Recent content by NZTyphoon

Two articles from Flight on the Sabre II (23 March 1944) and Napier engine testing (25 July 1946):

A Flight magazine article on the Sabre VII, dated 22 November 1945:

Another German fighter waiting in the wings (so to speak) was the Heinkel He 100 that, if it wasn't for a combination of factors, could have gotten into production as a supplement to the Bf 109: the He 100 was even smaller than the 109, with a wing span of 9.4 metres (30 ft 10 in), a wing area...

As far as I can see the Dagger was never considered by the Air Ministry when framing Specification F37/35 which led to development of the Whirwind: there was some thought given to redeveloping Rolls-Royce engines to incorporate a 'moteur-cannon', but this was rejected very quickly. The Dagger...

The Welkin was designed to Specification 4/40, issued in July 1940, which called for a pressurised high altitude fighter, armed with 6 x 20mm cannon, able to reach 450 mph at 25,000 ft and was preferably to be powered by Rolls-Royce RM.65Ms (later Merlin 60s) using two-stage, two-speed...

What about the good old DC-3/C-47/Goonybird? As an airliner the DC-1, 2, 3 series changed the game for commercial aircraft; without it the Allies would have struggled to supply their troops in the field, would have had difficulty dropping paratroops, towing gliders etc etc - was there any other...

According to Osprey's LaGG and Lavochkin Aces of WW2 Ivan Kozhedub flew 120 aerial combat sorties = .52 claims per sortie in which he engaged in combat - in addition he accidentally shot down two American P-51s, which was kept very quiet :!: , and claimed that with shared victories he had...

Well now, down to semi-finals next weekend. Even as a New Zealander I cannot say that the ABs (All Blacks) are guaranteed to win - Wales put on a really good performance against Ireland on Saturday night and France...unpredictable as per usual, knocked out a pedestrian England. Australia should...

Unfair on the Tempest! Look at the lighting and the angle of the lighting, that's what makes the tail look a little naff: bad lighting and the wrong angle will show up the pimples on a super-model's face, without the required airbrushing :D As for the P-51B to D fin fillet; from what I...

The F-2 captured by the British was that of I./JG 26's Major Rolf Pingl who was shot down by a Stirling that he had chased across the channel; Pingl damaged the Stirling's tail unit but caught some bullets in his engine, forcing him to belly land in a wheat field. His F may have been one of the...

According to Prien and Rodeike Messerschmitt Bf 109 F, G K series Amazon.com: Messerschmitt Bf 109 F, G, and K Series: An Illustrated Study (9780887404245): Jochen Prien, Peter Rodeike, David Johnston: Books the F-2 used the MG 151/15, the original 15mm version of the MG 151 (p. 16) The F-1...

Just to clarify: Are you thinking of "Circuses"? - these were the missions when a squadron of usually Blenheims (later Bostons or even Stirlings) protected by several wings of fighters attacked targets in France or the low countries. Usually very unproductive because, as you say the LW could...

Just an update on MM417: A Flypast Mosquito Special has an article on EG-T MM417: the article states that MM417 was not shot up by flak but was accidentally hit by "friendly fire" from another 487(NZ) Sqn Mosquito during an attack on an airfield: MM417, crossing the target diagonally at low...

Ahhh Glory days - I humbly admit I wrote much of this material on the problems and permutations of Spitfire production. :oops: Fact was that the Spitfire was nearly aborted before the first production aircraft was built - prior to the Spitfire the Supermarine factory was only geared up to fill...

Chris Thomas described the "Battle of Mortain" (August 7 1944 'Typhoon Wings of 2nd TAF 1943-45' ): 305 Typhoon sorties flown, tank claims:90. After the battle the Army and 2 TAF Operational Research staff found that 7 tanks had been destroyed by rockets, with 14 by cannon and two by bombs. 7...