Why one squadron engineering officer drilled unauthorized holes in B-29 engine bolts during WW2 — risking court-martial to test a theory that contradicted two years of Wright Aeronautical's engineering work. This World War 2 story reveals what happens when field observation challenges official solutions.
March 27, 1945. Squadron Engineering Officer Darrell W. Landau, 19th Bombardment Group, North Field, Guam. B-29 Superfortresses were burning on takeoff. Magnesium engine fires at 5,600 degrees Fahrenheit burning through wing spars in seconds. Twenty-three bombers lost to engine failures in one month. Fourteen shot down by Japanese fighters. Wright Field's solution: convert every engine to fuel injection. Multi-million dollar program. Six months minimum. Landau looked up at a running engine and saw something nobody else had noticed. A counter-clockwise airflow pattern. Dead zones where cooling air never reached critical cylinders. He drilled six hollow bolts. Routed oil to exhaust valves. Installed them without authorization at 2300 hours.
What Landau discovered that night about propeller governors and distributors blocking airflow contradicted everything Wright Aeronautical had t
