WW11 Bombers

[john91]

In most WW11 films & documenteries I've seen, British bombers, Lancasters etc are heavily camaflaged while American ones, B29s etc are shiny aluminium. Whats the reason for this?

[BrumBob]

The American Planes flew higher and also did most of the easy night flights

[Ewood27]

Er, not quite, BrumBob. The American bombers were designed to fly very long distances at high altitude, and they certainly flew higher than British bombers, but they flew by day. Very few American warplanes were camouflaged. Bare metal saves weight (always a good thing) and avoids any roughness on the surface from scuffed paint, which would cause drag.

British bombers, on the other hand, flew by night and were camouflaged to break up the outline and make them harder for German night fighters to see. The RAF had a culture of camouflaging aircraft in any case.

[john91]

Thanks for that guys, and I even learnt how to spell camouflage. Cheers. John.

[Clanad]

Actually, I'm not aware that the B-29 was evver in use in the European Theater. The aircraft was used introduced and used extensively in the Pacific. It was powered by 4 2,200 horsepower Wright Cyclones (2 rows of of 9 cylinders, supercharged). Additionally, the crew areas and rear tail gunner area were pressurized for high altitude, long distance flight. (Ewood, I appreciate your aviation expertise in other forum's as well, are you a QB?)

[Ewood27]

Clanad, I don't know what a QB is, but I am a retired airline pilot who started flying in the RAF a long, long time ago (or so it feels).

I seem to remember that there were some B-29s based in the UK right at the end of WW2, but by then the war was won and only had to be finished off. The real work of the bombing campaign had been done by the RAF at night and the US 8th Army Air Force by day with B-17s, B-24s and the lighter B-25s and B-26s. The big B-29s didn't have any real impact on the European war. I would guess that they were still stationed in the UK for some years after WW2 as the Cold War developed. Still shiny "aluminum" too!

[Clanad]

Ewood. QB= Quiet Birman, an organization worldewide for airmen such as yourself. I too, retired airlines, but couldn't give up the association with airplanes so now work for FAA (Government oversight of aviation) here in US. I appreciate your descriptions and explanations, especially your RAF background, never having been in military aviation myself... Blue Skies!

[Clanad]

Ewood, that's Quiet Birdmen... (no spell check funtion)...

[Ewood27]

Thanks for explaining. The only such expression I have heard is "wings folded" but that tends to mean d-e-a-d.

I have installed a "bolt-on" spell-checker for Outlook Express called ieSpell, which works well. I can't find the URL for the free download though.

There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots.

[KebabMeister]

RAF camoflage wasn't always for use in the air as well. The upper surfaces of night bombers were green/brown and helped camoflage the aircraft whilst they were parked on airfield dispersals during the day time. The underside of the bombers were indeed black to help camoflage the aircraft against search light and enemy night-fighter. Unfortunately the exhaust pipes on some bombers weren't shrowded and enemy nightfighters could use this to locate the bombers if in close proximity. Also the use of radar helped locate bombers too. As for the bare metal on bombers. The USAAF 8th & 9th Air Forces used olive drab camoflage up until about 1943/44 but by late 1944 most heavy bombers flew without camoflage and just bare metal. This was mostly due to lower the weight of the aircraft; painting an aircraft could add a ton or two to the weight. Both the RAF and USAAF flew high altitude, often up to 24,000ft - 27,000ft although the RAF did fly as low as 7,000ft on occasion.

[Gef]

And we owe an awful lot to the brave men who flew these bombers - and an awful lot of others too.