B-29 pattern work [not a Guzzi]

[Daniel Kalal]

there would have once been a time when these same skies would have had multiple B-29s in the pattern every day of the week (considering that nearly half of all B-29s first flew from here), but these days, hearing four 3350's is enough to send a person out the door to look up. 

...taken from my house


Incidentally, a Beech starship would also send me out the door pretty much every time, but that's only because that airplane had such a distinctive bad sound that you'd swear something was really going wrong with it.

[Gliderjohn]

 
GliderJohn

[Motormike]

Is that FIFI? I thought that it was the only B-29 still airworthy, unless another one has been restored I'm not aware of.

[oldbike54]

 

 Dusty

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

There's two now - FiFi and Doc.

[Gliderjohn]

Google the B-29 "DOC" for it's history and restoration that was done here in Wichita. Some of the volunteers during the restoration had helped build that exact plane during the war at the Boeing plant in Wichita. Took 15 years to restore.
GliderJohn

[kingoffleece]

The sound of a war bird in flight is one of life's great pleasures

[Gusable]

I work at a car dealership in downtown Dallas right by love field airport the other day I went outside to get a car and a B 25 Mitchell was leaving. Radials man!!! Nothing like em

[Rough Edge racing]

 I have quite a warbird library here and have read extensively about the B-29.. Certainly the most complex aircraft of WW2, it had a long troubled development with a cost that exceeded the Manhattan nuclear project..The 29 was going to carry the A bomb to Germany if all of Euroope fell to the Germans... General Lemay's book Superfortress is a must read to get the scope of B-29 operations over Japan...

[Guzzistajohn]

cool stuff, I got to see Doc @ the SGF windport a couple of years ago

[pebra]

Daniel, can you hear what sort of plane is flying over?

[Chuck in Indiana]

Daniel, can you hear what sort of plane is flying over?

I'm not Daniel, but sure he can..  aircraft engines/props have their unique sounds, just like motorcycle and hi po car engines.

[Daniel Kalal]

Daniel, can you hear what sort of plane is flying over?

In a broad general sense, yes.  Much the way you can tell a Ducati from a Guzzi by their sound even though they're both 90 degree V-twins, you can tell airplanes--particularly business jets, which have a wider range of engine-types than airliner engines.  A Pratt PT6 and a Garrett TPE are both turbines, but they sound altogether different from each other.  And, it'd be hard to miss hearing a Cessna 500 (Pratt JT15) from a Lear 23 (GE turbojet).  Wichita (being Wichita) gets a wide range of types coming in.

[Murray]

I did get to the point I could pick the difference between the rolls royce allisons as fitted to a H and E model C-130 and the ones fitted to a P3 Orion , well not the engines but the prop design is different. The difference between the TF30 P3C/ P30 and the TF30 -107 however I doubt I could do it now partly because there are no TF30's in the air anymore, they did thier level best to retire early even when operational. The H and E's have been replaced with J's the prop design is competely different and I think they've just retired the last of the P3C's/ AP3C's with P8's. Like anything hang around long enough and you'll pick up the differences.

[twowings]

Those guys did some REAL flying back then...

[Gliderjohn]

IMHO I think WWII aircraft as a whole had to to be the most demanding to fly of any era of aircraft. Many complicated systems. With single engine fighters you had the P-factor to deal with. Reliability was always a concern, especially with the bombers. Complicated navigation. Compressability with some of the fighters. Took a fairly big pair to fly them, especially in combat.
GliderJohn

[twowings]

Not to mention riding for hours in freezing temps, cramped interiors, and incredible noise with little more than woolen underwear and leather jackets and courage... 

[pebra]

In a broad general sense, yes.  Much the way you can tell a Ducati from a Guzzi by their sound even though they're both 90 degree V-twins, you can tell airplanes--particularly business jets, which have a wider range of engine-types than airliner engines.  A Pratt PT6 and a Garrett TPE are both turbines, but they sound altogether different from each other.  And, it'd be hard to miss hearing a Cessna 500 (Pratt JT15) from a Lear 23 (GE turbojet).  Wichita (being Wichita) gets a wide range of types coming in.

I did get to the point I could pick the difference between the rolls royce allisons as fitted to a H and E model C-130 and the ones fitted to a P3 Orion , well not the engines but the prop design is different. The difference between the TF30 P3C/ P30 and the TF30 -107 however I doubt I could do it now partly because there are no TF30's in the air anymore, they did thier level best to retire early even when operational. The H and E's have been replaced with J's the prop design is competely different and I think they've just retired the last of the P3C's/ AP3C's with P8's. Like anything hang around long enough and you'll pick up the differences.

Amazing.
I'd think weather, angle, engine speed (revs) etc would make that extremely difficult. As I understand it, propeller design makes the difference?
Well, I listen to recorded birdsongs to distinguish some of them, so I can picture you guys listening to recorded planesounds.......

[Chuck in Indiana]

Amazing.
I'd think weather, angle, engine speed (revs) etc would make that extremely difficult. As I understand it, propeller design makes the difference?
Well, I listen to recorded birdsongs to distinguish some of them, so I can picture you guys listening to recorded planesounds.......

I've been going to Oshkosh, and Rockford (!) before that. 45 years of listening to airplane noise. :) They can be pretty distinctive.

[Chuck in Indiana]

they did thier level best to retire early even when operational.

So did I..

[Murray]

Amazing.
I'd think weather, angle, engine speed (revs) etc would make that extremely difficult. As I understand it, propeller design makes the difference?
Well, I listen to recorded birdsongs to distinguish some of them, so I can picture you guys listening to recorded planesounds.......

More I lived on base I worked on base you get to hear them at on and off for around 12 hours a day minium, yes the prop makes a difference. The Orion has rounded ends the Herc has squared off ends its probablly the most effective place to have a design difference for a prop to make a dfferent sound.

[jbell]

Yep, I get to hear and see "Devil Dog", a B-25, fly over fairly often to the local airport about a mile from my house.  Very cool even if it is a Marine plane.   

[Stormtruck2]

I've been going to Oshkosh, and Rockford (!) before that. 45 years of listening to airplane noise. :) They can be pretty distinctive.

Born in Rockford, and remember going to the Rockford Fly In for years.  Even after we moved to Iowa.

[Gliderjohn]

Good to see that you still exist Stormtruck2. Hadn't noticed a post from you in many a moon.
GliderJohn

[Ncdan]

I have a fear of flying and will not ever fly in a  commercial jet however I would not think twice about getting on that airplane! I would feel secure in those four prop motors.

[twowings]

I know what you mean...I felt much safer in a 1929 New Standard biplane than I EVER did flying Southwest...

[Chuck in Indiana]

I have a fear of flying and will not ever fly in a  commercial jet however I would not think twice about getting on that airplane! I would feel secure in those four prop motors.

A friend of mine used to drive Super Connies. He said it wasn't unusual at all to land with one (or more) not running.. 
Jet engines are extremely simple machines in comparison.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Good to see that you still exist Stormtruck2. Hadn't noticed a post from you in many a moon.
GliderJohn

Me, too. I have wondered if you had driven off the face of the earth. 

[Gliderjohn]

From Chuck:

Jet engines are extremely simple machines in comparison.

The engine itself is but when installed it looks like it is on life support from all the damn plumbing that surrounds and/or attached to the engine.
GliderJohn

[Chuck in Indiana]

From Chuck:The engine itself is but when installed it looks like it is on life support from all the damn plumbing that surrounds and/or attached to the engine.
GliderJohn

True, but it's just plumbing. <shrug> They smell bad, too..