B-17 Bomber's Engine Cowl Flaps Explained

The intent of this video is to provide an overview introduction of the WWII B-17 Bomber's Cowl Flaps system. Topics include:
1. Function B-17 bomber engine of air cooled cowl flaps
2. B-17 bomber cowl flap pilot controls

[OlOleander]

And there we have it, the oldest surviving use of the signature intro line

[Paughco]

I think it was mostly the job of the copilot to control the cowl flaps. The cylinder head temp instruments are his side. Thank you for another great video!

[larrydrozd]

I recently discovered your channel. Great stuff! You don't screw around and you get right to the point!! You're dry in your delivery and that adds so much, you're not a distraction from the facts. Keep these coming, I'll watch every one of them!! Reminds me of the Joe Friday character from the facts, mam". Excellent work!!

[garretvaughn]

Great info. We have an engine cowl flap control at the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa, ID, so it was good to know how this system operated. Now I can better inform our guests about this piece of aviation history. Thank you!

[markjosephbudgieridgard]

Amazing info the B17 has always been my favourite WW2 heavy even though Iam a brit and I should favour the Lancaster haha😁.... I never even knew about this flap system before so all these vidios are really educating me about my favourite heavy bomber... Excellent every single vidio. Once again everyone in the UK owes these Brave young airmen a debt of gratitude they shall never be forgotten ❤️🇬🇧🙏

[baronbustin]

Your videos are an amazing wealth of information. Well done!

[tfogelson]

Cowl flaps and brakes were the only hyd. on the B-17. The system consisted of an electric motor connected to a pump and accumulator and associated piping. Location of the equipment was on the starboard side of flight deck just forward of the aft bulkhead.

[billyponsonby]

NACA inlet and flaps I guess that’s referring to federal agency National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics

[givenfirstnamefamilyfirstn]

Opening the (lower) inboard engine cowl flaps caused nose down trim, similar to a power reduction. The outer engines were higher up and did not affect the trim.

[MichaelJohnson-cmwp]

On Ebay, about 2 years ago, there was a seller (I think he was in Romania) that was selling a digital download of all the 28000 engineering plans..About a 35 GB download.
The Smithsonian Museum had taken the original plans and made them to microfiche and then later they were digitized..

The section where the cowl flaps are, it is amazing bit of engineering to make it all work..Boeing really knew had to put things together!!

[ExploringHabit]

Watching masters of the air brought me here. Wonder what those flaps were for.

[ouftthh]

This is probably a silly question, but why not always keep the cowl flaps open? I assume there's some sort of trade-off being made.