smoking

[rogerwilko]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Closeup_view_of_Martin_B-26C_in_flight.jpg Could you smoke in these planes in WW2? The bombardier seems to be taking a drag!!

 

[soulezoo]

I'd say yes as unwise as it may seem to us.

My father was a WW II bomber pilot and talked about it... taking off the mask to have a drag to battle sleepiness, cold and stress.

He was a heavy smoker all his life-- passed away a couple of years ago just shy of 90.

 

[Shortround6]

Didn't one of the American fighters have an ash tray?
or was it cigarette lighter?

 

[GrauGeist]

Didn't one of the American fighters have an ash tray?
or was it cigarette lighter?

Galland had a cigarette (cigar) lighter installed in his Bf109

I have also seen photos of the guys having a smoke aboard the bombers and i recall seeing a photo once, of a crewman who had a hole in his mask for a cigarette. It seems to me, that once at altitude, taking a drag off a cigarette would have the same affect as smoking several all at once...

 

[evangilder]

If you get in an unrestored military aircraft from about 1980 back, most of them had ashtrays. I flew in a T-34 that was built in the 50s with a restoration that brought everything up to like-new and original. It had an ashtray in the back seat. The owner had a no smoking sticker on the top of the ashtray.

There was a C-131 at the CAF Camarillo for a number of years that had an ashtray on the glare shield for the pilot and copilot, one of each side. The slot was big enough for a cigar.

 

[gjs238]

 

[Greyman]

I recall reading a story about a Lancaster crewman describing another Lancaster in formation next to him suddenly exploding. He said he saw a glow flare up in the mid-upper turret just before the explosion and thought it was caused by the gunner lighting a cigarette.

 

[rogerwilko]

The co pilot looks like superman(or Clarke Kent without glasses)

 

[swampyankee]

iirc, one of the planes (I think it was a PBM) lost in the mythical Bermuda Triangle (an area which has its size change to accommodate whatever accidents the storyteller needs to justify the borders) is likely to have been lost because of a mix of fuel leaks into the fuselage and crew members smoking.

 

[gjs238]

Fighter Pilot University :: Fighter Pilots Smoking

 

[Geisel_der_Lufte]

I recall reading a story about a Lancaster crewman describing another Lancaster in formation next to him suddenly exploding. He said he saw a glow flare up in the mid-upper turret just before the explosion and thought it was caused by the gunner lighting a cigarette.

That's a sorry way to go.

 

[Capt. Vick]

I remember reading that the Brits where astonished at the luxury provided by the Washington (B-29), with its ash trays at all the gunner stations.

 

[Aozora]

I remember reading that the Brits where astonished at the luxury provided by the Washington (B-29), with its ash trays at all the gunner stations.

Gotta love the irony, considering that many B-29s had the legend "NO SMOKING WITHIN 100 FEET" stenciled on the nose-wheel doors (I guess that would refer to ground crews avoiding smoking while refueling)

Wonder what it would have been like in aircraft where the crews preferred chaw 'baccy to smokin?

 

[gjs238]

B-29 bomb aimer with cigar after raid on Anshan, Manchuria, Sept 44