WW II plane buffs?

Huttosaurus said:
Agreed. The Mustang looks great from some angles, but the big radiator scoop deepening the fuselage under the belly spoils the lines for me. I prefer the re-engined Mustangs that removed it, like the racing Mustangs or the Enforcer. Most marks of Spitfire though look great from any angle.
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See, I disagree there. To me, that's what helps define a Mustang.

And, although they had a lot of drag, I think the P-40, especially with the shark mouth, were just cool birds.
 
Huttosaurus said:
And the F-14 (particularly in 80's-90's dirty grey lo-vis) just looked mean.

Not quite WWII, but I've always had a soft spot for the other Lightning, the English Electric one with vertically stacked twin turbojets (a bit like an aeronautical nail-studded baseball bat. Brutally fast, slightly crude, but effective in the right hands:)). I like cold war jets that were designed when the little aerodynamic tricks and fixes were still being figured out, resulting in a whole bunch of configurations, and often problems seemed like they were solved just by throwing more thrust at them :)
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Nothing looks meaner than an F-111
F111%20dumb%20and%20burn%20avalon%202005%20credit%20RAAF%20blog%20560.jpg
 
AgeGap said:
disunrecounterrailing.

Show some love for WWII era flying boats. Short Sunderland/PBY Catalina etc.
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Ohh but i do. There is something fascinating with people going to war in a small house equipped with a galley, sleeping quarters and a lavatory (The Sunderland) and actually for long periods overseas living in their "boat". I like those huge monsters and i would LOVE to fly in one someday.

Denmark used Catalinas a lot after the war and they did sterling service, mainly around Greenland used as a "do it all" machine. They upheld territorial rights (mainly against overeagerly fishermen), made medevacs, transported goods to isolated stations, supported expeditions etc. In a country like Greenland a flying boat is terribly usefull, and even more back then because the helicopters then had limited range.

And speaking of that, who can but love the "workhorse" of WW2 the DC3/C47/Dakota. Wasn't it Eisenhower who said that 3 factors won WW2: The 6 ton truck, the Jeep and the C47. :)
 
Corsair 115 said:
It wouldn't have changed the outcome—though it would have made it more costly for Allied bomber crews. Besides, if the war in Europe had lasted a few months longer than it did historically, there'd have been atomic bombs dropped on Germany rather than conventional bombs.
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I agree it is unlikely that it would have changed the outcome. After all, it is still debated whether the bomber offensive had any great effect at all on the outcome, so ..... *)
I think the psychological barrier against nuking European cities was quite a bit higher than against Japan. But if the D-Day invation had failed, there is no telling what the Allies would have done. - As the Russians could then eventually have overrun all of central Europe, we might have passed directly into WW3. :eye-poppi

Hans

*) In my humble opinion, it had quite an influence. Alone the huge german ressources tied up in defence against the bombing made a difference. The allied channeled an equal amount of ressources into the offensive, but they were far better able to afford it. Somewhere during 1941-1942, WW2 in Europe essentially became a race of ressources (in the Pacific theatre, it was from the start).
 
Ove said:
*snip*
Denmark used Catalinas a lot after the war and they did sterling service, mainly around Greenland used as a "do it all" machine. They upheld territorial rights (mainly against overeagerly fishermen), made medevacs, transported goods to isolated stations, supported expeditions etc. In a country like Greenland a flying boat is terribly usefull, and even more back then because the helicopters then had limited range.

And speaking of that, who can but love the "workhorse" of WW2 the DC3/C47/Dakota.*snip* :)
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I served in the Danish airforce back in the late sixties. The Cats were simply lovable, although I understand that the trip to/from Greenland was a bit of an ordeal. 10 to 17 hours, depending on the wind, in an unpressurized and largely unheated aircraft, the inside of which was a veritable obstacle course.

The C47 served with the Danish airforce till the 1970ties, the oldest of the airframes being from 1935.

Actually the DC3/C47 holds a number of impressing endurance records:

http://www.dc3history.org/breakingrecords.html

Hans
 
Akhenaten said:
VH-BRC is now preserved at the Solent Sky Museum, Southampton, United Kingdom.
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Oh, I've never heard of that place, thanks for the tip. Looks interesting, and I know my other half's Dad would like to visit (and it's just down the road from him).


Prompted by an earlier post, I checked the dates for Farnborough this year (it's not far from here), but it's the same weekend as TAM so I'll miss it.

I lived not far from Biggin Hill when I was growing up, and used to watch the planes at the air shows there in the 70s.
 
MRC_Hans said:
I served in the Danish airforce back in the late sixties. The Cats were simply lovable, although I understand that the trip to/from Greenland was a bit of an ordeal. 10 to 17 hours, depending on the wind, in an unpressurized and largely unheated aircraft, the inside of which was a veritable obstacle course.

The C47 served with the Danish airforce till the 1970ties, the oldest of the airframes being from 1935.

Actually the DC3/C47 holds a number of impressing endurance records:

http://www.dc3history.org/breakingrecords.html

Hans
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For me some flying boats have a strange romance about them, and the Catalina certainly qualifies. Pug ugly and ungainly, and yet still "beautiful".

There's a film from the early 70s with Donald Sutherland, Jane Fonda and Peter Boyle that's almost forgotten now but it had a storyline about a bunch of misfits recovering a Catalina from a graveyard, fixing it up and "escaping". Very much of it's time I suppose. "Steelyard Blues"

(Seems to be unavailable from the usual UK sources currently)
 
MRC_Hans said:
I served in the Danish airforce back in the late sixties. The Cats were simply lovable, although I understand that the trip to/from Greenland was a bit of an ordeal. 10 to 17 hours, depending on the wind, in an unpressurized and largely unheated aircraft, the inside of which was a veritable obstacle course.

The C47 served with the Danish airforce till the 1970ties, the oldest of the airframes being from 1935.

Actually the DC3/C47 holds a number of impressing endurance records:

http://www.dc3history.org/breakingrecords.html

Hans
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There is a wonderfull book about that i found on the library which tells a lot of stories from the Cat's service in the Danish Airforce. I think it's simply called "PBY 5 and 6" or something like that. I dont think it is out in any greater numbers but the library should be able to get it.
One of the stories are about a training flight from Kastrup which is hillarious. The handbrake apparently didn't work properly so they had to pull the wire directly and place a foot somewhere. :)
 
Huttosaurus said:
Cheers:) They are part of a group depicting the various colour schemes they wore in RNZAF service.
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Back in 1988 at the Australian Airshow the Kiwis brought a bunch over for acrobatic displays - boy did they fly the pants off those things - exceptionally impressed with their skills that day
 
Seven pages and nobody has mentioned the Bristol Beaufighter or its slightly less beautiful, but very ingenious compatriot / successor the De Havilland Mosquito.
 
Alex Cured said:
For me some flying boats have a strange romance about them, and the Catalina certainly qualifies. Pug ugly and ungainly, and yet still "beautiful".

There's a film from the early 70s with Donald Sutherland, Jane Fonda and Peter Boyle that's almost forgotten now but it had a storyline about a bunch of misfits recovering a Catalina from a graveyard, fixing it up and "escaping". Very much of it's time I suppose. "Steelyard Blues"

(Seems to be unavailable from the usual UK sources currently)
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.
THIS is a FLYING BOAT!!!! Still working after all these years!! :)
http://www.fencecheck.com/forums/index.php/topic,24062.msg233906.html#msg233906
 
Ove said:
My favourite plane HAS to be the Spitfire and more precisely the MK IX. It is simply the most beautifull fighter ever buildt.
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+1 (I'm sure no one would ever have guessed. :D)

Specifically, my favorite is the IXb; that was the last variant before they started adding all the extra fuel and equipment that reduced maneuverability. :(
 
Huttosaurus said:
Agreed. The Mustang looks great from some angles, but the big radiator scoop deepening the fuselage under the belly spoils the lines for me. I prefer the re-engined Mustangs that removed it, like the racing Mustangs or the Enforcer. Most marks of Spitfire though look great from any angle.
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Heh...the scoop is a large part of what I find attractive. I'm not sure I'd even recognize one without it.
 
MRC_Hans said:
Well, my point is that they could not produce all the 'genial' designs they made. The mainstay of the German fighter arm remained the ME109 almost to the end. Initially an excellent plane, but it was outdated by 1944.

The FW190 was made in considerable numbers as well, but it could not match the onslaught of P47, P51, late marks of Spitfire, and Tempests and Typhoons.*) ... And then the Germans were even mostly spared the Vought Crusaders.
Of course pilots were also a grave problem.

One might say that the Germans learned one basic lesson of war: Ultimately, the side with superior ressources wins.

Not to mention the P38 "gabelswantz teufel", hehe.

Hans
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So you are imagining the movie Final Countdown taking place in the 60s and the Atlantic?
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_of_World_War_II

Did anybody here build Matchbox branded plastic kits. The parts came in two or more colours and put side by side with Airfix or Revell (or even heller) would lose out. The good thing about them was they were available and had a good range of aircraft.

Having a look around Wikipedia I came across the Hugo Junkers page. Not what you would expect.
 
Matchbox kits were very good. I had their 1/32 Spitfire. It had a full detailed Merlin engine, Cannons in the wings, radio bay and an option for a PRU Camera in the side. and fully detailed cockpit, this was way back in the 70s before anyone else was doing anything close.
 
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