CSSHEGEWISCH I just got the October/November issue of "Air & Space: Smithsonian". It includes an article about the best movie about the Air Force ever made: "Twelve O'Clock High".
I just got the October/November issue of "Air & Space: Smithsonian". It includes an article about the best movie about the Air Force ever made: "Twelve O'Clock High".
Definitely a great movie.
Same plane, but Henry Kaiser left the project partway in, leaving Hughes Aircraft to finish it alone.
I thought it was called the HK (Hughes-Kaiser) 1? Or is the H4 something other than the Spruce Goose?
blue streak 1 What about the Hughes H-4 ? If WW-2 had continued ?
What about the Hughes H-4 ? If WW-2 had continued ?
You mean this monstrosity!?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hhaAhCjLfGk
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Bob I understand ,could it be the blond haired sweetie in front of you with the "pig tails"?? Ah yes those were the days. I walked my blond haired sweety home along the "Pennsey RR " in Dayton Ohio. Her are still my sweety after 63 yrs.
Y6bs evergreen in my mind
Peter,
That would represent one of the "Black Cat" night bombers with radar.
Bob
Got to give the Old Rhinebeck crew credit, they were the first to replicate an Albatros, in their case it's a D-V model.
I know there's an original Albatros D-V in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, there may be others somewhere, but I'm not sure of that. Possibly in some European museums?
I was at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome many years ago and during the air show, the aircraft were away from the field so there was the "ground show" involving the old tank, trucks and so forth. While people were looking at that, from behind right over the grandstand and flying low was the Albatross in full chat! Man that was something! It had a varnished, woodgrain forward fuselage like the one in the youtube film. Gotta get back there someday.
BOB WITHORNM636C, Seems to me that a lot of the PBY's in the Sou. Pac covering for the 380th, 22nd, 43rd & 90th B/Gs in WW2 were RAAF crews. Especially during the Balikpapan missions.
The Catalina was very important to Australia in WWII.
Apart from extensive use for reconnaisance and anti submarine patrols, they were used by Qantas for flights between, if i recall correctly, from Carnarvon in Western Australia to Sri Lanka (called Ceylon then). These were very long non stop flights and the few passengers were given a certificate called "the order of the double sunrise" (presumably this occurred eastbound). These flights replaced services via Singapore and India after the Japanese occupation of Singapore.
The preserved aircraft is painted black with blue and white roundels representing an RAAF aircraft.
Peter
Firelock76You're welcome '54, and just what is the plural of "Albatros" anyway? Albatros'? Albatrosses? Or as you said, "Albatri?" It's a mystery.
Not particularly. It's a German word, for a German plane. And the German plural is "Albatrosse" (Or, as some like me who love WWI aircraft would fudge, "Albatros-Maschinen" since the name is for the type.)
Unfortunately for lesser pedants, any sort of Latin plural for a word obviously derived from Arabic is worse than pointless. Public school boys should have known better.
BaltACD Backshop I'm on a military history website and a few years ago, we had an informal poll of what WW2 aircraft would personally want to own. You'd never guess the overwhelming favorite... (scroll down) PBY Catalina.
Backshop
I'm on a military history website and a few years ago, we had an informal poll of what WW2 aircraft would personally want to own. You'd never guess the overwhelming favorite... (scroll down) PBY Catalina.
PBY Catalina.
Conversely, several ships were sunk off the East Coast of Australia in 1945 by a U-boat, which successfully found its way back to Germany around VE day. But I'd doubt that the Japanese had the ability to mount submarine patrols in the Carbibean. I thiink the U-boat had carried some critical equipment from Germany to Tokyo, and was just taking care of business on its way home.
The German submarine was able to visit Japan and occupied countries for fuel and repairs on its Pacific patrol. I don't think the Japanese had any such facilities in the Atlantic or Caribbean...
tree68 I was in my yard one day when I heard the unmistakable sound of two radial engines climbing out. As it appeared over the trees into my view I saw that the aircraft was a PBY, still dripping from its touch-and-go on a nearby small lake. Good thing it was only a touch and go - I'm not sure the lake is long enough for a full takeoff run.
I was in my yard one day when I heard the unmistakable sound of two radial engines climbing out. As it appeared over the trees into my view I saw that the aircraft was a PBY, still dripping from its touch-and-go on a nearby small lake. Good thing it was only a touch and go - I'm not sure the lake is long enough for a full takeoff run.
I had a similar experience in 1972 in Rockhampton, Queensland. I was still in bed late on a Sunday morning when I heard the sound of twin radial engines. By rolling over I could look out the bedroom window and saw a PBY with its undercarriage extended heading for a nearby airport. I threw on jeans and a t-shirt over my pyjamas an d drove pretty quickly to the airport where I was able to photograph the aircraft taxiing in. It was registered in Canada and was equipped with cable loops for mineral suvey.
More recently, a preserved PBY has appeared on occasion at air shows and military commemorations.
M636C Overmod (Watch for the streamlined 2-8-4!) I think the locomotive illustrated in the video is one of the two Kolomna 4-6-4s 232 Nos 1 and 2 which dffered in boiler design. The headlight centered in the red star low on the nose was a feature of these two locomotives. The streamlined 2-8-4, IS20-18 had its headlight higher up, incorporated as part of a shield carrying the name "J Stalin". I recall a rise in interest in Ekranoplans in the late 1990s despite which, their high drag meant that as before, they were not an economic proposition. Peter.
Overmod (Watch for the streamlined 2-8-4!)
(Watch for the streamlined 2-8-4!)
I think the locomotive illustrated in the video is one of the two Kolomna 4-6-4s 232 Nos 1 and 2 which dffered in boiler design. The headlight centered in the red star low on the nose was a feature of these two locomotives. The streamlined 2-8-4, IS20-18 had its headlight higher up, incorporated as part of a shield carrying the name "J Stalin".
I recall a rise in interest in Ekranoplans in the late 1990s despite which, their high drag meant that as before, they were not an economic proposition.
Peter.
Yes, that was the Soviet 2-3-2K aka Kolomna 4-6-4s, the engine itself was brand new but the passenger cars behlind her, just like other streamlined steam engine in USSR, was some very shabby equipment.
Jones 3D Modeling Club https://www.youtube.com/Jones3DModelingClub
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
It's possible. If his patrol squadron was based in the Canal Zone, he may have also flown patrols over the Pacific.
BackshopI'm on a military history website and a few years ago, we had an informal poll of what WW2 aircraft would personally want to own. You'd never guess the overwhelming favorite... (scroll down) PBY Catalina.
My father-in-law (RIP) was part of the crew on a PBY stationed somewhere in the Carribean. His recurrent story was how they managed to sink a Japanese sub while on patrol. I wasn't aware that Japanese subs made it into the Carribean - German yes, Japanese no.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
I'm on a military history website and a few years ago, we had an informal poll of what WW2 aircraft would personally want to own. You'd never guess the overwhelming favorite... (scroll down)
You're welcome '54, and just what is the plural of "Albatros" anyway?
Albatros'? Albatrosses? Or as you said, "Albatri?" It's a mystery.
Anyway, for a little more "retro," here's a lovely film of a replica SPAD 13, Italian built, and in the markings of Maggiore Francesco Baracca, the top Italian ace of World War One with 34 victories.
OK, it's not Hispano-Suiza powered so the nose doesn't look quite right, but you know what? So what! It's gorgeous!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74FbQLb-AqY
Oh, at about 1:39 into the film, that gazebo-like structure on the ground by the grove of trees is a memorial on the site where Baracca died in 1918. Shot down by an Austrian two-seater? Ground fire? No-one is sure to this day.
Firelock, great film with the Albatrossosses. Albatri. Airplanes!
Want to go a little "retro" everybody? We can do that.
What's this one about? Let me give you a hint...
"Beware the Hun in the sun!"
Be prepared to be as stunned as I was when I found this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOhjtLFIrms
And on the original AC-47 "Spooky" the three 7.62mm Vulcan guns were in fixed mounts. There was a "gunsight," for lack of a better term, on the left wingtip. The pilot would put the sight on the target area and begin circling, then would open fire.
As most of us probably know, the original name of the aircraft was "Puff The Magic Dragon." The radio call-sign was changed from "Puff" to "Spooky" as it was phonetically better for radio transmissions.
BaltACDI have always wondered how fire control and aiming are accomplished with the AC-130.
I believe the original modified C-47 'Spooky' had individually trainable mounts (with airmen actively pointing them)
The H and U variants have individual gunners for each of the mounts, with a fair amount of central fire-control avionics. The W has a modular system that depends much more highly on the 'Gunslinger' precision-guided weapon system (and wing-mounted GBU-39s); it only has one gun (but it's a doozy!) on the left-hand side in a 360-degree mount. Interestingly, as provided in the Precision Strike Package, this weapon does not have a dedicated gunner... draw your own conclusions, but examination of the PSP specs will, I think, give you the answer without compromising security. Note that the accuracy of the gun at 4000' range from the aircraft is well within 20' and it has widely-selectable burst control.
The Ghostrider version (AC 130J) was able to add the 105mm howitzer and wing-mounted Hellfires, but if I'm not mistaken this project has been cancelled in favor of more Ws.
Overmod Shadow the Cats owner SD70Dude ... Could the AC-130 gunship count as a fighter? I called and asked my BIL what he would consider the AC130 as. He goes if you're on the receiving end from one you swear it is Hell raining down on you. Not the 20mm cannon of WWII. 25mm, and then 30mm, and now 40mm, and chain guns. (And follow-on to the M61A Vulcan/GAU4 ... there's a quality difference.)
Shadow the Cats owner SD70Dude ... Could the AC-130 gunship count as a fighter? I called and asked my BIL what he would consider the AC130 as. He goes if you're on the receiving end from one you swear it is Hell raining down on you.
SD70Dude ... Could the AC-130 gunship count as a fighter?
... Could the AC-130 gunship count as a fighter?
I called and asked my BIL what he would consider the AC130 as. He goes if you're on the receiving end from one you swear it is Hell raining down on you.
Not the 20mm cannon of WWII. 25mm, and then 30mm, and now 40mm, and chain guns. (And follow-on to the M61A Vulcan/GAU4 ... there's a quality difference.)
I have always wondered how fire control and aiming are accomplished with the AC-130.
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