Heracles , post #163:
A wiki page already?, wow.
Thanks to guys who still frequent the gulf for keeping an ear open.
For future reference, the cowling on the older Pratts are NOT ATTACHED to the aircraft at the top. The very old (dating myself here) J-57's, the TF-33/JT-3's, and the JT-9 series motors cowlings upper hinge is simply a curved blade that rests in a "cage" of rollers. There is no mechanical hinge per-se. Combine that with the curvature of the upper edge of the cowl,, it's VERY easy to miss-align and still close these cowls. They will latch at the bottom and be very obviously out of rig at the top. More often than not the ground engineers will simply waste alot of effort trying to get all 5-7 of them to line up,,, it's an "art".lol
Not saying that it's particularly relevent here, just adding to the knowledge base when I can.
These cowls a bl**dy lethal. They were also used on early JT9D engined 747s. It was very easy to unhook them when lifting the cowling just a little above the level at which the hold open rod could be engaged. And since they were quite heavy, there was always the danger of them falling down on you.
I once got stuck for half an hours standing on a stepladder trying to prevent a partially unhooked #4 engine 747 cowling from falling down down on me, until a colleague happened to pass by, whom I could call for help to get the thing back into position again.
Also, on closing, the hooks had to be perfectly aligned in their roller cages, else the cowling would jam and couldnīt be closed. It was an art to hit just the right spot with the flat of your hand to get then to align.
Similar cowls were also used on the Pratt engined 737s, but there the distance to ground wasnīt that high, you didnīt need to stand on a ladder to open or close them, so they were not that dangerous (though you still could close them incorrectly).
Jan