An interesting bit on the B-29

[ssculptor]

https://www.allpar.com/history/military/b-29.html

 

This was sent to me from a high school classmate. His father and  mine worked at this plant during WW2.

Enjoy,

 

 

[Troy Molitor]

Thanks for sharing this. Interesting read.

 

Troy

[ssculptor]

Now that I think about it I understand why the early B-29s had problems with their engines. WW2 was an extremely exciting time for the designers and engineers. They were under great pressure to not only design much more powerful engines but also their metallurgists had to come up with new alloys that would withstand the extreme conditions occurring with these new aircraft.  Working under that kind of pressure is really the most exciting time to be a design engineer. Harrowing, frustrating at times but always exciting. Wives may moan about the little time they have with their  husbands, and surely some wives left their engineer spouses during that period. After all it was non-ending work month after month for years..

Also trying to invent and create new airplanes often leads to errors entering production. It is an unfortunate fact of life. Look at the Helldiver and how bad the early versions were. 

However, to me that kind of pressure and excitement is what life is all about. It makes you feel alive.  

When I worked in the field there was no war but I had projects where we worked 7 days a week  until the project was done. 

I remember one project where I started at 9:30 am, took a half hour for lunch, took 1 hour for supper and finished all the drawings at 4:30 PM (or so I thought). When it was done I looked out the window and saw that it was dark out but I figured we were just having a dark afternoon thunderstorm. Eventually I realized it was 4:30 AM, the next morning. I had worked straight through the night. There is a great feeling of satisfaction when you complete a project like that. It is responding to the challenges that makes life worth living. 

 

Ah nostalgia!  

[ringleheim]

For those interested in the B-29, perhaps you have not seen this series of videos on the B-29 gun sighting system from Boeing.

 

I found this super interesting; amazing how high-tech that system was for its day, and quite complicated.

 

This is what makes WWII fascinating to me.  In a war which saw its main protagonist use horses to move 70% of its stuff around and bolt action rifles for the duration of the war, you also had rockets, jet engines, air-to-air missiles, nuclear devices, and this Boeing gun targeting system using crude computers.

 

An interesting clash of old vs new world technology came together in WWII.

 

 

 

 

[Bomber_County]

Thanks for sharing, never knew any of that............shame the Lanc had .303 and very unsophisticated mechanical turrets

[iaf-man]

 

Now that I think about it I understand why the early B-29s had problems with their engines. WW2 was an extremely exciting time for the designers and engineers. They were under great pressure to not only design much more powerful engines but also their metallurgists had to come up with new alloys that would withstand the extreme conditions occurring with these new aircraft.  Working under that kind of pressure is really the most exciting time to be a design engineer. Harrowing, frustrating at times but always exciting. Wives may moan about the little time they have with their  husbands, and surely some wives left their engineer spouses during that period. After all it was non-ending work month after month for years..

Also trying to invent and create new airplanes often leads to errors entering production. It is an unfortunate fact of life. Look at the Helldiver and how bad the early versions were. 

However, to me that kind of pressure and excitement is what life is all about. It makes you feel alive.  

When I worked in the field there was no war but I had projects where we worked 7 days a week  until the project was done. 

I remember one project where I started at 9:30 am, took a half hour for lunch, took 1 hour for supper and finished all the drawings at 4:30 PM (or so I thought). When it was done I looked out the window and saw that it was dark out but I figured we were just having a dark afternoon thunderstorm. Eventually I realized it was 4:30 AM, the next morning. I had worked straight through the night. There is a great feeling of satisfaction when you complete a project like that. It is responding to the challenges that makes life worth living. 

 

Ah nostalgia!  

 

And come to think of those poor guys at Tupolev bureau,that had to copy all that stuff    ...and in no time