Instead of going to a mechanic, I decided to save some money and do the work on my B-17 myself. This video helped tremendously. You really can DIY just about anything these days with TH-cam!
I still have my grandfathers dog tags in my room on my lamp. He was at pearl harbor when it went down. He told me i didnt put out my cigarette and chuged my beer because he was scared shitless. I wear his dog tags whenever im going through some shit, he still helps me out.
Can you imagine the real world R&D it took to develop and prove out all these engine systems, modifications and assemblies in actual flight with no computer simulations, wow!
@@markh.6687 Well yes but, when all that was said and done, still many, many things had to be tested/modified/developed in conjunction with the engines at altitude, temperature, speed, duration, G-loads, stress and vibration with all four engines and other systems in real world flight.
@@markh.6687 Yes, but many, many systems due to unforeseen issues only uncovered after flight had to be modified, developed and retested in the real world at altitude, temperature, weather, G-loads, stress and vibration with all four engines in operation at all rpm's, prop pitch settings, air speed etc, etc.
@@carlschroeder6811 Very true. But before it could fly they did wooden mock-ups, and ground-based testing. Machinists had to hand-make parts as the engineers did their testing or trial-and-error changes. If the fixes worked, then it ran or flew and they saw what broke. :)
This propulsion machining work is astounding. I was a machinist starting 2 days out of high school. During my time, I went from manual lathes and mills to full tilt CNC 4 axis machining centers, using computers to program a toolpath. I am in awe that the WW2 machinists could mass produce the gears, splines, and engines required just using technologically simple manual lathes and mills. One moments in-attention will scrap the part you may have spent days machining. This was truly the Greatest Generation. The ability to build better aircraft, fighters and bombers than Germany, primarily won WW2. Study the complexity of the Merlin engines, and you will understand what an accomplishment it was.
Its clear you aren't a machinest or you never learned anything,because this is all pretty basic stuff ,radials are not that complicated Setting up the fixtures might have been a little difficult but the parts run is easy stuff And a Merlin is just a standard V engine ,the only real hard part would be the pattern Cam for the grinder
My dad smiled a lot, his crew called him Lindy, as they felt he resembled Lindbergh and who happened to be one of his heroes. My father especially loved his ground crew in the 95th Bomb Group out of Horham, England. Surviving 35 missions abroad 12 different B-17s was not easy at all. In fact it was darn hard, the odds against you completing your full 25...then it was 30 and finally it was 35 was odds against you.. He mentioned often about these great guys, 'the ground crew' Tough guys, willing to work 20 30 hours straight to get a ship ready for the next days missions. Fixing every small thing that went wrong on a mission, maintaining and rebuilding blown out engines, patching and replacing wings from massive flak barrages and shredded fuselages from 109 (etc) Luftwaffe attacks and on and on. He would not have made his 35 without their careful eyeballing every detail. And yes, doing all this in the dead of winter, at night, all night, in rain and wind and all the other weather conditions of the English countryside could dish out. He loved the mechanics and one reason he followed in aeronautics for the rest of his life. Worked at Lockheed for 40 years. Here he is smiling in 1944, as I recall so well. Lindy taught me a lot about life and his experiences in the war sat heavy on him and Love and Peace to you dad. Fly the trail of the clear blue forever. markerickson.com/Family_History/Ernest_Erickson/r1-1.html
Mark, my dad (F.X. Shamrell) was a crew chief/waist gunner in the 95th (Block B) 336th Squadron, at Horham. His planes were" Pretty Baby" and "Grermlin's Sweetheart". Have his yearbook and lots of pictures of him replacing engines and damaged metal and plexiglass while working at the "hardstands". Even though he sometimes worked as a mechanic all night on the planes because of tremendous attrition in late 43/early 44, he still was on 13 missions and some food supply missions. He talked most about Regensburg, Dresden and the First Daylight Raid on Berlin! He did a milk run to Russia > Italy > back to UK. If you watch the NBC Video "All the Fine Young Men", his picture is just after the 2:00 min. mark taken after they got back from the Regensburg Mission - "We got our asses kicked by the Luftwaffe". In the video they are removing the top turret gunner who later died. My dad had given him morphine. (Notice the blood spatters on his jacket and face.)) In 1995 I took him to the Pima Air Museum in Tuscon and he was like a little kid again in the B-17 display hangar. He ended up leading one of the guided tours for a group of students from England. I watched in awe as his long - term memory kicked in and he was rattling off: Fuel load, bomb load, 50 cal. load, spark plug gap settings, carb jetting specs, crankcase oil capacity, oil location of armored oil reservoirs for each engine, how the oxygen system worked, tire pressure main/tail, etc. They were truly the Greatest Generation Mike Shamrell Wickenburg, AZ
Bought a book written by a pilot in the 95th BG! “The Lucky Bastard Club” by Eugene Fletcher. Mailed it to him to sign and he was kind enough to send me the addresses of his remaining crew members so I could ship the book back and forth getting their signatures. Then, in 1995, met most of them at their reunion in Spokane. Damn nice men each and everyone. Still have the book, the memories and the utmost respect for them all. Sad to think they’re all gone now. Thanks for your link to the history! Really great stuff!
@@Bakes-z4c My grandpa sat on his ass winding electric motors in WWII on a protected base. So little risk he used to joke about his war injuries which consisted of a couple scars on his fingers.
Our planes(C124 Globemaster) had the P&W R4360 28cylinder engines. They were a work of art. God help you if you had to do a spark plug change on a cold winter day. That was 56 spark plugs per engine x 4 engines. 224 plugs total. They were a sight to behold when they started up!
Mike, I understand that the B-36 was a nightmare....the aircraft had 336 plugs and I understand that the procedure required a test run with a heat probe “ magic wand” to check for firing on each cylinder....with the mechanic in front of the propeller. Must have been no fun at all at Elmendorf.
As a kid I went through the entire Air force recip program at Whichita, then flight engineer at Minneapolis then C-141a flight engineer at Altus Oaklahoma Then finshed up on C-5s at Newburg NY run qualified for 15 years 27yrs total It was great I miss those days
Nagyon kemény munka volt ezeket a gépeket javítani, karban tartani. Kinn a szabadban minden évszakban. Valamikor tank szerelő voltam a seregben. Nagyon nehéz munka. Kinn dolgozni.
The real conditions were often far from ideal. There’s an amazing amount of complexity with the installation of that R-1820 Wright Cyclone on a B-17 Flyingfortress. They didn’t even touch on the exhaust driven turbocharger and all the plumbing involved with that and the inter coolers.
I have been an A&P mechanic for 30 years and an IA for 14. In my career the only round engines were R2000s in a C-7 Caribou. Most of my time has been on Hueys and OH-58/206 Jet Rangers. I still marvel at the production ability in mass quantities that Airplanes were built with people who had just been trained with machinery that had just been built in buildings that were a field a few months ago. Then had to build the ships to ship everything to the war. Oh yeah, had to trail a nation to fight and build an arsenal for the free world.
All people participating in this film are true heros, alongside with those responsible for the archive so that we could see it now in perfect condition and learn from it.
As an aircraft owner, it always amazes me how the weight of engine, its thrust (pull) on the airframe and the torsional stress of it's rotating mass (crankshaft & propeller) are all handled by only four bolts connecting the engine mount to the airframe.
Yes I agree , I keep one nut in my tool box for a cone bolt ( one of three ) that holds the JT8 engine to the airframe of a 727 aircraft. So I can show people, if they aren't an A&P they probably don't believe me , but that's ok . I keep it for memories sake . First aircraft I worked on , 26 years A&P .
My dad was an Aviation Machinist Mate, Chief Petty Officer, USN. served for 30 years, from the early 30's to the early 50's. was on several different carriers in WW2 Pacific Fleet, including, but not limited to, the Saratoga, Valley Forge, Yorktown, and the Essex. He was wrenching on the fighters before, during, and after battles. He always told the pilots " Sir, give THEM hell, but take care of MY plane!" These P.&W's were his favorite engine, also the 'Double Wasp' !
@@andrewalexander9492 You sir are correct. I was simply mistaken, however the Cyclone was also an very well built and reliable engine. The P&W's were the one's he worked on most of the time as they were widely used in the fleet.
@@garyhorton9827 Awesome effort by your old man. I don’t know how they did that work, pitching up and down in a carrier. The early British carriers didn’t have a hanger deck! Maintaining outdoors, in the Atlantic 😳
Check out "The Secret Horsepower Race: Western Front Fighter Engine Development" by Calum E. Douglas. Basically every "modern" and "high tech" ic engine tech was developed during this time period . Variable Valve Timing , Direct Injection, compound supercharging , nitrous oxide injection just to name a few. Heck the Toyota F1 program just figured out the Nazi crank balancing methodology in the early 2000's lol
My father more than likely had to watch this movie back in the day. He was a radial engine mechanic for B-17's all through WWII. It seems like a lot of the parts they had to put on, could have been installed at the factory. Cool look back!
Weren’t the reusable components and parts from the old engine being exchanged over to the new engine? You would not discard parts that were functioning on the old engine. Just like a new engine for an automobile today-you switch over the good external components to the new engine.
Certain accessories are fitted on only one or 2 engines in a B-17. If you get a new engine, ethe engine manufacturer doesn't know which position on the aircraft it's going to go to, so he cannot fit these accessories.
Such a weight on their shoulders...all those crewmen's lives in their hands. Salute to the maintenance crews. The other amazing part is the people who designed these things and made them work.
@Romulus III Oh. So if it were a single-engine fighter, then I should not "chill out"? Or...you mean that they could do crappy maintenance because they have 4 engines, therefore the chill out factor is higher?
I absolutely love these videos…these crew chiefs in the instructional role are great. Add to this the pressure of being forward deployed in a field environment…our fellas made due. This is great stewardship of the legacy our fighting men left for us…🇺🇸. If you’re flightline…keep ‘em flying lads!
In the Navy I worked on T-28s, S-2s, and C-1s. They used the R-1820 engines also. Very reliable, and they were the last aircraft in the military to use the R-1820.
I am not an engine Mech but a Hydraulics Tech. We also had T-28s, S-2s, my squadron had S-2s. This sounds like NAS Corpus Christi Tex. I was in VT-28, this is early to mid 70s. Where were you assigned? I did have a Turn Card to start the 1820s for after maintenance Hyd system checks.
I was also an old AMH. I retired last Dec. from the Coast Guard Depot in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. I also did a turn at NARF Norfolk 90 - 95 before it closed permanently.
@@richarderickson8840 I was at NAS Norfolk in the mid 70s. We had like 6 T-28s, 6 S-2s, and we the holding activity for the C-1a, assigned to the carriers out of Norfolk. I was also an AMH, and I was in from 70 to 90.
Nice tools they have there! The tool sets supplied with Packard built Merlins were also quite coveted and were often “lost” before spare engines reached the squadrons! A chap I worked with still had a tool set that, as a kid, he pinched from a B17 that crash landed near Chelmsford in the war!
This is really cool. I'm an engines guy. In grad school I had a thesis advisor, Thomas E. Murphy, who helped with the design and testing of these beauties back in WW2. He had great stories.
Late 60s-early 70s I was a helper learning cable splicing. The VETERAN that I worked with was CREW CHIEF on a B-17 in ENGLAND. Fascinating to see what he was doing. All respect as I think about him now!
These men knew that a man's life depended on their completing a perfect job. I know for I was a USAF aircraft mechanic on piston engine airplanes: C-124, O2, C-133, C-121, etc, during the late 1960's and early 1970's. The C-124 was called Shaky because it bumped you about while in flight, which I can attest too.
incredible engineering and design. Due to time pressures, these planes went from concept to design to manufacture sometimes in just over a year. Imagine all of the parts had to be built to spec. It blows mind mind.
There is a great video somewhere on Yt about the building of the radial engine manufacturing plant. It's insane what they made and how fast it happened!!! Check here on Periscope's channel.
I can imagine someone from the DoD going to Sears to buy the tools needed at all the flight stations. 10,000 breaker bars, 10,000 open wrench sets, 10,000 pliers, etc,etc. Being a diesel mechanic myself,with training on high performance piston aircraft engines, I can understand the quality of work involved.
In later eras it was and engine shipment evolved along with what engine shop did to received engines before sending them to the flightline for installation. Modern practices were simply not thought of UNTIL they were thought of.
Some parts like the prop speed governor that would gum up if on the engine for first run due to the type of oil, and if you're swapping an engine out at a base, there's a compromise between fitting new parts to the new engine in advance, or transferring existing parts from the old engine that you're in the process of removing.
This was great. My father was a Crew Chief and Flight Engineer on B-29s and KC-97s. As a boy I heard a lot from him about engine build-up...now I got to see it... I know that those engines are R-3350s and R-4360s not R-1820s but still..I also listened to a whole lot of other stories as well...never to be forgotten...
I think Pinky ordered the wrong engine but didn't want to tell us... Doesn't the P47, F6F, F4U, and B17 all have the same engine with a double-row of cylinders? "Atta boy!" - loved it...
I love this intro: 1) Grinning Corporal "Ott," 😁 squatting low, polishing the shaft of his wrench, 2) Slightly more serious "Pinky," the 'FC' (gotta look 'FC' up), 3) Industrious "Chuck," too busy to even look up as he is being filmed, and 4) Tallest of the bunch and most serious, "Mel" the Crew Chief.
Crew chiefs didn't look much different through the 1980s when I enlisted. I chose jets because the last recips in the Air Force (O-2s) were on their way out but those big recips had to be fun (for the right person's idea of fun) to wrench. This video gives an idea how complex recip engines were. Flying in those days was dangerous (most don't know the US lost nearly as many aircraft to crashes in CONUS as lost in combat!) as aircraft were quite primitive however impressive the actual execution of their designs may have been. Proper maintenance and repair minimized that massive attrition.
I dived on a B17, some20 years ago, on 70 meters depth. Engines looked like they were replaced few years back. Whole plane looked like it was sunk few years back. But it got hit by flak in 44
@@Paul-45-70 Adriatic. Check island Vis in Croatia. There's at least 2 diving centers making that spot available.. They require technical trimix licence. Some Padi bullshit aowd wont take you there. You need to plan it well in advance. But if you can convince them you're old school and can dive 70m responsably on air, they might let you go. Its anything but an easy dive. Worth every minute.
my uncle was an ace airplane engine mechanic during the war. started as a line mechanic, then an instructor, then sent to Princeton University to teach engineers how to design something that could be maintained in the field. yes he was at Almagordo and worked on the engines for the Enola Gay. He remembered the countless hours of hand lapping all those valve covers for any engine that was flown over the ocean. Some stories I cant repeat here.
6:59.."Whenever possible, I use new gaskets when installing accessories" What! This is an aircraft engine. How could one possibly take the risk of putting used gaskets anywhere on it.
That is soooo cool and crazyly awesome on how this is built and how the build process goes on and from 1 tiny bolt, to this giant monster engine system! I love seeing and watching aircraft engines and the build processes of them too and it's just sooo incredible i love it !
Ok men, we’ve 15 engines to prep today, so we’d best get busy. My torque wrench has always been my feel on my normal wrenches 🔧, never had any problems. Fasteners all have different gear ratios as it were. Your just trying to match the surface metal not bend , break it. The hard work of ground crews, no aircraft fly without them, good work Sarge! Imagine the engineering genius that went into these aircraft.
My uncle worked in the aluminum foundry at Wright Aviation during the war. He was at the Evendale plant in Ohio. He said the foremen was always telling them that they would overseas if they weren't working there. He quit and went in to the Army, serving in Europe.
Torque "feel" is hard to teach but once acquired works surprisingly well with torque wrenches primarily needed for matching loads on patterned fasteners and for delicate fasteners. However a torque wrench is more desirable so the casual ways of the old days went away (and maintenance-related crash rates declined!) USAF maintenance practice changed considerably since then so today you'd see a torque wrench used on anything it can reach. There are always some fasteners buried in engine bays that torque wrenches don't reach but they're normally on clamps etc that every mechanic quickly acquires correct "feel" for.
Worked on Radials , never that clean , all the baffles chaff from the vibration to a razor edge. Exhaust hardware seised from the heat .Constantly chasing leaks . Access to accessory section very limited when installed on aircraft and usually in an environment thats either very cold or very hot with mosquitos and black flies.
Being a mechanic who overhauled engines for 30+ years i still like these videos 👍😀 The only thing that annoys me is that the mechanics in this video use pliers to tighten nuts and fittings 😢... Maybe because of the war the correct tools could not be issued to the mechanics 😂
Hey, if you died today, where would you go? Jesus Christ is the only Way to God the Father. All have sinned, and done evil in front of God who is a righteous judge, but Jesus died for your sins, taking your penalty for the evil you did, and it is written, if you will confess with your lips, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. Ask Jesus to hear His voice speaking to you, because God still speaks to His people, and Jesus's sheep hear His voice.
I'm sure someone has already mentioned it, but the 1690's were long gone by the time the first F model rolled off the line (with R-1820's and nearly double the HP). Hornets were only used in the prototypes.
The generator, which is bolted to the rear of the engine, has a data plate fitted to the body of the generator. During a bombing raid over Germany, a B17 was hit by flak and a another B17 got hit by debris. Later when inspected, the generator data plate was found embedded in it. The engine when hit, must have exploded, imagine the impact?
As IMPRESSIVE as this was... It still blows my mind when I think this Engine was fed with a CARBURETOR!! 😲😲😲 If ANY Engine type needed Fuel Injection - it was a Radial. It may have brought our Boys home all shot up, but I'd bet it regularly had problems with uneven cooling and Mixture.
@@ralphh.2200 I totally agree. But Physics still has small issues with at least the 6 Inverted Cylinders on the bottom..... Again, Agreed about Forced Induction. I'm a Race Engine Builder, and now dealing with the incredible Pressures the the Fort used to - upwards of 24-27psi!! (So I don't know how to translate to Bar. I apologise) Point is, I sometimes get uneven Cylinder Pressure on the From the two most Forward Cylinders, under 5-7 G lateral Acceleration. Not dangerous, but blatantly obvious. No explanation whatsoever
@@CarminesRCTipsandTricks Point taken...carbs still needed the heat jockeyed...this was aside from icing issues...inverted carb mounting supposedly reduced slipstream gremlins but had they direct injection it would have been sweet flying with less baby sitting those carbs...I was a racing engine builder-old school- Chev short block era...pre EFI...we had only iffy results with the TB types...an odd fact: C-87 (Transports ,mind you)Libs had weaker superchargers than did the B-24s...guess it was more important to hammer down post-bombs away-than to hoist a payload of lumber.
These were injection carburettors, with 2 diaphragms in them, one sensing airflow, coupled to one regulating fuel flow. It discharges into a nozzle at the eye of the blower, into 9 equal length tubes, that lead off the volute to each cylinder. Pretty even flow for a single row radial. They went multipoint injection in later twin row radials, like the 3350, where the front row missed out a bit
@@CarminesRCTipsandTricks if you want big boost pressure in aircraft engines, look at the Merlin- over 100”, some variants. R1820 more like low 50s . Dry sump, inverted oil system (on T28) and the pressure carb could run under negative G
Damn, am I the ONLY person to call out the error in the text above? Only the Prototype Boeing 299 was powered by P&W Hornet engines. Production B-17s all had WRIGHT R-1820 Cylones, of ~1200hp!
I'm a female mechanic / shipbuilder. My grandfather was infantry and my Uncle "Wild Bill" was a bombardier on a B-17 crew during WW2. I'm fascinated by the history and technology. My grandpa used to tell me stories about the war, I only wish I had him around to ask questions now that I'm older!
The bolts have small holes in them in which safety wire is twisted and wrapped in a fashion where if one bolt turns the wire will pull the other bolt tighter.
All of this is the pre mounting prep work for a factory fresh crate engine. It would and could not be done on wing. The work has to be done before mounting. Plus they had lights and scaffolding to work 24/7 for engine swaps etc.
@@hyperluminalreality1 With respect ! I hear what you are saying. In real life the items you see the crew installing are repairable or replaceable on the the aircraft. Carb's starters and gen. were replaced all the time on wing.
Typical pistons can be done in a day or so, depending on quality, equipment. Less if it’s like a Cessna 150, more if it’s like a Bonanza. I’d guess they could get it done in a day as well. Total guess though.
Instead of going to a mechanic, I decided to save some money and do the work on my B-17 myself. This video helped tremendously. You really can DIY just about anything these days with TH-cam!
That sir is what TH-cam is good for! Good luck on your DYI B-17! :-)
I wish someone would post a video like this for my B-36!
😂🤣😅😉👍
Do you still have it? Can we come over?
😂😂😂
I still have my grandfathers dog tags in my room on my lamp. He was at pearl harbor when it went down. He told me i didnt put out my cigarette and chuged my beer because he was scared shitless. I wear his dog tags whenever im going through some shit, he still helps me out.
Narrator Robert Taylor taught many Navy pilots to fly.
Thanks for the update on the narrator!
Can you imagine the real world R&D it took to develop and prove out all these engine systems, modifications and assemblies in actual flight with no computer simulations, wow!
They had to use mock-ups to get all the details right, building and changing the parts on the fly until they worked.
@@markh.6687 Well yes but, when all that was said and done, still many, many things had to be tested/modified/developed in conjunction with the engines at altitude, temperature, speed, duration, G-loads, stress and vibration with all four engines and other systems in real world flight.
@@markh.6687 Yes, but many, many systems due to unforeseen issues only uncovered after flight had to be modified, developed and retested in the real world at altitude, temperature, weather, G-loads, stress and vibration with all four engines in operation at all rpm's, prop pitch settings, air speed etc, etc.
@@carlschroeder6811 Very true. But before it could fly they did wooden mock-ups, and ground-based testing. Machinists had to hand-make parts as the engineers did their testing or trial-and-error changes. If the fixes worked, then it ran or flew and they saw what broke. :)
This propulsion machining work is astounding. I was a machinist starting 2 days out of high school. During my time, I went from manual lathes and mills to full tilt CNC 4 axis machining centers, using computers to program a toolpath. I am in awe that the WW2 machinists could mass produce the gears, splines, and engines required just using technologically simple manual lathes and mills. One moments in-attention will scrap the part you may have spent days machining. This was truly the Greatest Generation. The ability to build better aircraft, fighters and bombers than Germany, primarily won WW2. Study the complexity of the Merlin engines, and you will understand what an accomplishment it was.
Just trust your math, use your slide rule.
It truly was the Greatest Generation! Respect 🇺🇸🫡
Its clear you aren't a machinest or you never learned anything,because this is all pretty basic stuff ,radials are not that complicated
Setting up the fixtures might have been a little difficult but the parts run is easy stuff
And a Merlin is just a standard V engine ,the only real hard part would be the pattern Cam for the grinder
My dad smiled a lot, his crew called him Lindy, as they felt he resembled Lindbergh and who happened to be one of his heroes. My father especially loved his ground crew in the 95th Bomb Group out of Horham, England. Surviving 35 missions abroad 12 different B-17s was not easy at all. In fact it was darn hard, the odds against you completing your full 25...then it was 30 and finally it was 35 was odds against you.. He mentioned often about these great guys, 'the ground crew' Tough guys, willing to work 20 30 hours straight to get a ship ready for the next days missions. Fixing every small thing that went wrong on a mission, maintaining and rebuilding blown out engines, patching and replacing wings from massive flak barrages and shredded fuselages from 109 (etc) Luftwaffe attacks and on and on. He would not have made his 35 without their careful eyeballing every detail. And yes, doing all this in the dead of winter, at night, all night, in rain and wind and all the other weather conditions of the English countryside could dish out. He loved the mechanics and one reason he followed in aeronautics for the rest of his life. Worked at Lockheed for 40 years. Here he is smiling in 1944, as I recall so well. Lindy taught me a lot about life and his experiences in the war sat heavy on him and Love and Peace to you dad. Fly the trail of the clear blue forever. markerickson.com/Family_History/Ernest_Erickson/r1-1.html
Great story - teamwork, skill, commitment and hard work. Respect to your Dad and all his colleagues 🇺🇸
Many thanks for the comments on the heroics of all aircrew, and for posting the link to your family history!
What a nice thing to say and share with us. Thanks!!!
Mark, my dad (F.X. Shamrell) was a crew chief/waist gunner in the 95th (Block B) 336th Squadron, at Horham. His planes were" Pretty Baby" and "Grermlin's Sweetheart". Have his yearbook and lots of pictures of him replacing engines and damaged metal and plexiglass while working at the "hardstands".
Even though he sometimes worked as a mechanic all night on the planes because of tremendous attrition in late 43/early 44, he still was on 13 missions and some food supply missions. He talked most about Regensburg, Dresden and the First Daylight Raid on Berlin! He did a milk run to Russia > Italy > back to UK.
If you watch the NBC Video "All the Fine Young Men", his picture is just after the 2:00 min. mark taken after they got back from the Regensburg Mission - "We got our asses kicked by the Luftwaffe". In the video they are removing the top turret gunner who later died. My dad had given him morphine. (Notice the blood spatters on his jacket and face.))
In 1995 I took him to the Pima Air Museum in Tuscon and he was like a little kid again in the B-17 display hangar. He ended up leading one of the guided tours for a group of students from England. I watched in awe as his long - term memory kicked in and he was rattling off: Fuel load, bomb load, 50 cal. load, spark plug gap settings, carb jetting specs, crankcase oil capacity, oil location of armored oil reservoirs for each engine, how the oxygen system worked, tire pressure main/tail, etc.
They were truly the Greatest Generation
Mike Shamrell
Wickenburg, AZ
Bought a book written by a pilot in the 95th BG! “The Lucky Bastard Club” by Eugene Fletcher. Mailed it to him to sign and he was kind enough to send me the addresses of his remaining crew members so I could ship the book back and forth getting their signatures. Then, in 1995, met most of them at their reunion in Spokane. Damn nice men each and everyone. Still have the book, the memories and the utmost respect for them all. Sad to think they’re all gone now. Thanks for your link to the history! Really great stuff!
I fixed my lawnmower thanks to this video !! Thanks
And then a Nazi Fw 190 put 15, 30mm cannon rounds right through the middle…
You know it’s an old video when the dude’s name is Pinky
Being a mechanic in real life isn't the greatest job, but imagine how great of a job it would be when the alternative is actually fighting a war.
They are part of the fighting outfit. Plenty get caught up in fighting if it gets near the field, ask the Russians in Syria
@@Bakes-z4c My grandpa sat on his ass winding electric motors in WWII on a protected base. So little risk he used to joke about his war injuries which consisted of a couple scars on his fingers.
Our planes(C124 Globemaster) had the P&W R4360 28cylinder engines. They were a work of art. God help you if you had to do a spark plug change on a cold winter day. That was 56 spark plugs per engine x 4 engines. 224 plugs total. They were a sight to behold when they started up!
Mike, I understand that the B-36 was a nightmare....the aircraft had 336 plugs and I understand that the procedure required a test run with a heat probe “ magic wand” to check for firing on each cylinder....with the mechanic in front of the propeller. Must have been no fun at all at Elmendorf.
The corncob is a helluva thing!
Thanks for posting, saved me a lot of money by watching this video. Love DIY projects.
As a kid I went through the entire Air force recip program at Whichita, then flight engineer at Minneapolis then C-141a flight engineer at Altus Oaklahoma Then finshed up on C-5s at Newburg NY run qualified for 15 years 27yrs total It was great I miss those days
Did you ever get to chanutte field ?
Art , Pinky and Chuck ...well done fella's !
I love the narration!
Atta boy! =)
Looks like a fun build, imagine everything new and clean...In reality this is a lot of very hard work, usually out in the weather.
blancolirio still hot and covered in oil
Nagyon kemény munka volt ezeket a gépeket javítani, karban tartani. Kinn a szabadban minden évszakban. Valamikor tank szerelő voltam a seregben. Nagyon nehéz munka. Kinn dolgozni.
The real conditions were often far from ideal. There’s an amazing amount of complexity with the installation of that R-1820 Wright Cyclone on a B-17 Flyingfortress. They didn’t even touch on the exhaust driven turbocharger and all the plumbing involved with that and the inter coolers.
Whial snipers are shooting at you or boomers overf head
I have been an A&P mechanic for 30 years and an IA for 14. In my career the only round engines were R2000s in a C-7 Caribou. Most of my time has been on Hueys and OH-58/206 Jet Rangers. I still marvel at the production ability in mass quantities that Airplanes were built with people who had just been trained with machinery that had just been built in buildings that were a field a few months ago. Then had to build the ships to ship everything to the war. Oh yeah, had to trail a nation to fight and build an arsenal for the free world.
The Soviets never thanked you for that, Muricans.
All people participating in this film are true heros, alongside with those responsible for the archive so that we could see it now in perfect condition and learn from it.
As an aircraft owner, it always amazes me how the weight of engine, its thrust (pull) on the airframe and the torsional stress of it's rotating mass (crankshaft & propeller) are all handled by only four bolts connecting the engine mount to the airframe.
Yes I agree , I keep one nut in my tool box for a cone bolt ( one of three ) that holds the JT8 engine to the airframe of a 727 aircraft. So I can show people, if they aren't an A&P they probably don't believe me , but that's ok . I keep it for memories sake . First aircraft I worked on , 26 years A&P .
3 bolts in the T28!
My dad was an Aviation Machinist Mate, Chief Petty Officer, USN. served for 30 years, from the early 30's to the early 50's. was on several different carriers in WW2 Pacific Fleet, including, but not limited to, the Saratoga, Valley Forge, Yorktown, and the Essex. He was wrenching on the fighters before, during, and after battles. He always told the pilots " Sir, give THEM hell, but take care of MY plane!" These P.&W's were his favorite engine, also the 'Double Wasp' !
" These P.&W's were his favorite engine, also the 'Double Wasp' ! " The B-17 had Wright Cyclone engines, not Pratt & Whitney.
@@andrewalexander9492 You sir are correct. I was simply mistaken, however the Cyclone was also an very well built and reliable engine. The P&W's were the one's he worked on most of the time as they were widely used in the fleet.
@@garyhorton9827 Awesome effort by your old man. I don’t know how they did that work, pitching up and down in a carrier. The early British carriers didn’t have a hanger deck! Maintaining outdoors, in the Atlantic 😳
Finally! An easy engine to work on!
All that was designed on paper, and the math on a slide rule.... If we had those engineers now.....
Da Ke I’m seeing that, guys smoking pipes and wearing horn rimmed glasses wearing wing tips, LOL thought I’d add to your description
And they probably knew what hand tools were and how to use them. They designed all these great airplanes with that method.
...they would have to learn a lot of new stuff or go working in a museum. 😀
We would have X-wing fighters today
Check out "The Secret Horsepower Race: Western Front Fighter Engine Development" by Calum E. Douglas. Basically every "modern" and "high tech" ic engine tech was developed during this time period . Variable Valve Timing , Direct Injection, compound supercharging , nitrous oxide injection just to name a few. Heck the Toyota F1 program just figured out the Nazi crank balancing methodology in the early 2000's lol
My father more than likely had to watch this movie back in the day. He was a radial engine mechanic for B-17's all through WWII. It seems like a lot of the parts they had to put on, could have been installed at the factory. Cool look back!
Remember the limited parts availability in wartime.
What fun would there been in that? Yeah, and my Father was a Crew Chief and Flight Engineer on B-29s and KC-97s...history...
Weren’t the reusable components and parts from the old engine being exchanged over to the new engine? You would not discard parts that were functioning on the old engine. Just like a new engine for an automobile today-you switch over the good external components to the new engine.
Certain accessories are fitted on only one or 2 engines in a B-17. If you get a new engine, ethe engine manufacturer doesn't know which position on the aircraft it's going to go to, so he cannot fit these accessories.
Such a weight on their shoulders...all those crewmen's lives in their hands. Salute to the maintenance crews. The other amazing part is the people who designed these things and made them work.
@Romulus III Oh. So if it were a single-engine fighter, then I should not "chill out"? Or...you mean that they could do crappy maintenance because they have 4 engines, therefore the chill out factor is higher?
The Army has the philosophy that things should be engineered so that they can train anyone to do anything.
I absolutely love these videos…these crew chiefs in the instructional role are great. Add to this the pressure of being forward deployed in a field environment…our fellas made due. This is great stewardship of the legacy our fighting men left for us…🇺🇸. If you’re flightline…keep ‘em flying lads!
In the Navy I worked on T-28s, S-2s, and C-1s. They used the R-1820 engines also. Very reliable, and they were the last aircraft in the military to use the R-1820.
They do like careful power management in the circuit. How about those guys reusing the hoses? 🤣
I am not an engine Mech but a Hydraulics Tech. We also had T-28s, S-2s, my squadron had S-2s. This sounds like NAS Corpus Christi Tex. I was in VT-28, this is early to mid 70s. Where were you assigned? I did have a Turn Card to start the 1820s for after maintenance Hyd system checks.
@richarderickson8840 I was at NAS Norfolk in the mid 70s.
I was also an old AMH. I retired last Dec. from the Coast Guard Depot in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. I also did a turn at NARF Norfolk 90 - 95 before it closed permanently.
@@richarderickson8840 I was at NAS Norfolk in the mid 70s. We had like 6 T-28s, 6 S-2s, and we the holding activity for the C-1a, assigned to the carriers out of Norfolk. I was also an AMH, and I was in from 70 to 90.
Nice tools they have there! The tool sets supplied with Packard built Merlins were also quite coveted and were often “lost” before spare engines reached the squadrons! A chap I worked with still had a tool set that, as a kid, he pinched from a B17 that crash landed near Chelmsford in the war!
This is really cool. I'm an engines guy. In grad school I had a thesis advisor, Thomas E. Murphy, who helped with the design and testing of these beauties back in WW2. He had great stories.
Late 60s-early 70s I was a helper learning cable splicing. The VETERAN that I worked with was CREW CHIEF on a B-17 in ENGLAND. Fascinating to see what he was doing. All respect as I think about him now!
These men knew that a man's life depended on their completing a perfect job. I know for I was a USAF aircraft mechanic on piston engine airplanes: C-124, O2, C-133, C-121, etc, during the late 1960's and early 1970's. The C-124 was called Shaky because it bumped you about while in flight, which I can attest too.
A lot of precision that got screwed up when the flack started, not to mention machine guns and cannons. I salute those who served.
incredible engineering and design. Due to time pressures, these planes went from concept to design to manufacture sometimes in just over a year. Imagine all of the parts had to be built to spec. It blows mind mind.
There is a great video somewhere on Yt about the building of the radial engine manufacturing plant. It's insane what they made and how fast it happened!!!
Check here on Periscope's channel.
About 100 days for the Mustang, astonishing effort
I can imagine someone from the DoD going to Sears to buy the tools needed at all the flight stations. 10,000 breaker bars, 10,000 open wrench sets, 10,000 pliers, etc,etc. Being a diesel mechanic myself,with training on high performance piston aircraft engines, I can understand the quality of work involved.
Why isn't all this stuff just assembled on the engine in the factory and all put in one crate?
Good question...but I'm sure there is a reason to do with logistics behind it.
In later eras it was and engine shipment evolved along with what engine shop did to received engines before sending them to the flightline for installation. Modern practices were simply not thought of UNTIL they were thought of.
Some parts like the prop speed governor that would gum up if on the engine for first run due to the type of oil, and if you're swapping an engine out at a base, there's a compromise between fitting new parts to the new engine in advance, or transferring existing parts from the old engine that you're in the process of removing.
Presumably it's all.biult in different factory's all over the country
This was great. My father was a Crew Chief and Flight Engineer on B-29s and KC-97s. As a boy I heard a lot from him about engine build-up...now I got to see it... I know that those engines are R-3350s and R-4360s not R-1820s but still..I also listened to a whole lot of other stories as well...never to be forgotten...
There is an engine like this on display at Tulsa Air & Space Museum. There are breaker points and condensers on every cylinder!
I was surprised at how small of a package the engine really is!
The hands that won the war.
The hand drill is epic.. 👍
Golly gee, that was a swell film.
Atta Boy.
Say.... Don't make with the Air, SEE!!
I think Pinky ordered the wrong engine but didn't want to tell us...
Doesn't the P47, F6F, F4U, and B17 all have the same engine with a double-row of cylinders?
"Atta boy!" - loved it...
The designers, engineers, crews. It all blows my mind.
This is so cool to watch.
Thank you for posting this.
Glad you enjoyed it! Subscribe and consider becoming a channel member th-cam.com/video/ODBW3pVahUE/w-d-xo.html
That stand sure beats working on the ground on top of a couple tires.
Jay Reiter sounds like someone that’s been there
Sad to say the best we had are all but gone thank you gentlemen
I love this intro: 1) Grinning Corporal "Ott," 😁 squatting low, polishing the shaft of his wrench, 2) Slightly more serious "Pinky," the 'FC' (gotta look 'FC' up), 3) Industrious "Chuck," too busy to even look up as he is being filmed, and 4) Tallest of the bunch and most serious, "Mel" the Crew Chief.
Crew chiefs didn't look much different through the 1980s when I enlisted. I chose jets because the last recips in the Air Force (O-2s) were on their way out but those big recips had to be fun (for the right person's idea of fun) to wrench. This video gives an idea how complex recip engines were.
Flying in those days was dangerous (most don't know the US lost nearly as many aircraft to crashes in CONUS as lost in combat!) as aircraft were quite primitive however impressive the actual execution of their designs may have been. Proper maintenance and repair minimized that massive attrition.
I had heard about the astonishing loss rate while training in the USA. It must have been raining airmen, at times
Makes me want to be an aircraft mechanic...wait, I am one!
I did 985, 1340, 1830, 2800.
Hi Pinky.
And you can be proud of it.
Man check out that fool proof torque wrench..
What a enormous amount of work and work ahead to install
I dived on a B17, some20 years ago, on 70 meters depth. Engines looked like they were replaced few years back. Whole plane looked like it was sunk few years back. But it got hit by flak in 44
Janez Jonsa , where did you dive at? I’m hoping to get too Truk next year.
@@Paul-45-70 Adriatic. Check island Vis in Croatia. There's at least 2 diving centers making that spot available.. They require technical trimix licence. Some Padi bullshit aowd wont take you there. You need to plan it well in advance. But if you can convince them you're old school and can dive 70m responsably on air, they might let you go.
Its anything but an easy dive. Worth every minute.
images.app.goo.gl/o4iwwDkBJ5UYvZbu6
I am a jet engine mechanic and we get all our tools from Harbor Freight
In the Navy we called this the Quick Engine Change buildup or QEC.
I had no idea that magnetic drain plugs have been around that long. I've had them on the oil pan of my cars for 20 years.
That was very pleasant to watch.
my uncle was an ace airplane engine mechanic during the war. started as a line mechanic, then an instructor, then sent to Princeton University to teach engineers how to design something that could be maintained in the field. yes he was at Almagordo and worked on the engines for the Enola Gay. He remembered the countless hours of hand lapping all those valve covers for any engine that was flown over the ocean. Some stories I cant repeat here.
Right...
I suspect he also told you he was present at the Potsdam Conference as an adviser to President Truman.
They really needed him at the Curtiss factory, some of the things they did, I swear there was a German agent involved
Interesting Video ! Thanks for Sharing !😊
6:59.."Whenever possible, I use new gaskets when installing accessories" What! This is an aircraft engine. How could one possibly take the risk of putting used gaskets anywhere on it.
in the field when a new one is not available...
.....you mean they didn't trace and cut them from a pizza box ??
In New Guinea where they probably were salvaged from a wreck or possibly made on the spot from gasket material.
They reused the hoses! 😳
I was surprised to see it wrapped in plastic film. I was expecting greased or wax paper.
That is soooo cool and crazyly awesome on how this is built and how the build process goes on and from 1 tiny bolt, to this giant monster engine system! I love seeing and watching aircraft engines and the build processes of them too and it's just sooo incredible
i love it !
At 18:30 is that the mag pressurization lines from the supercharger ?
Ok men, we’ve 15 engines to prep today, so we’d best get busy.
My torque wrench has always been my feel on my normal wrenches 🔧, never had any problems.
Fasteners all have different gear ratios as it were. Your just trying to match the surface metal not bend , break it.
The hard work of ground crews, no aircraft fly without them, good work Sarge!
Imagine the engineering genius that went into these aircraft.
Think vibrational stress at 30,000 feet.
well hot diggitty dog! Now I can fix this B-17 engine that I wanted to put on my pontoon boat!!! thank you!
My uncle worked in the aluminum foundry at Wright Aviation during the war. He was at the Evendale plant in Ohio. He said the foremen was always telling them that they would overseas if they weren't working there. He quit and went in to the Army, serving in Europe.
Imagine the smell of a new b17 engine right our of the box oh jebus
🤤🤤 new cylinders, properly coated master rod bearings.
Imagine having to rebuild these engines eveery 250 hours of operation! Assuming that they could run that long during wartime.
I'm surprised they don't often mention a torque tightening spec! You'd think with all that vibration that the right tightness would be important.
You were watching tik kok vids while they were using a torque wrench then?
@@theravedaddy Flipping through it again, I see about 8 times that Pinky is using a ratchet, and just 1 time they're using a torque wrench.
Most of those fasteners were safety wired to prevent bolts from vibration
@@edpinkerton7947 That doesn't negate using a torque wrench.
Torque "feel" is hard to teach but once acquired works surprisingly well with torque wrenches primarily needed for matching loads on patterned fasteners and for delicate fasteners. However a torque wrench is more desirable so the casual ways of the old days went away (and maintenance-related crash rates declined!)
USAF maintenance practice changed considerably since then so today you'd see a torque wrench used on anything it can reach. There are always some fasteners buried in engine bays that torque wrenches don't reach but they're normally on clamps etc that every mechanic quickly acquires correct "feel" for.
Worked on Radials , never that clean , all the baffles chaff from the vibration to a razor edge. Exhaust hardware seised from the heat .Constantly chasing leaks . Access to accessory section very limited when installed on aircraft and usually in an environment thats either very cold or very hot with mosquitos and black flies.
And that bloody sump drain, right under the middle, just behind the hot section on the 1820. What a PITA
I hope there was a checklist for this stuff. Just trusting to a mechanic's memory doesn't sound very reassuring.
Being a mechanic who overhauled engines for 30+ years i still like these videos 👍😀
The only thing that annoys me is that the mechanics in this video use pliers to tighten nuts and fittings 😢...
Maybe because of the war the correct tools could not be issued to the mechanics 😂
The pickling oil is never reused. Translated: dump it out on the ground behind the maintenance building.
Movie: Hand me that fitting Pinkie. Here you are Ott.
Reality: Gimmie that F**king fitting Pinkie. Hold your horses a$$hole.
Hey, if you died today, where would you go?
Jesus Christ is the only Way to God the Father.
All have sinned, and done evil in front of God who is a righteous judge, but Jesus died for your sins, taking your penalty for the evil you did, and it is written, if you will confess with your lips, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.
Ask Jesus to hear His voice speaking to you, because God still speaks to His people, and Jesus's sheep hear His voice.
Most of these nuts where not installed with a torque wrench ? Pipe plugs with no sealants ?
This is an air cooled engine. Why would there be glycol?
"- Hey dude, where do this washer goes on?"
"- Damned, sarge, let's remove it all again!!!"
I'm sure someone has already mentioned it, but the 1690's were long gone by the time the first F model rolled off the line (with R-1820's and nearly double the HP). Hornets were only used in the prototypes.
That prop governor gasket is the same on on practically all GA aircraft.
I always thought they used the Wright Cyclone ?
Good Lord! How old are these non-NCO's?
And remember, it's not done with mirrors or CGI.
Magnificent stuff.
The generator, which is bolted to the rear of the engine, has a data plate fitted to the body of the generator. During a bombing raid over Germany, a B17 was hit by flak and a another B17 got hit by debris. Later when inspected, the generator data plate was found embedded in it. The engine when hit, must have exploded, imagine the impact?
As IMPRESSIVE as this was... It still blows my mind when I think this Engine was fed with a CARBURETOR!! 😲😲😲
If ANY Engine type needed Fuel Injection - it was a Radial.
It may have brought our Boys home all shot up, but I'd bet it regularly had problems with uneven cooling and Mixture.
Those carbs had superchargers which were more efficient than mere eng/manifold vaccum operation.
@@ralphh.2200 I totally agree. But Physics still has small issues with at least the 6 Inverted Cylinders on the bottom.....
Again, Agreed about Forced Induction. I'm a Race Engine Builder, and now dealing with the incredible Pressures the the Fort used to - upwards of 24-27psi!! (So I don't know how to translate to Bar. I apologise)
Point is, I sometimes get uneven Cylinder Pressure on the From the two most Forward Cylinders, under 5-7 G lateral Acceleration. Not dangerous, but blatantly obvious. No explanation whatsoever
@@CarminesRCTipsandTricks Point taken...carbs still needed the heat jockeyed...this was aside from icing issues...inverted carb mounting supposedly reduced slipstream gremlins but had they direct injection it would have been sweet flying with less baby sitting those carbs...I was a racing engine builder-old school- Chev short block era...pre EFI...we had only iffy results with the TB types...an odd fact: C-87 (Transports ,mind you)Libs had weaker superchargers than did the B-24s...guess it was more important to hammer down post-bombs away-than to hoist a payload of lumber.
These were injection carburettors, with 2 diaphragms in them, one sensing airflow, coupled to one regulating fuel flow. It discharges into a nozzle at the eye of the blower, into 9 equal length tubes, that lead off the volute to each cylinder. Pretty even flow for a single row radial. They went multipoint injection in later twin row radials, like the 3350, where the front row missed out a bit
@@CarminesRCTipsandTricks if you want big boost pressure in aircraft engines, look at the Merlin- over 100”, some variants. R1820 more like low 50s . Dry sump, inverted oil system (on T28) and the pressure carb could run under negative G
Why is all this stuff not finished at the factiory then shipped as a unit to install on the plane.? Engine run up and all?
Different applications might require different accessory's, and in the field the accessory's are reused...
All done without torque wrenches.
They just had that feeling
Maybe you should google ww2 torque wrenches?
Sarge turned the drill in the wrong direction when he tried to make the second drain hole at 2:41.
he switched to a left hand drill bit off camera lol
That was to confuse Nazi spies watching along.
Oooo a brand new 1820 🤤🤤
Damn, am I the ONLY person to call out the error in the text above? Only the Prototype Boeing 299 was powered by P&W Hornet engines. Production B-17s all had WRIGHT R-1820 Cylones, of ~1200hp!
OK so which one of "Art", "Pinky" and "Chuck" owed the Sarge money for a loan between paydays, at the "usual" rate of interest?
Probably the one he didn't send on dangerous jobs.
A RADIAL ENGINE such as this a pornography to all male gear heads like us !
I'm a female mechanic / shipbuilder. My grandfather was infantry and my Uncle "Wild Bill" was a bombardier on a B-17 crew during WW2. I'm fascinated by the history and technology. My grandpa used to tell me stories about the war, I only wish I had him around to ask questions now that I'm older!
Pinky went on to form a rock band in the 60’s. FYI
I am not seeing any safety wire pliers. They are using needle nose and wire cutters. I guess safety wire pliers are a post war tool
notice how loose the bolts are tightened to, plus no loctite any where. not like today where bolts are tightened to ridiculous levels of tightness.
The bolts have small holes in them in which safety wire is twisted and wrapped in a fashion where if one bolt turns the wire will pull the other bolt tighter.
@judywinder405 you have missed the point dummy
Why not do all these tasks before shipping the engine?
The same basic engine might be installed in several different models of aircraft.
@@MLFranklin And on the same aircraft, accessories, controls, fuel lines, oil lines, etc, etc may have subtle differences for positions 1,2,3,4
So easy on a engine stand. Now try with it on wing and at night in the South Pacific.
All of this is the pre mounting prep work for a factory fresh crate engine. It would and could not be done on wing. The work has to be done before mounting. Plus they had lights and scaffolding to work 24/7 for engine swaps etc.
@@hyperluminalreality1 With respect ! I hear what you are saying. In real life the items you see the crew installing are repairable or replaceable on the the aircraft. Carb's starters and gen. were replaced all the time on wing.
Keep in mind the huge logistic train behind those guys.
I joined the military to be a aircraft mechanic , I wish I was alive back then to work on these aircraft
Are you certain the engine in your description (P&W 1690) was installed in the B-17F?
how long would all this take in real time if an engine needed to be replaced under field conditions?
Typical pistons can be done in a day or so, depending on quality, equipment. Less if it’s like a Cessna 150, more if it’s like a Bonanza.
I’d guess they could get it done in a day as well. Total guess though.
A built up QEC in hours. That means it’s on the mount, ready to go
I wonder what it was like to live during the apex of civilization? This societal decline stuff really blows
Amen
Jet engines are so simple in comparison.
Yep