Recent content by GregP

Don't think so. It's WAY more involved, and if you don;t use Plastigagem you will have bearing overheating issues rapidly. I've seen one Merlin and two Allison with purple connecting rods after short run time. They didn't gage the mains ,,,,

Most of us know Neil Sterling. 've known about him for decades, and I'm not unusual in any particular way ... aside from being ... old.

If you read the comments, I mentioned specifically the Hurricane. Many people doubt it's published speeds over the years in various books. I didn't mention other fighters in that statement. So no, I don't doubt the top speed of the P-51 unless you are saying they routinely cruised at or near...

My recollections a ren't vague and one of the so-called "primary sources" above says 319 mph at 13,500 feet, and 339 at 22,500 ft. Not sure how high you think they patrolled, or whether you actually believe that they routinely accelerated to top speed (untrue in the extreme), but they usually...

Well, I read that stuff more than 25 years ago in pilot reports from WWII. At least,that's what they were advertised as in the places I read them at the time. It also shows up in whatever William Green book the Hurricane is in, as well as a few other books I was reading in the 1960s / 1970s...

No, SparotRob. The He 112B radiator was under the center fuselage and was fairly "normal" in shape. The early He 100 had a surface evaporative cooling system (problematic, to say the least), but the He 100D that supposed to be a "service" aircraft reverted to a semi-retractible radiator that...

These are museum airplanes and are rarely, but not never, flown at full throttle. Our P-51A, Mrs, Virginia, went around Reno at 363 mph with an Allison up front. It wasn't just loafing and that speed is pretty standard for max speed on a stock P-51D at Reno. The racers are 100+ mph faster, but...

According to former Hurricane pilots, it wasn't that fast, EVER. I've seen BOB pilots reports that say it could barely hit 300 mph in wartime trim, in large numbers. I mean normal in-service trim, as issued to front line units. And those reports were not isolated. That makes me really wonder...

Hi Shortround. I used the numbers for horsepower, weight, and wing area only for a comparison with the He 112 A.. I used anecdotal flight reports for the He 112 B-0 for maneuverability, roll, and climb. The He 112 B series were decent airplanes and matched the Bf 109s of the time. The wing...

Why would the He 1112 have not been agile? It had a nice thick wing, relatively short span, and sould turn as well as anything else. Any actual evidence of lack of agility for the He 112? Perhaps it wasn't held in high regard becasue it was fragile? Or for some other reason not having to do...

There are aerodynamikcs formulas for stall speed with bank angle and stall speed with g-force. If a plane weighs 4,000 pounds empty and stalls at 75 mph, then adding weight to get to 5,000 pounds is the same as turning at 1.25 g. So, 1.25 * 4000 = 5000. The bank angle is acos (1 / g-force)...

It's hard to tell we're all talking about someone spouting off about P-38 drop tanks ...

Your comments about the YF-22 / 23 above fail to take into a count the fact that the Northrop YF-23 avtually met the specification as it was issued and the YF-22 did not. The "powers that be" at the time, re-wrote the spec to a lower level so the YF-22 could compete, but did NOT give Northrop...

It's never been operated in that confguratrion as far as I know. If it did, it it wasn't stealthy at all and the range went into the bucket from drag. You could see it with a 1950s radar in an F-86D! Not ideal if you are approaching Flanklers that are armed and ready for you. ROE would still...

Well, I was around when the original specs for what became the F-35 were "sold" to start funding the program. One of the main tenets of the original JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) program, which eventually resulted in the F-35, was that it would be able to be a good fighter when the bombs were...