Aircraft repair during WW2

[iana]

Hi all, my first post, so here goes, I was intending to try to write a book, a fiction novel which depicts the life on a ww2 airbase, the staff, the hardships and about the unnoticed hero's that kept the pilots in the air. To date I have not seen a book like this. However I feel I have left the writing too long and all of those involved have faded away.
Having read many books on ww2 flying, to date I have not seen any reference to doing damage repairs, i.e. repairing bullet holes etc.
I know that in the aircraft carriers they carried components, hung of the hanger roof, such as elevators, tail-planes and wings, so I am thinking that no smallish airframe repairs were done, rather a component was changed over, or the aircraft sent to a reapir facilty, or just scrapped.
I suspect that the maintenance crew were only just able to do a turn around service to get the aircraft back into the air, with out worrying about small repairs.
Any thoughts on this?

 

[ARTESH]

Hi all, my first post, so here goes, I was intending to try to write a book, a fiction novel which depicts the life on a ww2 airbase, the staff, the hardships and about the unnoticed hero's that kept the pilots in the air. To date I have not seen a book like this. However I feel I have left the writing too long and all of those involved have faded away.
Having read many books on ww2 flying, to date I have not seen any reference to doing damage repairs, i.e. repairing bullet holes etc.
I know that in the aircraft carriers they carried components, hung of the hanger roof, such as elevators, tail-planes and wings, so I am thinking that no smallish airframe repairs were done, rather a component was changed over, or the aircraft sent to a reapir facilty, or just scrapped.
I suspect that the maintenance crew were only just able to do a turn around service to get the aircraft back into the air, with out worrying about small repairs.
Any thoughts on this?

Hi and Welcome to Forum, dear Iana.

Well, I am not an speciallist in Aviation, but we have lot's of members who former Pilots / Technicians and ...

Also we have a USAF WW2 Pilot, Mr. Runells.

I hope they can help you.

 

[buffnut453]

In the RAF, repairs were managed at different levels of command depending on the severity of the damage. For example, quick bullet-hole patches, replacing damaged fuel tanks, instrument replacements etc would be applied at the squadron level. More involved repairs might require station-level resources, for example if a control system was damaged and the aircraft needed to be taken out of the front line for a longer period because the aircraft had to be stripped down more comprehensively to enable the repair. I suspect engine replacements could also be accomplished at the station level or above. Replacing more substantial components (eg wing swap or new tailplane) would likely be accomplished by a Maintenance Unit, a dedicated engineering organization with a broad range of capabilities from aircraft erection and flight testing through to manufacturing small-volume items needed by a particular squadron/theatre. Finally, for true rebuild tasks, a heavily damaged aircraft might be returned to the factory. Obviously this latter grouping could only be accomplished in the UK. Overseas, such airframes were robbed for spares and then junked.

Hope this helps a little. I'm sure others will be along shortly to correct any mis-statements I've made.

Cheers,
Mark

 

[iana]

Thankyou buffnut453, but you have told me nothing I did not already know. So it would seem minor and/or larger airframe repairs were not done at the field. Maybe they just de-burred and slapped a fabric patch over. It is possible each crew carried a "tucker pop riveter", or "cherry lock" gun, and did repairs this way, but as of now I have not read any reference to this, nor seen any photos to show such repairs happening.

 

[iana]

Thankyou Artesh, for your welcome. I see you are involved with a military museum, I am currently looking at doing some voluntary work in the same. My younger days my time was spent doing aircraft maintenance, as well as repairs. I also did some crash salvage jobs where we did some fairly major repairs to aircraft in the jungle, which were then flown back to base.

 

[pbehn]

Thankyou buffnut453, but you have told me nothing I did not already know. So it would seem minor and/or larger airframe repairs were not done at the field. Maybe they just de-burred and slapped a fabric patch over. It is possible each crew carried a "tucker pop riveter", or "cherry lock" gun, and did repairs this way, but as of now I have not read any reference to this, nor seen any photos to show such repairs happening.

Iana welcome to the forum. It is easy to see an aircraft as just a thing that goes in the air. WW2 saw planes change from cloth covered modified bi planes to stressed skin structures. The Spitfire and Hurricane look similar but were completely different in terms of repair.

 

[ARTESH]

Thankyou Artesh, for your welcome. I see you are involved with a military museum, I am currently looking at doing some voluntary work in the same. My younger days my time was spent doing aircraft maintenance, as well as repairs. I also did some crash salvage jobs where we did some fairly major repairs to aircraft in the jungle, which were then flown back to base.

Hi dear Iana.

Yes, I'm Museum Guide at Sa'ad Abad Military museum. I love military history. That's really great. Well, as i said before, I don't know much about Avition, itself and WW2 Warbirds. only afew ones, mostly German ones. Anyway, I hope you can find enough info, and write your book!. also i hope that by that day, i can buy it online. finding books about Military History, is very hard and Expensive in Iran.

also, if you are interested, you can have a look at my topics about IRIAF and Iran/Iraq War.

Good luck, Iana.

 

[mcoffee]

Ground crews did all manor of repairs at the fields. There was also a service squadron attached to most groups. If an aircraft was not airworthy and thus not able to go to a depot, repairs either had to be made at the field or the aircraft salvaged.

 

[MIflyer]

This might help you. It's about a friend of mine: 9th PHOTO RECON SQUADRON

 

[iana]

That was interesting MIflyer, obviously they did minor airframe repairs.

 

[iana]

The two guys working on the engine change in the photo above, bear an uncanny resemblance to the two fellows working with me, the younger one on this Wright Cyclone radial. Of course they can't be the same. The other pictures are of a crash salvage that I did in PNG. Just a rock as a work bench and pop rivets and nuts and bolts. The top aircraft is a Lockheed Lodestar, which is the transport version of the Ventura.

 

[MIflyer]

They did minor airframe repairs, engine repairs and changeouts, and in the case of the 9th even had to assemble the airplanes after they had been dealt with rather harshly by the people shipping them - but that was pretty early in the war.

In the U.K. aircraft from the US usually were assembled at depots before being sent to their units.

But, as the article shows, an enthusiastic and capable maintenance outfit could do quite a bit more - like building a Hot Rod out of parts.

They also modified an F-4 Lightning with two .50 cal guns in hope of providing a superior interceptor to that available in India at the time.

 

[daveT]

damaged planes were never returned to the factory. In the early years of the war, crashed allied aircraft were salvaged whenever possibly, to provide spare parts that were in short supply. Allied pilots were instructed to crash land as close to their home airfields as possible, so that the planes could be stripped for parts. Teams were also dispatched to distant wrecks to recover guns, engines and instruments. Later in the war, they scrapped planes for little reason. The newer planes were improved.

 

[buffnut453]

damaged planes were never returned to the factory. In the early years of the war, crashed allied aircraft were salvaged whenever possibly, to provide spare parts that were in short supply. Allied pilots were instructed to crash land as close to their home airfields as possible, so that the planes could be stripped for parts. Teams were also dispatched to distant wrecks to recover guns, engines and instruments. Later in the war, they scrapped planes for little reason. The newer planes were improved.

Sorry, Dave, but what you're saying is not universally correct. Your comments might be correct for the USAAF but, in the UK, damaged RAF and FAA aircraft absolutely WERE returned to factories for repair. Clearly, that was a rather unique situation that was not replicated in other theatres...but, then again, the UK was in the front line for much of WW2 from 1940 onwards.

 

[billrunnels]

damaged planes were never returned to the factory. In the early years of the war, crashed allied aircraft were salvaged whenever possibly, to provide spare parts that were in short supply. Allied pilots were instructed to crash land as close to their home airfields as possible, so that the planes could be stripped for parts. Teams were also dispatched to distant wrecks to recover guns, engines and instruments. Later in the war, they scrapped planes for little reason. The newer planes were improved.

During WWII a lot of the B-17 maintenance was done overnight on the hardstand at the 303rdbg. We only had one hanger. Slow timing engines was an on going activity. Four hours in the air at a given RPM on the repaired engine. The maintenance crews did an excellent job under adverse conditions of keeping the aircraft air worthy.

 

[drgondog]

Many significant repairs, including wing changes, empennage replacements, etc were performed at Service Groups attached to the Bomb/Fighter/Transport base.

 

[Airframes]

Also, the USAAF in the UK had the facilities of Base Air Depots, such as Burtonwood. These were primarily centers for the erection, preparation and delivery of newly arrived aircraft, but also carried out modifications, up-dates and major repairs, the type that couldn't be done on the 'home' base.

 

[MIflyer]

In the continental US the USAAF created a number of Air Depots to accomplish major overhaul of aircraft and engines and support the filed with engineering expertise. One of these was Midwest Air Depot near Oklahoma City, now called Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker AFB.

In the 70's I talked to some people who where there in the 40's. They said that the Enola Gay and other 509th Bomb Group aircraft were sent there from the factory for modification, calibration of the fuel flow meters and things of that type. The normal procedure was to remove the fuel flow meters and calibrate them on a test bench. But for those airplanes they were told they had to calibrate the fuel flow meters while installed in the airplane. This increased the accuracy of the meters, but normally was not done. They did not know why that was being done to just those aircraft, but they eventually figured it out.

 

[pbehn]

I always wondered what went on at the emergency landing fields of Carnaby, Woodbridge and Manston. Many landings were due to fog or lack of fuel, but that still leaves thousands of forced landings with varying problems and all sorts of aircraft, they must have had a huge scrapyard but also quite extensive facilities to get planes back in the air.

 

[billrunnels]

I always wondered what went on at the emergency landing fields of Carnaby, Woodbridge and Manston. Many landings were due to fog or lack of fuel, but that still leaves thousands of forced landings with varying problems and all sorts of aircraft, they must have had a huge scrapyard but also quite extensive facilities to get planes back in the air.

I remember seeing one emergency field that had a runway you could land on in any direction. Was it one of the three mentioned?