Picture of the day. (2 Viewers)

[Ralph Haus]

Of course this one is better. Just look at the label. Canadian Whisky Canadien. So nice they named it twice!

But they (generic Canadian) stoped making some of my favorites!!! Read Alberta dark rye....

 

[WARSPITER]

But they (generic Canadian) stoped making some of my favorites!!! Read Alberta dark rye....

Apparently Alberta doesn't have enough wry left as it has been overgrown with cynicism.

 

[XBe02Drvr]

Can anybody ID the aircraft? I came up with a pic that shows a bit more

AN2 it is. Like the one that dropped in on us at Boca Chica with 28 Cuban refugees aboard. Proud product of Ukraine!

 

[syscom3]

On the Martin B-26 the nose gun in the center of the bubble could not be fired with the Norden in place. Fortunately, you could remove some pins and lift the Norden out easily enough, although then you had to figure out what to do with it. In the one case I read of, the bombardier handed it to the Navigator, who had a desk aft of the cockpit but in fact spent nearly the whole flight on combat missions in the nose compartment arguing with the Bombardier (also a trained navigator) over where they were.

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I do not believe the B26 or B25 carried the Norden. The lower altitudes they operated at meant a smaller less sophisticated bomb site was used.

 

[syscom3]

Back around 1980 I saw a picture showing how the Indians has solved a technical problem. They needed to do anechoic chamber tests on a spacecraft they had built, but the problem was that the testing required the spacecraft to be mounted on a non-metallic carriage. The answer they came up with was a wooden cart pulled by a cow. Of course the cow was not not needed in the test chamber but the cart was already set up for that kind of motive power, so they used it.

The Red Chinese came up with their own solution for transporting delicate American-made communications satellites from the processing facility to the launch pad. The Americans had explained that the spacecraft needed an "air-ride" trailer for transport once it had been put in the launch configuration, so the Chinese bought one. It stood out eaily from the rest of the vehicles in use at the launch base, which looked like the were from the 1930's. But it seemed that the Chinese had very limited experience with 18 wheelers, at least in the late 1980's. So when the trailer arrived at the spacecraft processing facility they unhooked it from the tow tractor and several hundred Chinese grabbed the trailer and manhandled it into position so that the spacecraft could be loaded onto it. Then the hundreds of Chinese manhandled the the trailer back to where it could be hooked up to the tow tractor. At the launch pad the process was repeated to get the spacecraft into position to be hoisted on top of the Chinese Long March booster.

How do you know that?

 

[SaparotRob]

I've concluded that the Marines at Midway would have been far better off if they had the F3F-3. Not as fast as a F2A, but I think we can be assured that no Zero would have outclimbed or out-turned them.

I talked to an old Marine who had been flying F3F's on the West Coast before WWII and he said they were infuriated when they heard the East Coast Marines had gotten that hot new monoplane, the F2A.

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I'm intrigued by that idea. Not knowing much about the F3F beyond its existence and cool liveries, I would think it might've been a better dogfighter than the Buffalo. Not as fast as an F2A but IJN pilots did have a reputation for dogfighting. Close in with competent USMC pilots flying a familiar plane, the Americans might have fared better.
No research has been conducted for informing my conjecture.

 

[Greg Boeser]

I do not believe the B26 or B25 carried the Norden. The lower altitudes they operated at meant a smaller less sophisticated bomb site was used.

The 22nd BG went to war with Nordens in 1942. Bomb groups in MTO and ETO used Estoppey D-8s. Often only the lead ship would have a Norden.

 

[Escuadrilla Azul]

I'm intrigued by that idea. Not knowing much about the F3F beyond its existence and cool liveries, I would think it might've been a better dogfighter than the Buffalo. Not as fast as an F2A but IJN pilots did have a reputation for dogfighting. Close in with competent USMC pilots flying a familiar plane, the Americans might have fared better.
No research has been conducted for informing my conjecture.

I don't think the F3F would had fared much better. The A6M were very adept to Z&B tactics.

 

[Shortround6]

Not as fast as an F2A but IJN pilots did have a reputation for dogfighting. Close in with competent USMC pilots flying a familiar plane, the Americans might have fared better.

Used the same engine as the Buffalo F2A-1.
Best speed 260mph.
Best climb 2750-2800fpm.
No protection for pilot or fuel
One slow firing.50 cal
one .30 cal through the prop.

It better be able to turn. It can't do anything else.

 

[hal bregg]

Looks like the Nordens were in the B-26. It was a horizontal bomber though.

....are you sure smoking is allowed in the cab?

 

[SaparotRob]

Used the same engine as the Buffalo F2A-1.
Best speed 260mph.
Best climb 2750-2800fpm.
No protection for pilot or fuel
One slow firing.50 cal
one .30 cal through the prop.

It better be able to turn. It can't do anything else.

I had later remembered that I forgot it had neither armor nor self sealing tanks. Probably wouldn't have had cool paint jobs either.
Carry on.

 

[Shortround6]

Keep the cool paint jobs, maybe you can distract them

 

[special ed]

Looks like the Nordens were in the B-26. It was a horizontal bomber though.

View attachment 716395

....are you sure smoking is allowed in the cab?

View attachment 716396

The pic of the bombsite appears to be peppered with fragments from the hole in the plexiglass.

 

[MIflyer]

I do not believe the B26 or B25 carried the Norden. The lower altitudes they operated at meant a smaller less sophisticated bomb site was used.

In the ETO the B-26 carried the Norden, since it bombed from medium altitudes in formation. In the book by the B-26 navigator he said they went down low only once, and that was to do the very unusual, strafe. That was when the bombardier handed the navigator the Norden so he could have some fun with the .50.

The B-26 saw a little use in the Pacific, and that was all in the early days. The B-25 was used in the Pacific extensively, and eventually focused on low altitudes, including a lot of strafing and probably did not ever use the Norden. For the Doolittle Mission off the USS Hornet the Norden was replaced by an aluminum protractor. A HS teacher I knew who was on the raid recreated that bombsight for the AF Museum, and the last time I saw it, it was in the Jimmy Doolittle Building in Los Angeles (actually El Segundo).

In that B-26 head-on shot you do not see anyone in the top turret and I'd guess they were on a ferry mission. The Norden was installed only just before actual bombing missions.

As to why the B-25 had a bomb/nav and the B-26 both a bombardier and a navigator, I have no idea. In the B-25G with the 75MM cannon the navigator had the unenviable job of both navigating and loading the cannon. On one mission in the Med where they attacked an Italian base with the cannon, with no discernible effect (they got off only about 1 shot per pass) , the very irritated pilot called for a course home. The exhausted navigator, shirtless and dripping with sweat from franically trying to load the cannon, replied, "Fly west, sir." The pilot angrily replied that was not an acceptable course from a navigator. The navigator consulted his charts and replied, "Don't fly west, sir. Fly 270 degrees."

 

[Greg Boeser]

Looks like the Nordens were in the B-26. It was a horizontal bomber though.

View attachment 716395

....are you sure smoking is allowed in the cab?

View attachment 716396

They had built in ash trays.

 

[MIflyer]

How do you know that?

I was on active duty in the USAF for 25 years, 21 in the space launch business. I trained the officers we sent to the PRC to ensure that technology transfer controls were implemented. The Indian satellite on the cart I recall seeing when someone showed me a magazine article during one of out countdowns.

 

[MIflyer]

Keep the cool paint jobs, maybe you can distract them

That might not have been a bad tactic. Get the Zeros to go after the F3F's so the F4F's could go after the bombers. Alert F3F pilots, working together, might not have been able to down any Zeros but would have been a very difficult target. Supposedly the F3F-3 could even outclimb a P-51 for the first 10,000 ft.

 

[Warspite63]

Apparently Alberta doesn't have enough wry left as it has been overgrown with cynicism.

'Tis true, alas ... we are a cynical breed out here........

 

[GTX]

 

[MIflyer]

I suppose that would work better than turning the Mig around and using the cannons to get rid of the snow.

Big question is: Is the ejection seat still operable?