From what I gathered, the LW had no intention of dipping below in altitude for any flak or air intercept over the Eastern Seaboard of the USA, nor was there any energy put into a massive high-altitude bombing campaign if the LW could ever get a successful long-range bomber design to carry the...
The Satsuki and Matsu were the names of two IJM submarines that left Keil bound for Japan. What was onboard the Satsuki is unknown. The Satsuki was sunk enroute to Japan. The Matsu made it back with plans on the ME20 turbojet engine. Just pictures and plans. On Aug 07, 1945, the IJM made...
As a follow-on to the Amerika Bombers program, I also saw another about 1950's US Air Force plans to use an atomic-powered stategic bomber. I don't remember the experimental model name it was given, but this thing was huge. It looked like a B-36 on steroids. The concept was to design a SAC...
Hell, computer-aided flight control correction is the only reason why our newest aircraft can even fly. Hence, they make mediocre pilots look like superstars.
The Horten flying wing did make a flight. The model used had two turbojet engines, but somewhere during the maiden test and evaluation flight, the starboard engine suffered a flame out and the aircraft and the test pilot basically ended up doing flat arcs until the thing impacted. I suppose...
I just finished looking at a program on Discovery about Nazi Germany's plans to drop a low-altitude dirty bomb (bomb section surrounded with radioactive sand/silica) on NYC or Washington towards the last part of the war in Europe. It was interesting to see the vehicles that the three...
Nice! I would like to get back into a simpler airframe some day that can really show you what you are made of as a pilot. Newer combat aircraft with advanced navigation/communication, command/control, weps management suites, flight controls are great, but these airframes can make ones aviation...
This weekend? No, I'm afraid not, but would love to be back in the cockpit. I'm attached to a major staff here in the Middle East, so no flying for me:(
In CVW-5, the best ranges are out of the local area (Kanto Plain), so it's either up to Hamamatsu/Misawa in Northern Japan, Osan and the...
I did a lot of weekend cross-country hops to Kadena. Didn't get out too much from the base. Fly out of Atsugi on Friday, up to Misawa, across to Osan, down to Kadena, stop for gas at Iwakuni and back on Sunday afternoon.:)
Back in the day as a kid in Japan, WW2 had only ended 25 years ago, and Sasebo, which was the second most important Japanese Imperial Navy installation, was still filled with some relics of that conflict, but not quite in the open. I really don't know what that Ohka thing served as in 1970...