Recent content by Pursuivant

I doubt that removing TEL or replacing it with something else would have had that much of an effect on range or reliability. Most sorties didn't use an aircraft's full load of fuel. Most engine reliability issues were due to factors other than exact fuel composition (e.g., oil/coolant systems)...

This opens up an entirely different can of worms. I'm an "IL-2 Sturmovik" fan as well, and players have been squabbling about the flight and damage models of the P-39 series since the game was released. While the game developers never revealed the plane's exact game performance, there's good...

I think you're right. I read an editorial in a vintage U.S. aviation magazine published in Autumn of 1941 (Flight? Aviation Week?) where the writer sneered at Japanese aircraft manufacturing capabilities and the quality of the planes and pilots. Four years later, the same magazine - to their...

Didn't the 8th AF publish stats on kill claims by gunner position? I can't find the information, but I believe it exists. Cross reference that data vs. the percentage of hits from enemy fighters from each angle (meaning angle from which fighters attacked) and you get a very rough estimate of...

Don't forget intercom systems which allowed the crew to speak with each other. Most of the "chatter" you hear in movies/newsreels about bombers is actually intercom transmissions. Different from radio, but it had its own communication protocols, and is important to distinguish. Liaison...

+1. By mid-1943, the P-38 wasn't competitive in the ETO and MTO. It had better range than the P-47, but couldn't dogfight effectively at medium or high altitudes vs. German fighters. Furthermore, the P-38 cockpit was COLD, to the point that pilots risked frostbite. Not good when you're flying...

The major users of the type, the KNIL and RAF, were using later variants of the Buffalo (the 339 and 439 series) with lower HP engines. They were optimized as long-ranged scout planes and which suffered (at least in the case of the RAF/RAAF/RNZAF) by the addition of all sorts of equipment which...

For most air forces, the "kill" system wasn't particularly fair - a victory over an enemy ace following a 20 minute bare-knuckles dogfight gets counted the same as the more typical scenario - a successful "bounce" attack against an average pilot who never saw what hit him. Kill stats have to be...

In a very few cases, mostly on training and low performance aircraft, the areas where you could walk to get into the cockpit were marked with black paint or possibly anti-skid adhesive tape or period equivalent. Waxed or wet metal wings are slippery and at an angle on a tail-dragger aircraft, so...

AI and ASR radar dishes/aerials had to be mounted so that the radar's search cone was outside the arc of the props and other bits of the aircraft which would reflect the signal or return. That's why it was mounted in the nose or wing, or for air-to-ground radar, in the lower fuselage.

If the engine you're looking for was German production at a captured French factory, you might have better luck looking for Luftwaffe records. Many were captured after the war and are held in US and Russian archives. Sadly, many French military archives went up in smoke in 1940, since they were...

I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned the Breda Ba.88. The RA canceled the contract once they realized that the military version of the Ba.88 was a dog, but production was resumed for political reasons. About a 100 aircraft were built, but it's clear that the RA had no use for the plane since...

Arguably, all torpedo bombers were failures, because of the need for a "low and slow" attack run and the long stand-off distance required to allow the torpedo to arm itself which reduced accuracy and allowed the target a decent chance to evade. Additionally, torpedoes are very expensive as...

I have to agree. Arguably, ALL dive bombers were faulty designs, since they required the loss of massive amounts of altitude to make their attacks, which left them vulnerable to fighters and AAA once they were on the deck. The successful dive bomber designs of WW 2 (SBD, D3A, Ju 87, arguably...

I agree, since every Merlin engine which went into a Fairey Battle could have powered a Spitfire or Hurricane. In fairness to the Air Ministry ca. 1935, the 1930s were a time of unprecedented advancement in aeronautics, and air combat doctrine wasn't settled at the time. The idea that "the...