[ARC5] Lady Be Good - more.

[Mike Hanz]

Anyone who has had a chance to touch the side of a B-24 or its PB4Y-* 
brethren know the fuselage is a *huge* mass with paper thin aluminum 
skin.  Combine that lack of fuselage strength with comparatively low 
horsepower and a Davis wing that had very poor low speed characteristics 
and was basically tacked onto the sides rather than having a central 
wing spar, and you had an uncomfortable feeling anytime you took one 
up.  Yes, there are huge supporters of the aircraft who will cry foul 
with such an assessment, but those who were skeptical its flyability in 
"unusual" flight attitudes are probably in the majority.  An old friend 
in B-29s actually refused a trip back to the states in one at war's end 
because of its reputation in the Pacific...and was relieved that he did 
so when the aircraft he was supposed to be on crashed on takeoff.  Yup, 
only a single data point, but it was evidently a common perception in 
the Pacific Theater.

   - Mike

On 5/1/2011 3:09 PM, Michael A. Bittner wrote:
> "Was the B-24 so dangerous in a water landing that no one could have gotten out of it?"
>
> A veteran of the Polesti raid was on the Military Channel the other night. He indicated that the B-24 had very bad ditching characterisitcs.
>
> Mike, W6MAB
>    ----- Original Message -----
>    From: Kenneth G. Gordon
>    To: Arc5 at mailman.qth.net
>    Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2011 11:59 AM
>    Subject: [ARC5] Lady Be Good - more.
>
>
>    One thing that has always bothered me about the LBG incident was why did
>    they all bail out?
>
>    Was the B-24 so dangerous in a water landing that no one could have gotten
>    out of it?
>
>    When found, three of the props were feathered, indicating, obviously, that
>    they were very dangerously low on fuel.
>
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