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I'm dubious about this claim that "canvas socks" were used to allow multi-person hand-starting. How does one remove the sock once the engine starts, short of allowing centrifugal force to fling it off god knows where? I think very few aircraft required more than two people to hand start, due to the danger involved. After 1925 or so, larger engines had starters equipped. When you see a photo of three or four men on a prop blade, I think that's most often the ground crew turning the engine over to release pooled oil from the lower cylinders, not starting the engine. How often do you see a WWII era photo of crew (supposedly) "hand-starting" an inline engine? You see plenty of photos of men on the blades of B-17's, B-24's, B-29's, etc, because they were all radials, and needed to be turned over. Starting was done electrically, or by other means, but not by hand. I think this "canvas sock" is just a device to help make turning the prop easier, because turning a B-29 prop by hand is difficult. But no-one ever started a B-29 by hand, to my knowledge. .45Colt 01:28, 23 August 2015 (UTC)
Is there no link whatsoever to these documents? I think some of the claims citing this resource (like air-starters are 75% lighter than an equivalent electrical starter, ref. 15) should be verifiable by the public. A Google search does not help either. Willcmc ( talk) 17:53, 6 February 2022 (UTC)
![]() | This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's
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I'm dubious about this claim that "canvas socks" were used to allow multi-person hand-starting. How does one remove the sock once the engine starts, short of allowing centrifugal force to fling it off god knows where? I think very few aircraft required more than two people to hand start, due to the danger involved. After 1925 or so, larger engines had starters equipped. When you see a photo of three or four men on a prop blade, I think that's most often the ground crew turning the engine over to release pooled oil from the lower cylinders, not starting the engine. How often do you see a WWII era photo of crew (supposedly) "hand-starting" an inline engine? You see plenty of photos of men on the blades of B-17's, B-24's, B-29's, etc, because they were all radials, and needed to be turned over. Starting was done electrically, or by other means, but not by hand. I think this "canvas sock" is just a device to help make turning the prop easier, because turning a B-29 prop by hand is difficult. But no-one ever started a B-29 by hand, to my knowledge. .45Colt 01:28, 23 August 2015 (UTC)
Is there no link whatsoever to these documents? I think some of the claims citing this resource (like air-starters are 75% lighter than an equivalent electrical starter, ref. 15) should be verifiable by the public. A Google search does not help either. Willcmc ( talk) 17:53, 6 February 2022 (UTC)