Are the turbos on today's B-17's still operable?

[hahnej]

Just wondering, do the turbos help things at low altitudes on these planes or are the only for higher up? Do they help at takeoff?

Is all the turbo equipment and controls still there, or are they just 'blow thru' exhausts?

Kinda was wondering if maintenance and parts costs justified still using them, but if you need them I guess you gotta have them.

[Second Air Force]

hahnej,

A few years ago I was visiting with a member of the Sentimental Journey crew when they were flying rides at Kearney, Nebraska. He told me that the turbos on SJ were fully operational and that a wastegate actuator was acting up a little that day.

Scott

[Matt Gunsch]

Sentimental joureny still has operational turbos.

[K5DH]

The turbosuperchargers on Chuckie are fully operational. They are only used for high altitude ops or extra heavy takeoffs. They're expensive to overhaul so we don't use them any more than necessary.

Cheers!

[Larry Kraus]

In our B-17 tankers,the intercooler controls were wired wide open because we usually operated in summer temperatures.The intercoolers are air-to-air radiators that cool the induction air that is heated during compression by the turbo before it reaches the carburetor.In the military B-17's,you could use the intercooler controls as you would use carburetor heat controls on other airplanes.With those controls wired open,we had no carburetor heat,as such.However,if we encountered carburetor icing,we'd throttle back to keep from overboosting with turbo,dial in enough turbo to bring up the temp on the carb air temp gauges high enough to melt the carb ice,then dial off the turbos and reset the throttles.I don't know what the guys flying the '17's as warbirds do,but without turbos,you'd be in trouble in conditions that favor carb ice.

[skymstr02]

Thunderbird at the LSFM are fully operational too.

[F3V]

The Pink Lady turbos are fully operational too

(with twelve new turbos in storage)