OT: Prop Plane Noise

Not loud enough to keep me from crawling through a B-25 without a headset on. That included take off when I was sitting in a seat mounted to the cockpit side of the forward bomb-bay bulkhead - i.e. right between the two R-2600's. Then again, I don't have the best hearing anymore...and I'm only in college...oh well, absolutely worth it in my opinion. I couldn't quite bring myself to take off the headset in a P-51 though, just too loud.

-Tony

Loud but you wear headphones. The cockpit of a P-51 is probably quieter than riding a motorcycle with a full face helmet.

I'm sure it was a problem over long duration but then again you'd probably be more concerned about the cold (ignoring enemy etc).

I used to work at the Air Force Research lab and part of the work we did was study aircraft noise inside and outside of the cockpit. In jets the cockpit noise could be as high as 120 db while on the ground it could be as high as

150 db. Thats why most carreer military pilots have serious hearing loss and so do the ground crew. We were working on ways to mitigate the noise but as of right now even double hearing protection, plugs and muffs, aren't good enough.

Alan

that was my other question. was any plane heated or did they wear the electrically heated suits ?

Craig

I've never read much about noise comparisons between engines, except that the Griffon with contraprops was reputedly the noisiest piston engine to see service. The Napier Dagger operated at extremely high revs, which gave it a loud and espcially unpleasant pitch, though those engines were only used on HP Herefords for a little while.

As for heating, it varied. The B-17 and B-24 had provision for electrically heated suits, whereas a plane like the Blenheim might have had a heater cuff for the pilot (and then again, it might not.) The Beaufighter was supposed to be very drafty, but the Mosquito was evidently quite warm. It might have been a special case though, what with those two radiators in the wing roots amking it easy to run the coolant through a cockpit heat exchanger, and with the crew concentrated in the cabin.

Mark Schynert

snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net (Craig) wrote in :

If you want to find out for yourself, go to a tractor pulling meet. In the 'unlimited' classes, (at least here in Europe) most of the tractors use aero engines (Allison 1710, Merlin, Griffon). You can get much closer to these beasts than you can to an airplane (spectators are about 10 m from the track). Let me tell you, they are LOUD. Even with earplugs, they are deafening. The soundwaves are so powerful, you can *feel* them. It's like sitting at Ground Zero of a lightning strike. Inside an airplane cockpit it won't be much better. AFAIK, airplane designers weren't big on NVH isolation, so it'll be almost as loud as outside.

"Mark Schynert" wrote

You would have thought the obvious gains in crew efficiency would repay the effort involved in heating the fuselage..but evidently not.

The problem with comparing tractor engines to aircraft engines is the tractors don't have props. The majority of noise you hear from piston engine & even turboprop powered aircraft is created by the props. Same for helicopters & rotor blades. IIRC, most tractor pulling is done indoors too. That makes the engines seem even louder. Car engines without exhaust systems are pretty loud too, especally inside a building.

Tractor pulls in Europe? What next, NASCAR? Kim M

Operation American Freedom-Where is our regime change?

IIRC The B-17 through B-26 aircraft all had open machine gun positions in the waist and some other places and there was a constant rush of air through the aircraft, heating was not practical. My Father said the electric suits were nice, when they worked! I believe the B-29 with its completely enclosable crew compartments was the first "shirt sleeve environment" bomber. I remember an ex-R.A.F. type commenting on how nice the Boeing "Washington Mk.I" was after flying the Avro Lincoln.

Bill Shuey

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Royabulgaf) wrote in :

We've had TP meets for about 25 years now. NASCAR won't make it here; we've already got *real* touring car racing :-P

The B-17G had windows over the waist positions ostensibly to cut down on drag and make the cabin a bit easier to survive.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

There's hope for you, after all. :)

Bill Banaszak, MFE

I thought the "Chyenne Mod" was a change only to the tail gun mount? (Replacing canvas boot with an aluminum mini turret-style mount...)

Did it refer to all the G model changes? Waist windows, chin turret, et al ?

Just curious...

Jay Beckman Chandler, AZ

you're right. right church, wrong pew.

I don't think the Brits even believed in central heating for their houses back then.

Mark Schynert

sure, they sold the good coal abroad and had theor citizens make killer fog.

My Dad was a waist gunner on B-24s in the South Pacific. Engine noise and wind drag was over powering. Dad said you really built up your upper chest wrestling a .50 in 200 mph winds, but some how they could fire them accurately enough to 'keep the Japs off for a while' When they flew at night, flash suppressors were used, and they would 'sing' and Dad said they could 'play jazz and be bop' with them if conditions were right. Sometimes when Dad is telling about his war, I can look through his 79 years of wear and tear and see a 19 year old relating his part of history. God Bless Them All. Mike IPMS

Well, the LOUDEST prop engine I ever heard was the Fokker D.VIII replica at the Rhinebeck Aerodrome.

In that case the majority of the noise wasn't from the prop, but from those BIG exhaust valves at the top of each cylinder of the Gnome/Rhone monosoupage engine, venting directly to the open air.