Recent content by kration

This thread has drifted on to ugly aircraft as a whole - the 1930's French bombers are difficult to beat in that respect. To quote "Major Howdy Bixby's Album of Forgotten Warbirds" the French are "Lovers, not engineers". ;) But I'm purely querying tailplanes. The Spitfire is unquestionably the...

I appreciate that this is a very superficial issue, but this has been bugging me for a while. Basically, it's about the aesthetics of British tailplanes (and rudders) letting the rest of the aircraft down. The British made some of the most beautiful (or brutal) looking aircraft of WWII. But the...

Great pic of an ungainly aircraft,

I'm always amazed that that thing actually was able to get off the ground!

These are very 'paper plane' but show some examples of the British experimenting, including how to address the baling out issue: You can view them on the link here: AeroScale :: WW2 British Secret Projects Vol. 1 by Peter Allen

Cheers AF - that's the pic I remember. I don't think thats Sid seid and Dave McIntosh in the photo though. Also, that Mossie is a NF version, where Seid/McIntosh flew intruder versions without radar. If there's a pic of the 418 Sqdn Seid/McIntosh Mossie then I'd love to see that as well!

I'm looking for a pic of a DH Mosquito that had it's surface burnt when it blew up a V1 in flight and then flew through the explosion. I remember seeing a pic in a Mosquito book - which I think was the 'Mosquito at War' book by Chaz Bowyer but can't find a copy on the web. If you can find...

In the Beaufighter I think the pilot and radar operator were remote from each other separated by a fuel tank.

Two comments re. the Boston/Havoc: First, it has always surprised me that it was never fully developed into a nightfighter. I know the P61 was more advanced (as well as being late) but I think that the Havoc/Boston could have been an effective platform as a stop-gap if more investment had...

I've just read 'Beaufighters in the Night' which is an superb book about a US nightfighter squadron which operated Beaufighters before converting to the P-61 Blackwidow. But there was a comment in the book that they used cast-off British Beaufighters as there was no suitable US airframe for...

I agree with Merlin in relation to both films. The main debate here seems to be in relation to the Geoffry Wellum 'First Light' drama, and I thought it was handled very well. The retouched 'Battle of Britain' film scenes were very good/functional, but the focus on the emotional relationships...

Airborne radar - both for fighters and bombers (first radar guided intercept, H2S etc) (edit - just noticed Claidemore already suggested that) Bomber tactics: Surgical strikes (Dambusters, Amiens raid, Gestapo headquaters) Firestorms Ground attack tactics: Forward air control 'cab...

EDIT 2: - just reread the first post and it does refer to the periscope turrets! But, thought I'd leave my post here as it raises a couple of points. I'm not sure about the Halifax, but the initial versions of the Short Stirling had a ventral turret which I think was remotely controlled...

Great identification re. the big transport - that's one of the things I like about this site in that it keeps throwing up aircraft I've never heard of. Could the JU88 lookalike be a Kyushu Q1W Tokai / LORNA - I always think it lookes like an anorexic JU88, or a manga version of one. Kyushu...

In relation to Russia, the Polikarpov PO2. A very effective night harrassment aircraft flown by the 'Night Witches' female pilots. Its top speed was slower than the stall speed of a BF109 or FW190 which made it difficult to intercept.