Recent content by Rick65

I had to look up the 30 year war to understand Balljoint's post. Glad I did as my knowledge of pre industrial european history isn't great and I was stunned to see another example of the horror that countries and people put themselves through.

I have a pocket sized The Observer's Book of Aircraft for 1959 which notes the MIG 21 as having just entered service. The blurry photo and silhouette is for a plane that looks like a more streamlined and attractive single engined MIG 19 with no sign of a delta wing, presumably one of the early...

A question relating to the Ho-229. Many post war experimental aircraft without tails (eg DH-108, YB - 49 according to some accounts)were killers because of difficulty with pitch control in the pre fly by wire days. Did the Ho designs (and the Me 163) dodge these problems and if so how?

Isn't it great that another person with money and a public profile is passionate enough about Warbirds to get involved. Hopefully he will use his assets,connections and time to get adequate training before even considering flying the plane and it will be a good story for all.

From Mosquito, Typhoon Tempest at War by Bowyer, Reed and Beaumont One Typhoon prototype was converted by Hawkers as a night interceptor, with one of the wing fuel tanks removed and replaced with an underwing tank, and the space used for radar which was to guide the pilot on to intruding...

The more I read about the German programs for 2000hp+ engines the more I realise what an achievement the Napier Sabre was, with flight in the prototype Typhoon in early 1940 and service introduction in mid 1941. It initially had reliability problems, and service models didn't offer power at...

Clive Caldwell, who was mentioned previously in passing, was apparently a great shot and developed a method of helping others that was taken back to Australia and used in training. By mid-1941, Caldwell had flown about 40 operational sorties, but had only one confirmed kill - a Bf 109. He was...

I thought of an earlier produced P-61C, using external bombs in bomber mode, but it doesn't have the range on internal fuel.

There are photos of the P.108 in the middle of this great collection of photos of Italian planes. http://www.lasegundaguerra.com/viewtopic.php?t=3961

This comparison is not very fair to the P.108 as the plane was produced in small numbers, and was not developed through a series of improved models. By comparison the B-17 was built in large numbers, developed, improved and debugged through a series of new models and heavily tested as a weapons...

Thanks Shortround - much better Ke=m(v squared)/2 Further proof that a little knowledge (on my part) is dangerous.

Newton's 2nd F(recoil)= mass x acceleration. If we assume that a projectile accelerates uniformly until it reaches muzzle velocity as it leaves the barrel (is this correct or do projectile reach maximum velocity sometime before the end of the barrel?), the length of the barrel is significant as...

Long time since I did physics but isn't the force (recoil) generated a function of the velocity squared of the projectile as it leaves the end of the barrel? As such a 1lb projectile exiting at 5000m/sec will generate 100 times the force(recoil) of a 100lb projectile exiting at 50m/sec...

Boeing flying wings look as real as an XP-73

There is a interesting thread on Key on the Supermarine contender for the B12/36 specification that covers the 100ft wingspan. Seems likely that this requirement was in the specification but more to keep the plane size manageable (not like say the B-15 or B-19) rather than being driven by hangar...