Good to see it was a machine you could rely on. I will assume, except
for a lemon here and there, that most of the other B-26's were the same
in reliability. With the R3350 heat problems and other things B-29's
had to worry about, having that added stress during a mission couldn't
have helped those guys much.

ArtKramr wrote:

bject: Art Kramer WILLIE THE WOLF
From: Mark and Kim Smith
Date: 12/27/03 8:03 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

Hi Art,

I was reading a journal / diary (
http://home.att.net/~sallyann4/samuelson1.html ) about how many problems
B29's were having mechanically. How was Willie as far as down time?





Wilie was quite good. MArtin built is storng and simple. R eloable R-2800
engines were great. But the Curtis electric props needed a lot of tender loving
care and even so ran away from time to time throwing a prop blade every now and
again. The nose wheel was a bit weak and that took good maintainance too, but
we had relatively few mechanical failures. You have to love Willlie


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer