Do you think they could literally smell the flak?

[Strike]

I read somewhere a Mustang pilot dipped down over berlin to pursue a german fighter towards the end of the war, he noted he could smell the stench of dead bodies from the devastated city. Can't find the reference, might have actually read it in a book.

I think it's quite obvious that if an aircraft uses ram-air or outside air it would be noteable. As long as the crew keeps their masks on, they should be fed by the oxygen tanks, which, unless someone at the re-fill station is doing a practical joke, should smell like air. If a bomber dropped to lower level, i still believe that the dominant smell would be of aviation gas or fuel. Distinguishing cordite smell from gas/fuel is hard. They don't smell the same at all, but the fuel sure dampens your smelling-sense, at least JP-8 does it :p

My jet once had a small electrical fire and I didn't smell it until after shutdown. Turned out some wires had short-circuited, arcing and caused the isolator to burn, releasing a smoke-puff of foul smelling burnt plastic.

[SpecialCake]

Oh but don't you become so addicted to that smell of aviation fuel?


YEAH OUR GAS HAS LEAD IN IT, SO WHAT?

I remember watching a documentary where bomber crew said that they could smell the cordite from the flak. How those young lads got into those aircraft every night is beyond belief.

[SQB]

Originally Posted by SpecialCake

Oh but don't you become so addicted to that smell of aviation fuel?


YEAH OUR GAS HAS LEAD IN IT, SO WHAT?

mmm, mmm. Put it in a can and spray it around the house

[Feathered_IV]

A Typhoon pilot at Falaise mentioned that the smell of dead bodies was very distinct as he flew sorties in the area. An Il-2 pilot who strafed a troop column also said that his aircraft had large quantities of blood, flesh and bits of uniform stuck to it afterwards.

[SlipBall]

Originally Posted by SpecialCake

Oh but don't you become so addicted to that smell of aviation fuel?


YEAH OUR GAS HAS LEAD IN IT, SO WHAT?

I am curious if your name has a connection to pipe tobacco, sometimes referred to as special cake.

[SpecialCake]

None. I used to be into drugs and having the initials KK, always went by SpecialK. Having grown out of that and not wanting to be identified as such, I found Special Cake to be an appropriately similiar, and hilarious replacement.


I have never heard of such a thing. To the Googlenator!

[Novotny]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8dBo-GcrXU

[mazex]

When I learnt to fly gliders many years ago there was a crematorium close to the field with a rather high smoke stack. The days when it was in use you cloud get a weak thermal close to the downwind sector flying at 200-400 meters and a distinctive smell of burnt hair could be noticed... Really unpleasant but I'm sure the stories from the pilots talking about the smell of corpses is true when flying low with mask off.

Thats a good point, at altitude I dont think they could smell the flak as they would be wearing oxygen masks. I know the germans used throat mic's so I guess they would have had a choice if they were at a lower altitude as to wether they wore them. But the RAF had the mic set in the oxygen mask so they would have to wear them if they wished to be able to communicate without using a hand to raise the mask to their mouth i presume.