How Would A Modern Commercial Airliner Perform As A WW2 Bomber?

Maybe the best plan would be to load up the 737 with as much communications gear and radar from the 1940s and add lots of communications crew. It could circle above the flak and guide bombers in.
 
Of course, one thing people have failed to consider thus far is that a 737 requires a different fuel mixture to aircraft of the time, so it's going to take probably several months for our avid jet fans to actually get the thing running up to spec.

That's another important issue, modern aircraft burn highly refined kerosene that simply couldn't have been produced on an industrial scale with 1940's refinery technology. I remember a discussion on the IMDB board about The Final Countdown asking how long the Nimitz could have operated for in 1941, the answer is probably a week to 10 days before the jet fuel ran out.
 
Maybe the best plan would be to load up the 737 with as much communications gear and radar from the 1940s and add lots of communications crew. It could circle above the flak and guide bombers in.

This is already being done in the 1940's by contempory aircraft

Also by the time you have '' loaded up'' the 737 it will be unservicable with faults 1940's technology can not even identify let alone fix
The problem is that most contributers to this thread have experiences of aircraft which consists of walking through the airbridge ,sitting down, and reading the complimentary magazine and getting of at the end of their trip
Modern commercial aircraft are some of the most complicated machines ever made by man ,they require, and cannot survive without a lot of highly trained people most passengers never see.
They are not some sort of ariel V.W combi van you can load up with valve set radio's and merrily fly off to Berlin
 
The problem is that most contributers to this thread have experiences of aircraft which consists of walking through the airbridge ,sitting down, and reading the complimentary magazine and getting of at the end of their trip
Modern commercial aircraft are some of the most complicated machines ever made by man ,they require, and cannot survive without a lot of highly trained people most passengers never see.
They are not some sort of ariel V.W combi van you can load up with valve set radio's and merrily fly off to Berlin
Clearly, you fly a better class of airline that I do. :p
 
Airlines

YEP!
There is a loooooooooooong list of airlines I won't fly with.
Some times you get what you pay for with some airlines you get less;)
 
I'm sure all of this has been said before but a B-737 or any other modern jet airliner would be virtually immune from interception, being capable at cruising at speeds and altitudes far in excess of any interceptors in WW2. On the other hand, they would be piss-poor bombers - infact virtually useless as bombers. Even assuming they could use the fuels of the day, they aren't equipped or stressed to carry weapons. Assuming they could be modified to carry a few external stores or use an internal bomb bay, they might miss Berlin by miles zooming by at 36,000 feet at 600 mile per hour. Fly any lower or slower and Me-163 or Me-262s could take one out with one 30mm hit.
 
message from this thread

Please ,please let me die.
I am suffering from extreme ASB syndrome, despite several injections of common sense and a course of technical descriptions which should have cured me I am lingering on long past my time.
If I was a dog I would have been taken to the vet by now and put out of my misery
come on guys be merciful :D
 
Please ,please let me die.
I am suffering from extreme ASB syndrome, despite several injections of common sense and a course of technical descriptions which should have cured me I am lingering on long past my time.
If I was a dog I would have been taken to the vet by now and put out of my misery
come on guys be merciful :D

Sorry, hugh, but I do have a question you might be able to help with. The entire scenario is ASB in the extreme, and I'm convinced that an airliner couldn't actually be used as an aircraft, especially given the complete lack of support services, even if it did somehow turn up on an airfield in 1940 or something.
But...
... if such an aircraft did miraculously appear, it would certainly get a lot of attention from everyone involved. So what sort of aeronautical details could they usefully get from having a modern commercial transport aircraft to examine?
 
... if such an aircraft did miraculously appear, it would certainly get a lot of attention from everyone involved. So what sort of aeronautical details could they usefully get from having a modern commercial transport aircraft to examine?

In my area of knowledge? If I was some one like Barnes Wallace say and I was looking at the interior of a stripped out 737 fuselage I'd see evidence of chemical milling of fuselage skins .The shapes that result give clues as to load paths ,from this you may be able figure out that aircraft are much more dynamic in response to loads than 1940s technology .Round windows with what are called bear/tear straps around them should prevent you repeating the Comet 1 disasters The hydraulic systems of the forties will leap forward as well no more flamable vegitable fluid fires:)
Pilkingtons Lmtd will figure out how to put gold mesh in laminated glass windscreens much earlier
Materiels will advance as well lighter, stronger aluminiums with less impurities ,plastics [of course]
Not sure what they would make of carbon fibre not sure myself to be honest:confused:
Fasteners will change rivets will look the same but will be made of different aluminiuns ,diferently treated ,less bolts that look like the ones you might buy in a hardware store These are replaced by several specialised fasteners which [just to pick one example] differentiate between sheer and tension loads
Less fasteners overall in fact due to integeral milling techniques especially in wing skins
Big one would be 'wet' wings difficult in the '40's easy now due to better assembly techniques and good poly sulphide sealants
Anti corrosive compunds which were unknown then will be seen [not just paints] as will the fact that modern aircraft are bonded [last thing you want on any a/c is an area of higher/ lower electrical resistance]
Wiring will be diffent as well lighter ,able to carry greater loads without resistance heating
Seeing all this stuff may not give you an instant boost in technology you wont see SST's in 1950 but knowing it could be done is half the battle maybe ?
As for engines and avionics ? Far too complicated for me but I've watched avionics become so complicated in the last few years that it now has sub specialisations What Barnes Wallace would make of T.V screens in cockpits[ and in colour] I dont know
Any modern aircraft transported by ASB's into the past is FAR to valuable to be risked in war
I'm sure Im sure I've missed out hundreds of other things but that should be a taste
 
Please ,please let me die.
I am suffering from extreme ASB syndrome, despite several injections of common sense and a course of technical descriptions which should have cured me I am lingering on long past my time.
If I was a dog I would have been taken to the vet by now and put out of my misery
come on guys be merciful :D

Yes. This discussion is really an ISOT and should have been posted in ASB
 

BlondieBC

Banned
Maybe the best plan would be to load up the 737 with as much communications gear and radar from the 1940s and add lots of communications crew. It could circle above the flak and guide bombers in.


Any super advance technology sent to the past would most likely be used as a research lab, and never be sent near combat. A 737, or even a dozen, sent back to 1940 would be sent to a test airport in a remote location for test. All major aircraft manufacturers would send teams of high quality engineers to study the aircraft and apply these lessons to their own designs. A major university of engineering will be built wherever the plane is located at.

The only things I can think of that would actually be used, not studied are weapons capable of decisive impact in a single battle, such as,

1) Nuclear bomb - It would be used on something in Germany.
2) Bunker Buster - It might be used on a key command bunker.
3) A nuclear attack submarine might be used in the decisive naval battles in the Pacific.

Even these types of items are likely to be used as research items. A function nuclear bomb might still be disassembled to learn how to make nuclear weapons.

A bunker buster might be studied on a test range, so many can be built. Probably disassemble, reassembled, and then tested in the Western USA.

Nuclear submarine - One of these is the greatest research university the world has ever seen.

I don't really know how this topic is not in the ASB section.

For a book on a similar topic look at

http://www.amazon.com/Designated-Ta...=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326913102&sr=1-7

Stalin took a ship from the future, and he built an entire town around the ship to be the largest research city in the Soviet Union. To me, this is one of the most rational, plausible decisions in alternative history books. Concentrate the technology in one, easy-to-defend location, and start transferring technology of the future to production of the present.
 
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