Whistling Death

NovemberEcho said:
If I'm getting a warbird I'll take one of those new construction Yak-3's.

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I see Yaks all over the place. The Russian and Chinese ones. There were an entire squadron of those suckers based at T67.

There was also an air club with T6 Texans. They are incredibly loud and apparently very prone to prop strikes during flat landings. :)
 
KLB said:
I see Yaks all over the place. The Russian and Chinese ones. There were an entire squadron of those suckers based at T67.

There was also an air club with T6 Texans. They are incredibly loud and apparently very prone to prop strikes during flat landings. :)
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The Yak-52's or the Yak-3's? Probably don't see too many Yak-3's around, and any you do see are the new ones they made in the early 2000's or late '90's. The originals are mostly made of wood and fabric, don't hold up to well to time.
 
guywhoflies said:
I have never heard the whistle before. Anybody know what causes it? My pure guess would be the shape of the wings but I have no idea.
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The P-51 Mustang also whistles.
When I was a kid, I used to go to LOTS of air shows and I used to watch Black Sheep Squadron (aka Baa Baa Blacksheep) on TV. I asked my dad why they whistled. He told me that the air blows across the gun ports in the wings and makes a whistle. A similar phenomenon is experienced when you blow across a bottle.
 
Cazadores said:
AD. Enough said. Piston Excellence.

k
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The AD or Spad, in Navy parlance, or the Slyraider in USAF parlance.

Featured here in this catchy tune...



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Cazadores said:
Not to take away from the F4U. It is beautiful and legendary, but I would think, as a pure fighter, I'd rather own an F8F. The Bearcat seems like a truly sweet radial piston performer.

Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk
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I've been lucky enough to speak to a lot of warbird pilots over the years. I honestly can't remember one of them saying anything but the Bearcat was the ultimate piston powered fighter. It was designed and built at the end of WWII, the end of an era to be sure.
 
MikeD said:
Just E (or G) models? Or also H/J models too?
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As far as I know, just E. That's all I remember him ever mentioning.
He was in the Air Force and was stationed in Thailand or Cambodia. He told me the name of the base, but I can't think of it right now.
I'll have to dig up some of his old pictures and see if I can find the name on the backsides.
Orange Anchor mentioned it on here a while back, and I meant to pm him to see if he might have ever met my dad, but I kept putting it off and he passed away before I got around to it. I don't know why I didn't send it earlier instead of procrastinating. Wish I had sent it, now I'll never know.
Awesome video you posted! We had a reel of 8mm film my dad took of him and and another A-1 diving down to a column of NVA trucks. You could see the people running away from the column. The guy in front of him dropped napalm on the trucks and my dad said he followed up by dropping a load of nails to take out the soldiers.
That film went missing during our move from Pope AFB to KI Sawyer AFB in October 1983, immediately after he returned from a mission to Grenada (he flew a C-130E with the 41st TAS at Pope). It's my understanding that that unit has since moved to Little Rock, Arkansas.
He had a couple other stories from over there too, but I'm starting to drift all over the place, and I'm waaayy off topic.
Airplanes, especially military aviation, was my entire childhood and talking about them always brings back memories of my dad.
 
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Hacker15e said:
"wing-root inlets for engine air."

Gotta love that technical understanding of how a piston engine works.
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Well, given that the P47 had a turbo back in the tail, I wouldn't be surprised if an airplane of that era did have the induction air inlets in the wing root. But I believe on the corsair they were oil coolers?
 
Roger Roger said:
Well, given that the P47 had a turbo back in the tail, I wouldn't be surprised if an airplane of that era did have the induction air inlets in the wing root. But I believe on the corsair they were oil coolers?
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Yes, they're oil coolers.

I mean, if you're (I mean the guy who posted what I quoted) going to make a comment about a specific aircraft -- the Corsair -- you'd think it would make sense to at least spend the 30 seconds to Google it before you posted it, eh?
 
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Hacker15e said:
Yes, they're oil coolers.

I mean, if you're (I mean the guy who posted what I quoted) going to make a comment about a specific aircraft -- the Corsair -- you'd think it would make sense to at least spend the 30 seconds to Google it before you posted it, eh?
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I'm assuming that's directed at me.

Actually, only spending 30 seconds to Google it is how I found what I posted (no, I am not the owner or founder of www.aviation-history.com, the quoted and linked site from which that post originated)

Some more digging found this:
The Corsair's distinctive sound, which earned it among the Japanese the nick-name of "Whistling Death", partly because of the engine noise, was caused by the wing-root inlets for engine air. Inside of these inlets were placed the oil coolers which ejected hot air through adjustable doors under the wings just ahead of the spar.
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http://usfighter.tripod.com/f4u.htm

and also this:
Induction air was also taken from the leading edge air intakes, ducted to the first stage of the supercharger. Featuring an intercooler for the two-stage supercharger, cooling air was routed from the leading edge air intakes to the air-to-air intercooler. Flow splitters were an integral part of the air intakes due to requirement of ducting the air 90 degrees as soon as it entered the air intake plenum. At high speed these flow splitters (six per side) emitted a loud whistling noise, which prompted the Japanese to call the F4U "Whistling Death."
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http://www.connecticutscorsair.com/pages/White Airframe History.htm

Seems to me, if that air is going to the supercharger, intercooler and oil coolers then calling it "engine air" isn't exactly disingenuous, though perhaps a bit lazy.
 
P-51D Mustang all day! Nothing beats a Mustang on departure and that beautiful engine sound. But the bent wing bird comes in a very close second.
 
milleR said:
I'm assuming that's directed at me.

Actually, only spending 30 seconds to Google it is how I found what I posted (no, I am not the owner or founder of www.aviation-history.com, the quoted and linked site from which that post originated)

Some more digging found this:

http://usfighter.tripod.com/f4u.htm

and also this:

http://www.connecticutscorsair.com/pages/White Airframe History.htm

Seems to me, if that air is going to the supercharger, intercooler and oil coolers then calling it "engine air" isn't exactly disingenuous, though perhaps a bit lazy.
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So wait...the induction air is in the wing roots?
 
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