B-17 Bomber's Drift Meter Instrument, a Simple Clever Solution

The B-17 bombers B-5 Drift meter will be discussed. The drift meter is used to measure the bombers drift and ground speed. The drift meter was a simple and clever solution. Examples will be shown adopting the drift meter.

[JeffBilkins]

The intent of this comment is to applaud the quality and detail of the videos published on this channel.

[eaglescout]

I have learned so much from your videos. The research and production put into these videos is incredible. Keep up the good work.

[kenpreston]

I have a friend that is 96 yrs old. He was a navigator on B17. Shot down during 11th mission. Only crew member to survive. I'm very lucky to know this man and learn from him.

[andrewbartczak]

I've been a military aircraft enthusiast since childhood. Never have I seen better descriptions of the specialized equipment used by our military. Thank you!

[dennisfox]

As always great stuff. I love the detailed look and explanation you give on parts of the bomber that are generally glossed over.

[andreyplumer]

Great review! It's amazing how simple but yet powerful the tools were.

[JamesWilliams-enos]

This is an excellent presentation. I have wondered for years how WWII aircraft were able to navigate effectively over occupied France and Germany without local weather data and no data on direction or velocity of winds aloft. Now I know. Thank you for yet another excellent aviation history video. Your channel is outstanding!

[thesecretprotocolsofhirosh]

Brillliant exposition, look forward to more and related to B29!

[curtmartinson]

Great information. I thought i knew alot about B17s but i learned something new . Thank you .keep up the good work!

[paoloviti]

Very interesting as I didn't realise the purpose and the importance of the drift meter that is after all a relatively simple device! Thanks for sharing this 👍 👍👍

[FernandoLXIX]

Very interesting device and excellent presentation 👍

[jmfa]

Very clever indeed! Thanks for another informative video!

[Pguy]

Finally! I saw one of these when I rode in the C-47 “That’s All Brother”. I looked through it in flight and guessed how it worked. Now I know a bit more.

[scullystie]

I love how this dude seemingly has every subsystem from the B17 on demonstration carts in his house lol

Absolutely love these videos, super informative yet succinct

[garygenerous]

I absolutely love these videos and hope you keep doing them. A lot of these items I have seen as part of a static display or in a simulation but most of the time there is very little information on how they were used. So please keep it up!

[alanlenning]

The Navy Martin SP-5B I navigated in 1966/67 had the B-5 Drift meter. It's been awhile since I used the B-5, so thanks for the refresher. I admit I didn't realize at the time I was using a B-17 nav tool.

[AviatorJ]

Like a small version of the E6B! Cool. And also neat that they were made where I learned to fly, in Rochester, NY, home of Kodak.

[davevandevenne]

This is turning into one of my favorite channels.

[sparkey]

I've seen the drift meter before but never explained, thank you!

[bf]

Very cool. Watching WWII B-17 movies, I always wondered how the Navigators could be so accurate in terms of checkpoints and turn points.