Aero Vintage Books

Where all B-17's B-299, Y1B-17 B,C,D and E-G Equipped with a Trailing wire Antennas? YB-40 also? If not can anyone tell me when the changes were made. Thank You. No model kit produced in 1/72 or 1/48 or 1/32 deletes this important part . ,and some do not include the Pitot Tubes.

I don't know for sure, but I would guess that these antennas were equipped in all models, except perhaps the 299. I am making this guess based off of my prior experience with radio equipment- Especially sets of the 1930s would require the longest possible antennas for good reception and transmission on the lower bands. The antennas mounted between the radio room and tail would be statisfactory for shortwave operation, but as you enter the police band, standard broadcast, and longwave, these antennas would be lacking heavily.

The optimal antenna length for 40 meters, (7 megacycles, nearing center of the shortwave band) is, well, 40 meters. The short antenna between radio room and tail is optimized for quarter wave, so about 10 meters would be the optimal short antenna length for this frequency.

As we move lower, into navigational beacons and just above standard broadcast, the optimal antenna length varies between 1,500 meters (About 3/4 of a mile) to 150 meters (about 450 feet). The trailing antenna would be required to even get quarter wave optimization here, which would be between 375 and 37.5 meters.

Anything less than quarter wave will not act sufficiently as a proper antenna, and large portions of the signal will not radiate.

I say that the 299 may not have had this, because it was not essential in order to demonstrate the capabilities of the aircraft. The Army would be responsible for the radio equipment, not Boeing. That being said, I don't know much history behind what the 299 was equipped with or how much the Army put into the aircraft.

Don't take any of this as law, I'm just making an educated guess.