Recent content by Ovod

But did either the Swordfish or the Albacore seriously damage or even sink much of the enemy's shipping when used as dive bombers, apart from depth charge attacks on submarines? It would have been the biplane aircraft normally flying at the edge of their range and endurance, surely?

Certainly a makey-uppy design (look at that tail), but even the most creative artists are inspired by everyday realities and things they have seen. Perhaps they had the: De Havilland Albatross or the De Havilland Flamingo in mind?

Well, seeing as the RN were not able to average half of this performance against the rest of the German and Italian naval fleets throughout the rest of the war (speaking of night-fighting ability only) I wouldn't be so sure that the Japanese navy would be such a soft touch to defeat.

For the Swordfish? 450,000 tonnes of shipping sunk (mainly Italian) Is what Stott claims in his book. That would be quite a lot of the Italian merchant fleet sunk if true. I did manage to find this list of Italian ships sunk - very few of them were by torpedo bombers. Axis merchants lost on the...

Much of that Wikipedia article is sourced from the same book from 1971: Stott, Ian G. The Fairey Swordfish Mks. I-IV (Aircraft in Profile 212). Windsor, Berkshire, UK: Profile Publications, 1971. The writer seemed to have taken some liberties when toting up the kill score of the aircraft. I'd...

One or two myths concerning the Fairey Swordfish: Fairey Swordfish - Wikipedia Is there any evidence for this? Fairey Swordfish - Wikipedia Pretty sure this is a myth too. Impossible I'd say.

And eventually got them, as did the UK. China too, essentially.

That's with 700Ibs of fuel internally - so not the empty weight of the aircraft. although the P-39 is certainly the heavier aircraft.

How does the P-39's internal fuel capacity compare with a Spitfire or Bf-109? I don't believe the P-39 suffered inferior range compared to the other 2 aircraft.

The P-39 never weighted close to 8,000Ibs surely? That's more likely the maximum take-off weight.

Better version of above photo found here: Facebook (71st Tactical Reconnaissance Group - 5th Air Force 1942-1945)

Here's a strange one that turned up on my feed this morning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rvwskJTgYU

I'm pretty sure the Israeli Air Force kept the Mustang in service a lot longer than the Spit - but there may have been political or industrial reason for doing so?

First choice for what - for flying - or for shooting down enemy aircraft?

According to the RAF museum, the Ju-87 was responsible for sinking the largest number of enemy shipping during WW2, or during any other time. Certainly sank more ships than any Japanese or US torpedo or dive bomber - certainly sank more ships than the Fairey Swordfish (there's a candidate for...