B36 bomber video W/ Jimmy Stewart

[Tony H]

I'm a Jimmy Stewart fan and a vintage aviation fan so what better than both? Some really cool scenes. Seen this movie a few times over the years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1-urTRxeEM

[oldsinner111]

good movie wished they'd have nuked commies

[Tony H]

Thanks for the sentiments-you may yet get your wish.

[barry12345]

Steward returned with PTSD as it is known today. The loss ratio was so high. It probably felt like suicide to get into those planes for a mission. His wife described how he suffered with it. He did complete his tour I believe.

[cmac2012]

That is one big ass plane all right. The web claims it had the longest wingspan of any USAF actually produced in quantity. From wikipedia:

The B-36 is the largest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft ever built. It had the longest wingspan of any combat aircraft ever built, at 230 ft (70.1 m).

I'm guessing the Spruce Goose was larger.

I could swear I remember reading about a USAF prop plane with 4 on each side. Further, I could have sworn I saw one overhead when I was about 7 (1959) in Roswell, NM, about 5 miles away from Walker AFB. Can't find anything about it on the web.

George McGovern flew the B24, same plane as Stewart in WW2. I gather it would be seriously cold up there for them. Not surprising at that altitude. I'm guessing that creature comforts were probably too costly, took too much time to put in.

There's a wild story about how he accidentally bombed a farm house in Austria:

We had ten 500-pound bombs on that mission in our airplane. We dropped them over the target. But as we left the target, the navigator told me that one of the bombs was dangling in the bomb rack– it hadn't fallen. So I dropped out of formation at that point and I said, "look, you guys either have to get rid of that bomb or we're going to have to ditch this plane and bail out. I'm not going to land a bomber with a live bomb dangling in that bomb rack."

So they kept working on it. Finally the bomb broke loose and it fell, to my dismay, on a little farmhouse right on the border of Austria and Italy. I thought, "you know, it was probably a young family." It was at high noon having lunch during that period of the day, and I worried about that for years afterwards.

When I got back to the base, I was told there was a cable for me. My wife had just given birth to our first child– our daughter, Ann– and I thought, "gosh, you know, here we bring a baby into the world today and I probably snuffed out the lives of some young family that thought they were safely out of the war zone." I told that story on television in Austria 40 years later.

That night, an elderly farmer called the television studio– a studio somewhat like this one– and said,
"You know, I know from what the American politician said tonight on television that was my farm that got hit. It was right at 12:00. It was in the area where he said it was. I want you to tell him that I got my family out of the house, I got them into a ditch; we're all safe.

We hated Adolph Hitler– no matter what else you can say about my countrymen– and if ending the life of our farm, destroying that farm, ended that war even one minute earlier, it was worthwhile."

So I got redemption after all these years from the most regrettable moment of my flying career.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/stephen-ambroses-new-book-the-wild-blue

In another version I read of the story, they had been struggling to free the bomb for some time and just as it fell the farm house came into view. One crewman said it looked like the bomb fell right down the chimney. What weird and horrible luck. Also the farmer had said that when they heard the airplane coming they scrambled out of the house and found cover in the ditch.

[optimusprime]

Thanks for the video i am a J S fan.

[Tony H]

I don't think the Spruce Goose was a viable aircraft. Not enough power for it's size, surface area and weight even with 8 R4360's. It weighed almost twice as much empty as a fully loaded B29.
Edit-I read it would have needed twice the power to carry it's design payload.

[oldsinner111]

read up on Jimmy what a hero

[sno_duc]

Here is WW II training films you'll enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTBoYTy_M2o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSH_GUa9H9o

I love big radial's coming to life, they don't "start" they come to life one jug at a time. after enough revolutions all the cylinders join the party.

[barry12345]

Clark Gable was an air gunner. He was a little older than the average airman that went. James Steward did some enlistment promotional films in the 1940s for the air force recruiting as well.

The odds of making the twenty five missions were pretty small in reality. You would have to be actually one of the men to really understand the personal impact of that.

You did get a real bed to sleep in though. With better than average food.

[INSIDIOUS]

Originally Posted by Tony H

I don't think the Spruce Goose was a viable aircraft. Not enough power for it's size, surface area and weight even with 8 R4360's. It weighed almost twice as much empty as a fully loaded B29.
Edit-I read it would have needed twice the power to carry it's design payload.

The winged giant made only one flight on November 2, 1947. The unannounced decision to fly was made by Hughes during a taxi test. With Hughes at the controls, David Grant as co-pilot, and several engineers, crewmen and journalists on board, the Spruce Goose flew just over one mile at an altitude of 70 feet for one minute. The short hop proved to skeptics that the gigantic machine could fly.

[Tony H]

I guess it could get off the ground (water) with minimum fuel load and no cargo. With fuel for 3000mi and 150,000lbs cargo maybe not. I'm sure simulations could be run and find out for sure. The debate will go on. It's not too far from here. Maybe when COVID is over they will open it up again and I will go check it out.

[barry12345]

Hughes was odd beyond belief if you read and believe a few publications about him. The corporation he inherited from his father still survives I believe.

He was a proficient pilot so the spruce goose was hard to understand.He remained smart but was perhaps out of touch with reality by the time of the spruce goose.

He seemed to just develop more and more phobias as the years went by.Very paranoid as well it seems.

[Tony H]

My uncle in SoCal was an engineer for Hughes Aircraft Company for many years. He retired about 40 years ago. Lots of stories.