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Just out of curiosity - Airplane Guys
- Thread starter Downeaster
- Start date
To simplify logistics during wartime and because it had 4 engines, they all rotated clockwise. Any and all references to direction are as seen from the pilots point of view. That's a hard fast rule in aviation.
I know some but not sure if all twin engine boats spin the engines in opposing directions. Not sure if planes were the same.
Like engines with different rotation will have different model numbers. Mainly because different (part #) cam and valve gear will be used. Here's the DeHavilland Mosquito...
Had a guy that would bring in starters, generators and distributors in from his twin engine Criss Craft. I always asked and then marked which way they turned.
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More useless trivia.... engines of that era were built up and shipped as QEC's. Stood for Quick Engine Change. Everything firewall forward, with the exception of the prop and cowling was included in a QEC.... engine, engine mount, carburetor(s), generator, hydraulic pump(s).... everything. All you had to do was disconnect everything at the firewall and reconnect the replacement. An 8 hr "engine" change could be done in 2-3 hrs on a QEC. The carb was already adjusted to the engine it was mounted to.... didn't have to take it off one engine and install on the other. Same with the exhaust plumbing... generator.... everything. In wartime, downtime was bad. That carried over to the airlines where an airplane sitting on the ground was making zero revenue.... time is money.
Torque roll is officially known as "P Factor." P as in Propeller. The propeller rotating one direction tended to make the airplane roll (torque) in the opposite direction... much more pronounced at higher angles of attack and on single engine aircraft. Because the P Factor was spread across the wing, it had little effect on 4 engine aircraft.
Okay, I thought it might be something like that. Thanks!
Last month an unmanned drone launched.... an unmanned drone... from it's weapons bay.
Just one step closer to Skynet.
https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-...6/valkyrie-uas-launches-small-uas-weapons-bay
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I don't know much of flying ( either ) but has anyone an idea how that is going to be used.
Are we talking a drone out of a unmanned plane
I believed the Stealth planes had poor aerodynamics ..And needed " Above average " pilots to keep them up and perhaps more difficult to land them in side winds and rain. And so can be wrong
At quick read it can be a Wing man ..unpiloted ..But is the first plane gonna pilot 2 of them in the thunder storm.
What can it solve ?
This was not actually "poor aerodynamics," it was intentionally done and in fact predates stealth. Caution... long winded explanation follows...
The F-16 was the first production aircraft that used computerized "fly by wire" flight controls. It was designed to be unstable... for a reason. General Dynamics made it tail heavy. This makes an aircraft unstable in pitch. They even had a fancy name for it... Relaxed Static Stability.... an fancy way of saying unstable. Being able to rapidly change direction (pitch) is a desirable trait for a fighter. An aircraft that's naturally unstable is constantly wanting to pitch up or down. In other words, it wants to turn. That makes it ideal as a fighter, but also makes it un-flyable by us slow reacting humans. Computerized flight controls make it stable. The early computers would sense and adjust it's flight path 40 times a second! No human can match that... and I'm sure the modern variants are even faster.... this was 70's technology.
So, this leap in technology is what allowed the creation of stealth aircraft.... and eventually autonomous drones. You simply tell the computer where you want to go and the computer solved the problem of actually doing it. For instance, a drone needs weather info, runway direction and elevation, lon. and lat. of the runway threshold.... and the computer solves the equation to safely land there. Want it to drop a bomb? Plug in the same variables and it'll solve for it.
There's not much info out there Jan, but I'd guess that all drones involved... the mother and all the baby drones.... are autonomous.
Many years ago I went to work for an airline that operated Lockheed 1011's. Rolls Royce developed an engine for it, the RB211. Since I was a young fella and unseasoned, the more seasoned mechanics had a never ending supply of pranks. One of them told me RB stands for "rotates backwards". I worked on and around that engine for about 30 years and I never took note of which way the fan was turning. It does, in fact rotate CCW. If my info is correct, P&W and GE rotate CW. All these years working on them and it wasn't information of consequence to me.
BTW, my XS1100 engine rotates in the opposite direction from the XS650. They shoulda' called it the Yamaha RB1100.
BTW, my XS1100 engine rotates in the opposite direction from the XS650. They shoulda' called it the Yamaha RB1100.
They all turn the same way - counterclockwise when facing the aircraft (so - clockwise from the pilot's seat).
Check out this video.
The reason for the same rotation direction (as pointed out by Jim) was to simplify the spares since all of the engines and props were identical and yes, there was a torque effect, but the airplane was big and heavy in relation to the propellers and the B17 had a lot of rudder authority, so it was quite manageable.
Check out this video.
The reason for the same rotation direction (as pointed out by Jim) was to simplify the spares since all of the engines and props were identical and yes, there was a torque effect, but the airplane was big and heavy in relation to the propellers and the B17 had a lot of rudder authority, so it was quite manageable.
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Doolittle goes to war...
Hi marty,
as I'm sure that you know, RB stands for Rolls-Bristol. And Rolls-Royce didn't invent the RB211 The engine is actually a re-badged Bristol Pegasus.
And as I'm also sure that you know, the XS11 engine runs backwards because it has a chain drive going to it's primary reduction gearing,
Who the hell would want to be the first ones off the boatDoolittle goes to war...
Not much of a take off run
With all due respect to our British friends, they have built some spectacularly ugly aircraft.
I suspect the pucker factor required scientific notation...
