Question to connoisseurs of B17 (and to regatta enthousiasts!)

[Snafu35]

Hello, all.

 

I am looking for the dimensions of the life raft that was on board the B17 Flying Fortresses.

https://wwiisurvivalequipment.com/life-rafts-usaaf.

 

This is because I will represent the raft on the wing of Miss Ouachita.

 

Thank you for your answers.

 

Regards,

Eric-Snafu35

 

[Geoffrey Sinclair]

So shot down 22 February 1944 north of Lingen, Germany.

 

There do not seem to be many regatta enthusiasts when it comes to rubber rafts.  Most of the published data tends to report their size when stowed, things like 8 feet by 4 feet being mentioned as a deployed size.  The USAAF went through a number of changes as experience built up, with designations like a-2, a-3, b-3, b-4, which really catch modern search engines out.  Lots of people seem willing to sell you the items, without mentioning whether what sort of room is required to see it fully deployed.  An estimate from photographs may be in order.

 

https://wwiisurvivalequipment.com/life-rafts-usaaf
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/VII/AAF-VII-15.html

 

Even the official history is rather brief.

[Snafu35]

Hello Geoffrey,

 

I thank you very much for your response, and I will not sink into despair tonight, because your help is really very precious to me. 

I found the first link you suggest, in the absence of any other information on the web, and I admit that my library is not that rich!.

So I took my decimeter, observed photos, and by empiricism I had determined the following measures:  45mm long and 20mm wide on 1:72 scale.

8 feet by 4 means 33mm long and 17mm wide on 1:72 scale.

 

I was not present that day, but apparently Miss Ouachita was shot down on February 21, during mission number 228 (the 113th for the 91BG), and the" winner" visited her the next day, February 22.

 

Happy modeling,

Eric-Snafu35

 

Edit: 

"the A-3A weighed only 36 pounds net; it measured 98 by 60 inches in size".

in https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/VII/AAF-VII-15.html 

Edited June 21, 2021 by Snafu35