Recent content by fliger747

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    Obituaries

    Does the Queen still send every Centarian a personal birthday greeting?
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    Why was the SBD such an effective aircraft?

    Vrs Japanese carriers would the AP bombs be better or GP bombs? Enterprise took an AP bomb or two which penetrated or even exited right back out of the hull, but didn't really disrupt flight operations to any serious degree. Some of the CVE's off Samar had 18" AP shells go right through...
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    How dangerous was it to fly ww2 era aircraft even without ever seeing combat.

    I saw a figure that is probably in error, that 20,000 were killed in stateside aviation training accidents. Of course a lot of bombers ran into mountains, go lost and whatnot, so crew included. My dad said that about 5% got killed in Navy training. 20,000 is probably way high, that would...
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    Why was the SBD such an effective aircraft?

    Beautiful model! I would guess the dimensions were desired to fit the plane. I don't know the dimensions of various AAC aircraft, but the escort carriers were occasionally used to ferry fighters which the AAC pilots flew OFF the ships. Easy enough for the practiced deck crews to pivot the...
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    Why was the SBD such an effective aircraft?

    Yes, the CVE's of the Sangamon Class were quite prized, a couple of knots faster than the others, larger and especially still having oiler capability. I would expect them to still be Combustable, Vulnerable, but not particularly expendable. The deck crews were pretty good so I imagine they were...
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    British .303 vs 50 Cal M2

    Against Japanese Fighters, would the .303 (8) been effective?
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    Bailing out or Ditching at Sea: Which was Safer?

    We were trained to land parallel to the swells. The water is very "hard".
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    Why was the SBD such an effective aircraft?

    My dad said that a lot of guys that washed out of flight training became radio/gunners. So often they did have some flying experience! the sending of accurate messages was vital, think of how many messages sent in error or incomplete during major Pacific Battles!
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    Why was the SBD such an effective aircraft?

    To answer my own question... Apparently Ark Royal's torpedoes against Bismarck were only set to run at 10 feet because of the high seas running. They were afraid of them running under the bow or stern if set at the normal 20'. So if they had been set at 20' would the torpedo have missed the...
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    Why was the SBD such an effective aircraft?

    Yamato and Musashi were both sunk by the swarm of gnats. The Dive bombers were probably SB2C's, but the biggest damage might have been from the aerial torpedos, which apparently worked by then. The dive bombers and strafers probably made way for the Torpeckers by decimating the AA.
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    Why was the SBD such an effective aircraft?

    I wonder how effective that the SBD would have been against Tirpitz at sea? In her hideaway I believe Tirpitz was dive bombed yielding mainly superficial damage. However fo a raider not too hard to achieve a mission kill, such as the minor damage to Bismarcks bow which caused a number of other...
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    Why was the SBD such an effective aircraft?

    The Ercoupe MAX? One advantage of the F5F (Boy has this thread wandered...) for the Navy pilots who were well trained in deflection shooting was the great view over the nose.
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    Bailing out or Ditching at Sea: Which was Safer?

    I asked My B52 EWO friend today and he confirmed that he sat upstairs, back to back with the co-pilot. Asked about ditching and he didn't know of any procedure and he flew them for years. He said that they did fly a couple into the water at night time low level missions, but that doesn't...
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    Why was the SBD such an effective aircraft?

    The Navy is a pretty tradition bound outfit, so Adm Towers would be most likely not to go with a twin. The heavy fighters such as the Bf 110 didn't do so well, though the F5F is more like a proto Tigercat. He didn't want to be hung out to dry for a possible failure of a new idea.
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    Why was the SBD such an effective aircraft?

    On the F5F specs listed above it said 4 mins to 10,000' and 9+ to 20,000', which seems a little low for the weight and power. I am more inclined to agree with you. Are the above specs in error? Perhaps a better supercharger, turbo's were a big hoopla to develop and manage. The Navy rejected...
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