Not a canoe.
I remember seeing this show on PBS in the 80's or 90's, whenever it originally aired. It is the b29 recovery story on NOVA.
Set aside a hour to watch.
Not a canoe.
I remember seeing this show on PBS in the 80's or 90's, whenever it originally aired. It is the b29 recovery story on NOVA.
Set aside a hour to watch.
The show was actually newer than that, I think in the early 2000s. And yes, I actually got a lump in my throat when they lost it. All that effort wasted for such a stupid stupid reason. Idiots.
I had to look it up, aired 1996. 
SPOILER ALERT.
I saw that back in 1997. I remember cuz I was newly marries. I was enthralled the whole time. Then when the plane sank again (I hope we're talking about the same documentary) I was speechless for 5minutes! My wife asked what happened and I just said "the plane sank again" 3 or 4 times. Now, 17 years later, every now and again I'll say "the plane sank again". Totally out of nowhere.
They don't show the plane sinking, but it is implied. I knew the ending as I saw it back in 1996, but had forgot how close they were. I think we are taking about different rescue attempts.
The one I am talking about - B29 crash landed on glacier. Over a couple of summers work, they managed to get it upright and taxiing under power. Then they had a catastrophic - and avoidable - issue and the plane was destroyed.
I've seen that before. It's hard to watch them put that much effort into something only to watch it go up in smoke.
Whenever I see/hear some yahoo cheering as a race car disintegrates, hollering about how cool it is to watch I feel the same way.
One of the main guys ended up dying from appendicitis or something, too.
Duke wrote: The one I am talking about - B29 crash landed on glacier. Over a couple of summers work, they managed to get it upright and taxiing under power. Then they had a catastrophic - and avoidable - issue and the plane was destroyed.
Yeah, that's it. Some doofus had a can of Kero and a rag by a heater or something? Soo sad.
I will never forgive Greenamyer for that. It says right in the damn flight manual to have someone in the back by the putt-putt motor (APU) with a fire extinguisher on rough fields for that exact reason.
He f'd up. But the man has done some things...
I want to see a story on those Spits in Burma!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-26136291
(looks like they have not actually found them yet)
This page mentions the Kee Bird.
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aircraft-pictures/accidents-losses-32006-2.html
It also mentions this plane, a B17 called Lovely Julie:
It was hit in the nose by an 88mm shell over Europe, killing the bombardier immediately and knocking out the plane's hydraulics and cabin pressurization. The pilots dropped to an altitude where they had oxygen, the navigator stood between them and watched for landmarks. They dealt with ground fire on the way back, two P51's kept enemy fighters off their backs. They landed safely at their home airfield.
Rivet Police warning: B-17s were never pressurized. The oxygen system, however, be knocked out necessitating a drop below 10,000ft. 
They weren't heated either. I bet it got mighty cold up there around 30,000 feet.
In reply to Xceler8x:
-50f? Regularly.
From what I remember reading about the kee bird, they didn't want to take the time to go thorough the fuel system for the apu, so they were just gravity feeding it from a gas can and that's what got knocked down and spilled on the hot engine. I also remember reading somewhere that years after that their caribou was still sitting at the airport where they left it after they ruined one of its engines flying back to get the mechanic to the hospital.
Actually from what I could find in a quick google search, this is where the caribou is now.
http://www.flightworks.com/fleet/showplane/81/DHC-4T-Turbo-Caribou
I seem to recall the weather was getting ready to clamp down, they didn't have enough $ committed to come back the next year so it was do or die.
Appleseed wrote: Rivet Police warning: B-17s were never pressurized. The oxygen system, however, be knocked out necessitating a drop below 10,000ft.
I can guarantee you it was pretty well pressurized when the nose got knocked off! 
No heaters that I know of, but the waist gunners (standing next to a large opening) had electrically heated suits. Unfortunately, they did not know how to take care of the suits (folding them up etc.) so many failed or shorted. Eventually they plexiglassed the waist positions in. Frostbite was a common problem early on.
And to think I bitch about being cold on a bike at 37F.
The B29 was like a Cadillac compared to the B17. Pressurized, heated, and enclosed....to say nothing of the fact that Japan didn't have much in the way of fighter cover by the time we really started to pound them.
My grandpa was a radio operator on a B29. He was based out of Saipan and Tinian in '44-'45, and he didn't talk about it much. One time he did describe how eerie it was to see the glow from the cities burning on the horizon a solid hour before they could actually see land.
You'll need to log in to post.
