Recent content by Kiwikid

Hmm please don't anybody Mention Turkish Airlines FLT 1459 at Schipol. Radio Altimeters gave false height signals and the autopilot commanded the throttles to close at an altitude of 400ft. What the Dutch aviation safety Board did not disclose was that they had kept secret 14 similar...

Didn't Tupelov design a submersible flying boat ? It would spot a target from the air and then land some distance ahead and fire it's two torpedoes from underwater like a U-boat.

General Motors must have made a heap from building tanks ? Kaiser shipyards would have made a fortune with shipyards churning out Liberty ships ? Boeing grew fat on the B-17 and B-29.

General Electric Corporation through it's subsidiary GEI was the biggest US employer in the Nazi armaments industry. GEC owned AEG and OSRAM which both employed slave labour from Nazi concentration camps. Through ownership of AEG, GEC also owned EMW which developed the V-2 rocket. GEC raised...

The PBY Catalina was not amphibious originally. Early versions were pure flying boats based on the Coronado. The PBY-5 version was.

The He-177 A-7 was an improved version of the He-177 with about 4000km range, but the He-277 had more power at take off and in the B-5 high altitude bomber had performance rivaling the post war Lincoln and almost approaching the performance of a B-29 in every respect except payload. Even with...

The Hienkel He-343 evolved from the 1942 RLM specifications which gave birth to the Ju-287. Heinkel embarked upon responding to the RLM specification without being invited. Later in 1943 RLM issued new specifications for a bomber with two crew in a pressurised cockpit with a 2000kg bomb load...

IIRC the Me264 was called the Bannana bomber precisely because pre-war Willy Messerschmitt wanted to develop a courier plane to South Amerika. The Ju-90S was evolved in response to RLM requirements for a four engined trans-Atlantic airliner (EF53). Had there been a real focus at RLM a true...

In relation to the construction of aircraft near Oslo does anybody know details about the Oslo aircraft factory bombed by 51 RAF Lancasters and 4 Mosquitos of No 5 Group, on 28 April 1944

Peter Jackson clashes with locals over his movie in Wairarapa | NATIONAL News It's not Peter Jackson making the movie. It's Christian Rivers. They had about eight replica Lancasters built in China and these are currently being filmed at Hood aerodrome, Masteron.

Yuck!!!! Museums ? They did that with U-505 and cut a bloody great hole in it's side. Nope only those prepared to offer rides (including dives) need apply. Geeks unite to vanquish the threat of museum creeps. Dive dive dive

What bugs me is that U-boats had radar detectors called Tunis and later Naxos to warn them of danger from aircraft with radar. Why couldn't bomber crews be equipped with similar for German night fighter radar frequencies ?

The He-274 which did not fly before Allies captured it was a much bigger aircraft than the He-277. The He-274 had a wingspan of 44.19m, length 23.80m (7,000hp) The He-277 had a wingspan of 31.43m, length 22.14m (7,000hp) The He-177 had a wingspan of 31.44m, length 22.00m (5,900hp)

One of the most valuable things you notice when you start reading the ULTRA decrypts is the special attention given to all blockade runners to Japan. The Allies knew from reading diplomatic signals from the Japanese embassy in Berlin (code named "PURPLE") that very valuable cargoes were...

Because the Black sea is oxygen depleted these U-boats will not have any corrosion problems. They will still be in near working order. Also because they were scuttled, they are not war graves and are open for salvage. Wouldn't that be cool ?