As many of you doubtless know, the crew of the Saro Princess flying boat included not one but two flight engineers, which I assume was testament to its mechanical complexity and the sheer number of engines (10) to oversee.
Question: does anybody know of any other aircraft that required dual f/es?
By: pagen01 - 11th February 2011 at 21:47
Great find Baz!
By: bazv - 11th February 2011 at 21:20
Interesting article by Bob Wealthy for Hamburg RAes,lots of lovely pics/ads etc
It would appear that the standard Princess would have had 2 FE’s,not that surprising given the complexity of the power plants !!
By: Feather #3 - 11th February 2011 at 20:24
Checkout the Russians
I think you’ll find the large Antonov’s carry two engineers at a double-panel.
G’day 😉
By: Stepwilk - 11th February 2011 at 05:42
“The Lockheed C5 Galaxy routinely carries two operating Flight Engineers…”
Turns out you’re absolutely right, to my embarrassed surprise. The guys at the 105th confirm it.
By: jackd - 10th February 2011 at 23:13
Martin Mars
The Martin Mars has two seats at the engineer’s panel – one for the flight engineer and another for the flight mechanic. From what I remember, most of the power settings were set from this position and the front crew just called for the power settings required. The two remaining examples are based at my former home town on Vancouver Island.
By: Stepwilk - 10th February 2011 at 23:03
Well, for one thing, I think that data sheet might be wrong in not including an aircraft commander–who is not the pilot–as a member of the crew, so I’ll see what the guys say. They’re just getting the Ms now, so I’m thinking C-5A as well.
By: baloffski - 10th February 2011 at 22:56
I had to go back and check, the memory is not what it was, but:
http://www.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=84
But I am basing my knowledge on Galaxy, not C5M Super Galaxy so wait to be corrected further.
Hope you enjoy the dinner!
By: Stepwilk - 10th February 2011 at 22:26
Not at the NYANG 105th Airlift Wing about eight miles from where I sit they don’t…I’ll be seeing several of the aircraft commanders for dinner in a couple of hours, so I’ll check that in any case.
By: baloffski - 10th February 2011 at 22:11
The Lockheed C5 Galaxy routinely carries two operating Flight Engineers, augmented crews can carry four. I guess that an augmented crew getting routechecked could theoretically carry five, but obviously only two at a time operating plus one checker.
By: pagen01 - 10th February 2011 at 17:48
My guess (and it is only that) is one to monitor test kit, it was common practice in British test flying to carry a Flight Test observer, and in the case of the Princess it did have alot of test kit wired up.
Don’t forget it had six powerplants in effect, eight of the engines were coupled units. Even if you counted ten seperate powerplants I can’t see why this by itself would require a no2 Flt Eng for normal operation.
By: Stepwilk - 10th February 2011 at 17:38
Okay, then I’ll modify my original question somewhat, since we now know the B-36 also had two f/es, for whatever reason, and I can no longer say, in my Air & Space article on the Princess, that it was “the only two-f/e airplane ever to fly.”
New question: do we think the dual f/es were there because of the complexity of the powerplants or because the need for a relief engineer on long legs or because they needed two during testing and would in passenger service having flown with one? Everything I’ve read about the airplane stipulated that its crew was “two pilots, two flight engineers, a navigator and a radio operator.”
By: pagen01 - 10th February 2011 at 17:35
Sorry JB, I started writing my post just before you must have posted!:o
As you say the jets were controlled from the co-pilot. Both pilots accessed the centre pedastal piston throttles for take-off and landings etc.
All engines (and other systems) were monitored by the Flt Eng, with the majority of the piston engine controlling done by him.
It seems the later model B-36s (certainly Js) actualy had a first and second Flight Engineer seated side by side at the controls.
By: J Boyle - 10th February 2011 at 16:50
The B-36 (Which I’m using as similar amount of engines etc)…..
On the B-36, the flight engineers had limited controls and instrumentation for the four jets. Their panel just had fuel flow controls, the rest were left to the pilots.
By: pagen01 - 10th February 2011 at 15:54
Just wondering if the Princess had two Flt eng’s as one possibly managed flight test controls and guages only?
The B-36 (Which I’m using as similar amount of engines etc) had one Flight Engineer (on duty, one could be on rest aswel) normally but required four Flt Eng’s for flight testing at delivery, trials, and after a major rebuild.
By: J Boyle - 10th February 2011 at 15:52
On most missions the B-36 had two engineers.
The B-36H even had two seats at the engineer’s panel, the earlier models only had one.
Now some of that may have been because the length of the mission in addition to complexity.
Sign In
February 10, 2011 at 3:39 pm