Water Fed to Carb for Better Mileage?

[Chuck R.]

Re: My Dad had some pretty chilling stories

He was a flight line chief in WII working on the likes of ThunderBolts, Lightnings, WarHawks and finally the Mustangs.

He's quick to tell the light hearted stories as well as the happy ending close calls, but that's where he stops.

One night we got a little tight and he shared a couple of the dark stories and I knew then why he never talked about it.

Sad sad stories about brave men who did what had to be done.

[Scott Marzahl]

Re: Water Fed to Carb for Better Mileage?

I recall Edflebrock making a water injection system to prevent knocking on high compression engines around 1982-1983. I was a simple water nozzle in the top of the aircleaner and a vacum ported to a controller.

[Terry F.]

Re: Twin Mustang

I agree, we are very, very priviledged children. I try hard to keep a humble perspective on life. But, it is difficult not to take for granted the sacrifices others have made.

Once, when I was in the US Air Force, I met an US Army officer that did some kind of special operations in Vietnam. I was in tech school and we used to meet in the gym once in a while. I was certain his experiences had made him into something totally different. It sounds strange but he was not human any more and I could never immagine him being anywhere but in the army. He didn't think the same anymore. I suspect it exists in all of us if we were to live so close to death for so long and to survive it. You could see it in his eyes.

I am certain that no matter how much I try to humbled myself, I could not fully appreciate the sacrifices in terms of life that those individuals made. Enough, Terry

[Byron Martin]

Here's a link

I used water injection to fight off detonation on a supercharged LT1 that I used to have. It really works. Check out this link:




Aquamist

[Roy B.]

[Roy B.]

Re: Water Fed to Carb for Better Mileage?

It increased HP not so much for gas mileage and prevented pre-ignition and engine Carbon build up , which in turn stopped detonation .

[John G.]

Re: the P-38s were called "lightnings"

I almost had the top of my head taken off by a P-38 .. ! .. It was the Reno Air Races and we were right on the race course. We weren't supposed to be out there, of course, but ....... .. During one race, the P-38, 'White Lightnin' made a low pass over us as if to 'send a message'. The sound it made when it passed overhead at something like 30 feet was unbelievable - it felt like a flying scythe took the tops of our heads right off! .. The following year the local sheriff made sure no one made it out on that race course, again. There were a few guys wearing camo's that tried to blend in amongst the desert Joshua trees that got caught, though.

A good friend of mine's Dad was a WW2 P-51 fighter pilot. By the time he finished his stateside training and shipped off with his fighter unit to the Pacific theater, it was the summer of 1945. His fighter unit was based on the island of Iwo Jima and provided fighter escort for the B-29's on their way to bomb the home islands of Japan. One story he shared had to do with a P-51 he was assigned to fly that had been originally assigned to another P-51 pilot. Two P-51's are staged in staggared formation on the runway for takeoff - a flight leader and wingman. This particular P-51 had had it's throttle govenor 'jimmied' by the ground crew mechanics, unbeknownst to my friend's Dad. He almost ran into the other P-51 as they were accelerating down the runway for takeoff! .. He said he pulled power, bounced back down on the runway a couple of times and wondered if he was going to get the business from the 'old man' and his squadron mates when they returned from the mission.

He said the hardest thing about those B-29 escort missions was sitting in that cramped P-51 cockpit on your parachute for 8 hours at a stretch, or more. Once over Japan sometimes the fighters would be turned loose to strafe targets of opportunity on the ground. He said that if the target was military you only made one pass at the target and got out of there. Some guys who made second passes ended up getting shot down - the element of surprise was lost.

My friend's Dad finished the war credited with two Japanese Zero's shot down.

John

[Bill B.]

Re: Water Fed to Carb for Better Mileage?

I just retired from Lockheed after 34 years. I flew a lot on military KC135 refuelers. Early models of the KC135 used water on take off to get about a 15% increase in thrust. These were the ones built in the 1950's. All have been retrofitted with newer engines that have so much thrust that is it almost obscene. Old 135 crews used to say that the original 135 "was built when man thought he could burn water". One other thing about recon aircraft, except for 1 1/2 years, my entire Lockheed career was on U-2 recon. airplanes,(the other 1 1/2 years was on the SR-71). Not much can reach us at 70,000 ft. so we take lots of pics. and don't worry too much. Truely a national assett that is used every day all around the world.

Bill Bonnichsen

[Grant M.]

Re: Twin Mustang

I don't know about American P-51s, but jettisonable long range tanks used on RCAF P-51s for long range bomber escort were fabricated from PAPER! It was probably a material that was heavily doped in some kind of resin or whatever and closely resembled fibreglas, but as 'one way' tanks, it was a cheap way to go...

grant

[bruce11495]

Re: Twin Mustang

The plane may have been the DeHavilland Mosquito.....They were used as night fighter and "pathfinders" for the bombers on missions. They were often used on photography missions...
Is it possible that nitrous oxide or benzene could have been used for limited bursts of emergency power?

[Doug Flaten]

Re: Twin Mustang

There was a Twin Mustang out at the CAF museum in Midland several years ago. It was being restored. I don't know if it shows up there for the fall show or not.