The Engine That Caught Fire Mid-Flight — And America Sent It To War Anyway !
The Engine That Caught Fire Mid-Flight — And America Sent It To War Anyway Before the Boeing B-29 Superfortress ever dropped a bomb, its engine had already killed one of the finest test pilots in American aviation history. This documentary tells the true story of the Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone, the eighteen-cylinder radial engine rushed into production with a magnesium crankcase capable of burning through a wing spar in seconds. From the catastrophic crash that killed test pilot Eddie Allen in February 1943, to the mass-production gamble made by Army generals before the engine was proven safe, to the desperate wartime race to fix a flaw that had already cost dozens of lives, this is the story of how a dangerously unfinished engine became the power plant behind the aircraft that ended World War Two. Learn how the B-29 Superfortress, the Enola Gay, and the atomic bombing missions over Japan all depended on an engine that very nearly grounded America's most important bomber program before it ever reached combat. This video explores the history of the Wright R-3350 engine, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, World War Two aviation engineering, the Frye Packing Plant disaster, and the development of American strategic bombing in the Pacific theater. #WWII #AviationHistory #B29Superfortress #MilitaryHistory #WarPlanes #EngineeringHistory #WrightR3350 #WarbirdHistory #PacificWar #HistoryDocumentary Sources: Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone — Wikipedia HistoryLink.org — "Prototype Boeing B-29 Superfortress Bomber Crashes into Seattle's Frye Packing Company on February 18, 1943" This Day in Aviation — "18 February 1943, 12:26 p.m., Pacific War Time" (Eddie Allen and the XB-29) Edmund T. Allen — Wikipedia The Seattle Times — "How a Top-Secret Tragedy Helped Give Rise to the Popular Frye Art Museum" AVweb — "Best of the Web: How Dodge Built Bomber Engines" Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. I do not own some or all of the video materials used in this video. In the case of copyright issues, please contact me at [email protected] for credit or removal.
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