Recent content by ClayO

  1. ClayO

    Indestructible

    Indestructible, by John R. Bruning, is the biography that "Pappy" Gunn deserved. If you read "The Legend of Pappy Gunn," you came away with a picture of a braggart who abandoned his family to the Japanese in the Philippines while he went off to cavort with Hollywood starlets. Not so, according...
  2. ClayO

    New life for the B-52

    So the B-52J will see the original design through to a full 100 years of continuous service? I'm surprised that more isn't being made of that achievement. That's even longer than the Tupolev Tu-95 Bear is projected to be in service.
  3. ClayO

    Diaries of a German tank commander

    I think you may be replying to the wrong post, as my post has nothing to do with English, or Englishmen.
  4. ClayO

    Diaries of a German tank commander

    I just finished watching this YouTube on the diaries of a Nazi tank commander who took part in Barbarossa. It's in two parts: Part 1 is about an hour and a half; it starts with the invasion of Poland and goes to the winter of 1941. Part 2 is about an hour; it starts from the end of part 1 and...
  5. ClayO

    Russian Air Industry

    Here's an interesting video on the status of the Russian air industry. The interviewee notes some systemic problems (some of which are not unique to Russia, such as the manufacturers laying off senior employees to trim costs.) We've been told that they're using missiles because of the...
  6. ClayO

    Dallas Airshow Tragedy

    I did a count of accidents involving vintage aircraft on a Wiki page of airshow and air race accidents; worldwide, from 2001 to 2010 there were 18 fatalities from accidents involving vintage airplanes; there were 45 fatalities from 2011 to 2022. (This looks like a huge increase, but 24 of those...
  7. ClayO

    Dallas Airshow Tragedy

    Never having been in a situation remotely like this, it's still difficult for me to wrap my head around how this could have happened. I did catch this interesting YouTube, which is an analysis of the visibility of various vintage airplanes (with minimal speculation on how the crash actually...
  8. ClayO

    eBay: Consolidated B-24 Liberator

    Empties the tanks? To put in another airplane that needs the gas more, I suppose?
  9. ClayO

    If you were a pilot in WW2 you would be flying a.......?

    ... I'd be riding a ladder, painting nose art.
  10. ClayO

    P-38 or P-47 for Strafing

    The veterans association for the 449th BG (15th AF) published a couple of books of memories from the air and ground crews. From what I remember from reading my dad's books, they said that the Romanian air force was pretty much finished off during the 4/4/44 raid on Ploesti; the Luftwaffe took up...
  11. ClayO

    Me 262 losses due to engine problems?

    I couldn't find a lot of information on the original post. It's amazing how much isn't known about the 262; for instance, estimates of the number of victories by its pilots ranges from somewhere in the 100's to over 500. It seems like the legendary Nazi record-keeping fell apart in the last days...
  12. ClayO

    eBay: Consolidated B-24 Liberator

    Great to see that the ground crew got a medal. From my dad's stories, that was a rare thing. Is that right, or was it more common than I think?
  13. ClayO

    eBay: Douglas A-26 Invader

    Somewhat of an improvement over the B-25 version; at least the gun is even with the center line horizontally, so the recoil is only in yaw, instead of all three axes.
  14. ClayO

    Vickers Wellington

    Rex's Hangar has diverted from its usual litany of metal monsters and flying slugs to drop the first hour of a two-part video on the Vickers Wellington. The video measures up to Rex's high standard for information given with snarky British understatement, plus it offers a partial answer to the...
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