Warbird Information Exchange

I suspect that "Thingy" being held up definitely has something to do with that "Turboencabulator" Hawkeye was talking about!
I sent that video link to Walt and he called this evening and wanted to know "what kind of fumes Hawkeye has been breathing in that hanger"!!!!!!!!!!!
Randy

_________________
Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Yep, both from Blazing Saddles. HARRUMPH, HARRUMPH...I didn't get a HARRUMPH from that guy !

"Baayybeee, you're making a German spectacle of yourself,......"

I can't really see the object of your latest whatzit. Never seen anything like it, may be K model specific ?

The Huey is safely in the Dallas Convention Center. Some of the guys are going up tomorrow evening to help out the 3 folks that took her up today. I go up Sunday and will head back to Houston after we get out next Wed.

_________________
"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

You guys are lucky to have 2 blades. The CWAM facebook page shows the ordeal they had to go through pulling the rotor from the Hind with less-than-ideal equipment and a tug that needed a forklift to get up the ramp.

You'd think they'd think about the fact a tug rated to pull 30,000lbs up a 2% slope might not be enough for a 26,000 pound helicopter and have a bigger tug on hand after inviting them...

Randy, you can tell Walt that Hawkeye was entirely sober before the shoot. Can't speak for afterwards though. JR

Rick said, "I can't really see the object of your latest whatzit. Never seen anything like it, may be K model specific ?" "The Huey is safely in the Dallas Convention Center. Some of the guys are going up tomorrow evening to help out the 3 folks that took her up today. I go up Sunday and will head back to Houston after we get out next Wed."

Aha... told you this one would be a stumper, but it is not a K model part only. I will give yall a hint. This is a template for a repair doubler. Now can you tell where it goes?
Anyway, glad the heli's are safely inside now after the weather that moved through here last night. If any of the helicopter folks want to come by the hangar at Meacham, you would be welcome. Sunday, the museum opens at noon, but there is usually someone there before that. Come see us!! JR

Cap, I knew they had a lot of work ahead of them to get it in the building. We didn't envy them at all.

And they have to do it all over again on Wed. !

_________________
"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

This is a shot of the A26 forward bomb bay. The large black strap hanging down from the top is part of the support for the 100 gal BB fuel tank. The question, and maybe Randy can answer this, how did this release mechanism work to drop the bombs? The shackles are not powered so the two arms sticking up must trigger something in the rack attached to the bomb to make the release?? Bueller?? Bueller?? Anyone? Anyone? What happens when the guy in the cockpit arms the switch and pushes the button?? Curious in the Republic... but not that we would ever use this information to drop anything on the TU stadium during a football game, you understand. That would be ungentlemanly and us Aggies would never lower ourselves to that Longhorn level. Gig em... JR

You know those T Sips tried to light the bonfire early one year by dropping flammable items out of an aircraft !

_________________
"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

Well, see that is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about. Aggies might borrow the T-Sip's cow when it looks frail and unhealthy because we have the best Vet school in the country to nurse it back to health, but we would never stoop to such a low dastardly deed like they engage in frequently. The heck of it is, they take great pride in such things. Just don't understand it. Plum uncivilized. JR

OK, if my memory doesn't fail me, I'll try to answer the bomb release "thingys". The things with the two arms sticking up were the release solenoids. The shackles, as we called them, attached to the bombs. I'm sure others did it differently, but we usually attached the shackles to the bombs outside the aircraft, and then hoisted everything up. Everything up to the 260# frag bombs we loaded by hand, standing on a small trailer we had that fit perfectly between the bomb bay doors. Load the bombs onto the trailer, then slide the whole thing into the bomb bay from the back, and have at it. It was easier to hook the shackles into the hooks on either side of the release solenoids than to try to latch the bomb lugs into the shackle.
The solenoid had two arms. These arms had to be "cocked" prior to attaching the bomb/shackle combination. One of the arms should say "arm" and the other one "rel"(release). They basically gave the pilot the option of dropping the bombs in a "safe" mode or "armed" mode. For instance, if a problem was encountered over friendly territory, the bombs could be dropped "safe".
They had this option available from the cockpit armament panel.
If you chose to make craters, and drop "armed, the lever on the "arm" side of the solenoid would not trip, and it would retain the arming wires from the bomb, and when it released, the arming wires would be pulled from the fuzes, allowing the propellers to spin up and arm the weapon.
If the weapons were dropped in the "safe" mode, the "arm" lever would also trip, releasing the safety wires and allow them to fall with the weapon, and not allowing the fuzes to arm themselves.
I know it sounds crazy, dropping a bomb from 1000/1500 ft, it's going to detonate from the impact with the ground anyway, right! Not according to the experts, but I personally wouldn't have wanted to be within range of it to see if that were true or not! We were told in tech school that a M117, 750# bomb, dropped safe from 10,000ft, would not detonate something like 80% of the time. (just don't be in that 20% group!).
While I was there, we did fly some very old AWD fuzes,(Anti-With Drawl) and as I remember, the pilots were told NOT to bring them back under any condition.

There, that should be about confusing enough!

_________________
Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Thanks Randy, that was exactly what I needed. Now if we can just find some fuses and safety wires.... Look out pigs!! JR and the Ace Feral Hog Extermination Company of Texas...

I knew I'd leave something out of that last piece.



This is what the bomb shackles looked like, and those two "tangs" sticking out the top is what fit into the arms of the release solenoids. When the solenoids tripped, they moved either or both of those tangs to effect the release of the bomb. The shackle just added one more piece to the puzzle when trying to determine why we had "hung ordnance on at least one ocassion that I remember.


This is how the arming wire attached to the bomb fuze. Pretty simple really. the wire just prevented the fuze propeller from spinning.
Napalm, on the other hand, did not have propeller fuzes, and were armed electrically, several seconds after release from the plane.
Randy

_________________
Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Randy, glad you cleared that up. I was thinking we could blow those pigs out of their holes with a 100 pounder, then come back around for a gunnery pass and put em down. Then napalm em to get the BBQ started so by the time we get out to pick them up, they would be nearly done except for the aforementioned beer marination. Just have to clean em and put on the BBQ sauce to cover up the napalm taste. Then slow cook for 4 or 5 hours in a pit... the one we dug with the 100 pounder. See what planning can do for ya? Man o man... come on out when we get it all ready. JR

So did the nape have a battery for arming after release? JR

For those so inclined, we have posted the B-26K Illustrated Parts Catalog on the website. It can be downloaded from there. Go to http://www.a26k.org. Then click on the "Information" button at the top and it should take you to all of our manuals and reports posted so far, but the IPC is the top item. Enjoy!! JR