RESTORATION PROJECT LISTS

B-29 Superfortress T-Square 54

MARCH 25, 2014

MUSEUM OF FLIGHT Seattle, Washington

Restoration Projects- B-29 Superfortress-T-Square 54

Table of Contents
AMMUNITION STORAGE RE-CREATION ....................................................................................... 3
Configuration Research .....................................................................................................................................5 Manufacturing Process .................................................................................................................................6 Final Assembly .................................................................................................................................................7

AUXILIARY POWER UNIT (APU) RESTORATION ....................................................................... 9 CENTRAL FIRE CONTROL SYSTEM (CFC) - B-29 - Defined ................................................. 10 CENTRAL REMOTE CONTROL (CRC) COMPUTER RESTORATION .................................. 12 COMPUTER FIRE CONTROL SYSTEM RESTORATION ........................................................... 13 COCKPIT FLOOR/AISLE STAND RESTORATION ..................................................................... 15 ELECTRONIC CONNECTOR BOX RESTORATION ..................................................................... 18 EXHAUST PIPES RE-CREATION B-29 T-SQUARE .................................................................... 19
THE MIGHTY WRIGHT R3350 ..................................................................................................................... 21 The male model ............................................................................................................................................ 21 Digitizing the male mold ........................................................................................................................... 22 Laying up the parts...................................................................................................................................... 23 Mounting ring ................................................................................................................................................ 23 Cold air inlet and dome.............................................................................................................................. 24 TURBOCHARGER DISPLAY UNIT ............................................................................................................... 25 Waste Gate Function ................................................................................................................................... 26

GROUND POWER UNIT (GPU) RESTORATION......................................................................... 28 GUN TURRET PRESSURE DOME RE-CREATION B-29 T-SQUARE .................................... 29
Associated Hardware on display ................................................................................................................ 31 Dome purpose .................................................................................................................................................... 31 The basic dome shape ..................................................................................................................................... 33 The Dome mold.................................................................................................................................................. 33 Dome configurations ....................................................................................................................................... 34 Pressure Dome purpose: ............................................................................................................................... 36 Dome installation - ........................................................................................................................................... 36 Insulation: ............................................................................................................................................................ 37

INVERTOR, ELECTRICAL BOX, OVERFLOW TANK AND PRESSURE CONTROLS RESTORATION ...................................................................................................................................... 38 R-3350 DISPLAY ENGINE RESTORATION B-29 T-SQUARE ................................................ 39 R-3350 ENGINE PROPELLER DOME RESTORATION B-29 T-SQUARE ........................... 40 RADAR ASSEMBLY RESTORATION B-29 T-SQUARE ............................................................. 41 RADOME RE-CREATION FOR B-29 T-SQUARE ........................................................................ 42
Restoration of APQ-13 Antenna- ................................................................................................................ 44 Background research- ............................................................................................................................ 44 Determining the Radome geometry - ....................................................................................................... 47 Antenna mount-................................................................................................................................................. 50 Determining radome material- ................................................................................................................... 51 Fabrication method- ........................................................................................................................................ 52 Radome attachment- ....................................................................................................................................... 54

TAIL TURRET RESTORATION B-29 T-SQUARE ....................................................................... 56

Turret in Renton - ........................................................................................................................................ 58 Fake Tail Turret - ......................................................................................................................................... 59 20 mm Cannon -............................................................................................................................................ 60 Armament Location ................................................................................................................................. 60 Gimbal System - ............................................................................................................................................ 61 Gunners Cupola ........................................................................................................................................ 62 Rear dome and fairings- ............................................................................................................................ 63 Entry Door - .................................................................................................................................................... 64 Electrical Systems- ...................................................................................................................................... 64 Armor Plate Glass - ...................................................................................................................................... 65 Oxygen and flight suit heater system ............................................................................................... 66 Installation of Gunners seat ................................................................................................................ 66 Insulation - ...................................................................................................................................................... 66 Dome protective cover fabrication - .................................................................................................... 67 Final thought- ..................................................................................................................................................... 67

TURBOCHARGER RESTORATION .................................................................................................. 68

AMMUNITION STORAGE RE-CREATION

B-29 TAIL TURRET SYD BAKER

Photo by Syd Baker

Acknowledgements B-29 Ammunition Storage:

The Volunteers: Sam Lehtinen Paul Lehtinen Richard Greer, CimTech Syd Baker

The Companies : CIMTech, Steve Kidd, President, Seattle Mapeltex, Tacoma, Fiberlay, Seattle Photographs : Syd Baker

Front page picture Left and right ammunition boxes are shown below the horizontal stabilizer lower skin, the tail bumper retraction cylinder Is mounted between boxes and is normally covered.

AMMUNITION STORAGE FOR REAR GUN TURRET B-29 T-SQUARE Of all the defensive gun turret positions, arguably, the rear turret is the most critical. Consequently it was logical to provide each of its two 50 caliber machine guns with plenty of ammunition, 800 rounds per gun. Since T-Square had all of this system completely removed during one of its post war assignments, my job was to re-create both the storage and feed system for the rear turret.

Configuration Research
As was the case in many of the contemporary drawings, the manufacturer was given an option whether to make the parts from aluminum sheet metal or a fiber board material called Phenolic. Our airplane apparently used Phenolic. This material has a distinctive reddish brown color and is translucent so that the weave of the compressed canvas from which it is made can be detected below the surface. Phenolic is still being used today but since the ends of each storage box have large holes which were molded into the Phenolic under heat and pressure, I had to come up with an alternative. During one of my trips to Duxford I was able to get a very good idea of the color and texture of the original storage boxes. In discussions with nice Folks at Fiberlay in Seattle, where I have been buying all my previous fiberglass supplies, they came up with a resin tint product which, when mixed into the clear fiberglass resin provides Photo by Syd Baker about the correct reddish brown color, but still remains translucent. Since the majority of the box is made from plain sheet stock I set about making enough material for the side panels as well as for the bottoms and lids. This was simply done on a sheet of flat Formica upon which I laid up four layers of 3 oz. Fiberlass cloth carefully rolled with a special roller to ensure that all the air bubbles were removed when the resin was fully cued, I simply bent the Formica sheet slightly and the raw fiberglass sheet came right off. Both the outside texture and the color were very similar to the original Phenolic. The end panels were an entirely another story since I had to devise tooling to replicate the large round flanged inspection holes located in each end. The ends also have integrated 90 degree attached flanges running down the entire length to which the fixed side panels are riveted. 5

Manufacturing Process Time to go to Steve Kidd at CIMtech again for help. This time I had actual drawings of the parts that I had to re-create so it was a matter of Richard Greer creating the necessary digital programs from the dimensions on the drawings. This, I am sure took many hours of programming and later machine time which was extraordinarily generous of Steve to provide this level of help to our project. The first decision was what do we use to manufacture the box end tooling from and also how do we make the feed chutes. The chutes had to look as much like Phenolic as possible. At first I proposed to Steve that if he would make the tooling for the chutes I would then lay up the actual hardware in fiberglass. Steve recommended that I should go and look at some material that he had been able to machine very well previously which he thought looked something like Phenolic, He suggested that instead of him making the tooling for the chutes he would make the actual hardware. He would put me in touch with Steve at Mapletex in Tacoma, and see what I thought. My visit to Mapletex was very informative. The irony is that the Mapletex product is manufactured in almost exactly the same way as Phenolic, except Mapletex uses large sheets of paper impregnated with a heat sensitive adhesive. They simply kept adding layers of this paper until they achieve the thickness of material they want. These sheets are placed on a very strong flat steel pattern are then cooked under pressure and heat in an autoclave. The difference between Mapletex and Phenolic is one uses a paper sheet, the other canvas. The Mapletex is not quite as dark reddish brown but has a very nice layered look which I thought would be quite acceptable. Steve at Mapletex gave me not only enough raw material to manufacture the chutes and their caps but also enough to make the box end tooling for my fiberglass mold most generous of them! When I returned to CIMtech with all the detailed drawings, Steve Kidd still insisted that they would build not only my box end mold but also the left and right feed chutes and the four longitudinal angle pieces which get riveted along the sides of each chute and stop the 50 caliber ammunition belt from levitating out of the chute, either from aircraft turbulence or inertia as the belt stops running when the guns stop firing. This was major job that Steve was taking on requiring many hours of programming and machining.

This picture shows the Steel end tool on the left and on right is the one of the feed chutes without the side covers. In the 6

Photo by Syd Baker

background are the two completed boxes with one lid removed and one side folded down. A short length of 50 caliber ammo belt is also shown. When I received the box end mold I had to manufacture a sheet steel channel section the same length as the Mapletex mold, with large holes through which I inserted two aluminum plugs to insure that the fiberglass was pressed accurately into the machined cavities, to insure a smooth transition of the fiberglass into and around the large inspection holes. The sheet steel insured that the fiberglass also folded around the long side edges to insure a tight 90 degree attach flange. In actual practice the mold and the pressure cover worked quite well, Photos by Syd Baker after I added some small holes to vent trapped air which caused some unacceptable voids in the part. Final Assembly At this stage Sam Lehtinen became a very involved partner in this project. He and I laid out all the side and end panels with all the various aluminum angles, hinges, sheet metal brackets, to assemble the two boxes. After an extensive search of the internet I came up with an identical slide snap fastener which is used extensively to provide quick release for the lids and side panels After Sam and I had completed all the riveting and final assembly, Sams brother, Paul, did a wonderful job of final painting of all the steel parts green. The boxes are installed in the rear of the aircraft on either side of the tail skid retraction cylinder, which is actually a very robust retractable device which protects the lower side of the B-29 should the pilot inadvertently make tail strike on landing. Sam replaced the missing and damaged attach brackets and very accurately drilled the matching mounting holes in the sides and bottoms of the ammunition boxes. The boxes had to be mounted very precisely to insure that the left and right feed chutes would match up with the feed through ducts which pass through the gunners compartment. On the rear end of these ducts are high torque electric motors with an ingenious drive sprocket which engages with the 50 7

Photos by Syd Baker

caliber rounds in the belt, and when the gunner fires each gun, the respective drive motor pulls the very long belt all the way from the ammunition boxes along the chutes through the pressure ducts and up into each gun, a distance of approximately eight feet. Once the belt is in motion it has a lot of inertia, so that when the gun stops firing the belt tends to keep coming and a standing wave occurs down the length of the belt. This is the main reason for the flanges on each side of the feed chutes - to stop the belt from spilling over the sides of the chute. Each box has a removable lid and fold down sides to make it easier for the armorer to load the 800 round belt into each box, along the chutes and finally up into each 50 caliber machine gun. It must have been a very different task especially in the hot tropical Pacific Islands.

AUXILIARY POWER UNIT (APU) RESTORATION

Team of Volunteers: Primary: Dennis L. Dhein, and Scott Taylor, Don England, Jerry Brown, Bill Wiesner , Syd Baker.

Before

After

In the aircraft

The assembly was completely taken apart, cleaned, straightened a bent frame, removed paint as required, cleaned and repainted with stencil work added.

CENTRAL FIRE CONTROL SYSTEM (CFC) - B-29 - Defined

By Dale Thompson The B-29 was equipped with a unique method of operating its machine guns, called the Central Fire Control System. The fact that the plane was pressurized precluded the gunners from having physical access to the guns. So, the General Electric Corporation was contacted to provide a means of remotely operating the guns. GE had experience stabilizing shipboard naval guns in the 1930s, which gave them a head start. Each of the five turrets on the B-29 is controlled using a sighting station, some of which can control more than one turret.

This allows the aiming and the firing of two turrets simultaneously. Each turret and each sighting station has two elevation selsyns, for coarse and fine resolution, and azimuth selsyns, also for coarse and fine resolution. A selsyn is a system comprising a generator and a motor connected by a multiple wire circuit of appreciable length, transmitting currents that turn the motor simultaneously to the same relative position as existing or established for the generator, and repeating instrument indications and valve settings remotely called also synchro. As the gunner moves the station to track the target, an error signal is developed because the sighting station selsyns and the turret selsyn are not in line. The error signal is first amplified using vacuum tubes in the servo amplifier in an amplidyne, which is a rotary generator-amplifier. The direct current output voltage of the amplidyne is sent to the azimuth and elevation motors in the turret, moving it until it is aligned with the sighting station, causing the error signal to go to zero. Because the sighting stations and turrets are separate from each other, an aiming correction must be applied for the distance between the sighting station and its turret. This is called a parallax correction, and it is supplied by an electro-mechanical computer that modifies the sighting station selsyn signals before sending them on to the turret selsyn. In addition, to the parallax correction, the computer also adjusts for target speed, target range, aircraft speed, and air density. Aircraft speed and air density are supplied by the Navigator, who sets the aircraft speed, aircraft altitude and outside air temperature on a unit called the Altitude and Airspeed Handset. Target speed and target range are supplied by the sighting station. The sighting station has a display of a circle of dots with a center dot. The gunner keeps the center dot on the target aircraft and the circle of dots on the targets wing tips. As the gunner tracks the target, the 10

sighting stations gyroscopes allow the computer to estimate the targets speed. The circle of dots on the targets wingspan give the computer a range estimate. With all this information, the computer can adjust the turrets position so that it leads the target and compensates for bullet ballistics. The gunner fires the guns electrically by depressing a button on the sighting station. Each turret has its own computer, adjusted for parallax with its primary sighting, five in all. The paths of these various signals converge in one of four control boxes located in the nose, waist and tail of the aircraft. The control boxes allow the switching of sighting stations between their primary turret and their secondary turret. Sighting stations are located in the nose, at each of the two blisters in the waist, at the top of the plane, also in the waist and at the tail. Turrets area located above and below the cockpit, above and below the aft waist, and in the tail. The forward gunner, who is also the bombardier, has primary control of the upper and the lower forward turrets. The upper gunner has primary control of the upper aft turret. The blister gunners have primary control of the lower aft turret, and must choose which of the two sighting stations control the turret. If the forward gunner releases control of his gun, the blister gunners get control of the lower forward turret, and the upper gunner gets control of the upper forward turret;. If the tail gunner releases control of his turret, then either of the blister gunners can fire the tail turret. The tail gunner fires only the tail turret. The upper turret gunner is called the OFV+C gunner and is in control of the defense if the airplane, calling out which gunner should fire which turrets. Gunners coordinate among themselves using the intercom system. All of the turrets are operable on T-Square 54, the Museums B-29, and may be operated from various locations inside the fuselage, and from two locations outside the airplane, giving a better view of their movement. Also, a complete, additional upper turret has been mounted on a stand outside of the airplane, and can be operated from the outside sighting stations. A recording of the actual firing of a .50 caliber machine gun is amplified and sent to a speaker located in each of the turrets when that turret is fired. The operational checkout of our CFC system started with all of the restored components for one turret-sighting station combination assembled on a test bench, including a turret mounted on a test stand. As each combination was made operational, it was mounted in the aircraft. Three of the control boxes were fabricated, as none were available. The tail turret was a very major project with complete physical construction required. Extensive work was done to the amplidynes and motors, and all of the active electronic elements were refurbished. The CFCC restoration team: Syd Baker Dick Peterson Doug Bulloch Richard Peterson Roy Foote Paula Schmitz Rich Heasty Larry Tietze Neale Huggins Dale Thompson Hal Lyon Ken Williams 11

CENTRAL REMOTE CONTROL (CRC) COMPUTER RESTORATION

Team of Volunteers: Primary: Dennis L. Dhein, and Dale Thompson, Scott Taylor, Don England, Jerry Brown, Bill Wiesner , Syd Baker.

Front view before

Rear view after

Front view after The computer covers were removed, and stripped of paint, internal parts were cleaned and clear plastic covers were made so the inner workings could be displayed and not touched. Also, a base frame was made for the CRC computer to be displayed on a simulated mounting in the aircraft.

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COMPUTER FIRE CONTROL SYSTEM RESTORATION

This is a close-up of the test bench used to check out the electronics associated with each gun turret and to operate that turret before installation in the plane.

This is the whole test bench. On the right is the gun sighting station which each gunner uses to aim the turrets.

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Computer Fire Control System Restoration - continued

On the right of the aircraft are the servo amplifiers which amplify the error signal with vacuum tubes to drive the amplidynes on the left, one for elevation and one for azimuth for each turret, which in turn operate the motors on the turret. At the top is the upper system control box which was constructed by the crew.

This is one of the turrets, located next to the test bench. The larger vertical cylinder is the motor which rotates the turret in the azimuth direction. The two smaller cylinders are the course and fine selsyns, which produce a signal indicating the direction the turret is pointing. These components are duplicated on the far side of the turret for the vertical direction of travel

This is the control box for the tail turret during construction. It, along with the upper system control box had to be built by the restoration crew as none were obtainable.

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COCKPIT FLOOR/AISLE STAND RESTORATION

A stand is provided in the aisle between the pilot and copilot, allowing easy each access to the controls. The controls located here consist of the: Control surface lock lever, Emergency brake levers, Wing flap normal and emergency control switches, Propeller feathering switches, Emergency alarm switch, Formation light bright/dim switch, Position light switch, Recognition light switches and code key, Propeller RPM switches, Propeller pitch circuit breakers, A.F.C.E. (autopilot) system controls, Turbo boost selector, Wing flap normal and emergency switches, Bomb salvo switch and Bomb bay door open/close switch.

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COCKPIT FLOOR/AISLE STAND RESTORATION - continued

Aisle Stand

THESE CONTROL HANDLES METER PRESSURE TO THE BRAKES FROM AN EMERGENCY PRESSURE ACCUMULATOR THE VOLUME OF WHICH LIMITS THE NUMBER OF COMPLETE BRAKE APPLICATIONS TO APPROXIMATELY THREE. MAINTAIN A CONSTANT BRAKE PRESSURE WHEN POSSIBLE TO CONSERVE THE PRESSURE SUPPLY.

CAUTION

Autopilot Control Box

The electronic turbosupercharger control system on B-29s consists of separate regulator systems, all simultaneously adjusted by a single turbo selector dial located on the pilot's aisle stand.

Automatic Flight Control Gyro

Photo by Syd Baker

The Aisle Stand restoration proceeded as follows: The Aisle Stand aluminum shell (5 sided box) was dent free and matched the configuration drawings for our serial number, 44-69729. There were the early configuration (serial 42- ) and the later configuration (serials 44 - ), plus about six sub variants. The later configuration could be identified, among other details, by the bomb salvo switch in place of the propeller pitch circuit breakers in the lower right corner. The restoration concentrated on placing the correct switch (31 including 6 breakers) in the proper place. Years of field modifications and conversion from a bomber to tanker had left many extra and often overlapping holes. SAM LEHTINEN machined a proper repair plate. PATRICK STEPPIC selected the right switches and often had to rebuild them. ROGER CALDWELL straightened the bent and crushed propeller-feathering switch guards. TERRENCE McCOSH assembled a mock-up

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COCKPIT FLOOR/AISLE STAND RESTORATION - continued aisle stand to inventory restored components, and verify position and function while repair/adapter plates, paint and decals were applied to the actual aisle stand. In addition to the above, the brake quadrant guide had been radically modified in an apparent effort to simplify assembly. An undamaged guide was found in the sheet metal parts pile (luckily) and installed. Turbo control knob inlay was reworked. White coloring was replaced on recessed legends, and rheostats were refurbished. It was necessary to replace barrel insulators on bomb door indicator light, install a bat handle extension on flap switch, and recondition and lubricate ganging bar hinges for propeller speed control switches. Best guesses were applied to the following two items as no documentation could be found: Item one was the propeller-feathering switch buttons were enlarged and space between them increased. Each switch was guarded by its own aluminum can (see CALDWELL above) rather than the all-in-one plastic box depicted in the drawings and operating manual. Spacing and mounting were facilitated by a factory adapter plate. This is believed to be a war time, field revision and thus retained. Item number two was a pair of toggle switches that turned on the landing lights while retracted. Although echoed on the aisle stand of 44-61748, the configuration was believed to be a tanker docking aid and thus was rejected in favor of the landing lights up/off/down switches. The AFCE (Automatic Flight Control Equipment) is a project in itself. The control box drops into a well in the lower left corner of the aisle stand. To make it presentable the following was done: ROY FOOTE made the missing ganging bar that allows for simultaneous activation of controls surfaces, SAM LEHTINEN machined several missing control knobs, TERRENCE McCOSH fabricated the mechanical dimmer by copying the B-17s C1 AFCE. Thanks to HERB PHELAN, Crew Chief, for allowing access to 42-29782 and its C1.

Work remaining: Apply the fluorescent legends adjacent all knobs and switches. That leaves us to contemplate the mystery decal: MAXIMUM GROUND OPERATION TIME TEN (10) SECONDS.

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ELECTRONIC CONNECTOR BOX RESTORATION

Team of Volunteers: Primary: Dennis L. Dhein, and Dale Thompson, Scott Taylor, Don England, Jerry Brown, Bill Wiesner , Syd Baker

AAl

All cables and connectors were removed from the box. Everything was cleaned and repainted as required.

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EXHAUST PIPES RE-CREATION B-29 T-SQUARE

(ENGINE AND TURBO CHARGER) SYD BAKER

Photos by Syd Baker

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS - B29 EXHAUST PIPE PROJECT

The Volunteers - Herb Phelan Richard Greer, CIMtech David Arena, CIMtech Bill Weisner Scott Taylor Dennis Dhein Syd Baker

Companies - Steve Kidd, President of CIMtech, Seattle. High Tech. Molding Foam provider General Plastics , Tacoma Fiberlay-,David Chamberlain Photography - Syd Baker

Front cover picture: Picture of exhaust pipe and waste gate pipe taken at Duxford on the B-29 Haug Will

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THE MIGHTY WRIGHT R3350

Each of the mighty Wright R3350 2200HP engines on the B-29 have two large (12 inch) diameter turbo chargers mounted on either side of the rear engine cowling. Each turbocharger has two outlets, the smaller one for the waste gate and the larger to direct the main exhaust gas flow downwards, and to the rear under the wings. On the Museum of Flights B-29 T-Square, the larger of these pipes was missing on all of the four engines. Since the exhaust pipes are a very prominent feature of the cowlings, it was, after a protracted search for some real steel units decided to fabricate replacement units using fiberglass.

The male model

a display unit). Looking at the drawings, which were of course intended to produce parts from18 SWG high temp steel, not fiberglass. I realized that to make the fiberglass look like metal I had to make a female mold to obtain the desired smoothness on the outside of the parts. Also that the mold had to make, if possible, the complete part in one operation, since joining two halves of such thin material would not be practical. My first big problem - how to convert Herbs full size male model into
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Herb Phelan had found the original manufacturing drawings and constructed a full size replica. (The white unit in photograph) He asked me if I could use this to make nine realistic fiberglass parts. (one extra for

a female mold. Then a small miracle occurred. Quite by chance, Herb had invited Steve Kidd, president of CIMtech to come and look over our B-29 restoration. When Steve asked me about my exhaust pipe project, he said Would you like me to make the mold for you? We could use this in our seminar on high tech. manufacturing which I am organizing. I of course said that would be great.
Digitizing the male mold

The first operation at CIMtech by Dave Arena was to scan the full size model made by Herb. This operation uses a hand held laser scanner made by Creaform. This scanner can best be described as a miniature GPS system in which three scanning lasers are mounted in a triangular pattern similar to GPS satellites which is then carefully passed over every surface at a consistent distance of about 12 inches of the male mold, this through software by Rapidform creates a 3-dimentional virtual part which is displayed on a computer screen in real time. Magic! This can then be rotated and viewed from any angle and changed if required. The data from this scan was then taken by Rich Greer and programmed a data file for later use on the VF-4 5 axis Hass Milling Machine. During this, Rich was able to refine the data so that any imperfections in the original model scanned part were corrected. The next issue was what to machine the mold from. Steve Kidd contacted General Plastics of Tacoma who donated a very expensive block of 45 pound high density foam specifically formulated to be machined and to take a very smooth non-porous surface finish, while not abrading the milling equipment.

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The mold was machined in two pieces split down the longitudinal axis, each half had extremely accurately located bushings and using tooling pins so that when the two halves of the mold were finally finished and joined together, one could see the split line but it was so well aligned that the joint was undetectable by feel.

Laying up the parts

The mold was made in two halves for the obvious reasons -1) the 5 axis milling machine could not reach into the enclosed area, and 2) in order to remove the completed fiberglass part the mold had to be able to be separated. After coating the working surfaces of the mold with Carnuba release wax. I assembled the two parts of the mold together and sprayed 20 mils. of black gel coat to the inside surfaces. To lay up a fiberglass part inside a very narrow tube is extremely challenging. It is very hard to reach into the small opening to make absolutely sure that the fiberglass cloth is laying down smoothly with no wrinkles or air pockets. To keep the exhaust pipe as thin as possible I used one layer of random weave cloth and one layer of 10oz. fiberglass cloth. The result is similar to an eggshell because of its ovid shape it is extremely strong.
Mounting ring

Where the pipe attaches to the turbo hosing I manufactured 14 inch diameter, 1/8th inch aluminum rings which were bonded to the large opening of the exhaust pipe and significantly increased the overall strength of the part.

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On the outlet end of the pipe the drawing calls for the metal to be bent back on itself for a inch reinforcing lip. This is to stop the thin edge of the pipe from splitting. How to replicate this feature on my replica part was the next challenge. Steve Kidd to the rescue! Since the geometry of the pipe was now digitally defined, Richard Greer could slice the outlet of the pipes at precisely the correct angle one for inboard pipes, another for outboard pipes. Now for the really clever part! Richard created a left and right data file which described the shape of the outlet reinforcing, these files were then loaded into a 3D printer which printed out my parts. I simply bonded these printed parts to the outlets of the inboard and outboard pipes. As can be seen from the picture on the, It looks just like the real thing!

Cold air inlet and dome

On closer examination of the exhaust pipe drawings and photographs (see picture page 7) from Duxford, I realized that inside each pipe there is a dome shaped part which sits right up against the outside edge of the turbine wheel. This dome is suspended inside the large inlet of the exhaust pipes with four bolts and spacers. At the forward edge there is an inlet pipe which feeds cold ram air from inside the intercooler housing. This cold air enters the inside of the dome which is very close to the turbine disk and provides cooling air for the extremely hot bearings as well the disk itself.

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This photograph shows the reinforcing lip and on the right the cooling pipe, before I made the inside dome and matching inlet connection. Bill Weisner fabricated all the missing surrounding stainless steel closure panels and connected up all the cooling pipes. Making the small dome assembly and feed pipes was relatively straight forward, using a plaster mold and the usual fiberglass layup. The feed pipes on the aircraft parts were made from wood, but the Turbo display unit pipe was made exactly like the original, out of sheet metal.
TURBOCHARGER DISPLAY UNIT

The ninth exhaust pipe was used on the beautifully cosmetically restored spare engine where one of the two turbochargers is connected to the engine. This amazing display was created by Dennis Dhien and Scott taylor.I partially cut away this exhaust pipe so that the cooling dome and turbine disk blades could be seen. This picture also shows the heat shield between the turbine and compressor sections of the Turbocharger assembly. The vertical shaft on the left controls the waste gate.
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Waste Gate Function

When the B-29 is at ground level and the air density is high, the waste gate is seen positioned almost fully open allowing the majority of the exhaust gas to pass freely out of the waste gate pipe rather than over the turbine blades and out of the exhaust pipe. The result is that the turbine spins relatively slowly, which provides only low blow to the engine and cabin pressurization. The inboard turbochargers on engines # 2 and # 3 have double duty. They not only provide boost to the engines but pressurized air to heat and pressurize the three crew compartments. As the aircraft gains altitude and the air density thins, the waste gate is slowly closed to increase the flow to the turbine which of course spins faster, which provides more boost to the engine to compensate for the lower ambient air density. The cabin pressurization system is intended to keep the crew compartment at a nominal 13,000 feet when at altitude. However when the B-29 was at high altitudes (29,000 feet over Japan), the cabin pressurization system was deactivated and the crew went on to oxygen. This was to avoid explosive decompression if the aircraft skin were to be punctured by enemy flak or bullets. The early R.3350 engines were problematic, especially when operated at extreme altitudes, suffered from many different kinds of failures some of which involved detonation of the gasoline in the cylinders, as opposed to the properly controlled compression during normal engine operation. This detonation had two major causes ignition timing and over boost. Over boost causes, in effect an excessively high compression ratio, which causes the gasoline too spontaneously to ignite on entering
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the combustion chamber. This causes over temperature and in some cases, catastrophic failures, cylinder head breaks away from the engine, or valves fail. Ironically one of the periods likely to produce over boost was during the return trip from Japan. The aircraft would slowly be brought down to a lower altitude for the cruise home and the waste gate would stay shut so as the air density increased the turbine pumped higher and higher pressurized fuel air into the engine until detonation occurred in the engine. Consequently the flight engineer had to be extremely vigilant to always be ready to over-ride the automatic boost levels.

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GROUND POWER UNIT (GPU) RESTORATION

Team of Volunteers: Primary: Dennis L. Dhein, and Dale Thompson, Scott Taylor, Don England, Jerry Brown, Bill Wiesner , Syd Baker

This is a modified commercial power unit that was acquired and disassembled, glass beaded and completely painted all body and panels. The painted star represents the Army Air Force for the WW II time period.

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GUN TURRET PRESSURE DOME RE-CREATION B-29 T-SQUARE

SYD BAKER

All Photos by Syd Baker

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PRESSURE DOMES B-29 PROJECT

The Volunteers: Sam Lehtinen Paul Lehtinen R.W. Johnson Dick Peterson Dale Thompson Syd Baker Photographs: Syd Baker Companies: Fiberlay, David Chamberlain, Front cover picture Aluminum cylinder entering overhead is the housing for the aft upper remote turret and its ammunition. The green hemisphere is one of the new pressure domes the drain line is yet to be connected to the bottom fitting. GUN TURRET PRESSURE DOMES B-29 T-SQUARE Three of the remote control gun turrets on the B-29 protrude into the pressurized crew compartments. Consequently each has to be provided with its own unpressurized circular enclosure to accommodate all of the ancillary components which make up each remote turret system.

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Associated Hardware on display

This photograph is of the top forward four gun turret which, when mounted in its entirety, extends into the front cabin between the radio operator and the navigators stations, leaving just enough space for the crew to pass around this intrusion. Because of this intrusion we chose not to install the pressure cylinder in which all the lower equipment is located ammo storage bins, belt feed system, etc. This is the unit which was provided to the Museum of Flight by the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, U.K., and we will be able to make it functions independently from the aircraft. It makes a great display. We can make either the ground unit function, or the unit on top of T-Square. Currently on T-Square only the top segment of this turret is installed which included the 50 caliber machine guns and their mounts, the aerodynamic faring and drive motors, so that from outside the 4gun turret looks complete.

Dome purpose
My job was to provide the pressure domes to close out the open ends of the remote gun pressure vessels in which the remote gun pressure mechanisms are mounted.

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Picture shows the lower ring of the mid aft turret housing where one of the gun control cables can be seen, as well as the lower components of the ammunition storage racks, all mounted inside the outer housing which is of course fixed and is part of the aircraft cabin structure. This housing has a large removable access hatch in the side through the gun magazines are reloaded. There are three domed closures for each aircraft and the original drawings show the cross section shape and calls for the parts to be made from aluminum. This is entirely beyond our capability and could only be remanufactured this way at prohibitive cost. The answer was to use fiberglass. To ensure a fine metal-like finish on the parts I had to make a two part female mold. This mold had to produce a part which was perfectly round and the correct diameter 42 inches to fit precisely into the open ends of the turret enclosures. To obtain the required accuracy I had to construct a lathe on which I could machine a 42 inch diameter male replica of the basic dome.

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The basic dome shape

To create this lathe I obtained from an auto junk yard a rear stub axel complete with wheel bearing and wheel from a Dodge Minivan. I welded up a crude fixture to mount the stub axel and the electric motor and a suitable size fan belt the wheel rotated at about the right speed. Then I bolted a 42 inch, roughly circular piece of inch plywood to the wheel. By using a fixed work surface clamped to the motor mount and close to the inch plywood disc. By using a wood turning chisel machined the diameter to 42 inches exactly, and perfectly circular. After making a template of the dome cross section, I built up layers of foam until I had a rough shape of the finished mold. After smoothing the surface with automobile body filler, I was able to machine the entire surface to the correct profile and diameter. This was a pretty hair raising operation since the entire assembly rotated much too fast and wobbled alarmingly, until I was able to achieve a reasonable balance

The Dome mold

After the male plug was complete I made the female mold by spraying a coating of white Gelcoat over the male plug. This was after applying the usual Carnauba wax release agent.

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After encasing the male plug with six layers of 10 oz. glass cloth. I made a inch plywood base and frame, split across the major axis for part removal. I then bonded this plywood frame to the male plug. The problem then was to remove the male plug from the inside of the female mold. Even though I had made the foam build up in the male plug in four segments for easy removal, it was extremely hard to remove and was literally destroyed in the process. The manufacture of each dome from the resulting female mold was a straight forward fiberglass lay up using 20 mils of white gelcoat on one layer of random weave cloth, followed by four layers of 10 oz. cloth.

Dome configurations
There are two configurations of Dome. Two for the two top turrets, which have lips around the base which are fixed to the inside of the dome rim. This provides a surface for the rubber sealing gasket mounted on a groove at the lower rim of the fixed gun mount which obviously provided an airtight seal when the dome is in place and all the latches are fastened. The latches are not particularly substantial, but they are only to hold the dome place. When the cabin is pressurized there is literally hundreds of pounds of pressure pushing the dome tighter against the seal. (This is the dome shown on page 32) The third dome for the forward lower turret has a lip around the base the outside the edge of the rim. This is because this dome is mounted on the cabin floor above the turret. The outside flange is trimmed to fit around the skin of the fixed cylindrical cabin structure which houses the gun mount, and is sealed against its structure with an airtight gasket. This dome normally protrudes above the cabin floor by about 6 inches and is a trip hazard for visitors standing in the cabin. Dale Thompson who gives wonderful talks inside the B-29, asked me if I could make a special low profile dome which would cover the 42 inch hole and protect the rotating gun mechanism below the floor but would have to support the weight of visitors standing on the cabin floor.

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To make this special dome I cut a disc of Formica and laid it onto the dome of the female mold cutting down the height from six inches to two inches, made one more dome as before but I had to reinforce the new flat profile, which was obviously not as strong, as the normal dome. I made a lattice work of reinforcing ribs on a 2 inch matrix which was then bonded to the underside and judiciously cut away only as required to clear the remote gun equipment cable mounted below. Almost directly above the forward two gun mounts is the upper forward four gun mount. Since we chose not to install the complete upper gun turret mounting cylinder, as discussed previously, we were left with all of the lower side of the upper turret exposed. This looked very unfinished and potentially a source of rain water entering the cabin since one of the functions of the pressure domes is to collect a any water which flows around the gap between the fixed and rotating part of the top turret. This of course called for another special cosmetic dome to close out the opening and collect any water, and direct it into the drain hole provided in the nose wheel landing gear compartment. If the complete turret system had been installed, the lower dome would have been approximately six inches above the floor. The special closure dome was six feet above the floor. To make the water drain invisible I managed to squeeze a inch diameter water line from the dome down the inside of the floor to ceiling vertical grab post, completely out of sight. Behind this cosmetic dome Dale Thompson installed a pair of high quality loud speakers so that tour visitors get some impression of what the four gun turret sounded like when firing.

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Pressure Dome purpose:

The pressure domes have three purposes, One, to retain cabin pressure. Two, to collect and drain away any water which passes around the top side of the gun turrets, and three, to collect used 50 caliber cartridge cases when the upper guns are fired. The lower turrets, as well as the tail gunners, eject their cartridges directly into the airstream out of the bottom of the aircraft. To enable the armorers to remove the spent cartridge cases more easily, the two top turret domes are easily removed by unlatching five retaining latches. Unfortunately these latches were missing on T-Square but fortunately the gun turret from the Imperial War Museum at Duxford had a complete set. Sam Lehtinen skillfully made a complete set by copying the Duxford units, since there were no drawings available. These are complex assemblies, consisting of machined fittings and a unique over center latch made from bent sheet metal. The result of Sams work is that the latches are indistinguishable from the originals. Sam also made a pair of drain fittings which are mounted at the lowest surface of the upper domes. Interestingly, the threaded connector is a nonaircraft size and is identical to a standard garden hose! R.W. Johnson undertook the task of removing specific cabin flooring panels to access the drain fitting in the belly of the of the B-29 fuselage, immediately to the rear of the aft bomb bay. He then completed the installation by fabricating and running a suitable hose and securing it appropriately between the bottom of the dome and the lower fuselage drain fitting.

Dome installation One issue with the rear upper dome was that in order to install it below the mid upper turret, it had to pass through the rear entry door and the circular mid compartment pressure hatch neither of which was big enough to allow the passage of a completed 42 inch diameter by 6 inch deep dome enclosure. Fortunately in the forward crew compartment the crew entry door over the forward wheel well is just large enough to allow the completed domes to pass through intact. 36

Consequently I had to saw the completed dome in half. I made cuts straight towards the center drain then in a 4 inch radius around the hole to preserve the integrity of the reinforcing hole boss. The re-bonding of the two dome halves inside the rear cabin had to be done using typical fiberglass repair procedures. The mating surfaces were carefully aligned, with Sam Lehtinens invaluable assistance, beveled, then a series of 3/16th holes were drilled along the joint line, approximately every six inches. Temporary aluminum spliced plates were then used to insure that the two halves would be precisely in alignment. All this was done outside the cabin to minimize fiberglass dust from contaminating the cabin lining and electronics. After reassembling the two halves inside the airplane using the screws and temporary splice plates and bonded fiberglass strips inside the dome between each of the alignment plates. When the resin was fully cured, the screws and alignment plates were removed and an additional fiberglass doubler bonded over the whole length of the cut. This left a very narrow saw cut gap on the outside the edges of which I had previously beveled slightly. Auto body plastic filler was applied and smoothed over this joint so that minimal sanding was required, followed by touch up of green paint. As a result this joint was completely invisible from the outside, and only the reinforcing strip is only visible on the inside of the dome by looking through the maintenance hatch.

Insulation:
Unfortunately the pressure dome insulation blankets were not able to be manufactured and installed by Dean Paul before the aircraft had to be prepared for outside storage, and all work has stopped until a covered building for the large aircraft is completed. This photograph was taken at Duford of aft the rear top turret the showing how the blanket fits around the lower part of the fixed turret enclosure.

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INVERTOR, ELECTRICAL BOX, OVERFLOW TANK AND PRESSURE CONTROLS RESTORATION

Team of Volunteers: Primary: Dennis L. Dhein, and Scott Taylor, Don England, Jerry Brown, Bill Wiesner , Syd Baker.

The invertor was cleaned, sanded and touched up. Made some mounting feet and located the unit in the fuselage. The overflow tank was cleaned and painted with a new holding assembly (straps & Blocks) installed. The electrical box was cleaned, painted and mounted in its location. The vacuum line controls were disassembled, cleaned, painted and installed appropriately.

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R-3350 DISPLAY ENGINE RESTORATION B-29 T-SQUARE

Team of Volunteers: Primary: Dennis L. Dhein, and Scott Taylor, Don England, Jerry Brown, Bill Wiesner , Syd Baker.

The engine was partially disassembled when the project started. Everything except the cylinder heads were removed from the engine. Everything was hand scrapped of oil and dirt, all the bolts were removed and polished and sealed. The parts that were disassembled were cleaned and repainted, glass beading was done to the entire engine (60 hours of work) to get the engine clean all around. The engine body was painted. Accessory parts were gathered cleaned and painted. Partially disassembled components were reassembled and safety wired, as applicable. The dual distributor heads and lines were removed and glass beaded clean, sealed and/or painted prior to reassembly. All engine baffles around each cylinder were removed, cleaned and polished. All old fabric from the cowling pieces were removed and replaced with new fabric. The typical fire detector sensors and wiring were added around the engine. The cowling flap drives were cleaned and reworked as needed, the exhaust system was cleaned and were some was missing it was created new. All accessories were remounted on the completed engine (pumps, generators, etc.) The engine cover panels mounted above the cylinders were repaired, cleaned and polished. The covers on the right side were installed to reflect a full installation. Those covers on the left side were cut away to provide the viewer access to the engine assembly below the panels.

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R-3350 ENGINE PROPELLER DOME RESTORATION B-29 T-SQUARE

Team of Volunteers: Primary: Dennis L. Dhein, and Scott Taylor, Don England, Jerry Brown, Bill Wiesner , Syd Baker.

Cleaned and then polished to a new like luster.

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RADAR ASSEMBLY RESTORATION B-29 T-SQUARE

Team of Volunteers: Primary: Dennis L. Dhein, and Scott Taylor, Don England, Jerry Brown, Bill Wiesner , Syd Baker.

The radar assembly was completely disassembled, cleaned and repainted. The waveguides were silver plated, the dish and frame were repaired and polished the radar dish. A radar dome was later fashioned and built from scratch.

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RADOME RE-CREATION FOR B-29 T-SQUARE

SYD BAKER

All Photos by Syd Baker

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Acknowledgements B-29 Radome Re-creation Project

THE TEAM OF VOLUNTEERS: Syd Baker. Herb Phelen Dick Peterson Dennis Dhein
REFERENCE SOURCES The author wishes to acknowledge the valuable historical radar information and Photographs, obtained from the 482nd Bombardment Group see http://www.482nd.org/radar WITH THANKS TO THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, Duxford, England (Chris Knapp) which provided access to its B-29 for research for this project Companies Fiberlay-David Chamberlian Photographs: By Syd Baker

Cover Picture: Picture shows new radome mounted between front and rear bomb bay

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RE-CREATION OF RADOME FOR APQ-13 RADAR ON B-29 T- SQUARE The recreation of the large radar radome located between the forward and rear bomb bays on the B-29 was by far the most challenging and technically interesting job that I have so far undertaken for T-Square.

Restoration of APQ-13 AntennaIt started with a call from Dick Peterson, who said that Dennis Dhein had just finished a beautiful restoration of the gimbal mounted dish antennae for the APQ-13 radar system. Since there was compelling evidence that T-Square had such a system, would I build a radome to cover the antennae? I immediately said I would. At this stage I only had a brief idea of what I had taken on a project that would last for the next three years! Shortly after this I found out that we had no Engineering drawings for any of the required hardware or installations!. That was going to make life even more interesting.

Background researchWhenever I undertake a project like this I find that it helps to take an in depth look into the history and evolution of the system I am about to work on. All I knew at this point was that the APQ-13 system evolved many years before from the British H2S used extensively over Europe by RAF Bomber Command. The following information was obtained from the 482nd Bombardment Group web site. (The) 8th Army Air Force and the need for Radar As the 8th Army Air Force continued to build up in England during 1942 and 1943, it became obvious to VIII Bomber Command (BC) that the success of an offensive strategic bombing offensive would be contingent on the ability of the VIII BC to operate above the weather and 44

bomb through overcast. In December of 1942 the VIII BC had an average of 72 heavy operational bombers available to strike at enemy targets. The weather in December of 1942 did not permit one operational day and the first 15 days of January 1943 did not allow the 8th to complete a mission. England and Western Europe experienced a storm on average every three days. In addition, fog and low hanging clouds created early morning delays and challenges in aircraft forming up over England for the trip across the channel. It was a very complex problem for VIII BC. Estimates by 8 th Army Air Force Meteorologists suggested that visual bombing opportunities against targets in Germany would exist on average between 20 and 30% of the time. Ira Eaker, commanding General of the 8th Army Air Force, proposed that there were only 75 days per year where the weather would ground all aircraft. What was needed was the ability to Bomb through Overcast (BTO) on days when visual bombing was not an option. The U.S. 8th looked to the British who had developed Oboe and Gee. Although both Oboe and Gee would become very effective navigational aids they did not solve the problem of BTO as the Germans had discovered ways to jam them and their range was limited during day light hours. Eaker turned instead to the British H2S Stinky unit. Development of BTO Bomb through Overcast Radar In March of 1943 Ira Eaker formally requested the RAF for eight H2S units for installation in 8th Army Air Force B-17s. In March of 1943 four radio mechanics and two officers were sent to the British Telecommunication Research establishment (TRE) at Great Malvern to learn about H2S Radar. That same month B-17F#42-5793 was sent to RAF Deford for installation of H2S. It was with the first H2S installation that Americas Army Air Force entered the radar age. The scanner and radar dome were placed under the nose and was shielded by a bath-tub shaped plastic cover. The radar scope and navigation unit was placed on the left side of the navigators station and required 45

some equipment movement. The radar units were found to be temperamental during early test flights. With patience hard work and resiliency the first Pathfinder equipped aircraft were about to lead their first mission. H2S Stinky was the RAFs primary air to ground radar system utilizing a 10 centimeter frequency for airborne terrain scanning radar. It was developed by the RAF bomber command and was utilized on the Halifax, Sterling and Lancaster bombers. Command for nighttime bombing of German targets. The H2S set transmitted energy through a high frequency electrical energy impulse downward through a revolving antenna; these impulses were reflected back to the aircraft and converted the images to a cathode ray tube. The reflections on the scope would allow the specially trained H2S operator to determine contrast between land, water and cities, H2S could be used at 25,000 feet and had a 50 mile radius. H2X Mickey Designed at the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) H2X radar was the American version and an improvement upon the British H2S unit. H2X utilized a 3 centimeter micro-wave versus the British 10 CM. Often referred to its official designation of the AN/APS-15. It was more commonly known as Mickey. The first 12 H2 X was installed on one B-17 F model and the remaining eleven were installed on the newer B-17 G equipped with a chin turret. The installations took place in Rome, NY, and the unit was placed in under the nose similar to the H2S in placement. The H2X was semi retractable and cylindrical in shape. It was Major Fred Rabo who was responsible for bringing the first 12 B-17s equipped with H2X back to Alconbury. Major Rabo arrived in Alconbury o September 21, 1943, with the first H2X B-17s. In the Pacific theater, B29s were equipped with the improved H2X radar called the AN/APQ-13, a ground scanning radar developed by Bell, Western Electric, and MIT. The radome was carried on the aircraft belly between the bomb bays, and was partially retractable. The radar operated at a frequency of 9,375 +/-45 megahertz 46

and used a super heterodyne receiver. The radar was used for high altitude area bombing, search and navigation. Computation for bombing could be performed by an impact predictor.

Determining the Radome geometry In looking at T-Square I found the original radome attach fasteners under a crude temporary Patch which had covered the original rotating antenna opening. This was absolutely critical in The re-manufacture of my radome since this accurately defined the footprint of the radome beneath the B-29 belly.

The only other data I had were two pictures which Dick Peterson took of an existing B-29 radome one from the side on from the rear. In order to develop the remaining lines for the radome I first taped sheet Mylar to the bottom of T-Square and accurately located every radome attachment fitting bolt hole.

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By measuring the marks on the skin, I determined that the Radome was originally 0.5 inches thick. I laid out the mylar on 4 ft x 8ft x one half inch plywood and using a one inch set back from the attach screws, defined the full size exterior profile of the radome in plan form. By this process I was able to calculate an accurate overall length and width of the old radome. I then had Dicks pictures put on to Power Point so I could project these pictures on to the wall of the Museum of Flight Red Barn class room. On the wall I hung another large sheet of Mylar on which I had marked a reference datum line and the overall length and width of the radome footprint derived from the B-29 belly back and forth until the picture length exactly coincided with my marks. I then carefully traced the full size side profile projected image on to the Mylar with a permanent magic marker. I then repeated the process to establish the cross section front profile. On the side profile I added 2 inches of depth to allow for the curvature of the B-29 belly.

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After transferring the derived profiles to inch plywood, I made a large box-like structure using 2 in x 4 in and the large profile cutouts. The side profile I made twice so that when finished, the large box (mold) could be separated on the vertical center line to insure that the finished radome could be removed from the mold.. At this time I realized that the resulting bath tub like mold would be too deep for me to reach into the bottom, I cut the base and made two 45 degree surfaces for the mold to sit either flat or tilted 45 degrees one way or the other. Now I had an accurate picture of the very basic radome geometry but I had to fill in the large gap forward and aft of where the bulkhead which defined the largest cross section of the radome which I assumed to also be the center line about which the antennae rotate on its gimbals. Since the antenna rotated 360 degrees in azimuth and was able to nod up and down at the same time, it presumably described a hemisphere, which is the volume of the interior that the antenna had to clear. It turned out that there is only about one half an inch of clearance between the edges of the antenna dish and the interior of the radome as it goes through its various scan modes .Not very much! In order to blend the rest of profile of the radome mold I had to fall back to 1946 where, on my very first assignment as an apprentice at Vickers Armstrongs in Weybridge, England, I was assigned to work in the loft where we took drawings of aircraft parts, such as wing to body faring, and laid them out full size on sheets of white painted aluminum, using sheets of data and wooden splines we had laid out from a datum line. The profile of these templates were used to make stretch form blocks which would form the aircraft skin to its required shape.

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So I developed the shape of the radome at 4 1/8 inch slices just like the Vickers Loft work. After developing the cross section profile every 4 1/8 inch, I cut out 1/8 Masonite forms which I glued to 4 inch thick special high density foam specifically made for the fabrication of fiberglass parts. As each layer progressed, the final shape of the radome began to emerge. After the glued blocks were thoroughly set, I began the laborious task of blending the profile of each bulkhead into one smooth continuous curve, the Masonite template insured that I had the correct profile as I went no need to frequently check as I progressed. It worked very well. However because of the difference in hardness between the foam and the Masonite, the area between each form was slightly lower. This was anticipated and resolved with a skim coat of high tech body auto filler which I used by the gallon. This filler was then checked for smoothness with a steel spline which insured that there were no high or low spots between Masonite frames.

Antenna mountWhile this was going on, a mount had to be constructed to hold the antennae and its drive system so that the antennae ended up in exactly the right place inside the radome! The original B-29 radomes were semi retractable and just as was the case in the original B-17s, this was unreliable and scrapped in favor of a fixed system. There were no engineering drawings available for the mount, but Herb Phelan and Dick Peterson was able to reverse engineer the unit based on photographs I was able to take during my many visits to England to photograph the very complete B-29 at Duxford, Hawg Wild.

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Dick Peterson made very elaborate measurements from below the bottom skin of T-Square to insure that the antennae ended up in just the right place with no interference and only about inch clearance. What made this four legged mount so unusual is that the feet of the legs sit on the same skin stiffeners which support the radome attach brackets and the top of the pedestal which actually supports the entire antenna is also attached to the underside of the B-29 massive center wing box. All the intricate fuel control systems oxygen lines as well as the large feed cables for the radar antenna have to fit around this mount. The whole antenna drive and antennae are finally covered in a canvas cover. This is probably to protect the antenna from water and dirt from the nose wheels, which would probably spray into this area when the forward bomb doors are opened.

Determining radome materialThe major issue at this time, when the mold was reaching a satisfactory level of smoothness, was to find out what the radome was made of in 1943. Since here were no drawings, my best bet was to look at other WWII radomes.

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During my trip to England I paid particular attention to the H2S radomes mounted underneath the Halifax and Lancaster bombers. I was told that they were made out of plastic. The H2S antenna is virtually identical to the one for the HPQ13 B-29 radar, so the radome is very similar in size and shape. Two noticeable differences however the British radomes are about one third longer giving them a 4 to 1 fineness ratio. The B-29 is 3 to 1. I realized that this was due to the limited space on the B-29 between front and rear bomb bays. This is unfortunate as the longer radome must have quite a bit less aerodynamic drag. On some Lancasters I found the rear one third made from clear plastic. This I found particularly interesting and nobody could tell me why this was so. Since I knew the Editor of Aeroplane magazine, I asked them to ask their subscribers if they knew why the back end of some Radomes were clear, and what the radomes were made of. Eventually three replies indicated that the clear part of the radome was to enable high intensity flash photographs to be taken, which were timed to coincide with that aircrafts 4000 lb. bomb detonation. This was obviously used to help evaluate bombing accuracy. The radomes were all made from Perspex (British Plexiglas) in the same fashion as Fighter cockpit covers - then they are painted flat black as required to blend in with the aircraft paint scheme. In looking at the B-29 radome on Hawg Wild at Duxford, it appeared to me as if it was fiberglass, but I could not tell how it as manufactured solid or with core.

Fabrication methodSince I spent a significant part of my time at Boeing as Manufacturing Manager for the E-3A AWACS, one of the areas of my responsibility was the tooling and production at the Auburn plant for the very large Radomes (30 ft. diameter) for the E-3A. The beauties were made by very skilled ladies who cut and shaped the layers of 1 inch thick Hexel honeycomb core which is interleaved with multiple layers of pre- impregnated (with adhesive) glass cloth, as each critical layer is built up. It is 52

cooked under vacuum bags in an autoclave. This partially melts the adhesive and insure there are no air bubbles in the layers of fiberglass. The resulting radome is over 3 inches thick and is virtually impervious to hail and bird strikes. The net result of this research was that I would use 3/8 inch thick Hexcel honeycomb cone with one random weave 3 oz. fiberglass cloth backed up with two layers of 3 oz. fiberglass cloth on the interior, totaling a thickness of inch. After applying ten coats of special Carnauba wax as a release to the mold skin, I then applied one layer of 10 oz fiberglass mat followed by 30 mils of black gel coat as sprayed evenly as I could over the entire surface. Then came the hard part! After an extensive research, I found a supplier of the 3/8th honeycomb core who would sell me the small quantity I required. Honeycomb has a very peculiar characteristic when one tries to form it into a curved shape. When you simply bend it around a cylinder, it takes on the shape of a saddle!! Consequently when I layered it into the mold, it would only conform to the contours in small areas. This required many hours of slicing and splicing to insure that the honeycomb was laying down correctly. When satisfied each area about 10 square inches - had to be carefully covered with fiberglass resin, then covered with mold release polyurethane film, then held in place with small canvas bags filled with bird shot until the resin cured. This of course meant that the mold had to be turned so that gravity would hold the core in place against the outside skin until the fiberglass resin set up. No vacuum or autoclave were available to me. Once all the core was bonded with no gaps or bumps I applied the two inner skins.

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Radome attachmentA major consideration of building such a radome is how does one attach it to the aircraft, and how to fit it accurately to the metal skin? On the AWACS radome, at the edges where the bolts fasten the radome to the aircraft structure, we installed what we called hockey pucks. These were solid laminated fiberglass designed to avoid crushing the honeycomb by the attach bolts and to spread the attach loads into the surrounding radome. On the B-29 radome I used exactly the same idea. These hockey pucks were bonded to the radome edges prior the radome being removed from the mold. To insure an accurate fit with the belly of the B-29 I made a mock-up out of steel sheet so that the radome could sit upright while I adjusted the edge profile to fit. I made a large access hole in this steel mock-up so that I could stand up inside the radome and very accurately locate each attach fitting, and its location relative to each strong pint (hockey puck) in the radome. Once a satisfactory fit had been obtained between the radome and the aircraft skin, I routed inch deep where the edge of the honeycomb was exposed. I then filled each area with a black polyurethane plastic filler to ensure that water would not migrate up into the honeycomb. I finally drilled a 3/8 inch drain in the lowest part of the dome. Then the moment of truth! We had previously located all the 26 attach brackets to the belly of the B-29, and using a very small car jack and an old tire, we raised the radome into position.

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Much to my relief it fit very nicely and after Dick Peterson made some careful measurements from Herb Phelans antenna mount, we decided that everything looked just fine. The radome attach fitting fastener locations were marked on the radome inner skin, the radome screw holes drilled, and the attach screws all fitted, the jack removed, was then lowered! While the radome was being painted at our restoration center in Everett, the antenna was attached to its new mount. It is amazing how close to the ground the bottom of this antenna is, and we were concerned that we would be able to re-fit the radome with the antenna hanging so far down. We did not want to jack up the aircraft just for this. When the radome finally came back we were able to spread a cargo blanket on the ground and slide the radome under the antenna. The radome was then rotated and jacked up into place, fasteners put in place, after swinging the antenna through all its various motions and verifying that it did not hit the radome. We all deemed the job a success!

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TAIL TURRET RESTORATION B-29 T-SQUARE

SYD BAKER

All Photos by Syd Baker

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Acknowledgements B-29 Restoration Project THE VOLUNTEERS: B29 Crew Chief - Dale Nicholson Engineering Support - Tom Dawson and Herb Phelan Turret Project Leader - Syd Baker THE TEAM : Syd Baker, Jim Foreman, Aaron Gaponoff, Rich Heasty, R.W. Johnson, David Lang, Paul Lehtinen, Sam Lehtinen, Bob Martin, Brian Nordby, Dean Paul, Dick Peterson, Dale Thompson, Larry Tietze, George Bowling (Enactment) THE SUPPORTIVE LOCAL COMPANIES: Foremans Welding - Jim Foreman Boeing Wind Tunnel Model Shop Pacific Aero Tech. - Mike Singley

Machinists Incorporated Dave Miner The Sheet Metal Man Brian Nordby Seattle Pottery Jim Lunz

With thanks to The Imperial War Museum, Duxford, England (Chris Knapp) which provided access to its B-29 for research for this project.

Photographs: All pictures by Syd Baker.

Front cover picture: Completely rebuilt tail gunners turret, all new sheet metal, glass, and fairings, tail lights.

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RESTORATION OF B-29 T-SQUARE TAIL TURRET - SYD BAKER When I retired from the Boeing Company in 1994 after 37 years of wonderful and exciting experiences throughout the world, I was told that the average life expectancy of a Boeing executive in retirement was 18 months to two years. Unbelievable! After completing my two year retirement project, the complete restoration, groundup, of a 1957 Porsche Speedster, I realized that I had beaten the life expectancy odds, and I now needed a longer term project. So I volunteered at the Museum of Flight as a Docent which I dearly loved. As a docent I became aware of the need for hands-on people to work on various aircraft, Comet, B-29, etc. Since I had worked for the British Aircraft industry Vickers-Armstrongs - starting in 1946, I thought the Comet would be the most appropriate aircraft for me. I phoned the Museum Restoration Center in Everett and made an appointment to see Tom Cathcart, the Restoration Manager. Tom was very helpful after I explained my early background as an Aircraft Aviation Engineering Apprentice in England, where I went through most of the aircraft manufacturing shops, learning the basics, and that I now have my own small machine shop at home. My career at Boeing was in design and manufacturing areas. I had just finished my fourth ground-up automobile restoration, and wanted to try something different how about the Comet? After learning of my history and experiences, Tom said that The Restoration Center was in fact looking for help on the Comet, but since I lived in Bellevue, would I like to work on the B-29, which was closer to my home? One of my assignments out of England in 1954-55 was to fly in a British Royal Air Force Washington (B-29) performing air launched missile experimental trials at Woomera in South Australia. So my interest in the B-29 was long term. I told Tom I was interested but did not think it was a smart idea for me to work on aircraft parked outside the south end of the Museum of Flight with small portables used as workshops during the Seattle winter. Turret in Renton Tom smiled and said I dont blame you, but we have removed the tail turret from the aircraft, and it is in storage at Renton where a Museum team is working on the B-17. Why dont you go down, look at the tail turret, and let me know what you think! 58

He said he would talk to Tom Dawson, ex Boeing Engineer who was in charge of the B-29 restoration project. After a quick look at the turret at Renton, I went to see Tom Dawson at the Museum of Flight. After one hour of exchanging experiences, we agreed that I would take on the restoration of the turret. Tom had a complete set of B-29 drawings on microfilm, and a very old reader/printer. These drawings have since been converted to digital format. It was obvious that Tom had the necessary resources and contacts to support the very considerable amount of work that I realized would be required. Since I had my own reasonably equipped machine shop I felt that I could reasonably undertake this project. Fake Tail Turret The tail turret on the B-29 is approximately eight feet long and weighs about 1,500 lbs. The unit taken from T-Square, located in Renton, had been stripped sometime in the past and was just a shell with fake windows, fake dome, emergency door, no machine guns etc. Research At this point I made arrangements to visit and photograph the very complete original B-29 Hawg Wild at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, where I met with Chris Knapp, the Director of Artifacts. Since I was part of the overall Museum of Flight B-29 restoration team, I took this opportunity to document other areas of the airplane cockpit, bomb aimers position and other areas that I knew the team was working on in Seattle. It turns out that some years prior to my trip, Duxford had arranged to provide to the Museum of Flight, a complete forward 4-gun turret, with all drive systems, ammunition storage bins virtually ready to install. This was apparently provided to Duxford when the B-29 was delivered to them by the U.S. Air Force. Since the B-29 was complete, this turret was surplus to their requirements, so the relationship between the Museum of Flight and Duxford was long standing. I noticed during my first inspection of their airplane that there were certain minor details which were either incorrect or missing. Since these were in the area that I would be building parts, I believed I could build a second set for Duxford. As a result of this the Museum of Flight subsequently provided a correct tail light fairing assembly, a set of fairings for the lower aft turret, and a barbers chair base.

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The Rear turret is divided into two compartments, one of which was pressurized for the gunner. This provided for the gunners comfort in a self-contained compartment, lighting, heating, seating, oxygen system, armor plating, tracking computers, power conversion for motor drives, as well as the provisions for aiming and firing the two 50 caliber machine guns and one 20 mm cannon. The rest of the turret is unpressurized.

20 mm Cannon The original airplanes of this vintage included, in the tail turret, a 20 mm cannon. However, it was found in service that the cannon was not as effective as hoped, and to some extent was also limiting the effectiveness of the 50 caliber machine guns. The extra mass of the 20 mm cannon with its co-located ammunition storage drum resulted in a less agile system in spite of increasing the size of the amplidyne and the horsepower of the elevation and azimuth drive motors. However the main problem appears to have been that the ballistic trajectory of the 20 mm shell was different from that of the 50 caliber round. This resulted in the inability of the computing system to predict the lead angles for both weapons. This, together with the different rate of fire, resulted in a disappointingly effectiveness of the 20 mm cannon. As a result of this, and to remove critical weight, all of the 20 mm cannon systems were removed in the field. Armament Location The unpressurized section of the turret contains the gun mounts and all the mechanisms for traversing the guns in elevation and azimuth. This section also contained the feed system for the 50 caliber ammunition belts together with the external shutes to eject spent cartridge cases, plus many other details such as gun camera and remote gun charging system as well as many access panels for maintenance. Tom indicated that the goal for the aircraft was to return it to as close as original factory condition as possible! One coincidence was that the gentleman who was the Crew Chief on the B-17 project at Renton was Herb Phelan. I worked at Boeing in various programs for many years. I was Manufacturing/Operations Manager, and Herb worked as Head of various Engineering Departments, so we were long-time acquaintances with a mutual respect for each others capabilities.

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Herb obviously had been asked to keep an eye on this new volunteer, and we subsequently got on famously with one another for the next 15 years I have worked on T-Square. In 1999 I was joined by David Lang, who became a great colleague! He took care of drilling out all the rivets which fastened the cupola to the main structure, and repairing the damage caused to the airplane while at the Navy gunnery range at China Lake, as well as replacing damaged skins and fairings and later the installation of a different cupola top.

Gimbal System I took on the job of building, from scratch, the gun mounts and gimbal system. The heart of the system is a large 3 inches diameter aluminum ring 33 inches in circumference which has a large load-bearing ball race at the top 12 oclock and a steady bearing at 6 oclock. These two bearings not only support the entire weight of the guns and absorb their recoil, but also provide for the guns to swing in azimuth 30 degrees left and right. Located in a 3 oclock and 9 oclock are two ball bearings which allow the guns, mounted in a complex welded hemispherical housing to move in elevation +/- 30 degrees. During the initial discussions with Tom Dawson, we intended to just mock up components in plywood. However I was fortunate to be able to find critical resources which avoided this, to me, an unacceptable compromise.

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The 33 inch ring was rolled by a local shipyard. The very complex hemisphere which was originally a magnesium or aluminum casting, I redesigned to be fabricated from inch aluminum plate. I first made 3/8 inch plywood components to check fit the assembly and then using material provided by Dave Minor at Machinists Inc., routed out all the details in inch aluminum plate. Dave also bent the complex pieces for the gun mount carriage. The third major resource to us was Jim Foremans Welding. It turned out that Jims father actually welded these same structures in WWII, and was happy to provide me, free of charge, with hundreds of hours of the most exquisite aircraft quality welding you will ever see! Norm also welded up a pair of simulated 50 caliber machine guns using real barrels which I found glued to the inside of the fake turret on T-Square. After locating and boring the ring to accommodate all the components on the Azimuth ring, and moving the gun carriage, I (just for fun) decided to check the accuracy of their relative motions, and found, much to my surprise, that the maximum deviation was 0.020! On hearing this, Tom agreed with me to make the system really operate under power. As we had all the gear boxes and motor mounts, the only things missing were the large segmented gear racks for the azimuth, and elevation drive. These were machined for Tom by the Boeing Wind Tunnel Experimental Model Shop.

Gunners Cupola In the meantime, Dave Lang and I had removed the out-of-square cupola and replaced it with another which was in better condition. However we ran into a situation. It turned out that the production lines and Renton and Wichita only required tooling to control what is known as controlled interchangeable assemblies which could be switched out in the field to repair battle damage.

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The interface between the turret and the rear of the T Square was a controlled interchangeable interface, but removing the glass house from the lower structure by drilling out the rivets was never intended to be done in the field. The resulting mismatch of all the riveted holes was resolved with a simple adapter strip. An interesting aside occurred at this time. Tom found out that there were a group of ladies who were WWII Rosie-theRiveters who built turrets at Renton in 1943-44, and asked, Would they like to come and see the Project? They of course came to visit and were presented with the old glass cupola which we had removed. So T-Square now has a Renton-made glass cupola, while the rest of the airplane came from Wichita.

Rear dome and fairingsBy this time, Dave and I had been working on the turret for three years and it was time to build the complex rear exterior sheet metal skin. For this we transferred the 80% complete turret assembly from Renton to Brian Nordby, AKA the Sheet Metal Man, in South Seattle. Brian is one of those fellows who is a true artist with an English wheel - a device he has used with great effect to restore show quality collector automobiles for the local aficionados. I was privileged to be able to work alongside Brian in his Shop for the next two years where we built the main dome, which is bolted to the Azimuth Ring and swings back and forth with the guns. The really challenging part of this is that the dome has to be a nearly perfect sphere so that as the dome swings, the gap between it and the fixed left and right closure panels remain constant! The upper main load carrying bearing with its magnesium casting is enclosed in a hinged cover which provides access for maintenance, and keeps water from entering the top of the gun drive system.

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Entry Door During this time, while the fairings and spent cartridge casings shute were being made, I completed the flooring inside the gunners compartment, and started the layout of the missing circular compartment entry door. This is a typical pressurized dome structure with a circular viewing port in the center and provisions for hinges on one side and a door latch system on the other. While Brian Nordby made the dome door assembly, I made the latch and handle fittings. Since there were no drawings of this latch, I used one of the other door latches from the forward entry door, and reverse engineered to create the rear latch with inner and outer handles Electrical SystemsIt was at this time that Dale Thompsons crew and I started working together ,to make and install components which would eventually make the tail turret come alive. The structurally completed tail compartment was sent from Brian Nordbys shop back to Plant 2 where the rest of the B-29 restoration was well underway.

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Armor Plate Glass The last remaining mechanical job on the tail turret was the fabrication of all of the armored plate glass windows. I was fortunate to find a local supplier, Pacific Aero Tech., Mike Singly, who, over the period of three years built an entirely new set of windows for the tail turret, and replaced many of the complex curved windows in the iconic B-29 nose section. The side windows on the rear turret were originally inch thick, double glazed armor glass, the cavity of which was kept moisture free with a silicone gel dehumidifier. The reproduction windows which I had fabricated are in thick solid Plexiglass with a 1/8 deep flange machined around the periphery so that the window partially extends through the opening and the outside window skin ends up flush with the metal skin of the turret structure. The rear window is three inches thick and provides additional protection from the rear, while the gunner tracks the target through the remote gun sight . To simulate the original seal I made a mold for each window and poured a liquid plastic obtained from Seattle Pottery, into this mold the end result of which looks like the original resin seal. The windows are then held in place from the inside using a series of metal clamps. Any gap between the outside glass profile and the metal window cut-out was filled with a modern two-part polyurethane sealer. The inside window corners were drilled to receive a simulated silica gel dehumidifier system, just like the originals. Below the 3 inch armored glass is an armored steel pressure bulkhead which protects the lower half of the gunners body. Between this and the windows there are numerous small pieces of armor plate in an attempt to provide full protection for the gunner from the rear. An equipment access hole is provided in the center of the armored bulkhead By this time, Dale Thompsons team had the electronics hooked up and we were testing the motion of the gun system in response to inputs from the gun site in azimuth and elevation. The biggest challenge was to avoid slamming into the stops at the end of travel, with potential damage to the gun carriage system. Otherwise the system worked very well.

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Oxygen and flight suit heater system This was installed by Bob Martin on the panel to the right hand side of the gunners seat in the overhead, and on the left hand side of the gun sight. Installation of Gunners seat The gunners seat is mounted on a vertical track against the front bulkhead. This allows the seat to be raised about ten inches to allow the gunner to crawl through the circular pressurized entry door under the seat, then stand up and unlatch the vertical seat travel, and push the seat down against the counter balance springs to adjust his eye level in line with the gun sight. If the gunner is seriously injured and unable to evacuate the turret, there are emergency provisions to unlatch the door hinges and disconnect the seat back so that the rescuer can assist the wounded gunner. The normal entry and exit to this compartment, however, is through the circular pressure door below the gunners seat. The large glass panel on the left hand side of the gunners cupola is also an emergency escape hatch. All these mechanisms had to be recreated, adjusted, and tested. Insulation To limit the heat loss through the skin of the gunners compartment every exposed metal surface is covered with an olive green quilted material which is glued to the skin or held on with snap fasteners if removal for access is required. This job was performed throughout the entire airplane by Dean Paul, who did a wonderfully neat job around the gun sight and other intricate surfaces.

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Dome protective cover fabrication The rear 50 caliber machine gun barrels in the rear turret are enclosed in a heavy canvas bag assembly. In all other B-29s that I have seen, this enclosure has not been fitted correctly and looks very odd. Unlike the B-17G forward turret which uses a very neat zipper to keep the water and air out, the B-29 uses two canvas sleeves which are much like the arms in a mans suit jacket the wrists of which are clamped around the base of each gun barrel, with provision for quick change out of the gun barrels by the armorer on the ground, when required.. The jacket is fixed around the opening in the rear aluminum closure sphere. In azimuth the closure bag swings back and forth with the sphere but in elevation the arms of the jacket have sufficient excess material to allow vertical gun barrel motion without tearing or snagging. To make this suit fit correctly, Dean Paul spent many hours, and the result speaks for itself. It is a demonstration of skilled craftsmanship! Turret re-installation and systems integration testingHaving resisted the clamor to install the tail turret back on to the airplane, I finally released my temporary ownership after ten years, when the turret was reunited with the fuselage by R.W. Johnson, who was the volunteer who helped rescue the airplane originally from China Lake, and was responsible for the removal of the tail turret for its temporary location in Renton some ten years earlier. After re-installation final systems installation testing was completed to confirm its compatibility with the rest of the B-29.

Final thoughtDale Thompson redesigned the control electronics for the Tail turret and installed a large diameter loud speaker behind the canvas protective cover between the barrels of the 50 caliber machine guns. Dale made a sophisticated remote control box with a long umbilical cable which connects into the central fire control system. This will enable a properly trained Docent to demonstrate from the ground how the remote gun sights controlled the movement of the guns and what they sounded like when firing. Very cool, as they say.

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TURBOCHARGER RESTORATION
The volunteers: Primary: Dennis L. Dhein Assistants: Don England, Jerry Brower, Scott Taylor, Bill Wiesner, Syd Baker and Scott Taylor - Sid made the exhaust tail pipe and Scott installed it.

Turbocharger

Before Turbocharger

After The turbocharger was completely disassembled, scraped, brushed, cleaned and reassembled. Everything works now. A stand was constructed to mount the turbo charger so to position it behind the static engine display simulating the position on the aircraft.

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