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Posted on 08/20/2005 10:09:25 PM PDT by alfa6
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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 The Boeing Model 299 first took flight July 28, 1935 from Boeing Field in Seattle with Boeing test pilot Les Towers at the controls. The 299 was designed in response to an Army Air Corps request for a new multi-engine bomber.  The name “Flying Fortress” was coined by a Seattle Times reporter Richard Williams. who was impressed with the machine gun layout at the rollout of the Model 299. Boeing recognized the PR value of the term and had it copyrighted in respect to the B-17.  The prototype crashed during the Army Air Corp evaluation testing when Army pilot Ployer Hill attempted to take off with the tail control surfaces locked. The crash killed all on board including Les Tower.  The Army was impressed enough with the Flying Fortress that they took advantage of a loophole that allowed them to buy a small number of the second place aircraft for further testing. 13 YB-17s were ordered.  The B-17 went through eight major revisions in it’s carrer ending in the B-17G which is considered the definitive version. Over 12,700 B-17s were produced by a consortium of manufacturers including Boeing, Douglas and Vega. Besides it’s use as a bomber the B-17 also filled the role as maritime patrol aircraft, electronic countermeasures aircraft and search and rescue patrol craft.  What follows will be a short walk around and in tour of a B-17. Most of these pictures are of the Collings Foundation B-17 “Nine o’ Nine” A big lift of the alfa6 lid to the fine folks who posted these pictures in the alt.binaries,aviation newsgroup over the last few years.
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Deepest Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Couldn't find a good pic from the 1943 Bugs short "Falling Hare"
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Yowzers, ah the joys of my misspent youth!!!
The fine folks over at (PowerLine Blog)have a nice review of the re-release of her 1972 album "Jackie". There are links to sound bites from the album there.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
WHY???
Seriesly glads you like 'em :-)
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Yowzers, ah the joys of my misspent youth!!!
Misspent youth? Not me. I was a very good boy, never did anything wrong.
that's my story and I'm stickin with it.
Jackie DeShannon, we're talkin 9.873 on the Babe-O-Meter.
The Army was impressed enough with the Flying Fortress that they took advantage of a loophole that allowed them to buy a small number of the second place aircraft for further testing. 13 YB-17s were ordered.
Anyone know which plane was #1?
The very first picture on todays thread is the 299 IIRC.
Here is a side view, hat tip to the US Air Force for the pics
I have not found a roll out pic on the web
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
U.S. Army Capt. Charles R. Rawls, a fire direction officer with the 3rd Battalion, 117th Field Artillery Regiment, Alabama Army National Guard, shows off his father’s World War II footlocker. Rawls, who grew up in Troy, Ala., was given the vintage box by his father before his first annual training. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Peter Chadwick
July 1935 roll-out of the Model 299, or XB-17, prototype at Boeing Field
If I read your question correctly I pick the Douglas DB-1.
One of the many veterans I've interviewed was a 19-year-old ball turret gunner on a B17. He said that he was always quite comfortable in his position, because the Germans would almost always attack from above, and he got a bird's eye view of all the action.
Occasionally, he'd hose down the air in front of a flitting German fighter for a second or so, but otherwise, it was just sit and gawk.
I asked him if he was ever afraid of a belly landing or somesuch, and he said one never thinks of such things when one was 19.
Oh, and the ENTIRE crew, including the pilot, was 20 years old or younger.
The Bomber gas station was opened in 1947, and the Bomber Drive-In opened in 1948. Although the gas station closed in 1991, the original family still runs the restaurant Art Lacey's flair for serving great food has influenced today's restaurant menu.
We still offer the same wonderful hand prepared Bomber Burgers, thick shakes and home-style meals.
A couple of months ago I looked out my window on the 12th floor and saw a B-17 fly by. Imagine my surprise! Turned out it was here for an air show. I'm so used to seeing jets, it was fun to watch an old four engine prop job lumber by.
I hope everyone is enjoying a lazy Sunday. Perfect weather here this weekend, mid-80's and dry. And the Broncos and Rockies both won!
Hang around here long enough and you'll find this opinion shared by a large number of Foxhole inhabitants.
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Tycho Brahe |
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I 1560 var Tycho Brahe vidne til en solformørkelse - et fænomen der vagte hans interesse for astronomi. Mellem 1662-70 rejste han til Tyskland og Schweiz for at studere astronomi, og begyndte at konstruere egne astronomiske instrumenter. Man mente på Tycho Brahes tid at himmelverdenen var en uforanderlig størrelse, men den 11. november 1572, kom det til et brud med denne antagelse – Tycho Brahes observerede fremkomsten af en ny stjerne (en supernova) der i 18 måneder kunne iagtages i stjernebilledet Cassiopeia. Hans værk om begivenheden, De Stella Nova, gjorde ham berømt i hele Europa og dermed var astronomien grundlagt som en moderne empirisk videnskab. Tycho Brahe fik i 1576 overdraget øen Hven af Frederik 2. Her stod han i 1580 for opførelsen af slottet Uranienborg og fire år senere observatoriet Stjerneborg. Efter Frederik 2.s død der opstod der så store uoverensstemmelser mellem Christian 4.s regering og Tycho Brahe, at han til sidst forlod Danmark. Han rejste til Prag, hvor han arbejde sammen med Johannes Kepler, og levede som kejserlig astronom, til sin død i 1601. Det var med udgangspunkt i Tycho Brahes observationer, at Kepler senere kunne fremføre de keplerske love der forklarer jordens og de øvrige planeters bevægelse omkring solen. |
Yup, that's it.
B-18 Bolo
History
In 1934, the United States Army Air Corps put out a request for a bomber with double the bomb load and range of the Martin B-10, then the Army's standard bomber. In the evaluation at Wright Field the following year, Douglas showed its DB-1. It competed with the Boeing Model 299 (later the B-17 Flying Fortress) and Martin Model 146. While the Boeing design was clearly superior, the crash of the B-17 prototype (caused by taking off with the controls locked) removed it from consideration. The Douglas design was ordered into immediate production in January 1936 as the B-18.
The DB-1 design was essentially the same as the DC-2, with several modifications. The wingspan was 4.5 ft (1.4 m) greater. The fuselage was deeper, to better accommodate bombs and the six-member crew; the wings were fixed in the middle of the cross-section rather than to the bottom, but this was due to the deeper fuselage. Added armament included nose, dorsal, and ventral gun turrets. The bomber used two Wright R-1820-45 ‘Cyclone 9’s, of 930 hp (694 kW) each.
The initial contract called for 133 B-18s (including DB-1), using Wright radials. The last B-18 of the run, designated DB-2 by the company, had a power-operated nose turret. This design did not become standard. Additional contracts in 1937 (177 aircraft) and 1938 (40 aircraft) were for the B-18A, which had the bombardier’s position further forward over the nose-gunner's station. The B-18A also used more powerful Wright R-1820-53 engines of 1,000 hp (746 kW).
By 1940, most Army bomber squadrons were equipped with B-18s or B-18As. Many of those in the 5th Bomb Group and 11th Bomb Group in Hawaii were destroyed in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
B-17s supplanted B-18s in first-line service in 1942. Following this, 122 B-18As were modified for anti-submarine warfare. The bombardier was replaced by a search radar with a large radome. Magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) equipment was sometimes housed in a tail boom. These aircraft, designated B-18B, were used in the Caribbean on anti-submarine patrol. The Royal Canadian Air Force acquired 20 B-18As (designated the Douglas Digby Mark I), and used them for patrols also.
General Characteristics
Crew: 6
Length: 57 ft 10 in (17.6 m)
Wingspan: 89 ft 6 in (27.3 m)
Height: 15 ft 2 in (4.6 m)
Wing area: 959 ft² (89.1 m²)
Empty: 16,321 lb (7,400 kg)
Loaded: 22,123 lb (10,030 kg)
Maximum takeoff: 27,500 lb (12,600 kg)
Powerplant: 2× Wright R-1820-53, 1,000 hp (750 kW)
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Performance
Maximum speed: 215 mph (346 km/h)
Combat Range: 1,150 miles (1,850 km)
Ferry Range: 2,100 miles (3,400 km)
Service ceiling: 23,900 ft (7,280 m)
Rate of climb: 1,030 ft/min (310 m/min)
Wing loading: 23.1 lb/ft² (113 kg/m²)
Power/Mass: .090 hp/lb (.15 kW/kg)
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Armament
3× .30-calibre machine guns
4,500 lb (2,200 kg) of bombs
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