah i saw that. my thought was mpisture froze on the inside of the windshield and drifted off that.

also, in the companion story crime is out of control on long island. two goldfinches stolen.

[frposty]

www.aero-web.org. A heck of a site. Bookmarked it and sent it to my brother. Thanks.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

That is a nice photo. How did your father fare during his tour? My uncle was navigator on a B-17 in the 533rd squadron of the 381st bomber group out of Ridgwell, England. He flew 3 1/2 round trips to Europe before being shot down and incarcerated on 11 Jan 44. I used to be able to find a site that has crew photos and a log of missions but it eludes me at the moment. I need to record the site address where I won’t lose it. When the time comes (Dec 2013) I will post the notice of his arrival in England.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Thanks for posting. I wonder if FDR understood the implications of this letter.

By a neat coincidence, three days hence, Winston Churchill will pen a letter to British Secretary of State for Air Kingsley Wood on this same subject. (To be posted on 5 Aug.) Winnie's take on the matter is a little different. He fears that HM government will be overly concerned about the possibility of Germany developing an atomic bomb for use in the foreseeable future. Churchill sees that as unlikely.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Yesterday, I got a closeup inspection of the B-17 at the Lone Star flight museum. Ah, the smell of gun grease :) Outside the planet looking forward from the tail gunner's position, the machine looks truly gigantic.

We have an annual fly-in here in Springfield, I mean Watsonville. Two or three years ago a couple of the few surviving B-17s came in. I didn't attend the show but I parked on the street and got a fairly close look at a parked plane. I was surprised at how small it looked. That might have just been my perspective. Maybe I wasn't as close as I thought.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

That looks like a prototype of the B-29. The one in the article lookes more like a 17. Maybe the reporter got the wrong designation. Hanson Baldwin, who wrote the sidebar article, was a West Pointer and probably had more expertise than the author of the page one article.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

. . . in the companion story crime is out of control on long island. two goldfinches stolen.

Don't forget the radio. They busted the lawyer. Figures.

[Loud Mime]

ping!

[beebuster2000]

not just any radio. a japanese radio.

[beebuster2000]

oops. radio was who knows what, finches were japanese. that makes more sense.