B-17 Flying Fortress/44-83735 ~ the Duxford resto thread

[ZRX61]

Water trap..... & rivet trap

[bomberflight]

That too !!!

I expect some of you are thinking that some pix of the bomb bay are coming next .......

Well they are coming ~ but not just yet

I'm still trying to figure how to present them in a way that will make sense when you see them

Meanwhile ~ work has continued at a pace in the Conservation Hangar to clean off the paint from the
inner wing sections .....







The underside had the same grey paint that was found underneath the fuselage ~ and this needed more than one coat of
paint remover to persuade it to come off



The topside was much easier to clean





And revealed part of the French registration from its days with the IGN



More soon ......

[bomberflight]

Finally ~ It's time to look inside the Bomb Bay !

I've had all sorts of clever ( and not so clever ) ideas on how to illustrate this for you .....

The best answer seems to be to just use LOTS of pictures and that way it's possible to form a sort of 3D mental map of
how all the internal fixtures and fittings relate to each other

We start at the front bulkhead ~ situated just behind the upper turret at the rear of the flight deck
The "left hand" side is behind the pilot ~ the "right hand" side is behind the co-pilot

Let's start on the left side



And a "detail" pic .....



This is lower left



Upper left view



More detail pics





Upper left ~ including the roof section above



Following the side wall downwards .....



And downwards



We'll pick up the lower fuselage frame structure ~ roughly everything below the level of the Bomb Bay Cat Walk in a later post.

Let's go back up to the top of the fuselage now and look to the right of the Flight Deck door .....



Add a view includeing the upper fuselage section



And now angle down from there .....





The lower right hand view



Now let's track into the centre



Note that the center Bomb Racks are not attached to the lower framework in this picture ~ so they may not appear to form
the typical "V" shape .....

Now for a Cat Walk view looking forward



A view of the Cat Walk brace ~ which is a very different shape to the one at the rear bulkhead



And that's the end of Bomb Bay ~ Part 1

[bomberflight]

Welcome to Bomb Bay ~ Part 2

Now we're familiar with the forward bulkhead ~ we can put this into context with the Bomb Racks situated midway within the Bomb Bay





Let's follow this all the way up to the attachment point at the top of the fuselage



I'll call this the "outer face" of the centre rack





And the "inner face" of the same rack



Now lets jump across from the centre Bomb Racks attached to the Cat Walk ~ to the one mounted on the left hand fuselage side wall



And follow this down the side .....









Back up to the top of the left hand side wall rack this time ~ so we can chart the progress of the cables in the roof section



Heading towards the rear Bomb Bay bulkhead





Coming next ~ the rear bulkhead that leads into the Radio Room

[bomberflight]

The Bomb Bay ~ Part 3 !

We're working our way thru the Bomb Bay from the Flight Deck to our journeys end at the Radio Room





I'll use the same Left / Right principle as before ( Left Hand = Pilots side of the airframe )
Which means in the following pix ~ the left side of the image will be on the right side of the airplane

Left hand side views









Rolling up to the roof .....





Let's drop all the way down to the lower framework



Skip over the Cat Walk



The brace member at this end is a much simpler design than that at the other end of the Cat Walk





And so to the right hand side of the bulkhead .....



And what's that hanging on the wall ???



Its the bomb winch mechanism in it's stowage place





Just one more post to come to complete the Bomb Bay tour

[The Inspector]

I presume the sockets on one side of the rack pylons are to electrically operate the bomb release shackle arms on th other side. Three pins & 28V? If so, when all wired up it must have looked like a bowl of spaghetti.
Did the airplane have an 'after market' bomb bay tank @ one time? The boxlike structure on the FWD L/H upper sidewall looks like a filler setup, or was that standard 'from the factory' for a ferry tank installation, and would it explain the riveted up flush access door in the previous outside turtledeck photos?
I'm eatin' this up with a big spoon! THANX

[bomberflight]

Those electrical sockets were something I had never seen before. They really do make it more difficult to get past the bomb racks on the Cat Walk !

I can't recall ever seeing anything like this on the airworthy B-17's ~ but then if you're selling rides ~ you don't want people snagging clothing and
getting stuck in the Bomb Bay .....

Yes that box high up on the left side appears to be for a fuel ferry tank set up in the Bomb Bay.

We were talking just yesterday about that fuel filler cap up on the outside of the turtle deck. Is that original or a post WW2 fit from it's airliners days ?
Or could it be a standard fit for this late B-17G model ~ a Douglas 95 series ?

Something else to research !!!!!

I love the way these little details keep revealing themselves as we go along. There's always something new to see and learn about

[bomberflight]

And so to Part 4 of our Bomb Bay tour .....

We're looking here at the lower framework around the Bomb Bay

Starting with the center section under the catwalk ~ at the forward bulkhead that connects to the Flight Deck



Aft of the center bomb rack mounts



The structure against the fuselage sidewall .....



The reverse angles of the center section framework below the catwalk ~ starting at the forward bulkhead .....









And that's it for this post !

Another update coming soon

[SPANNERmkV]

Going to need more therapy... The bomb-bay is another place where I spent the Best Years of My Life...

Thanks for posting the pictures of bomb-rack... Our bomb-racks have been stripped of all electronics. I do not think we could conduct the tours we do with all that stuff sticking out, but for a Museum it would be "highly desirable."

And the Oxygen refilling station is nice.

Another thing I like about Mary-Alice is that it is still correct (for the most part) with the interior aluminum. The skin was left bare and just the stringers and longerons and bulkheads (I think) were painted.

Keep up the good work!

SPANNER

[bomberflight]

Thanks Don

I was thinking that as it's Friday today ...... should conduct a poll ?

Or maybe I should just ask for a show of hands from you all ( just for you Texans that's ...... y'all )

Does anyone want to see some cockpit pix this weekend ?

Hmmm ~ I thought so !

I got the idea for these images when the plexiglass was removed from the panels above the Flight Deck.



Normally the flash would bounch back off the glazing ~ but I can get some pix from an angle that's not normally possible ~ by shooting thru the aperture.

I think I better go and fetch the mono pod and remote release from the car ......



So sit back ~ and welcome to the tour













Shall we pop around the other side and shoot some pix from the reverse angle ...... ooh I think we should while we have this opportunity











We're nearly at the end of this post now ......



So from me and the camera ~



it's over and out for now

[RAMC181]

Great photos as ever Peter.

I wonder if the hole I've arrowed is something to do with the Formation Stick installation 44-83735 would presumably have been ready for:



PB

[The Inspector]

We won't ask about the big 'OOPS' on the A/C's seat cushion.

Modellers!! SEE, it ain't all FS 34151 inside is it?

What in the heck is a 'formation stick?' is it something the a/c uses to keep the pilot 'in tight' in formation?

GREAT STUFF!!!!

[Richie1485]

Hi, the formation stick was part of the auto pilot system it allowed "the pilot or co-pilot to manouver the airplane quickly using the auto pilot". Aparently there is a similar location to the right of the co-pilots position. Google is a wonderful thing!

Richard

[Pogmusic]

Peter,
Even though I want to college in Texas, I hate to let you know; but, y'all is a Southern Thang, not just Texas!!! American by birth -- Southerner by the grace of Gawd!

[bomberflight]

Thanks for the input guys ~ I'd never heard of the "formation stick" until now ! There's always something new to learn on the WIX forums

I thought we would stay with the cockpit interior .....



Let' start with the center roof panel ~ moving up and backwards











Moving down now to the top of the instrument panel



Time to look at the side wall along side the pilots seat















Heater control unit for the pilots heated flying suit



And the controls that sit down beside the left side of the seat ~ in a horizontal position





And finally for this post ~ the base of the control column



Coming next ~ the center console and the co-pilots controls .....