Flare Launcher details
Posted: Fri May 30, 2014 4:35 pm
So ever since the purchase of my 170B years ago, I've always been intrigued by the optional rocket flare launcher shown in the parts manual. At last year's convention in Bardstown, KY there was at least one aircraft I saw that previously had the flare launching kit installed, though the 3-hole plate in the side of the fuselage had long since been capped.
My assumption was that such a mechanism would have been used primarily to mark the location of some ground-based feature (like marking a target, but in some civilian capacity). Or perhaps just to torment folks on the ground below on an otherwise slow day
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I recently came across an article from Nov. 1955 Flying magazine which sheds light (pun intended ) on the true intended application. You can follow the link here. I've also pared it down to an 8-pg PowerPoint presentation, but the forum website isn't allowing me to attach it. If you know another method, let me know so I can share the file. FYI, check out the ad on pg. 52 for the tricycle conversion of a 170 too. Enjoy!
http://books.google.com/books?id=FLPKvK ... na&f=false
I doubt the Feds would look kindly upon firing incindiary devices from a civilian aircraft today, but I still think it would be fun to do it once... but only from the ship-mounted method. I cannot imagine keeping the hand-held type described in the article within reach in the cockpit and then firing it out the window at strategic intervals!
My assumption was that such a mechanism would have been used primarily to mark the location of some ground-based feature (like marking a target, but in some civilian capacity). Or perhaps just to torment folks on the ground below on an otherwise slow day
.I recently came across an article from Nov. 1955 Flying magazine which sheds light (pun intended
) on the true intended application. You can follow the link here. I've also pared it down to an 8-pg PowerPoint presentation, but the forum website isn't allowing me to attach it. If you know another method, let me know so I can share the file. FYI, check out the ad on pg. 52 for the tricycle conversion of a 170 too. Enjoy!http://books.google.com/books?id=FLPKvK ... na&f=false
I doubt the Feds would look kindly upon firing incindiary devices from a civilian aircraft today, but I still think it would be fun to do it once... but only from the ship-mounted method. I cannot imagine keeping the hand-held type described in the article within reach in the cockpit and then firing it out the window at strategic intervals!
