Jump to content

Memphis Belle weathering patterns


Lee_K

Recommended Posts

18 hours ago, Uncarina said:

Just finished watching “The Cold Blue”. Very impressive colorized footage filmed from Memphis Belle and other aircraft, with insights from the veterans who flew these missions. Also a good weatheing reference. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8693770/

 

Cheers, Tom

 

Hey, Tom, the footage from "The Cold Blue" is actually in period color, not colorized. It's all the leftover footage that William Wyler didn't use for the 1944 "Memphis Belle" documentary, shot in full Technicolor. Just an FYI, is all.

 

Cheers,

Thomaz

 

PS - Here's a making of video I just found on Youtube:

 

Edited by TAG
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A couple of points on this:  Batteries (as discussed near the top of the thread):  two on the starboard side, one on the port.  Some of the photos show two streaks from what may be venting on the port side wing root area and one on the starboard side.  Go figure.  Cowling stains:  You guys know that B-17s had superchargers, right?  (Dumb question, I know.)  So, all the exhaust went out through the supercharger at the bottom of the nacelle.  The stains on the cowls and top of the wing appear to come mostly from the port side of the cowlings and are oil stains, not exhaust stains.  The oil tanks are somewhere in that area as are the intercoolers with their associated plumbing.  Oil under pressure is happy to go wherever the airflow takes it, staining everything it touches along the way.  Not sure this adds much to the discussion other than to remind everyone that the exhaust squirted out the bottom and a mixture of high pressure air and oil mist made its way aft along the top of the wing following the airflow.  We don’t see this pattern on Lancs because they used Merlins nor B-24s because they had different cowlings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Although you are correct, I don’t recall anyone mentioning exhaust stains ( but I may have overlooked it).  Makes no difference to the extant staining exhibited, where in the aircraft the oil tanks are located.    There are four Wright R-1820’s that spit oil like a German with a tongue twister.  All radial engines leak oil...ALL.  If it’s not leaking, it’s out of oil.  Staining is also unrelated to the intercoolers as no oil flows through them.  Having said that, exhaust air from the intercoolers does exit from the vents toward the aft of the wing and does play a part in the staining pattern around said venting.
 

The exhibited oil stains primarily come from the oil shed by the engine when subjected to ram airflow through the cowlings and plastered across the wing with said airflow.  Battle damage to the engine oil system would contribute to the staining but isn’t necessary to cause the amount and pattern of staining seen on B-17 wings.

Edited by Juggernut
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Juggernut said:

Although you are correct, I don’t recall anyone mentioning exhaust stains ( but I may have overlooked it).  Makes no difference to the extant staining exhibited, where in the aircraft the oil tanks are located.    There are four Wright R-1820’s that spit oil like a German with a tongue twister.  All radial engines leak oil...ALL.  If it’s not leaking, it’s out of oil.  Staining is also unrelated to the intercoolers as no oil flows through them.  Having said that, exhaust air from the intercoolers does exit from the vents toward the aft of the wing and does play a part in the staining pattern around said venting.
 

The exhibited oil stains primarily come from the oil shed by the engine when subjected to ram airflow through the cowlings and plastered across the wing with said airflow.  Battle damage to the engine oil system would contribute to the staining but isn’t necessary to cause the amount and pattern of staining seen on B-17 wings.

Yeah, I think this is where I was going with this but got side tracked somewhere while wallowing in my golden prose.  I was pointing out the obvious because the distance in time between common hands-on knowledge of things like leaky motors and people who try to model them is increasing exponentially and the gaps are being filled in with assumptions because people don’t know any better.  Hopefully, we’ve beaten this one to death and can move on to something more important like why the Russians paint aircraft wheels green.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Oldbaldguy said:

Yeah, I think this is where I was going with this but got side tracked somewhere while wallowing in my golden prose.  I was pointing out the obvious because the distance in time between common hands-on knowledge of things like leaky motors and people who try to model them is increasing exponentially and the gaps are being filled in with assumptions because people don’t know any better.  Hopefully, we’ve beaten this one to death and can move on to something more important like why the Russians paint aircraft wheels green.  

 

Why?  It's to blend in with their "green with Envy" stance at the U.S. advances in military aviation.... Hell, even their new stealth fighter even looks like our F-22.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Juggernut said:

Although you are correct, I don’t recall anyone mentioning exhaust stains ( but I may have overlooked it). 

 

Actually, that was me, a sort of catch-all description, but not technically correct. Oops.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Juggernut said:

 

Why?  It's to blend in with their "green with Envy" stance at the U.S. advances in military aviation.... Hell, even their new stealth fighter even looks like our F-22.

You know, there is a school of thought out there that sez disparate groups who are trying to address a specific mission using similar technology, materials and funding will produce remarkably similar solutions - sort of a form follows function thing - with the only exception being the Brits and torpedo bombers.  While everyone else was flying torpedo bombers in the Avenger class, they insisted on building things only Bilbo Baggins could comprehend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...