Recent content by Buz101

  1. B

    How good a plane was the P-40, really?

    Shortround Yes the first P-40E's turned up in late Mar 1942 (from 50 sent), the first losses noted as 10th April 1942 - They had 32 aircraft with two others (41-5688 and 41-5697) lost before they were "officially" taken on strength of the AVG therefore not counted against their numbers, of the...
  2. B

    How good a plane was the P-40, really?

    Bill I agree the V-1710-33/-39 and later engines could and did take the higher boosts, just pointing out that at the time the AVG were using them they were not cleared for higher boosts (plus the length of time that boost was applied). The AVG did have a number of aircraft that had a trip...
  3. B

    How good a plane was the P-40, really?

    I promised some information on the AVG, engines and other data……. This is normally when I land myself in trouble with the AVG aficionados but meh who cares, they either accept the data for what it is or they don't – entirely up to them. We have all heard the stories on the aircraft being...
  4. B

    Halifax III Mid Upper Gunner or Rear Gunner position.

    Just to help understand the gunner positions on Halifax's, I have reference to a Gunners logbook who flew as a Mid Upper at 1652HCU. He arrived on his Unit (still crewed with the same Pilot from HCU), and went on to fly from late Nov 1944 until Wars end both on OPS and other flights. During...
  5. B

    How good a plane was the P-40, really?

    this was actually an ex Russian Machine (I know many know that) however remember my previous about RAF aircraft in the FS serial block being sent to Russia? Well originally this was FS202 Buz
  6. B

    How good a plane was the P-40, really?

    Like to address this, as I believe you may be in error with this statement (think its a mix of information with the wrong conclusion). Yes the Russians (like everyone else) had issues with the V-1710-C15's, mainly with the Thrust race and oil system (and the lubricants used there in along with...
  7. B

    How old are users on the site

    Old enough to forget where the bodies are buried, young enough to at least remember to bury them.
  8. B

    Allison v-1710 Engine Life

    Interestingly the 200 odd Tomahawks the British sent them only came with 20 spare engines.... however later shipments came with about 25% plus spares (US found that 10% wasn't anywhere near enough - even though they were told early that it wasn't)). MakerDue can you drop me a PM with what you...
  9. B

    "All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again."

    Bridges are extremely difficult to drop at the best of times, nothing to do with Ukraine's weapons being inadequate, more the range of weapons in the inventory, ability to attack exactly where you need to hit and general construction of a bridge (not saying this bridge is badly made, although it...
  10. B

    "All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again."

    I believe that in Feb 1941, the US was all in for the UK with Tanks, Guns, Ammo, aircraft etc as long as paid for by Gold............Lend Lease was still another month away iirc. I don't have details etc, but the contracts that were still running when lend lease became active where still paid...
  11. B

    "All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again."

    Originally the orders for Belgium/Netherlands/Norway and Denmark were for various blocks of A/B models (A-1 through to A-15 OCU, unsure of the B models), but I thought those remaining in service went through the MLU early/mid 2000's and were all updated to similar standard as F-16AM/BM's?
  12. B

    eBay: Curtiss P-40

    Greg The fin fillet was actually fitted to late model E-1's as built, affecting the last 500 aircraft (this is one of those 500). It's what makes telling what model you are looking at extremely difficult when it comes to late model E-1 and K-1/K-5 models when you cannot see the serials (also...
  13. B

    Central Pacific Air Route

    Final closing of the loop. Unit History (A.50 Sheets) for RAAF Darwin - "10th Sep 1941 - 9 United States B-17 Flying Fortress Bomber Arrived from Port Moresby" then you have "12th Sep 1941 - 9 United States B-17 Flying Fortresses depart from Darwin"
  14. B

    Was Port Moresby the first rea defeat of the IJN in the air?

    CAMCO Personnel assisted in the assembly of the airframes at Mingaladon airport (organised by the Pawley Brothers) on arrival Aug 1941 onwards (I think it was Aug for the first arrivals) , and the factory was at Loiwing (opened in 1939). The factory was used in support of the AVG (rebuilding...
  15. B

    Was Port Moresby the first rea defeat of the IJN in the air?

    Bill Apart from the spares that were sent (part of any shipment of aircraft at the time although I'm uncertain if this was RAF or USAAC level of spares (I know Russian parts allocation was to the British standard (at least as shipped by the UK) - so maybe the same for the AVG). Additionally...
Back