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B-36 not the bra
#1
When I was growing up in Texas the B-36 was a daily event as it was either taking off or on approach for landing not to far from our farm.. Nothing sounds like the six turning and the four burning... The bird was part of SAC which had something airborne 24/7 just incase those pesky Ruskies tried something sneaky.. If they could have converted noise into speed this would have been one fast mover but alas it was slow and cumbersome.. The engines (28 cylinders if I remember correctly) were very problematic for over heating ... Anyway I came across this video and figured I would post just incase someone has never seen the bird..
#2
Pretty cool!
(What's the benefit of the push propellers rather than pull?)
G
[Image: CoolForCatzSig.png]
#3
(10-26-2017, 12:38 PM)gordi Wrote: Pretty cool!
(What's the benefit of the push propellers rather than pull?)
G

On that particular aircraft it had more to do with streamlining and trying to get air over the cylinders for cooling.. Plus the B-36 was used as a reliability test bed for the pod mounted jet engines which would be mounted on the next bomber the B-47 IMO...

Back in those days experimenting with engine mounts and locations was something of a hit and miss as everything was done in wind tunnels.. IMO the B-36 was an awesome maintenance hog POS which led to the next strategic bomber being an all jet B-47.
#4
If I remember the reason for the "push " system was the large propellers that would of disrupt air flow over too much of the wing  reducing the lift. 
Using the push system with these engines was not a good idear as the air intake for the engine was designed to use air that had been heated by flowing over the engine. Because the engine was the "wrong" way round cold damp air was fed into the engine. This meant at times the air intake would start freezing up changing the air mixture for the engine to rich ( too much fuel to air). So then fuel gas starts leaking past the piston rings into the inside of the engine. As the ice builds up more on the intake the mixture becomes richer and there comes a point when burning fuel gets past the piston rings and starts a fire inside the engine.
Because the engines crankshaft was made of magnesium ( to keep weight down) once that started burning its game over. The air problem was partly solved by  heating the intake air.
I believe the B-36 was something that was built to scare the Russians but was only meant to look good but not something the U.S. wanted to use long term so they never solved most of the big problems this aircraft had.
If I got anything wrong please let me know
#5
(10-27-2017, 10:54 AM)Wallfire Wrote: If I remember the reason for the "push " system was the large propellers that would of disrupt air flow over too much of the wing  reducing the lift. 
Using the push system with these engines was not a good idear as the air intake for the engine was designed to use air that had been heated by flowing over the engine. Because the engine was the "wrong" way round cold damp air was fed into the engine. This meant at times the air intake would start freezing up changing the air mixture for the engine to rich ( too much fuel to air). So then fuel gas starts leaking past the piston rings into the inside of the engine. As the ice builds up more on the intake the mixture becomes richer and there comes a point when burning fuel gets past the piston rings and starts a fire inside the engine.
Because the engines crankshaft was made of magnesium ( to keep weight down) once that started burning its game over. The air problem was partly solved by  heating the intake air.
I believe the B-36 was something that was built to scare the Russians but was only meant to look good but not something the U.S. wanted to use long term so they never solved most of the big problems this aircraft had.
If I got anything wrong please let me know

Sounds good to me .... I just know that there was more than one time when coming back for a landing one engine was shut down and feathered..


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