On 6/23/2015 7:43 AM, John B. wrote:
On Mon, 22 Jun 2015 23:53:12 -0500, "David R. Birch"
wrote:

On 6/22/2015 6:22 AM, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"David R. Birch" wrote in message
...
On 6/21/2015 8:09 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:

This afternoon I was listening to the crew of a machine of similar
complexity, the B-29 bomber "Fifi". They had removed the turbos and
replaced the direct mechanical injection with carbs to cut down the
enormous maintenance, since they don't need the original high
performance.
http://www.aviation-history.com/engines/r3350.htm

-jsw

When the Soviets built the Tu-4, based on interned B-29 they
studied, they're tech was not up to replicating the Wright R-3350,
so they installed a carbureted radial which meant the Tu-4 had much
less range.

When my Dad flew B-29 missions out of Tinian, they never flew with
all new or rebuilt engines, at least 2 were engines that had already
proved they were reliable.

David

The crew said WW2 B-29 pilots tended to have more 3-engine than
4-engine time. By the 1960's the R-3350 engine had become very
reliable. Fifi's R-3350 engines were custom-built from A-1 and C-119
components, derated for reliability since the airplane now flies only
VFR below pressurization altitude.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_A-1_Skyraider
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairch..._Flying_Boxcar

-jsw

When my Dad's B-29 ditched, it had 1 functional engine. B-29s couldn't
fly on 1, they just descended slowly.

http://www.444thbg.org/birchjohn.htm

David

Well, the article said that they ran out of gas :-)

Basically, yes. They were told POW camp where they dropped the supplies
was in a valley, but when they entered the valley, the camp was right
underneath, so they had to make another run for the drop. The camp was
already near the limit of range for the B-29, so they were low on gas.
Then when one engine went, they had problems transferring fuel to the
remaining engines.


From the date I am assuming that your father would have been flying
the earlier carbureted models and I never saw one of those. By the
time I worked on them they were all injected and probably the last
version to have been made.

Certainly the engine failures that I read about were pretty well cured
as I don't remember an excessive number of engine changes for that
sort of airplane although I d remember that an engine change, working
10 - 12 hour days was a several day job. and anything that you did on
the engine was difficult to get to.

The 444th Bomber Group had been operating out of India but as airfields
opened up in the Pacific, they were transferred to Tinian, which is
where my Dad joined them. They also got new B-29s shortly after that.

David