WWII Corsair Cockpit Interior

[Paul S.]

'Right wing 5 feet shorter than the left'. I can't imagine what a b*st*rd that would be to trim to get it flying straight and level. Heaven forbid ever stalling it --- instant spin.

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[NMC_EXP]

'Right wing 5 feet shorter than the left'. I can't imagine what a b*st*rd that would be to trim to get it flying straight and level. Heaven forbid ever stalling it --- instant spin.

Earnest Gann, author of 'Fate is the Hunter' flew the Hump in WW2 and mentioned this incident in the book. I seem to recall him saying they had a large monkey wrench clamped on the control column. They needed the extra leverage to control the thing.

'Fate is the Hunter' is an excellent book and well worth a read if you have not done so.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

That is an interesting thing about the Merlin story: the "home-grown" models seemed to "perform" better, at least for a while.

The reason is that they were HAND fitted; pistons selected for best fit to bores etc. Hideously time consuming, as opposed to the Packard "shake and bake" approach, which required incredibly fine tolerances on STANDARD production components and thus, on the assembly line, the engines just about fell together from standardized parts .

The RR "bespoke" jobs may have outperformed an "off the hook" Packard, but "ground-time" was somewhat greater and a rebuild was a MAJOR undertaking.

[ireload2]

When your process control is good there is no reason for hand fitting. All parts are within tolerance and they will fit without any monkey business. That is the purpose of good mechanical engineering and process control, you get optimum fits at minimum cost.

That is how the Ford Willow run factory built so many bombers. It was a 200 million dollar factory that from the beginning was designed to assemble the 4 engine B-24 bombers. The takt time of that factory was 57.6 minute per plane.

Here are some of the statistics:

• 488,193 parts
• 30,000 components
• 24 Major subassemblies
• Peak production- 25 units per day
• 25,000 initial engineering drawings
• Ten model changes in six years
• Thousands of running changes
• 34,533 employees at peak
• 100% Productivity improvement

[Seaspriter]

That is how the Ford Willow run factory built so many bombers. It was a 200 million dollar factory that from the beginning was designed to assemble the 4 engine B-24 bombers. The takt time of that factory was 57.6 minute per plane.

Fascinating Information. To see how fast we could gear up for war 75 years ago is staggering. Could we be so focused, aligned, and committed today?

In one of my innovation programs I challenge engineers to "Construct a Ship at least 160 meters long"
- Must hold cargo of 12,500 tons
- Must have a speed of at least 16 knots
- Must be built in less than a week with unskilled labor
Seldom does any engineering team say they would even consider the task. I then show them how Wendy the Welder and Rosie the Riveter constructed Liberty Ships during WWII. Here's the record:
Robert E. Peary constructed in 4 days, 15 hours and 26 minutes
- Joint Venture between Todd Shipyards and Kaiser Shipbuilding
- Innovative time-cutting techniques incorporated
- Seventeen banks of welding machines on each side of the hull,
- Pre-assembly of the deck in seven sections instead of 23,
- Complete outfitting of the deckhouses, down to bunks, fans and flooring, before assembly.
More than 747 vessels built in the four Richmond Kaiser Shipyards during World War II, a feat not equaled anywhere else in the world, before or since.
"Wendy the Welders" allowed unskilled laborers to do repetitive jobs requiring relatively little training to accomplish, which opened up jobs to women & minorities

[CINDERS]

Pic of my H/C 1st Ed. ~ Yes I have read this book twice and his flying experiences involved some very very shaky do's, in a DC-2 on the mail run with Ross when up-drafted putting their wheels down to slow the ascent in a cumulus nimbus in a gap that closed on them, taxiing the DC-2 and 3's which were rather contrite on the ground, Ross lighting matches in front of his eyes at night whilst trying to land a DC-2, icing up on the wings that from memory was 1/2" or so thick and the boots could not break it free with a plane load of passengers, the Taj Mahal incident with the radio antenae on board, the Hump, the Mare island incident and those spark plugs.

Scaring the hell out of the boffins who did not believe his story, the very dodgy Brazil trip to pick up a plane shooting the rats in the hotel rooms with a 45ACP (went through the walls) unknowingly solving the unporting of the elevator hinge pin that allowed the riddle to be solved a weight combination of fuel to passengers disembarked which saved their lives. And Solingen the wisest of Pelicans who had the coveted commercial license No.1. These are just a few examples of real fly by the seat of your pants. In Soligens words on one of Ernest's landings in a DC-2 as a trainee "That was not a landing, that was an arrival!"

The first few pages full of names bring it to the reader in blunt terms "For my old comrades (something to that affect) their wings forever folded" grab a copy it is well worth the read......Happy Xmas to all and a Good New Years to you and families.

[aspen80]

I appreciate you making these available. You did good!!

---------- Post added at 03:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:35 PM ----------

I appreciate your making these available. Good job!!