[Milsurplus] B-29 Reverse Propellers Switch

[D C *Mac* Macdonald]

How about the XC-142 which could TAKE OFF BACKWARDS???

Demonstrated at Carswell AFB (Ft Worth, TX) airshow around
October 1966.  XB-70, U-2, and honeycomb-winged B-57 with
two fan-jet and two pusle-jet engines, plus the YF-12A all
there.  Quite a show.  I have pic of XB-70 in about 45 degree
bank over my back yard.

Mac - K2GKK/5
Oklahoma City


----Original Message Follows----
From: C Whitaker <whitaker at pa.net>
Reply-To: whitaker at ieee.org
To: Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] B-29 Reverse Propellers Switch
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 11:29:06 -0500

de WB2CPN

I was a passenger on a DC-8 I think, from Chicago to Newark,
and listening on an ATC frequency.  ATC was up tight, and offered
the pilot a clearence to decend "if he could do it".  The pilot agreed to 
the
clearence, and idled his inboard engines, and threw out the reverse
clams.  Then he brought up more power on all four engines. That airplane
did decend.  When he got to the bottom the pilot put averything back to
normal, and we went on into EWR.    I'd never seen this kind of thing 
before,
so I asked the pilot what he thought he was doing.  He said that the reverse
power was held fairly high, and was cancelled somewhat by the power from the
outboard engines, but if he needed forward power in a real hurry he didn't
need to wait for the inboard engines to wind up.  He just retracted the
clams, and the passengers got pushed back into their seats like on takeoff.
Any body ever see this?    Trivia:  The PBM, I think,  was the first 
aircraft
that I saw back up on the ramp.

73  Clete