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Old 06-23-2007, 10:46 PM   # 7 Quick Link (permalink)
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Shawn 507
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Re: RAF thoughts on the B-17 and B-24

And after the Great Yellow Mystery, what were the thoughts?
- Shawn

There is a good story about RAF B-17s. They tried them out and didn't like them much, in part because they had problems with the bomb bay doors refusing to open at altitude. They reported this to the US Army which was baffled because they didn't have the same problem. Finally someone went along to observe and discovered the reason. Seems that before takeoff the RAF crews would urinate into the bomb bay. This worked fine on British bombers because there didn't have a tight seal on the bomb bay doors and the liquid drained out. The B-17 the seal was tight and urine pooled. When you reached high altitude it froze and jammed the doors. When returning to lower altitude it thawed and the doors would open, dropping the extra cargo and leaving no trace of why the doors weren't performing at altitude.

 

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