Recent content by R Leonard

But Greg . . . I know, we've been here before and several times . . . the USN, the guys driving the train, the guys keeping the statistics, chose way back when to count the FM-2 separate from the F4Fs because they thought it sufficiently different. Practitioners of the time trump opinion...

Fleet Air Arm was Royal Navy, not Royal Air Force

The USN flirted with an automatic recovery system in the 1930's. The aviators hated the concept and did not trust it, preferring Mk I human control, so the concept was discarded.

And my father's translation of the data plate (I don't even pretend to read or speak Japanese) 1st line: Place of manufacture, Mitsubishi, Nagoya 2nd line: Type 1 carrier fighter design 2 3rd line: Model A6M2 4th line: Motor Nakajima 5th line: Manufacturer serial # 4395 6th line: Net Weight...

It was Zero 2 because that was the model type the Intel types thought. USN tail markings also included type . . . sometimes hard to see, but nonetheless there. You might note for 14 September remarks "Test Mitsubishi Type 2"

The B/N the USN used for this aircraft was 4593, right off the data plate, see below, and below that some pilot's log entries from September 1944 showing that the bureau number, note the 14th, 18th, and 19th. Gent was director of VF training at ComFAirWest and a F4F ace . . . I suspect he knew...

ZERO-2?

This is the famous Koga Zero #4593 completed in February 1942, here in a hangar at NAS San Diego on 28 September 1944. You might note the different shades of metal work. The darker panels are US repair/replacements, the lighter metal work is Japanese original.

Early F4F-3's has floatation bags as well, but they had a habit of inflating in flight, usually with unfortunate results, so they were removed.

Might want to peruse some of the manuals and such found here https://aafcollection.info/items/list.php

Also USS Langley (AV-3) was not an aircraft carrier; the ship had been converted from an aircraft carrier to a seaplane tender in 1937. Langley could neither launch nor recover carrier aircraft thereafter. And all those P-40s being carried when the ship was sunk had to be loaded and unloaded...

Come on Kiwi-boy, give us a break from your wehraboo nonsense

USAAF victory credits? For fighter credits, go here Numbered USAF Historical Studies 51-100 Pluck out study # 85 "USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II." Caution, it is 685 pages. Or you can get same from here https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA542272.pdf The...

Properly prepared, on a good day, with good pilots, the F8F climb to time could indeed be remarkable. November 22, 1946 . . . Cleveland Air Show . . . Operation Pogostick . . . two F8F-1 from TacTest at the NAS Patuxent NATC are prepared for climbs to 10000 feet. Both aircraft have the WEP...

I count but four credits from the F4U-4 squadrons operating with TF-38 from 10 July to 15 August 1945. VBF-6 USS Hancock (CV-19); ; 7/25/1945; ENS Robert Stephens Farnsworth; credited with one D4Y3, near Ueno A/F 7/25/1945; LTJG Robert Eugene White; credited with one C6N2, CAP, over ships...