Mitchel Field c 1938 ...

[Mark Allen M]

Another nice photo series with several nice shot of B-10's. Photos : Peter Stackpole - LIFE Collections.
Link here: http://images.google.com/hosted/life/40 ... 24ca5.html

Mitchel Field, was a United States Army Air Force base located on the Hempstead Plains of Long Island, New York, United States. Established in 1918 as Hazelhurst Aviation Field #2, the facility was renamed later that year as Mitchel Field in honor of former New York City Mayor John Purroy Mitchel who was killed while training for the Air Service in Louisiana. Wiki.

In 1938, Mitchel was the starting point for the first nonstop transcontinental bomber flight, made by Army B-18 Bolos. Mitchel Field also served as a base from which the first demonstration of long-range aerial reconnaissance was made. In May 1939, three B-17s, with Lt. Curtis LeMay navigating, flew 620 miles (1,000 km) out to sea and intercepted the Italian ocean liner SS Rex. This was a striking example of the range, mobility, and accuracy of modern aviation at the time. On September 21 of that year the base was struck by the "Long Island Express" hurricane. Flooding produced water that was over knee-deep, numerous trees were toppled and the glass was smashed atop the traffic control tower.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchel_Air_Force_Base

[quemerford]

Great shots as ever: minor niggle - it's Mitchel Field (one 'L') - oft-repeated, so no major surprise.

[Malo83]

Awesome Mark, have photos of the field in WW2?

[Mark Allen M]

Great shots as ever: minor niggle - it's Mitchel Field (one 'L') - oft-repeated, so no major surprise.:

Where do you see two 'L's? ...
Right after I hit the post button I saw the error as well. But I'll always admit that I usually have to go back later and correct spelling errors that the forum auto-spell check/correct/alter anyway it wants to feature likes to do.

[b29flteng]

Great batch of photos!

[quemerford]

Great shots as ever: minor niggle - it's Mitchel Field (one 'L') - oft-repeated, so no major surprise.:

Where do you see two 'L's? ...
Right after I hit the post button I saw the error as well. But I'll always admit that I usually have to go back later and correct spelling errors that the forum auto-spell check/correct/alter anyway it wants to feature likes to do.

Weird: I must have seen it just as you posted. Keen eh!

[Chris Brame]

Love those B-10s! It'd be great to see a flying replica someday. And it would also be great if the remains of the XB-15 could be recovered from the dump site in Panama...

[Lightninglover]

As a young guy I remember driving by Mitchel AFB in the early Fifties with my folks. There were many TB-25s there as I remember.
Ken

[Rajay]

Great set of photos, Mark. Thanks for posting.

I have never before noticed the vertical panels on top of the engine nacelles of the B-10 before - but they seem to be quite prominent at least in most of the photos of that type posted here. I'm guessing that they are there to block the pilot's view of flames coming from the exhaust especially at night. It looks to me like the engine exhaust setup is similar to the one used on the Grumman Goose, probably with a cabin heat exchanger built into the tailpipe and the outlet diffused over the length of the top of that tailpipe. Not a factor on the Goose with the cockpit essentially below the wing and the exhaust on top, but in the case of the B-10, they're right there in the peripheral vision of the pilot. Still the shield panels look to be quite large and seem like they would block out a good portion of the pilot's field of view around the airplane.