| Show army maneuvers test flight data bata in en arctic region regio n handling planes in temperatures Tempera fures poses pose s many problems FAIRBANKS BANKS ALASKA stil bucking the peculiar problems ol 01 handling planes in hemr temperatures era tures at ai low as 70 degrees below zero the th men who fly B over the north polar areas are engaged in maneuvers for the second winter at those temperatures engine oil turns to something like hard rubber metals contract at varying rates gasoline leaks develop planes wont stand land s still on the ice of the runways and takeoffs take offs are risky lor for a number of reasons including the tact fact that thai gasoline wont always vaporize a at certain temperatures this information comes from men like first charles jerman ol 01 wilmington Wll del a veteran of european air combat and engineering officer of the reconnaissance squadron very long range weather the squadron that flies the weather run to the pole another Is first john D of antigo wis who has written the first army technical pamphlet on maintenance of th the e B 29 under arctic conditions A former master sergeant who has achieved not only his commission but regular army status he knows kno W the B 29 intimately from nose to tall tail turret lives lost last winter men were killed last winter during flights of the reconnaissance squadrons B and other planes from ladd field here information gleaned from the crashes has added to the file on cold weather operation but the engineering experts say the file is far from complete f flight itself they have found I 1 Is s not much different from anywhere e else except tor for some special icing difficulties the B 29 is pressurized and heated its crews often are as comfortable over the pole as they th ey would be over chicago navigation Is tougher than ordinary because the magnetic poles a are re generally useless and only celestial navigation Is positive radio is helpful but cannot always be relied on each polar flight carries at lea least s t two navigators and usually a third who Is learning the ropes the big problems are on the ground like housewives mgt gordon L runge of merrill wis flight engineer on a B 29 said that even under the best conditions these engines are like fickle housewives youve gotta baby em all the time or they wont do a thing they just sit there and moan that goes double and triple he said with the th e polar planes they yet learned all that happens except that its mostly bad when a plane like the B 29 is rolled from a hangar heated to 50 degrees or so and shoved into the winter air of 50 or more below it sags here and buckles there as contraction of metals in the airframe engines and controls cr creates e ates numerous bugs the pilot who say a prayer on takeoff take off li iii regarded d strictly as a nonbeliever non believer starting an engine is a long chain process starting with a blow torch and ending with heaters to pump pumi hot oil through and hot air around the engine itself the glass ice Is a ball bearing suck slick film that sometimes makes H 11 impossible to stop a plane on the runway with engine turning tor for any purpose such as the vital engine check before takeoff take off several checking methods have been tried with small sub success cess |
