B-17G "Chuckie" Update

[Crew Dawg]

Here are some pictures from this weekends work. We washed the airplane in preparation for our Big Band Hangar Dance in two weeks.

Before and after

[hang the expense]

She looks real nice.Do you have a chin turret for her?

[Second Air Force]

Eventually we'd like to install a chin turret. The accident photos from early '45 show that she was fully armed except for the ball (H2X instead). We aren't certain, but the theory being kicked around at VFM is that she lost the chin turret and astrodome installation when the nose was repaired after this accident. We are in need of an astrodome casting for future installation and at least some of the chin turret equipment. I don't think we have the fairing or turret cover as yet.

I'm personally working out the engineering of the radome and radome stanchion and would like to have something to install early next year.

Scott

[Chris Brame]

Any chance we could see the accident photos?

[sthara]

Any progress on the chin turret ?

[Second Air Force]

Just a reminder to anyone who might be near the Metroplex this weekend, we're having our annual Hangar Dance at Vintage Flying Museum this weekend.
http://www.vintageflyingmuseum.org/events.htm#dance

We'd love to see you there Saturday night!

Scott

P.S. to sthara:

We won't be working on a chin turret installation for a while. We're working on getting her annual inspection done and want to do some flying before we start big projects. Most likely we'll work on the radio room/H2X installation as our first large undertaking. One nice thing about the chin is the fact that some PFF airplanes had the turret deleted during the latter part of the war in the ETO. Chuckie will still be representative of a combat Pathfinder with or without the turret.

S

[bluethunder28]

It wouldn't bother me if Chuckie never gets a "chin". Always liked the cleaner nose of the Es and Fs. Now the ball turret or radar dome is something else

[Second Air Force]

Dr. Hospers (who pays the avgas bills) says he isn't crazy about a chin turret either! We were visiting about turrets soon after I started working with the VFM folks and someone mentioned the drag created by just installing the top turret shell. I'm sure the chin will dirty it up a lot.

On the subject of the radome, I've read somewhere that it was about the same drag as a ball turret until you deployed it, and then it acts like an anchor. We'll hopefully have some experience with that next summer......

Our hangar dance last weekend was quite a bash. It was my first VFM dance and it certainly appeared to be a success to my rookie thinking.

Scott

[MarcKyle64]

IIRC, the surviving F's with the later paddle props and up-to-date engines used on the G would fly 20-25 kts faster. If you're REALLY worried about drag, then the small remote controlled turret and sighting dome used on the first E's would have less drag than the Sperry.

[Second Air Force]

IIRC, the surviving F's with the later paddle props and up-to-date engines used on the G would fly 20-25 kts faster. If you're REALLY worried about drag, then the small remote controlled turret and sighting dome used on the first E's would have less drag than the Sperry.

I've been told that some of the General's barges were real speedsters after being stripped. I wonder if anyone has knowledge of how fast The Swoose was as an executive transport? I'd bet she scooted right along!

The guys who've been around Chuckie for a long time told me that it was pretty fast before they started to add wartime equipment to her, and I'd guess that goes for all the remaining flyers. I'd sure like to see a remote turreted E in airworthy condition someday.........we can dream, huh?!

[05564]

WOW , any one of those fine photos would make good wallpaper !! ( maybe even a nice calendar)

[Chris Brame]

I wonder if anyone has knowledge of how fast The Swoose was as an executive transport? I'd bet she scooted right along!

Didn't it set some kind of cross-country or trans-Pacific speed record during the war?

[Second Air Force]

Didn't it set some kind of cross-country or trans-Pacific speed record during the war?

I believe The Swoose set several speed records during her time as General Brett's aircraft.

We're still plugging away at the maintenance items on Chuckie and hopefully we can give a better update on our progress soon.

Scott

[Second Air Force]

The VFM crew ran all four engines on Chuckie on 7/18 with only a couple of little squawks. The airplane is inching closer to airworthy status.

Scott

[Crew Dawg]

Yes, as Scott (Second Air Force) said, we ran all 4 engines yesterday with great success. This is a major milestone in our progress towards flying again. I can't say thank you enough to the amazing crew that I have the priveldge of being "chief" of. We all put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this and we're starting to see the fruits of our labor. We ran each engine individually and shut it down and checked for any problems and then we started all 4 engines and listened to the sweetest music I've heard in a long time - 4 R1820's purring along beautifully! We only had 4 minor write-ups when it was all said an done. Next on our to-do list is the landing gear inspection, including a gear swing and then it's just a matter of closing up the few remaining panels and fixing some more write-ups.

Here's the video of the "second" engine run when we started all 4, it literally brought tears to my eyes and lump in my throat that still hasn't totally gone away.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gi ... 106&ref=ts