Some cool precision turned elements producers photos:
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: south hangar panorama, such as Vought OS2U-3 Kingfisher seaplane, B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay”, among other people
Image by Chris Devers
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Vought OS2U-three Kingfisher:
The Kingfisher was the U.S. Navy’s main ship-primarily based, scout and observation aircraft during World War II. Revolutionary spot welding methods gave it a smooth, non-buckling fuselage structure. Deflector plate flaps that hung from the wing’s trailing edge and spoiler-augmented ailerons functioned like additional flaps to allow slower landing speeds. Most OS2Us operated in the Pacific, exactly where they rescued a lot of downed airmen, which includes World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker and the crew of his B-17 Flying Fortress.
In March 1942, this airplane was assigned to the battleship USS Indiana. It later underwent a six-month overhaul in California, returned to Pearl Harbor, and rejoined the Indiana in March 1944. Lt. j.g. Rollin M. Batten Jr. was awarded the Navy Cross for creating a daring rescue in this airplane beneath heavy enemy fire on July 4, 1944.
Transferred from the United States Navy.
Manufacturer:
Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft Division
Date:
1937
Nation of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
All round: 15ft 1 1/8in. x 33ft 9 1/2in., 4122.6lb., 36ft 1 1/16in. (460 x 1030cm, 1870kg, 1100cm)
Materials:
Wings covered with fabric aft of the principal spar
Physical Description:
Two-seat monoplane, deflector plate flaps hung from the trailing edge of the wing, ailerons drooped at low airspeeds to function like added flaps, spoilers.
• • • • •
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay":
Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of Planet War II and the first bomber to property its crew in pressurized compartments. Even though made to fight in the European theater, the B-29 discovered its niche on the other side of the globe. In the Pacific, B-29s delivered a range of aerial weapons: conventional bombs, incendiary bombs, mines, and two nuclear weapons.
On August six, 1945, this Martin-constructed B-29-45-MO dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. 3 days later, Bockscar (on show at the U.S. Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Enola Gay flew as the advance weather reconnaissance aircraft that day. A third B-29, The Wonderful Artiste, flew as an observation aircraft on each missions.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Boeing Aircraft Co.
Martin Co., Omaha, Nebr.
Date:
1945
Nation of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 900 x 3020cm, 32580kg, 4300cm (29ft 6 5/16in. x 99ft 1in., 71825.9lb., 141ft 15/16in.)
Components:
Polished overall aluminum finish
Physical Description:
Four-engine heavy bomber with semi-monoqoque fuselage and high-aspect ratio wings. Polished aluminum finish general, regular late-Globe War II Army Air Forces insignia on wings and aft fuselage and serial quantity on vertical fin 509th Composite Group markings painted in black "Enola Gay" in black, block letters on lower left nose.