B 29 nose wheel : steerable or not ?

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lnouvo
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B 29 nose wheel : steerable or not ?

Post by lnouvo »

Looking at this photo of the nose wheel of « FIFI », it definitely looks to be steerable

[img]http://wisup.net/File_6/WIS_FR/2006/Ima ... 443360.jpg[/img]

http://www.b29superfortress.com/gallery ... rt=0&id=19
Therefore I wonder why taxiing of my B 29 must be made with the use of differential brakes and external engines control, instead of only rotating the yoke of my joy, as with most other aircrafts.
Is this a bug of the WOP B 29?
The more I learn, the more I realise my ignorance. (Jean GABIN - Dead French movie actor)

AC
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Location: CA

Re: B 29 nose wheel : steerable or not ?

Post by AC »

lnouvo wrote:Looking at this photo of the nose wheel of « FIFI », it definitely looks to be steerable

[img]http://wisup.net/File_6/WIS_FR/2006/Ima ... 443360.jpg[/img]

http://www.b29superfortress.com/gallery ... rt=0&id=19
Therefore I wonder why taxiing of my B 29 must be made with the use of differential brakes and external engines control, instead of only rotating the yoke of my joy, as with most other aircrafts.
Is this a bug of the WOP B 29?
Not Steerable...It castered. That is a shimmy damper.

The B50 had a steerable nosewheel .

Snuffy
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Post by Snuffy »

Welcome back Major! :salute:

Good to see ya.
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Snuffy
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AC
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Post by AC »

Snuffy_Hadden wrote:Welcome back Major! :salute:

Good to see ya.
Thanks, Snuffy! Good to be back! I was "under the weather" for quite awhile.

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JJB17463rdBombGroup
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Post by JJB17463rdBombGroup »

I'm glad that you are finally feeling better AC.
Sorry that you were under the weather for that long.
Son of a U.S.A.A.F. 15th Air Force 463rd bomb group 772nd squadron B17 pilot.
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Hylander_1715
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Post by Hylander_1715 »

Glad you're better Major!

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cflord
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B-29D Nose Wheel Steering

Post by cflord »

Inouvo:

AC is correct in saying that the early model B-29s did not have nose wheel steering. The B-29D which was the model that led to the B-50 did have hydraulic nose wheel steering. The following paragraph has the major changes that went into the B-29D:

The B-29D featured many changes. The redesignated aircraft, built with a stronger but lighter grade of aluminum, had larger flaps, a higher vertical tail (that could be folded down to ease storage in standard size hangars), a hydraulic rudder boost, nose wheel steering, a more efficient undercarriage retracting mechanism, and a new electrical device to remove the ice from the pilot's windows. The new aircraft's wings and empennage also could be thermally de-iced. Finally, the 4 higher-thrust Pratt & Whitney R-4360 engines that replaced the standard B-29's R-3350s gave a power increase of 59 percent, and electrically controlled, reversiblepitch propellers allowed the use of engine power as an aid to braking on short or wet runways. There was also some rearrangement of the crew.

I do not think the WOP B-29 is modeled after a B-29D. I hope this info helps.

Keep the shinny side up and the dirty side down!

Ret SMSgt C-130 Flight Engineer :?:

AC
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Post by AC »

I flew in '29's until December of '52, and had a few hours in th B50.

I never heard of the '29D 'til now.

Very interesting! How many did they build? Did they ever fly the "D" operationally or was it used only by Boeing as a test bed and demo?l

lnouvo
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Location: France

Post by lnouvo »

Hey Jo
Glad to read you again AC Joe. Great day and surprise for me grant Papy. I'm sure you made efforts to keep with us, and hope this is for long now.
A little worried that this damned nose wheel is not steerable. But glad with the infos from cflord.
What about adding a D model in the B 29 WOP serie?
For sure first thing to do is to confirm these infos. Is it still possible?
Second actual concern is to better know about re-usability of all FS 9 addons in FS X. MS insists to let us know that he makes every efforts for compatibility, but here, we don't trust him. Moreover evidence is that he is combining FS X and VISTA developments, and will oblige us to throw away our present PCs within next year. Good deal! Local MS said that probably individual developpers will have to make their own patches. Tks Bill!
'll see you.
The more I learn, the more I realise my ignorance. (Jean GABIN - Dead French movie actor)

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JJB17463rdBombGroup
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Post by JJB17463rdBombGroup »

I saw some links about the B-29D.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-50_Superfortress

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XB-44_Superfortress

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/b-29.htm

As to Windows XP Pro I think that support(patches) will run out for it in the year 2014.
Support is planned to end for Windows 2000 in 2010.
Windows Vista requirements are not too bad unless your PC was made in the year 2000.If your PC is older just use it for 9X/DOS games and dual boot with a LINUX distro.
I wouldn't worry about Shockwaves planes for FSX

Windows Vista Requirements
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/g ... pable.mspx

If you want to try it out for free look at this page
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/default.mspx
Son of a U.S.A.A.F. 15th Air Force 463rd bomb group 772nd squadron B17 pilot.
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AC
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Post by AC »

Those are great references about the whole B29 line!

Thanks!

I found this passage particularly interesting, because I was on one of the crews who were slated to fly the "one way combat" missions if the cold War heated up during 1946-'48.

"The B-29 was SAC’s first Cold War aircraft, and even as late as the close of 1948 the Air Force had modified only 60 of the planes to carry the atomic bomb. Its infrastructure, hangars, and ancillaries were reused from World War II facilities. While the B-29 was the long-range aircraft that revolutionized air war, the aircraft could only fly the U.S.-Soviet corridor one way, and could not achieve that distance heavily loaded. "

We could barely reach our targets . The plan was to drop our "Big Pickles" then use our last drops of fuel to get far enough from the target area,(and peasants with pitchforks) to bail out. :roll:

Our wives never found out about that ! :wink:

lnouvo
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Location: France

Post by lnouvo »

Wouahoo! Fantastic! Tks JJB17463rdBombGroup. It looks to me as a 24 ' container of infos on these B 29 and famous WWII aircrafts dropped in my garden!
It's sunday, and I'm retired, so I will spend some many happy hours reading thru all that. Many tks. My concern will be now : do I fly, or do I read? And what about daily domestic duties and others?
Bad news : my PC is a 2000 brand. Just too bad.
Over here, we all (individuals and clubs) will wait end of next year to take decisions. Local MS worries about our position and is making efforts to promote FS X and Vista. I may be part of the first local official FS X demos on this Oct 17, because local branch has no virtual pilots, and called for assistance to my VP club.
The more I learn, the more I realise my ignorance. (Jean GABIN - Dead French movie actor)

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dj51d
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Post by dj51d »

As far as I have been able to determine, no B-29Ds were built as the B-29D. The designation was changed to B-50, in part to get congress to fund the project.
Dan Johnson

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cflord
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B-29D Info

Post by cflord »

Hey Guys,

Here is some more info on the B-29D/B-50 that I found on the net.

An order for 200 production examples under the designation B-29D was placed in July of 1945, but was reduced to only 50 after V-J Day. In December of 1945, the designation of the B-29D was changed to B-50A. This was a ruse to win appropriations for the procurement of an airplane that appeared by its designation to be merely a later version of an existing model that was already being cancelled wholesale, with many existing models being put into storage. Officially, the justification for the new B-50 designation was made on the basis that the changes introduced by the B-29D were so major that it was essentially a completely new aircraft. The ruse worked, and the B-50 survived to become an important component of the postwar Air Force.

Keep the shinny side up and the dirty side down!

Ret SMSgt C-130 Flight Engineer :)

AC
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Post by AC »

lnouvo wrote:Hey Jo
Glad to read you again AC Joe. Great day and surprise for me grant Papy. I'm sure you made efforts to keep with us, and hope this is for long now.

Thanks for welcoming me back, Inouvo. I have missed you folks!

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