Heavy Bomber tweaks

[Ack-Ack]

Bad rep with who?  flight simmers who have never flown?  In talking to guys that flew the airplane to war the big thing they talked about was fire, never heard them say anything about losing a wing....and I was paying attention since I was flying the same airplane everyday.

As for B-17 vs B-24.....you put a bunch of vets in a room and the B-24 guys will claim it was the best, -17 guys will say ditto about the B-17.  Of course these days we're only talking to the survivors.

Did the Davis wing make ditches and belly landings dangerous due to it's high fuselage-mounting?

ack-ack

[colmbo]

Did the Davis wing make ditches and belly landings dangerous due to it's high fuselage-mounting?

ack-ack

While the B-24 was not known for doing well when ditching or landing gear up it wasn't because of the airfoil or wing position.

Upon contact with the water the bombay doors would fail and the bulkhead at the rear of the bombbay would take the impact usually resulting in the tail of the airplane coming off which meant it quickly sank.  The "fix" was a ditching kit consisting of some support pieces that could be put in place to reinforce the bombbay door.  No pressure getting that installed in time. 

When belly landing the nose had a tendency to tuck under if rough terrain was encountered.