Recent content by glennasher

Didn't the Japanese have access to Brunei's oil fields? Did they even need to scavenge fuel from any crashed Allied aircraft?

I think, that by the time it could re-engineer the P-38 for the Griffon, that everyone recognized it was a waste of time, and the war would be over by the time it was finished. The USAAF was already phasing out the Lockheed for the ETO, and they just weren't needed in the PTO, as the altitudes...

IIRC, weren't there cases of strafing aircraft shooting themselves down? Bullets ricocheting off the ground, and back into the air, and the strafer's aircraft flying into them? Or, was that later in Korea?

One of my stepbrothers is a retired engineer, and so is a nephew, the others in my family are either working on the tracks (track gangs) or an electrician, mostly BNSF.

Steve Hinton could probably fly one of those, he could pilot a tree stump and make it fly. A train should be easier.

It was damnably dangerous, maybe more dangerous than air-to-air, with all the AAA around most Luftwaffe airfields.

It's doubtful that Boeing had anything to do with the YB-40, I think that was a purely USAAF development. I wonder how much more fuel would be needed for a Double Wasp, anyway? It would probably need a lot more fuel, again, adding to the weight, and make it even more vulnerable. It seems like a...

The back blast off that bazooka must have been fun for the waist gunners, huh?

Was he referencing the raids from Norway? Those raids had to travel long distances and weren't aimed at London, regardless, and I'm not sure where Tuck was flying (it's been a LONG time since I read that book, over 40 years). I seem to recall that some of those raids were turned back, but that's...

That's the first cab-over aircraft I can recall. I think cab-over trucks are butt-ugly, too..................

You're discounting the submarine forces contributions immensely. They strangled the Japanese mainland's supply lines, and the citizens were starving to death without the foodstuffs from other lands. No oil got thru, either.

IIRC, 18 April, 1943, was the date that Yamamoto met his demise, just one year after the Doolittle raid.

The Typhoon WAS pretty bad. I think Clostermann mentioned it in his book, about a pilot who went down the Channel and it took him all the way to the bottom before he got out. Luckily, it was pretty shallow where he was, about 30 feet down, IIRC (I read about it nearly 50 years ago). About the...

I confess I hadn't even thought about the Corsair, in any of it's variants. it would be a better choice than the T-bolt or the Tempest. I think of the Corsair as a naval aircraft, and I dismissed it. Shame on me for that. On second thought, it probably IS a better choice than my other two...

I think, due to having to use it for ground attack, and as an interceptor, I'd have to go with either the P-47 or Tempest. The range of a P-51 isn't needed, due to the size of the country, so I think the others would probably be the most suitable, for the many needs outlined. There is no...