B17, Sally B

[TypeR]

Flew over the house earlier on her way to Abingdon apparently. Gorgeous noise!

[and31]

TypeR said:

Flew over the house earlier on her way to Abingdon apparently. Gorgeous noise!

I drive past Duxford in a regular basis and always have a look for the Sally B
Isn’t Abingdon where they are filming masters of the air?
My friend lives in Hemel Hempstead and the old town high street has been turned into a ww2 street for filming of the series

[Tony1963]

…. ‘The’ Sally B?

[and31]

Tony1963 said:

…. ‘The’ Sally B?

I do apologise-Sally B.

[Tony1963]

[Simpo Two]

Remarkably quiet, those B-17s.

And the 'Sally B' gets everywhere - in fact in the Simpo Archives there's a photo of my TVR in front of her.

[Mark V GTD]

and31 said:

Isn’t Abingdon where they are filming masters of the air?

Yes - two film replica B-17's parked north side at the weekend.

[and31]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/uk...

[aeropilot]

Simpo Two said:

Remarkably quiet, those B-17s.

They are.
And even while flying they are still remarkably quiet inside as well, and you can hold a conversation without needing to raise your voice much.

[Eric Mc]

On most - perhaps all - of the B-17s flying today, the turbochargers have been disconnected and they run the engines fairly gently compared to what they would have been during during wartime.

[Yertis]

Eric Mc said:

On most - perhaps all - of the B-17s flying today, the turbochargers have been disconnected and they run the engines fairly gently compared to what they would have been during during wartime.

How have they disconnected them though? Turbochargers tend to subdue exhaust sound, at least in automotive applications. I assume it's the same for aero engines. So I reckon it's just because they fly it gently. When I saw Sally B couple or three years ago I too thought "blimey, that's quiet". I'm sure the previous time I'd seen Sally B flying it was much louder, but that was a long time ago and Don Bullock was at the controls.

[Tony1963]

Sally B has had some real issues with engines over the years, and with the increases in fuel and insurance costs, together with fewer air shows, they just can’t risk another failure.
Be prepared for more and more warbirds taking it easy in future…

[aeropilot]

Yertis said:

Eric Mc said:

On most - perhaps all - of the B-17s flying today, the turbochargers have been disconnected and they run the engines fairly gently compared to what they would have been during during wartime.

How have they disconnected them though?

They remove the turbine units and some of the ductwork.

I know some years ago, the CAF's B-17G Sentimental Journey had working turbo's, and the B-17G 'Chuckie' when owned by Jerry Yagen had working turbo's. Chuckie is now owned by Jack Erikson and is now named Madras Maiden.

As Eric says, most of the others including the ill-fated '909' that crashed 2 years ago (and the one I flew on many years ago) have disconnected turbo's as they were for high altitude ops, and so are just not really necessary for current benign display flying at low level..........plus they need a lot of maintenance and the parts are getting hard to find, which is another reason not to have to have them connected.

[Eric Mc]

When you hear the racing versions of warbirds at Reno you get an inkling as to what they might have sounded like in full combat mode - especially the fighters, of course.