AOP
In Remembrance 2023
In re studying Ken Wakefield's The Other Ninth Air Force, I came across this entry in the Ninth Army journals:
(1) FUSA Arty Air Officer, Maj Bristol, called to say they were moving back to their old strip at Spa today. Also, reported that the 23rd MR&RS is going into quantity production on auxiliary baffles to increase cylinder temperature and produce more heat for carburettor and cabin. (Comment: There is no means of determining cylinder head temperatures. The amount of oil temperature increase does not necessarily reflect accurately the increase in head temps. This is a very ticklish affair. Having already inspected the cylinders of an engine, Lt Zicard is installing auxiliary baffles and will operate the ship for ten hours in the air, then tear down the engine to see if there have been any ill effects from too high head temps before going ahead with quantity production of baffles).
I have seen no mention of an ETO-wide effort to fix or coordinate fixes for this issue. It would appear to have been
left up to the individual Armies as how to address this. There was a regulation prohibiting the blocking of cooling air flow, but I have seen nothing to indicate that this order was in any way modified.
The officer mentioned, Lt. Zicard, was at that time CO of the 50th MR&RS, the AAF squadron assigned to provide level 3 MX to NUSA aircraft.
(1) FUSA Arty Air Officer, Maj Bristol, called to say they were moving back to their old strip at Spa today. Also, reported that the 23rd MR&RS is going into quantity production on auxiliary baffles to increase cylinder temperature and produce more heat for carburettor and cabin. (Comment: There is no means of determining cylinder head temperatures. The amount of oil temperature increase does not necessarily reflect accurately the increase in head temps. This is a very ticklish affair. Having already inspected the cylinders of an engine, Lt Zicard is installing auxiliary baffles and will operate the ship for ten hours in the air, then tear down the engine to see if there have been any ill effects from too high head temps before going ahead with quantity production of baffles).
I have seen no mention of an ETO-wide effort to fix or coordinate fixes for this issue. It would appear to have been
left up to the individual Armies as how to address this. There was a regulation prohibiting the blocking of cooling air flow, but I have seen nothing to indicate that this order was in any way modified.
The officer mentioned, Lt. Zicard, was at that time CO of the 50th MR&RS, the AAF squadron assigned to provide level 3 MX to NUSA aircraft.
