Willow run and the B-24

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Fun Ford Fillums!

My dad flew a Mitchell B-25 in WWII. After a few other missions, he was shot down over France and taken to a German POW camp. The French thought he was a German spy and sapped him savagely twice, but no neck or brain damage resulted. His liberators were the Russians in T-34 tanks. He lost over 70 pounds in those ten months of captivity, but regained it and lived to the ripe old age of 86.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

20 years ago a former mechanic posted (on the BBS network) that, of the B-17 and B-24, one was all electric and one was all hydraulic. Apparently the 17 was the electric one, but did that extend to the control surfaces I wonder?
Reply to
Tom Del Rosso

This says no.

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I've poked around that aircraft as far as they let me, and seen the inside of an engine but not the wing. In the preflight checklist training film (just watched it again) the control check precedes engine start. They move the controls to the limit and look out the cockpit window to confirm the ailerons, elevators and rudder moved in the proper direction, without first flipping any switches. jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

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Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Then I assume the B-24 had hydraulics for control surfaces, or at least ailerons. The video says the bomb bay doors were hydraulic, so the B-17 had electric doors (I'm sure that mechanic said they differed on the doors).

Reply to
Tom Del Rosso

I believe that the Boeing B-50 was the first bomber that had any power assisted control surfaces (excepting flaps) and that was a power assist on the rudder only.

Reply to
John B.

My B-17 & B-24 photo collection doesn't show the bomb bay door actuators for either, just some linkage. A B-17's simple doors swing down, a B-24's complex doors slide up the outside. jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

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