Warbird Information Exchange

Not talking about Hot Rods in the typical sense, on the ground but in the air.

It has been discussed in the past that throughout the war there were instances of battle field modifications. These were based on necessity due to the mission requirments, battlefield conditons or the limitations of the equipment used.

Most typically I think were cases of upgunning aircraft, stripping aircraft, modifying them to use alternative forms of ordinance or efforts to extend the aircraft's range.

My question is were there any notable instances by where this field modifying carried over into the powerplants? Especially in the early years of the war where in the Pacific the Japanese aircraft had the advantage.

As they say "Speed is Life" I just wondering if there were stories of regular guy mechanics taking the initiative and tweeking and modifying their engines in and effort to give thier pilots the best chance possible.

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

Not from the Pacific but supposedly during the Battle of Britain one pilot was able to recover his crashed Hurricane and got the latest Merlin type from Rolls Royce and had it installed. He was able to ambush German formations that didn't realize his Hurricane had more performance than usual.

I know that on Guadalcanal they used to strip out instruments and other equipment to lighten the airframe. I gotta believe that some of the boys tweaked the carburetors and governors to get more power.

_________________
"I can't understand it, I cut it twice and it's still too short!" Robert F. Dupre' 1923-2010 Go With God.

Does the Brittish special brew / fuel during the BoB count as special mod ?

In 1942, the RAF were having trouble intercepting high flying Junkers Ju-86P-2's in the Med, which typically flew around 40,000 ft.

103 Maintainance Unit modified Spitfire Mk V's by increasing the compression ratio of the Merlins and fitting a four bladed prop. The aircraft were also lightened, eventually losing all radio equipment, armour,having panel lines filled and pointed wingtips added, and armament eventually reduced to one .50 machine gun.

This was relatively succesful, with several interceptions made.

_________________
If the first casualty of war is innocence, the second is sobriety - Hawkeye.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws - Plato.
Lies get halfway round the world before the truth has a chance to get it's pants on - Churchill
If you are going through he11 - keep going - Churchill

Tony Gaze [Australian 13 kill ace & still alive] flew Spitfire Mk XIV [including mine] told me that he spent his time off streamlining his aircraft and polishing it with floor wax to gain a margin. He and his mechanic tweaked the engine and played with power settings to also improve performance. He said it gave him 10-15knots plus he gained around 20 minutes extra endurance which in a Spit was very significant.

Tony went on to race cars including early F1...

_________________
..defeat is never an option!

Just read a bit about Tony Gaze. I had never heard of him (shame on me!!) What a remarkable man. Shot down a 262, first allied pilot to land in France after D-Day, and THREE DFC's. Oh, and a racing car driver!!! Sounds like a truly great man.

Sorry for going a bit O/T there Shay.

_________________
If the first casualty of war is innocence, the second is sobriety - Hawkeye.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws - Plato.
Lies get halfway round the world before the truth has a chance to get it's pants on - Churchill
If you are going through he11 - keep going - Churchill

Some photo Lightning's were done. I know the 9th PRS had "Duncan's Hotrod" http://www.9thprs.org/html/DuncansHotRod.html.html

The 8th PRS had one also.

Mike

Billy Fiske, was a Bobsled Olympian, and a member of the Eagle Squadron. He was also into fast cars from what I remember.

I always liked the 'true hot rodders spirit' displayed by the formation form up war weary B-17 that had the entire upper fuselage removed so the crew could dive past the faster B-24's and have the copilot stand and salute as they blazed past, now thats a rat rod!

_________________
Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Well, going back a bit further to WWI...

James McCudden wrote in his autobiography that he wanted to chase down German recon birds (Rumplers I think), but they flew too high. They were able to escape before he could reach their altitude. He said that he fitted his SE5a with higher-compression pistons as well as some other field mods that would improve his chances.

It's been a number of years since I read the book, but he was fairly successful IIRC. Kind of ironic that he would buy it from trying to return to the field after his engine failed on takeoff.

_________________
ATC: "Oscar 2, cleared to engage wildlife at your discretion..."

My Dad said they sandpapered the flat paint on the Spitfires and early OD Mustangs to smooth the paint out and then wax them. They got another 5 mph IAS out of them.

I've seen it written in several sources Hans-Joachim Marseille's mechanics boosted the power of the engine in his Me-109. An engine problem was the causal factor in his demise. I wonder if A->B.

Also, the Brits tuned and upped the allowable RPM on the Merlins in the Lancasters that carried some of Barnes Wallis.

The Doolittle Raiders had their engines fine tuned for their unique mission. Primarily carb adjustments to maximize economy, if I recall correctly.

While not actually "Hot Rodding" A story told to me by my father was that they had a War Weary P-51B that they had removed the fuselage tank from and mounted a second seat (Like they do today with P-51’s).

They had a Red Cross Doughnut Dolly at their base that would remark, “I can’t understand why you guys are so tired when you return from your missions? All you do is sit in an airplane and fly.”

After hearing her ask this question day after day, she was asked if she would like to accompany one of them in their 2-seat P-51 for a tour of the local area? She quickly accepted.

The next day, my dad took off with her in the back. On takeoff, he flew just high enough to get the wheels sucked up and then held it level until the end of the runway. At that point, he horsed back on the stick and zoomed to about 5,000 feet. While in the climb, he looked in the mirror and saw that she had blacked out.

Upon her recovering consciousness, he did a few aileron rolls into a loop. At the bottom of the loop, he allowed the A/C time to build up speed. From that point on, he would pull enough G’s for her to blackout, recover and then repeat.

After about 20 minutes of this, he felt she had had enough.

Upon taxiing in to park, he shut the engine off and jumped out on the wing to help her out. She simply said that she “Liked the feel of the A/C and would like to sit in it just a bit longer.”

Dad replied, “Sure, suit yourself.” Then went to the ops tent.

2 minutes later, the crew chief ran up to him and said, “Hey EL TEE, you know why she’s still sitting in the plane?”

My dad explained why. Then the C/C said, “Hell no LT! That’s not why she’s sitting in there. She wet her pants and is waiting for them to dry out!”

From that day forward, everyone got extra doughnuts and coffee from her when they returned from a mission.

Great story. Wonder if the P-51 was similar to this.

[/img]

_________________
If the first casualty of war is innocence, the second is sobriety - Hawkeye.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws - Plato.
Lies get halfway round the world before the truth has a chance to get it's pants on - Churchill
If you are going through he11 - keep going - Churchill

No, it had the normal canopy I think.