I remember the Shackletons also feathering various props, which once again my father said was being done as a training exercise. Don't know about that, as I can imagine with four engines each with two counter turning props, that could have been done to save fuel (??)
Your dad was correct, Shackletons never feathered an engine to save fuel, only for pilot or crew training, and only below weights at which a further engine failure would not be embarrassing. The later Mk3s, as in my Avatar, had Viper jets, running on Avgas, fitted in the outboard Griffon nacelles, initially to assist take-offs only, the controls for which were at the FE station. They later modified the jets, modifying the fixed idle/max power only 'throttle' setting to a variable 'throttle' to allow them to be used in the cruise or for emergency Griffon failure. So the FE needed to very slick in lighting them in flight, as a Griffon failure at 1000', our normal cruise height over the ocean, or lower, required a rapid crew response in a heavy Mk3, which would struggle to maintain altitude on 3 Griffons at max power, as I discovered more than once.
Don't know about that, as I can imagine with four engines each with two counter turning props, that could have been done to save fuel
We did use this technique on the Nimrod, and could safely cruise on 2 once below 'critical weight', the weight at which we could maintain altitude on one engine should we lose one of the powered Speys.
Wasn't it the Shackleton that used to be described as so many thousand rivets flying in loose formation?
Correct, and it sounded like it inside. After a 12 hour trip, my Beetle sounded like a Roller.
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Topic: Interesting documentary (Read 7708 times)