mickeyobe
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Post by mickeyobe on May 12, 2011 14:31:43 GMT -5
I recall not to long ago a discussion about Lancaster bombers and some of the participants rapsodizing about their sound of their engines. I was at the Canadian Air and Space museum today where they are slowly rebuilding a Lancaster. They are short of funds as museums often are so the quarters were rather cramped. I was on my knees for some of the pictures. I hope they bring back fond memories. Mickey
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on May 12, 2011 17:17:36 GMT -5
Mickey: Thanks for showing the pictures of the Lanc being restored. The lads working on it certainly have a lot of hard work ahead of them. Yes, the pictures do bring back memories, though we didn't have engines in quite that state of neglect to work on! The progress the riggers (airframe fitters) have made so far on the nose section is impressive. Unlike the riggers when I was in the RAF they can't just go to the strores and book out new replacement panels where needed. They've either had to do some tin-bashing to restore the old ones or maybe fabricate new ones from scratch. I'd hate to estimate how many old rivets they've had, and still have, to drill out and replace. The fitters (engine fitters) also have a lot to do on the Merlins just to get them looking good cosmetically, let alone running (?). Once I'd finished my ten-month basic engine fitting course I didn't have a lot to do with Merlins from four-engined aircraft. They had lots of extra pipes to all sorts of auxilliary bits and pieces like compressors and hydraulic pumps hanging on the power take-off points to power the various systems that single-engined planes like Spitfires and Hurricanes didn't have. Even so, the basic engine is, or was, very familiar, though 60-something years dims the memory for details. Here's a picture I took quite a few years ago at the RAF museum at Hendon of a slightly less cluttered Merlin from a single-engined plane, looking from the back. All the engine pictures illustrate Frederick Henry Royce's dictum that to stop parts distorting and prevent oil leaks you sewed them together with small bolts and nuts. Sound engineering practice, but I'll bet he never had to work on a Merlin with numbed fingers outside in a dispersal bay on an icy cold and windy morning. PeterW
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Post by olroy2044 on May 12, 2011 19:40:11 GMT -5
Wow, I was excited just to get to work on a carburetor, and they've got the whole dang plane! Terrific! Roy
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Post by Randy on May 12, 2011 21:51:50 GMT -5
That's a big motor!
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