Float Flare Mk 17 Mod 0 and Mod 1

Length, inches

Diameter, inches

Weight, pounds

Color

Intensity, candlepower

Burning time, minutes

Delay, minutes

Mod 0 - 1
Mod 1 - 5.5

Use: This flare is used to illuminate enemy surface craft.

Description: The flare case is a cylindrical body of sheet metal tapered at one end from 9½ inches to approximately 4 inches, which section has a lead weight and four membrane-covered ports approximately two inches in diameter. The after end of the flare case is closed by a canvas bag containing a parachute. The candle is in a central tube so mounted as to keep the burning mixture at the top of the flare by spring action.

Operation: When the flare is removed from the box, the adhesive tape on the cover is pulled off and membranes covering the ports in the nose are punctured. The flare is loaded into the bomb rack with the pointed end of the flare toward the forward end of the plane. Sufficient static line is pulled from the pocket in the parachute canvas bag to allow the ring attached to the end of the line to be secured to the arming-wire retainer on the rack or shackle. On launching, a combination-type fuze causes a delay before the pyrotechnic candle burns.

Remarks: Flares having a one-minute delay setting may be released at elevations between 100 and 4,000 feet; 5½-minute delays may be released from greater altitudes. Descent is at a rate of between 80 and 100 feet per minute.

A continous illumination on nine minutes duration may be obtained by dropping a Mod 0 and a Mod 1 together.

Figure 184. Float Flare Mk 17 Type