WWII HIGH-ALTITUDE SECRET: How the Turbo Supercharger Won The Air War [RESTORED & COLORIZED]

This restored and colorized documentary explores the history of the WWII turbo-supercharger, the secret weapon that powered the B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, P-38 Lightning, and P-47 Thunderbolt to high-altitude victory. This film details its origins, use, maintenance, and its direct evolutionary link to the jet engine.

In the skies over Europe, Allied victory depended on a single, decisive strategy: high-altitude, daylight precision bombing. But this strategy was only possible because of one crucial, often-overlooked piece of technology: the turbo-supercharger. This is the story of the device that allowed American engines to "breathe" in the thin, frozen air where others suffocated.

This film, featuring painstakingly restored and colorized archival footage, takes you deep inside this engineering marvel. We trace its origins from a pre-war General Electric innovation for aircraft engines to its mass production as the key to Allied air power. Learn how the turbo-supercharger worked, harnessing the engine's own superheated exhaust gases to spin a turbine at unimaginable speeds, forcing compressed air back into the engine to maintain sea-level power at over 30,000 feet.

We explore the profound tactical impact of this technology, which enabled the B-17 and B-24 to fly in their massive "combat box" formations, and gave the P-47 and P-38 the high-altitude performance needed to protect them. This is the definitive story of the "high-altitude advantage" that changed the course of the air war.

Following this main documentary, we also present a fascinating, original post-WWII short film. This bonus feature details the next step in this technology's evolution: the construction of turbine blades for the first generation of jet engines. Witness the direct, unbroken lineage from the WWII turbo-supercharger to the dawn of the jet age.

General Information: The Turbo-Supercharger

Type: Exhaust-driven forced induction device.

Manufacturer (WWII U.S.): Primarily General Electric (GE) and Allis-Chalmers.

Mechanism: It uses the engine's hot, high-velocity exhaust gases to spin a turbine wheel. This wheel is connected by a shaft to a compressor wheel, which sucks in and compresses the thin, cold outside air. This dense, compressed air (or "charge") is then fed into the engine's intake, allowing the engine to burn fuel efficiently and maintain full power as if it were at a much lower altitude.

Key Advantage: Unlike a mechanical supercharger (which is driven by the engine's crankshaft and robs it of power), the turbo-supercharger runs on "waste" energy from the exhaust. This makes it far more efficient at high altitudes.

Key Aircraft: B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, P-47 Thunderbolt, P-38 Lightning. The B-29 Superfortress used a more advanced two-stage, turbo-supercharged system.

Legacy: The immense metallurgical and engineering experience GE gained from mass-producing these high-temperature, high-RPM turbines gave them the expertise to build America's first jet engine, the I-A, based on the British Whittle design.

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Видео WWII HIGH-ALTITUDE SECRET: How the Turbo Supercharger Won The Air War [RESTORED & COLORIZED] канала DroneScapes