Warbird Information Exchange

Howdy All, I have been in the crowd for a while watching and finally joined up.

I have access to a G.E. Turbine Supercharger but I cant seem to find out and info on it, so I thought this might be the place. Here is all the info off of the data plate. Also if anyone is interested it will be sold eventually.

G.E. Turbine Supercharger
s/n 66794
catalog 1269559 g33
alt. ft. 25,000
eng. nom. h.p. 1000
r.p.m. 21,300
assy. dwg W-4868827
air corps ser no. AC 41 328
air corps type B-2
air corps setting 4
air corps contract W-535 AC 16074
air corps spec R-28502-2

It turns free and seems to have all the old fittings and such. It is a bit dusty from lying around for a few years.


Thanks in Advance,

Dave

Used on B-17 and B-24 - one of several types as produced by various manufacturers (most notably GE) during WWII. In fact, if you'd compare it side by side with the turbos for the P-38, P-47 and B-29 they all look like the same beast - lumpy, ugly and heavy. Big old blob of cast aluminum and stainless steel.

Fragile items on the turbos are the hot section and bucket wheel, which are prone to cracking during use or man-handling. This is one way to identify whether or not you might have a candiate for a re-build. Ditto the "feel" of the bearings and whether or not the wheel spins freely without binding. These are the major factors in determining "value" to people like us working on old airplanes. I suppose even a "junker" with cracked or worn parts is of value - they aren't making them any more and at the very least it's something interesting to look at from a museum or collector perspective.

I've worked on a lot of these over the years and could help you with more information (or parts) if you wanted to save it or perhaps even use it. They're a big old air pump - in fact, I saved many of them years ago that were used as grain elevator air cycle machines in the mid-west. That's one of the more clever uses of WWII surplus aero parts used in the civilian market.

Drop me a PM if I can be of any additional help. Good to have you on WIX - I, for one, appreciate the new guys and gals out there finding parts. Now go about in your area and find me some Lockheed PV-2 bits and pieces, will ya?

In Pooner's posting he says

"Used on B-17 and B-24 - one of several types as produced by various manufacturers (most notably GE) during WWII. In fact, if you'd compare it side by side with the turbos for the P-38, P-47 and B-29 they all look like the same beast - lumpy, ugly and heavy. Big old blob of cast aluminum and stainless steel. "

Could someone tell me the difference between the B and C GE superchargers? Are they different in size or rating such as the amount of air they can pass through.

I'm by no means an expert on the WWII turbos by any extent, having been nothing more than an involved tear-down and build-'em-up flunky over the years.

What I was told years ago by a turbo guy who'd worked on these things during the wars years was the basic difference between the bomber and fighter turbos was metal used in the hot sections and pump bodies. As I couldn't tell the differences between many of the turbos pieces on the shop floor and hidden on the shelves, he explained that the obvious altitude differences each series was designed for - fighter versus bomber - and pointed to different heavier castings, thicker hot sections, impellors, etc.

I got real good at turning a pedigreed dog into a mutt... we'd take a GE turbo casing, and it might end up with a Ford nozzle box and wheel, and mate it to an Allis-Chalmers hot section. I especially liked working with the porcelain "Solar" coated hot section B-31 air cycle machines out of the B-29 or B-50. Once done, the "frankenstein B-2 turbo" looked pretty darn good hanging underneath the B-17 or B-24 with all of that pretty green baked-on finish!

Somewhere in my archives I have a GE turbo manual and I'll have to bone up on it all. I'll share.