Recent content by Simon Thomas

  1. Simon Thomas

    Greatest aviation myth this site “de-bunked”.

    The posts subsequent to mine I thought were rather illuminating on the subject. Based on what was presented, I'll relent to changing "plausible" to "not supported by the preponderance of post-war evidence". None of the sources for numbers of tonnage sunk per month or year align. Reconciling the...
  2. Simon Thomas

    Terminology and engine data

    Engines for British Aircraft Summary of New Regulations about to be Issued for Type Approval and Acceptance Tests - 1930
  3. Simon Thomas

    "The Performance of a Supercharged Aero Engine" - Discrepancy b/n Fig 32 & Table III.

    I have been working through Hooker et al's "The Performance of a Supercharged Aero Engine", and I was able to calculate performance results that matched the paper, right until Table III. I found the W.SQRT(Ti)/P figures in the table are all 10 less than that shown on Fig 32. It appears that the...
  4. Simon Thomas

    highest kill ratio

    I believe this has been argued before on this forum, but my take is that Bowman's book "Vought F4U Corsair" has the VF-17 (USN) in combat off carriers in Nov 1943 (p39) and 10 Corsairs from 1830 Sqn were lifted on and (after the Atlantic crossing) were then flown off carrier HMS Slinger in Oct...
  5. Simon Thomas

    Greatest aviation myth this site “de-bunked”.

    From "STRINGBAG The Fairey Swordfish at War", David Wragg, 2004: Later in the war, No. 830 was to be reinforced with additional Swordfish, and later still a number of Albacores. At one time it became known as the Naval Air Squadron Malta, reaching a peak strength of twenty-seven aircraft...
  6. Simon Thomas

    Looking for photos of the arrester gear control box from a Swordfish?

    It is rather hard to locate a decent photo - these are the best I could find. I hope they are even the correct bit. Many of the cockpit photos I found don't have it fitted.
  7. Simon Thomas

    How were V-1 kills scored for pilots?

    A particularly courageous V-1 destruction was by Capitaine Jean Maridor: 'In a chase over Kent, French pilot Capitaine Jean Maridor of No 91 Sqn fired and hit a target in the tail control, causing it to dive. To his consternation he saw it falling directly on a military field hospital...
  8. Simon Thomas

    Engine Oil - Bristol Sleeve Valves

    The best explanation I have read for the synthetic oil failure from someone who actually knows aviation oil is here: Edit - it needs a login. Link for those with a BeechTalk login : BeechTalk - Login I used AI to reword: The primary issue with Mobil AV1 stemmed from a misunderstanding by its...
  9. Simon Thomas

    Engine Oil - Bristol Sleeve Valves

    Full synthetic oils and air-cooled engines don't mix. https://www.avweb.com/features/mobil-av-1-under-attack/ Exxon Elite oil was pulled from the market in 2019, and it was only 30% synthetic. It had numerous issues with sludge formation.
  10. Simon Thomas

    Engine Oil - Bristol Sleeve Valves

    Mitasol kindly posted a Hercules manual dated March 1947 (excerpt below). It states "At present either Shell" zinc-dips" or Intava IAA.SlO detergents can be used." In "ANNUAL REPORTS ON THE PROGRESS OF CHEMISTRY FOR 1945", it states that "Zinc dips" is Zinc salt of diisopropylsalicylic acid. In...
  11. Simon Thomas

    Bristol Hercules documents

    Thanks for sharing those documents. The Hercules manual names the oil additive in Shell 100B, which I have been trying to find for a while. Has your copy of the Maintenance and Fault Finding document got page vi? It's missing from Avialogs.
  12. Simon Thomas

    Napier Sabre WW2 overview.

    The Queen Mary voyages in 1943 are listed here: Queen Mary - Record of Wartime Cruises - 1943 My geography isn't the best, but it appears that the first trip from the US to Europe in 1943 was on June 1 1943, which is too late to have been used to transport the grinders. In 1942, the last trip...
  13. Simon Thomas

    Napier Sabre WW2 overview.

    This is the P&W R-2800 C series factory in Jan 1943, which is when the centreless grinders were re-directed. This is possibly the reason Banks was able to pull this off - P&W was not ready for them.
  14. Simon Thomas

    Coring?

    The carburettor air-intake heat control is meant to allow the pilot to clear any carb ice. In practice it is very hard to detect carb icing, as it can form at temperatures above freezing due to the carb venturi dropping the temperature & pressure in the throat. There are charts which show...
  15. Simon Thomas

    Napier Sabre WW2 overview.

    That was before Bristol kindly volunteered to provide Napier with the material and machining information to make sleeves to the required tolerance. Finding MTBF information after Spring 1943 would be interesting, to see the extent of the improvement.
Back