Recent content by Aozora

That's more than likely: according to Morgan & Shacklady, the new "...oleos were lengthened and strengthened to cope with the large diameter propellers...". The F. Mk XIV & XVIIIs used a 10ft 5in diameter Rotol R19/5F5/1, whereas on the F. Mk 21/22/24s, the propeller was a Rotol R14/5F5/2 of...

For interest, attached is a Flight magazine article on Fuel Development from June 1945: of note is the comment that "The Air Ministry had the foresight to realise the critical importance of high-duty fuels, and had issued a specification for 100 octane in March 1937 - sufficiently before the war...

One of the best sources of information on the developmental and production problems of the Merlin is The Merlin in Perspective:The Combat Years, by Alec Harvey-Bailey (Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust, Historical Series No 2) View...

Here are the Pilot's Notes for the Spitfire IX (1946), Spitfire VII/VIII (Merlin 63 or 64, 1943) and Spitfire XIV/XIX:

Martin-Baker MB 5...:sunglasses:

Attached are the Orders of Battle for the RAF & USAAF units used during the Battle of Arnhem: these relate specifically to the British areas of operation. The worst casualties occurred during the resupply operations from Tuesday, 19 September 1944, through Friday 22nd. On Thursday 21st, German...

Aw, shucks! I enjoy doing the research and passing it on: the Cabinet Papers: Browse by theme and Browse Flight's archive of Historic Aviation are mines of information.

This is such a great photo of Brendan Deer's 'AL'...what more can be said?

Harvards, according to this Ternhill According to the War Cabinet paper (attached, 1st file), dated 1 July 1940, the "Service Flying Training Schools" were using either Harvards (presumably Mk Is) or Miles Masters (also attached):

Gidday Mi Tasol My copy of 01-60JE-2 is from Avialogs as well, except that I have managed to unscramble the pages; AFAIK, these pages 173 & 174 should be the ones you're looking for? Pages 1 & 2: hopefully, these are what you're needing: For interest, I also have an NAA E & M...

Thanks Steve; it looks like Supermarine (along with most other aircraft manufacturers) were constantly having to enforce consistent standards of finish. The RAAF material can be found online at the National Archives of Australia...

Here is a report from 1940, courtesy of the late Edgar Brooks, describing how to improve the paint finish of the Spitfire; it's often assumed that the RAF fighters all had a matt finish in 1940.In fact the "Type S" finish was adopted quite a lot earlier than many modellers realise. Also attached...

I was having the same problem; clear your cache by holding down the control key and hitting F5.

Ignoring the dubious source (no doubt used as an attempt to discredit the Spitfire by its No. 1 hater), the attached RAE notes show how different design features affected the top speeds of Merlin powered Spitfires; an "ideal" Spitfire IX, for example, could have reached 445 mph (table 3).

1939-early 1940 (not forgetting that the Spitfire didn't see intensive combat, particularly against fighters, until May 1940): Constant-speed propellers (priority for C/S props was given to bombers). Better protection for fuel tanks; in the interim, this would have to be the linatex that was...