7th Nov 17 VIDEO: Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter is flying again! Off to new US base

This forum is odd! What the heck is the Spitfire-ism about?!? This thread is about a rare airworthy multi engine transport, why even mention a wartime fighter? I’m starting to think a few on here are losing their mental fitness, sadly.

In the meantime, great achievement there guys, that Boeing looks really good!

Im very happy to see a C-97 flying again, better tan 10 spitfires IMHO. Saw a pair operating out of Miami in 1990. They departed at dawn each day and remember getting up very early to see them, priceless experience.

Quote Originally Posted by Kenneth
I followed the live video on Facebook. What a fantastic achievement. Sad, in a way, that a concurrent thread in this forum about the new paint scheme of one many Spitfires has been viewed more often.
You have to take solace in the old saying ‘quality over quantity’ then.

T J

Der er nok ikke andet at gøre…

It was a (design) feature of most 1940’s – 60’s piston airliners, multi-engine tricycle gear types that they met the ground nosewheel first. The deployment of flaps produced a nose-forward moment and the aircraft stabilised like that. It was the approved landing technique. To flare, as expected (they did, but not noticeably and as much as modern aircraft) and to the angles you’d expect would have over-rotated the aircraft and stalled it.

B-29′, C-54, C/KC97, Constellation all did it.

It’s just the way they were designed and was a function of the wing incidence and AoA with flaps deployed – the nosewheel still landed first.

Great vid, by the way. So nice to see this very old and complex stuff coming back to life. It’s no mean feat to get one R-4360 and prop airworthy let alone four – along with the aircraft and its troublesome systems!

Anon.

I followed the live video on Facebook. What a fantastic achievement. Sad, in a way, that a concurrent thread in this forum about the new paint scheme of one many Spitfires has been viewed more often.

You have to take solace in the old saying ‘quality over quantity’ then. 😉

T J

Re; the ” Flying at the ground attitude “, its quite a normal thing for C-97’s to do a nose wheel first landing and take off flat too, a bit like a B-52 does, even seen film of DC-4’s doing it, Have no idea why though.

I followed the live video on Facebook. What a fantastic achievement. Sad, in a way, that a concurrent thread in this forum about the new paint scheme of one many Spitfires has been viewed more often.

I had an opportunity to fly in one once. I had just started USAF pilot training at Williams AFB outside of Phoenix and was going to fly home to Seattle for Christmas in December 1967. One of the IPs mentioned that I should call the Air National Guard unit at Phoenix (Sky Harbor Airport). Sure enough they had a KC-97 going to McChord AFB south of Seattle. Great deal…a free, quick flight home. It turned out to be a direct flight, only 10 hours flight time! As we approached McChord the runway was closed and we had to divert to Fairchild AFB, 350 miles away outside of Spokane, which took another two and a half hours. By then I was virtually deaf and nearly numb from the vibration. As I deplaned, an old guard Chief Master Sergeant asked me how I liked the flight. After my attempt at a tactful response, he laughed and replied that it wasn’t really an airplane, just a collection of nuts, bolts and aluminum panels flying together in close formation! No wonder they called it “Old Shaky”. Once was enough for me.

I guess it’s just from being used to modern airliners landing, but that “flying at the ground” attitude on final approach looks a bit disconcerting!

Adrian

Great news! I could only watch the one video in the link, Facebook login is needed for more.

If they hopefully manage to make a trip to Europe during a summer I do hope the people in the booking dept. for Flying Legends know who to contact. For this is truly a legend in more than one way.

T J

A supper guppy sounds quite good, but then again I only had a small dinner.

Those four videos were absolutely magic!
Thanks for posting the link.

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That makes 3 of the B-29 linage flying!

…make that 4. The NASA Supper Guppy is another.

Now in New Jersey!
(US one, not Channel Island one 😉 )