Recent content by Tea Brewer

Once sanded down the final three-ply birch outer skin was glued onto the half fuselage and clamped until fully boded. The overall thickness of the birch and balsa sandwich skin was a surprising 11 mm. This sandwich skin was so stiff that no internal reinforcement was necessary from the wing's...

The Germans tried both types on the Arado Ar 196 and found that the outriggers on the central float version dug into waves during take-off in roughish water, so went with the twin-float version. The Arado AR 196 had some success in downing allied airplanes. They also put twin floats on the...

And the Battle of Taranto that reportedly inspired the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbour.

Henschel Hs 123. Not an out and out fighter, but an excellent close support dive bomber. The Fieseler Fi 167 saw action in the Balkans in the Croatian air force, I believe, and was just about the best STOL combat aeroplane of WW2. From Wikipedia: The Fi 167's short-field landing and...

The slipper tanks I was referring to were those that fitted flush to the underside of the wings. There are pictures online showing one under the port wing for long range duties. Maybe these weren't called slipper tanks, as those under the fuselage were. I recall reading yonks ago that slipper...

I think the Defiant was a missed opportunity. I read years ago that it was designed with a provision for wing mounted guns, but the powers that be were slaves to their own dogma and rejected the proposal. In the same article it said that Boulton Paul offered the Defiant with solely wing-mounted...