Recent content by ChrisMcD

Can I suggest that it could be the other Bristol engine of the era? The Bristol Mercury - which was the more compact, shorter stroke - thus smaller cylinder engine Apart from anything else, it was the power plant of the Blenheims - note the counterweights! But then, both the Hampden and...

To get back to the original question. I had a feeling that we had answered this before. To quote Vanir in 2011 "Some comments on this by Sqn Ldr Ralph Sorley, FO1 of the Air Ministry in evaluation of fighter armament proposals for service use new British monoplane fighters (Spit and Hurri) in...

Two points need to be borne in mind. Firstly, the RAF needed aircraft - almost any aircraft - to train it's greatly expanded manpower. That meant ordering aircraft that were available rather than waiting for the "best". This explains the huge numbers of Ansons, Battles, Harts and Blenheims...

What about the Lockheed Hudson? Clearly someone realised the Anson was not up to the job and that there was nothing else available in the UK. Lockheed Hudson - Wikipedia In all fairness it was ordered in time for 78 to be in service in September 1939 and it did a creditable job - not the...

Great posting. I always wondered why the 262's bomb pylons were called "Viking ships" - now I know thanks to file 3

How about Enola Gay? View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5XJ2GiR6Bo Not sure whether it is black humour, irony or what?

According to Herschel Smith the 14M was the most compact, powerful radial ever made. But I have a feeling that it was a bit too compact - it's war record was nothing special and it did not have a great reputation for reliability

Roy Fedden really did try and do it the hard way with an air-cooled sleeve valve. Whatever it's other faults the liquid-cooled Sabre did not have major cooling problems.

Hope I got the right "quoter"! The obvious choice was the Napier Sabre, but it was considered too different in technology for anyone to be really keen. But bear in mind that P&W got bitten by the sleeve valve bug in the late 30's and even persuaded the Navy to fund a water cooled XH-3130...

Just a thought. The SBD was apparently one of the easiest aircraft to land on a carrier and the Corsair had the worst sort of reputation for being the opposite!

I agree totally. According to LJK Setright, Napier had been "living hand to mouth for years" and a lot of the Sabre's problems were due to the fact that the production models could not compare to the hand built prototypes. Apparently their factory in London was full of antique lathes etc.

That's not the half of it. He was hurrying home to court martial his Commander (Air)!! HMS Glorious: History of a Controversy | History Today Mystery surrounds sinking of HMS Glorious 75 years ago

By pointing out that the "Illustrious" class were armoured to protect against aerial attack? I was just drawing your attention to the facts. The earlier design of the Ark Royal was intended to carry a larger complement of aircraft. But, then there was a move to armoured carriers like the...

Hi Parsifal, I am afraid I have to disagree with you. The "Illustrious" class British armoured carriers were expected to have to deal with bombing in the seas around Europe and were armoured for protection against divebombers Doctrine determined: Armoured Flight Decks The resulting smaller...

In the words of Winkle Brown; the Hurricane had the ditching propensities of a submarine - mind you he liked it!