ww2 Kodachrome photos in colour

[Robert Lees]

Some lovely colour photos of B24's & P51 razorbacks in the war. Some look like they were taken yesterday.

Link

The B24 "Mitchell" is one of the few nose-draggers I would love to fly. Incidentally has anyone seen the film "Mitchells Do Fly In IMC"?

[Mark Julicher]

Re: ww2 Kodachrome photos in colour

Really nice pics at the web site.

B-24 = "Liberator"
B-25 = "Mitchell"
Just count the engines

[Robert Lees]

Re: ww2 Kodachrome photos in colour

What? One's got 24 engines and the other's got 25? Wow!

The Brits had a habit of giving names to US aircraft because the Brits were crap at adding up (we ended at the wrong end of the lend-lease deal, remember), and the Yanks were crap at making up names for aeroplanes. In the war, we Brits made up the names:

DC3=C47=Dakota
P51=Mustang
PBY5A=Catalina
T6=Harvard
C152=Spamcan

etc

etc

Well, you get the idea.

After the War, you Yanks caught on: use names. Piper had the right idea...call them all after Indians

Pa28 "Cherokee"
Pa34 "Tomahawk"
Pa18 "Cub"
Pa71 "Gupta"

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: ww2 Kodachrome photos in colour

Incredible pictures! A lot of the B-25 Mitchel pictures are from one of the production lines (there were a LOT of them so it is hard to tell which one. I suspect the first one is at the North American plant in California since it is a nose gun mod that is NOT like the ones that eventually went into service. Early B-25s had individual exhausts on each cylinder and most of the pictures where you can see the cowl don't have the holes so it looks like pretty late models. There are also a few where assembly is being done outside, which was common at NA California plants (hard to work outside in Omaha!)
The P-51s are "A" models and actually weren't called Mustangs. They had Allison V-1710-81 engines (not Rolls Royce Merlin's) and were called A-36 Apache. They didn't have the supercharger of the later P-51s for high altitude and were used mainly for ground attack.
When you become an old airplane junkie you learn a lot of details about old planes.
Hank

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: ww2 Kodachrome photos in colour

By the way, the picture with the three women working inside a round fuselage is a B-17G. Not sure what a Boeing photo is doing with the North American ones, but the Cheyenne gun position in the tail identifies it as a "G".
The last picture with three women working on an engine is an early B-25, note the individual exhausts.

Please, MORE!
Hank

[Larry Lyons]

Re: ww2 Kodachrome photos in colour

ABSOLUTLY PHANTASTIC PHOTOS!
However we must give credit where it is due. Great Briton ( Now the UK) did not like the A-36 Apache (under powered) however, someone there was smart enough to say Waalaa; lets take our Rolls Royce from our own Spitfire, turbo charge it, and see what we get. The rest is history.
The first pic is of an A or B-26, notice the single tail.
As an aside my father flew (among several other types) the B-25 in WW 2. Made a forced landing because the mechanic left a wrench in the nose wheel area. It fell into and lodged so the gear would not lock down for landing, so they bellied her in. About two years ago I had Dad along at Oshkosh, I talked him in to climbing up in to the cockpit of one of the 25's parked there. He spent about an hour up there talking to another old timer that had been a crew chief in the same war. As he is almost 85 he remarked that he did not remember the climb in and out being so tight 70 years ago!
Cherished memories for HIM and me!
Larry

[O.Taylor]

Re: ww2 Kodachrome photos in colour

As he is almost 85 he remarked that he did not remember the climb in and out being so tight 70 years ago!
Cherished memories for HIM and me!

While working in Tillamook, OR. on a PBY, some old guys asked if they could climb in it, there where in there quite awhile, when they came out I asked if it was like they remembered, they said, "the passageways are narrower and the steps are farther apart. I guess time has away of doing that to all of us O.T.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: ww2 Kodachrome photos in colour

You are sure right on the first one being an A-26. Not only the single tail but lack of inlets between the fuselage and engine, lack of "gull crank" in the wings at the engines and that great hatch in the top of the cockpit. That BIG overhead hatch would have been nice in the B-25!
Another thing is, don't you guys know ALL planes shrink with age. Why do you think the door gets so small on a Taylorcraft?
Hank

[Larry Lyons]

Re: ww2 Kodachrome photos in colour

As he is almost 85 he remarked that he did not remember the climb in and out being so tight 70 years ago!

Ok, not quite 70 years ago. But you must remember he was a B-24 instructor, an instrument instructor, and was flying co-pilot on a B-29 by 19. (the pilot was an old timer at 21! LOL
Larry

[flyguy]

Re: ww2 Kodachrome photos in colour

Every time I see pictures of the production lines for aircraft in WWII the thought goes thru my mind that Hitler and the Japanese just had no idea who they were taking on. (Well, one Japanese Admiral famously did.)

Makes me wonder if some of the folks in N. Korea or the Middle East aren't just a little short of a six pack in the sanity department.

The comment with the first photo translates roughly as "Believe it or not these came from Kodachrome 4 X 5's." ( I spent a very pleasant 2 years in Northern Italy, courtesy of the U.S. Army.)

Darryl

P.S. : Didn't the Merlin come with a Two-stage geared supercharger? Or was it different on the 51?

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: ww2 Kodachrome photos in colour

Yes, it was a two stage super (not turbo) charger. One of the big reasons our planes had such high performance was the addition of Tetra-ethyl lead (TEL) to increase the Octane level of our fuel. Higher Octane allowed increased boost from the superchargers and more power. The funny part was that the Germans actually captured US aircraft with TEL in the tanks and when they analyzed the fuel thought the lead was from poor quality refining allowing contaminants through! Most German aircraft used 87 Octane clear through the war. We helped the lack of understanding by allowing them to intercept messages complaining about lead deposits and poor quality fuel as if we didn't know where it was coming from.
The other great myth that is STILL rampant was the range of the P-51 being from the laminar wing. Two things on the P-51 were developed at Langley Research Center in WW-II (actually LOTS of things were developed, but two had to do with the P-51 range). The first was the laminar wing, but the true secret was the HUGE reduction in cooling drag from the belly scoop and that big door that actually added thrust from the heated air behind the scoop. That's the REAL reason P-51s could go clear to Berlin and back.
Hank

Twin light weight drop tanks and extra fuel behind the pilot kind of helped too, but you REALLY never wanted to get in a fight till that aft tank was burned down!

[Ryan]

Re: ww2 Kodachrome photos in colour

I believe the first photo is actually the A-20 Havoc or the "Boston" as rob would know it. Much narrower fuselage than the wider flat A-26s.
Ryan

[jim cooper]

Re: ww2 Kodachrome photos in colour

I flew on a B25 in the 50's, used for messenger service between my base and Omaha, Neb. then the hangout of Curtiss Lemay, head of SAC. It had seen service in WW2 and had had a nose cannon at one time, removed when I flew in it. It was operated from a "station wagon" type seat just below and in back of the pilot. The pilots who flew it were recalled from WW2 and had not transitioned into B-47's so they got flying time in this aircraft and a C-47 that was there. The P-51 with the Allison engine was a non performer. The BRITISH put the more powerful rolls in it and that completley changed the airplane. North American designed the P-51 at the request of the British and it went from drawing board to flight in a VERY short time. I THINK (not sure) that the Rolls added about 5-600 hp. It can be looked up but I seem to remember that. The Germans were by this time VERY short of fuel and were making high octane from COAL, which worked well. 100 Octane made a BIG difference! The D model P-51 WAS the ONE!

[jim cooper]

Re: ww2 Kodachrome photos in colour

When you look at these pictures its interesting to remember that Ford Motor company, at the height of their WW 2 production, had a B24 rolling off the line every half hour. The Gov. had originally intended to build NEW factorys to build aircraft, but someone, (BRIGHT), said the auto industry could modify and do it, and they did. Who would do this type work for us today? China? Henry Kiser was producing a Liberty Ship at the rate of one a month, on the west coast, General Motors built alot of Corsairs, etc. etc. A resturant in Wilmington , Del. at the airport, use to have hundreds of photos of women flying P-51's, Corsairs, B-25's and on and on. These girls were great pilots and were trained there in Wilmington. They would pick them up at the factory and deliver them to whereever.jp

[Forrest Barber]

Re: ww2 Kodachrome photos in colour

REmember tribe, a lot of A-20 & A-26 tail surfaces were made at the TAylorcraft factory right where your ships were built after the war. I still have skins up in my barn! 10 sets per day ; Rosie the riverter was quite busy.