Request for anything on the "Green Arrow" bomber

proditor

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No, I'm not that other guy, promise! I'm just intruiged by anything called the Greeen Arrow that's described as a plastic bomber! Can anyone elighten me about this sucker? Cuz right now it looks like something from DC comics in the 40's in my head. Not that this is a bad thing, but I'd be really interested in seeing the genuine article (so to speak). Alternatively, if someone can just fill in some blanks (Was this for a request? In house?) that would be cool too.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I did try searching here and Google, but the only thing I found was that guy's posts here and at some RC board.
 
The Focke Wulf 58 Weihe (Kite) was an important plane of the Luftwaffe during WW II, seeing widespread use (by other countries too) in a variety of duties such as transport, liaison, training, ambulance, flight testing, patrol, attack and even crop dusting.
The prototype, FW-58 V-1, D-ABEM, flew in 1935, around 5,000 being built in the “A” (very few), “B” and “C” versions, the latter the most important operationally. There were some “B” version examples with factory installed floats, designated FW-58BW. The German pilots called it Leukoplast-bomber (sticking-plaster bomber), but it was a very reliable aircraft, present on all Fronts.
http://www.luftarchiv.de/index.htm?/flugzeuge/focke-wulf/fw58.htm
 
Justo, proditor is asking about the 1942 Ford "Green Arrow" bomber which was to have used 'chemurgy' synthetics to create its airframe. The 'farm chemurgy' movement anticipated replacing or augmenting US fossil fuel supplies with agriculturally-derived products like ethanol fuels and synthetic rubber, pine-stump resin-bonded hemp structures, etc. Henry Ford was especially keen on hemp, soy beans, and alcohol fuels.
 
Thanks guys!

@Apophenia: So it might have looked completely normal on the outside. Gotcha. Thanks for the info, I'm always intruiged by the alternative materials programs.
 
proditor: absolutely no clue what the 'Green Arrow' was meant to look like. Considering the 1942 date, it's tempting to speculate a Ford-built B-24 made of hemp ;D
 
Ford - and other car makers - are back using these biomaterials as they are easily recyclable. I think new cars at least over here in the EU need to include some scrapping price when bought or some such thing that makes it beneficial to reduce the amount of waste. Hemp for fibers, corn and wheat starch for bioplastics and straw for fiber etc.
For example:
http://www.uoguelph.ca/news/2009/11/eee_1.html
So, a full circle... :)
 
I looked into this project and found that Ford had built a car using Hemp based materials, and then to prove how resistant the material was, he took an axe to it as depicted in this picture. His plane, of which only sketches were made, which I have not discovered yet, was expected to be as durable, ie against battle damage.
fordax_resized.jpg
 
That's awesome. You wouldn't even mind getting shot down as you could smoke the wreckage. ;D
Sadly, structural grade hemp (e.g. rope) is rather boring because it only contains tiny amounts of psychologically-active drugs like THC.
During the wars, the US Navy encouraged Mid-West farmers to grow hemp to be twisted into cordage, rope, hausers, etc. The USN even gave away free hemp seeds.
Post-war, psycho-active variations of hemp and marijuana became popular with hippies, so the federal Drug Enforcement Agency tried to erradicate all of the hemp growing wild in Mid-Western ditches. Hah! Hah!
 
Broadly this was a kind of fiberglass. While it can be structurally strong, it is difficult to repair.
 
I looked into this project and found that Ford had built a car using Hemp based materials, and then to prove how resistant the material was, he took an axe to it as depicted in this picture. His plane, of which only sketches were made, which I have not discovered yet, was expected to be as durable, ie against battle damage.
fordax_resized.jpg
Just wait until Musk finds out about that - Tesla may never be the same...
 
That's awesome. You wouldn't even mind getting shot down as you could smoke the wreckage. ;D
Sadly, structural grade hemp (e.g. rope) is rather boring because it only contains tiny amounts of psychologically-active drugs like THC.
During the wars, the US Navy encouraged Mid-West farmers to grow hemp to be twisted into cordage, rope, hausers, etc. The USN even gave away free hemp seeds.
Post-war, psycho-active variations of hemp and marijuana became popular with hippies, so the federal Drug Enforcement Agency tried to erradicate all of the hemp growing wild in Mid-Western ditches. Hah! Hah!
On a backpacking trip during college, we spotted fairly large expanses of hemp growing wild along upstate New York roads and streams and in abandoned farm fields. One of us claimed that the the seeds were dispersed along rights of way in the area by trucks during WW2. So the effort may have gone well beyond the Mid West.
 
That's awesome. You wouldn't even mind getting shot down as you could smoke the wreckage. ;D
Sadly, structural grade hemp (e.g. rope) is rather boring because it only contains tiny amounts of psychologically-active drugs like THC.
During the wars, the US Navy encouraged Mid-West farmers to grow hemp to be twisted into cordage, rope, hausers, etc. The USN even gave away free hemp seeds.
Post-war, psycho-active variations of hemp and marijuana became popular with hippies, so the federal Drug Enforcement Agency tried to erradicate all of the hemp growing wild in Mid-Western ditches. Hah! Hah!
On a backpacking trip during college, we spotted fairly large expanses of hemp growing wild along upstate New York roads and streams and in abandoned farm fields. One of us claimed that the the seeds were dispersed along rights of way in the area by trucks during WW2. So the effort may have gone well beyond the Mid West.
According to maps published on Wikipedia, the American Mid-West includes: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, MIssouri, Ohio and Wisconsin. .
I was quoting a farmer based between Chicago and Dekalb, Illinois.
Topographically, I suspect that the flatter parts of Ohio and Upstate New York are also favorable for growing hemp cordage.
 
Maybe there is reference to the aircraft in the book The Aviation Legacy of Henry and Edsel Ford by Tim O'Callaghan? Does anyone have a copy of this title?

 

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