Aircraft Quirks

Jabberwocky said:

Whenever you started up a Tempest or a Typhoon it was advisable to have a fire-extinguisher near-by.

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Tempest and Typhoon pilots also had to wear their oxygen masks from start up to shut down due to carbon monxide buildup in the cockpit.

Does anybody know about the quirk where if a Zero climbs too steeply its tail falls off? Does anybody have any guncam clips of this actually happenning? I'm just curious as to whether it is myth or fact, and this seems to be the right place for this quirk.

HealzDevo said:

Does anybody know about the quirk where if a Zero climbs too steeply its tail falls off? Does anybody have any guncam clips of this actually happenning? I'm just curious as to whether it is myth or fact, and this seems to be the right place for this quirk.

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I have never heard that one before from any vets or the guys that fly the Zeros today.

I think the Zero 21 had problems with it's engine cutting out at certain times.

Now that rings a bell. If I remember correctly, it had something to do with negative G situations.

Lack of fuel injection was what caused the Merlin to cut on the early marks of Spitfire and Hurricane so I would think it wouild be something similar.

What happened in these Spitfires was that the negative G's pulled would push the floats in the engines all the way back to the top of their closed position. This would cut fuel from the cylinders and 'kill' the engine until positive/neutral G was attained. However, the constant fuel building up behind the floats would flow in too rapidly in an amount too abundant and would suffocate the engine.

Slowing the Spitfire down by going into a half rolled dive could work, but that would kill dive speed, and the problem was fixed up in the Mk.V I think, with its fancy Merlin 45 which was modified to let the Spitfire dive.

Several Mk Is were trialed with 'Miss Shillings orifice' in late 1940/early 1941. It was basically a rubber washer with a small hole in it fitted across the float chamber to prevent the engine flooding.

It was retrofitted to all Spitfire I/IIs and fitted as standard to Merlin production in March 1941.

The modification stopped the engine cutting out under short periods of negative 'G'. Merlin powered aircraft could now pushover or fly inverted for short periods without the engine flooding.

The Shilling Modification was followed by fitting a negative G capable version of the SU carburettor, which allowed sustained negative G. Iy was trailed on the Spitfire Vc and fitted as standard to Merlin production in early 1942.

1943 saw the adoption of the UK-US jointly designed Bendix-Stromberg injection carburettor, which allowed sustained negative G and was used on the Merlin 66 and later. 1944 saw the development of the 100 serise, which wasn't used during the war, but revised the carburettor completely to a crank driven fuel pump automatically adjusted by engine pressure.