Picture of the day. (1 Viewer)

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If you ever wondered why so few ETO 8th Air Force airplanes made it back across the pond after the War... here's one of the answers...
These are the remains of U.S. Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator bombers, based in Eastern England in WWII for the Strategic bombing of Germany and scrapped in situ at RAF Pulham, Norfolk, in 1947 instead of being ferried back to the U.S.A


Zoomable and further aerial views at:

Piles of scrap metal at RAF Pulham, Rushall, 1947 | Britain from Above
 
Fascinating images on that link, abbadon1. Interesting to see Pulham's airship shed still surviving by the end of WW2. The station originally had two sheds, but in 1925 the other one was dismantled and moved to Cardington, Bedfordshire in support of the Imperial Airship Scheme. The airship R.100 lived inside it after completion at Howden whilst R.101 was housed in Cardington's original factory shed where she was built. Pulham had a distinguished RNAS career as an airship station; by far its most famous hour was the return of the British airship R.34 there on a direct flight from the United States in 1919. It had departed from East Fortune in Scotland and landed at Hazelhurst Field, Mineola Long Island, then back to Pulham St Mary.
 
With the jack out front, it looks like they are going to raise the aircraft up sufficiently to install the jack under the wings - presumably there's also one on the other side, jack it up, then lower the undercarriage and if there is no damage to the gear, lower the aircraft onto its own wheels. The tanker looks like its there to steady the aircraft while air bags are being inflated. The flaps are down, so naturally the air bags can't be placed right under the wing; the flaps would get damaged as they couldn't take the strain of the air bags. Flaps would probably be inspected and retracted as well, depending on their condition. The air bags would be inflated only sufficiently to enable the jacks to be installed under the wings.
 
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Yep, I believe you're right. The 'Matador' is taking the strain until there's enough clearance to get the screw jacks in position. As the engines/crank shafts have probably already been shock loaded, they wouldn't be that concerned about further possible damage caused by the stress of the ropes or cables. Engines and props can be replaced, the airframe is more important.
 
Static test of a Mk108 cannon firing mine shells against a Bristol Blenheim fuselage. If that had been a flying test the tail would have come off and the crew would be dead. Pity the picture is a bit poor quality I will keep looking for a better file.

 

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