360* view of cockpit of enola gay

[69rat]

saw this lurking on another forum. cool stuff

http://www.davidpalermo.com/data/slideshow/4/enolagay/index.html

[Yustax]

This most be the gayest name for a doom machine ever.

Good link anyway.

[Torenico]

Uh, gay is a name 

[Chariot]

plus, it had a different meaning back then.

[sn00x]

gay still means fun allso 

[Yustax]

Uh, gay is a name  

Yes I know, the pilot named it after his mother.

[Mud Buddha]

Cool! I've stood on the T-shaped bridge in Hiroshima and looked up, and now I've looked down from the Enola Gay. 

[Zoologic]

LOL... back when the control column is an actual steering wheel 

And no NDIs, HSIs or whatsoever fancy navigation equipment stuffs, only pure compass ball, which runs like disco ball when storm clouds are brewing, must be hair raising experience to fly this bird 

As always there is something that really caught my attention, this prop planes have engineer seat! The pilot could only control the engine throttle, I wonder how noisy the plane could be, clearly they have to communicate with the flight engineer frequently.

Also, look at those crude elevator trim wheel (elevator tabs)! No wonder they wore gloves back then.

[Oddball]

LOL... back when the control column is an actual steering wheel 

And no NDIs, HSIs or whatsoever fancy navigation equipment stuffs, only pure compass ball, which runs like disco ball when storm clouds are brewing, must be hair raising experience to fly this bird 

As always there is something that really caught my attention, this prop planes have engineer seat! The pilot could only control the engine throttle, I wonder how noisy the plane could be, clearly they have to communicate with the flight engineer frequently.

Also, look at those crude elevator trim wheel (elevator tabs)! No wonder they wore gloves back then.

Some aircraft still have the "steering wheel", aka the yoke. Still common on many of today's planes...and yes, those navigation equiptment is very primitive, manually having to chart coordinates, no GPS's or flight computer's... which is why I suppose they had a seperate navigator on board for that - my grandfather was a radio operator on board B-29's...

For communications, I'm sure they had headsets, we even use headsets for my small plane; the noise is incredible, even inside... I also fear the gloves were more for the climate at high altitudes than the primitive flight controls...

[siben]

B-29 was one of the first planes that had a pressurized hull so it was very likely heated and had enough air to not having to wear masks. Meaning is was very comfortable for a bomber at the time.

[Zoologic]

Having pressurized cabin and air conditioned cabin is different.

Boeing 737 is pressurized and air conditioned, so does F-16, so it is comfy inside

But I'm not sure if B-29 is air conditioned, it could be cold as hell. But I guess the pressurized air must have been pre-heated (from the engine) first.

For communications, I'm sure they had headsets, we even use headsets for my small plane; the noise is incredible, even inside... I also fear the gloves were more for the climate at high altitudes than the primitive flight controls...

Yeah, was joking on that. But look at that geary elevator trim wheel, and there were no CWS mode back then, must trim a lot, and

[Oddball]

Figured, and yeah... Air condition in the 40's included huge, impracticle systems which I doubt they could have incorperated into the aircraft, especially the military aircraft. Besides, once they reached cruising altitude, they temperature would be very cold, even in the China/Burma - Pacific region.

As far as the pressurized cabin - they still carried oxygen mask and equiptment because if they took rounds throught he hull, well...there goes their air supply.

[siben]

There is a difference between proper air conditioning and simply heating the air. If the air passed the engines before being compressed it can be quite hot when it enters the cabin.

Or it could have been a simple tube with a CO2 scrubber and a bottle of O2, in witch case it would be cold.

Just speculating here.

[Oddball]

That's called cabin heat/carborator heat, not the same thing as Air conditioning, wait... must be a language barrier. lol

[siben]

Always language barrier, lol