Fatboy Coxy
Airman 1st Class
- 129
- Aug 24, 2019
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It is a design or spec matter, not a maintenance issue. The Ar 196's BMW 132 engine would suffer cylinder cracks when submersed or covered in cold seawater. Hardly a good trait for a navy operating in the North Sea and hard open waters, like the below.Am I being too harsh on the aircraft, considering the environment they were operating in, or would having all three inoperable suggest they were difficult to maintain at sea?
It is a design or spec matter, not a maintenance issue. The Ar 196's BMW 132 engine would suffer cylinder cracks when submersed or covered in cold seawater. Hardly a good trait for a navy operating in the North Sea and hard open waters, like the below.
The rest of Germany's floatplanes/seaplanes positioned their engines up high.
Instead of the Ar 196, perhaps the Hopfner HV 11 would have been a better choice? Or just fix/replace the damn engine on the 196.
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The last picture you posted gives a wonderful display on how a floatplane was recovered back on ship. No doubt there had to be a crane and hook to lift her up, as can be seen on the right of the photo, but also look at the wake of the ship, and you can see she has turned sharply, creating a calm patch, which the floatplane taxis into, for recovery.
The video of the accident with that Ar 196 on the upper photo (from 00:15).It is a design or spec matter, not a maintenance issue. The Ar 196's BMW 132 engine would suffer cylinder cracks when submersed or covered in cold seawater. Hardly a good trait for a navy operating in the North Sea and hard open waters, like the below.
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This is why British float planes had their engine on top, out of the spray. Like this Shagbat below.
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I expect the warmer water temps and often calmer seas of the Pacific and Mediterranean allowed for the IJN, USN and RM to place their float plane engines upfront with less risk.
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Also, I imagine US engines may be made to a tougher, mass-production spec that may allow for cold water exposure.
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Shock-cooling can crack cylinders on any air-cooled engine. I imagine this is why the British moved from the likes of the Fairey F.III to flying boats for their ship-based catapult aircraft. You don't often see the floatplane version of the Swordfish on board ships, instead it seems to be launched from a coastal base, though it was used on some ships, like below - though these do seem like calm, coastal seas with the mother ship stopped at a base somewhere.Of course the British had a floatplane version of the Swordfish which they used as well, with same engine layout, do we know if they suffered engine problems as well in this configeration?
The rest of Germany's floatplanes/seaplanes positioned their engines up high.
Instead of the Ar 196, perhaps the Hopfner HV 11 would have been a better choice? Or just fix/replace the damn engine on the 196.
View attachment 669158
Agreed. By the Ar196's designers did not design their floats to sufficiently push away water, or simply put the engine on top. On the former, a central float, well forward can help this.The solution is to design a hull or float setup that pushes the water away from the engine...
But fix the mount and this format better keeps water out of the engine.The mount failure shown in the video above occurred on an early Ar196 with the single float design.
As I recall, the twin floats were to reduce the shock to the engine mounts which were also redesigned.The mount failure shown in the video above occurred on an early Ar196 with the single float design. Twin floats were introduced after this.
Another factor that shortened the lives of ship borne floatplanes was firing the ships guns while the aircraft was on board caused a lot of damage from shock.
Weather and blast are why the Brits began using garages, okay, hangars for their float planes.Not to mention the effects of muzzle blast.