Recent content by Kryten

Many thanks Neil, very helpful.

A closer inspection of the opposite side shows very little in fragmentation damage from the first two, a conventional HEF round like the Hispano or Flak 38 would show a shotgun pattern of larger fragments directly opposite the impact points rather than the dust effect we see so the third hit...

I believe the projectiles are the same but the cartridge cases different. unless you are referring to the FF only not the FF/M?

There is another consideration too Greg, and that's how long a burst can I fire to get my rounds on target. I often read pilots reports of attacks being made with comments such as "opened fire at 400yds closing to 150" or "fired a six second burst", with the difficulty of air to air gunnery we...

Many thanks Mike. I have been having trouble finding any reference to this, I bought books on testing at Boscombe but that proved to be no help, so other than trying the National Archives I'm stumped.

Mike, do you have any info on - British Performance Reduction Methods for Modern Aircraft (A.&A.E.E./Res/170) used by UK aircraft testing facilities. I have been reading performance tests on different aircraft and it seems the UK use completely different corrections to the Luftwaffe, a lot of...

It's basically a viscous coupling, reduce the oil volume and it causes the impellor to slip as it requires the full quantity of oil to make a 1 to 1 speed with the input shaft.

It's not rocket science, The attacking forces consisted of bombers, dive bombers and their escorting fighters, the Spitfires had to deal with all of these with the priority being the bombers. The 109's had just the Spits and the odd Hurricane which they had to keep away from the bombers, so...

If you bother to research the air battles over Malta you will find "encounters" between 109's and Spitfires were rarely isolated , but were part of massed air battles, the RAF had bombers, dive bombers and fighters to deal with, the 109's job was to keep the Spitfires from shooting down said...

Rather a disingenuous statistic as it is ignoring the fact the RAF were constantly intercepting bomber raids not duelling with 109's in isolation! The 109's had only the RAF fighters to engage! Suffice to say the arrival of the Spit V changed the air battle considerably and ultimately defeated...

I have read many anecdotes by BoB pilots who claimed the Bf109 had a 20mm in the spinner during the battle, obviously an error, but just because they flew in the war doesn't mean they are nerdy plane fanatics like us, aircraft recognition was not exactly proficient all the way through the war.

Or far more likely our novice pilot narrator has simply mistook a Do17 for Bf110! Anyone who thinks you can chase a Hurricane round in a Do17 is having a laugh!

In another life I was Alexander the Greats chief Eunuch!

The empty space on those barges was going to be filled with men and equipment! Oct 1940, All four were sunk, well that should tell you something really, hitting a single target manoeuvring is more difficult than hitting a minesweeper towing several barges at 2.5knts! Has anyone stopped to...

That's 1943 though isn't it when Hercules was making 1700+?