Thursday - January 22, 2015

A bit of flying perspective

Thinking about airplanes while doodling around on the internet ...

I’ve never seen a B-29, the ultimate giant Allied bomber from WWII. Saw some sidebar news story the other day about how the restoration work is proceeding on one of them, such that there might be exactly two of the old birds actually flying by the end of this year. This is pretty amazing, especially since I didn’t know that there were any left at all. What a labor of love. And money. Lots and lots and lots of money.

So, I got to wondering, just how giant an airplane was this thing? Sure, you can Wiki up the specs and see that it was huge for its day, half again as long as a B-17, with a wingspan half again as wide, and a tail half again as tall. Which is nice, but meaningless unless you’ve got a B-17 around to play with. I’ve never seen one of those either, but I’ve heard from those who have how they seem so small given the role they played. A bit more research shows that a B-29 is almost exactly the same size as a modern C-130 Hercules cargo plane, although much narrower in the fuselage (9 feet vs. 13.75 feet) Body about 100 feet long, wings about 140 feet wide, tail about 30 feet tall.

C-130s I have seen. This workhorse transport is a great contradiction in terms, a great big fat little airplane, another one of those 1950s designs that keeps on keeping on forever, while getting incrementally better all the time. The latest C-130 version out-performs the venerable B-29 in every way, carrying much more load, flying faster, flying higher, flying further and climbing many times faster. Pretty impressive for a cargo plane. But that’s still a context-free comparison for the rest of us who never see military aircraft of any kind. Fine. A B-29 and a C-130 are both the size of a modern 737 airliner, but with wider wings. The 737 is the “baby” jet you take on the less popular routes United flies. They don’t seem very big either when you’re inside them, but walking up to one on the tarmac is a bit impressive. I’ve worked in smaller office buildings. And this thing flies. Seriously, this is about as small an airplane as I’m happy to travel in. Another Little Big Plane, fuselage diameter 12.3 feet. And this one is miniscule compared to the real jumbos? OM.F.G. And it goes without saying that this modern jet mini-airliner leaves either of the two propeller driven planes discussed here in the dust. It’s not even funny. All it needs is ... half again as much runway.

Photo R-L: runways Alpha, Baker, Charlie in 2008, North Field, Tinian Island, still in usable shape 60 years later.  This is where Enola Gay and BocksCar were based, the two B-29s that dropped the atomic bombs that ended WWII in the Pacific in 1945

Posted by Drew458     on 01/22/2015 at 12:41 PM   
Filed Under: • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •  
• Comments (7) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner