WW II plane buffs?

MRC_Hans said:
Fun story, but it must be of some other plane. The B26 had quite normal wings.
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Not exactly, no. For its time, it had the highest wing loading of any service aircraft, resulting in an unusually high stalling speed and a lot of crashes in training. The wingspan was eventually increased to make its handling characteristics a little less demanding, but the reputation stuck. The nickname IIRC came from its pilots, who were well aware of the technical issues.

Dave
 
Dave Rogers said:
Not exactly, no. For its time, it had the highest wing loading of any service aircraft, resulting in an unusually high stalling speed and a lot of crashes in training. The wingspan was eventually increased to make its handling characteristics a little less demanding, but the reputation stuck. The nickname IIRC came from its pilots, who were well aware of the technical issues.

Dave
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I can see you are right. The picture I found must be after the modification, then.

If you compare it with a B25, they appear very similar, but the B26 did weigh a couple of ton more.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/empire-state-building/b25_01.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0311.shtml&h=380&w=550&sz=31&tbnid=H0Bc1t7CNJuozM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=130&prev=/search%3Fq%3Db%2B25%2Bbomber%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=b+25+bomber&usg=__Usl3RWTATmLnfX0ERzY00q7O8q4=&docid=dGte1D4YFRcAsM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cV8iUIbWB42a1AX2lICoDQ&ved=0CHQQ9QEwBA&dur=2964

Hans
 
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Dave Rogers said:
Ah yes, the Flying Prostitute. So named, according to legend, because its wings were so small relative to the rest of the plane that it had no obvious means by which to support itself.

Dave
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.
"One a day, in Tampa Bay" at the B-26 training school.
In service, the highest survival rate with the fewest losses in combat.
 
I Ratant said:
"One a day, in Tampa Bay" at the B-26 training school.
In service, the highest survival rate with the fewest losses in combat.
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I'm pretty sure I already recommended Bombs Awry by Ted Tate, who was a crewman on the B-26 as well as a mechanic, flight engineer, navigator, pilot, you name it, on a wide variety of aircraft from biplanes to the B-58 in a civilian and military career spanning from pre-WWII to Vietnam. You warbird buffs will love it.
 
Dcdrac said:
And while not a WW2 plane its hard to beat this beauty

http://www.vulcantothesky.org/history.html

http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/aircraft/Avro-Vulcan/IMAGES/Avro-Vulcan-Bomber-Title.jpg
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Aye, I've seen an operative Vulcan, flying. (Yes, I'm old enough for that)

Awesome. There is one at Hendon, when you walk under it it's like a roof in itself.

There was one visiting my home airbase, must have been around '68, and after it was parked, they wanted to move it a bit, but the apron was slanting just a little, and our biggest tractor couldn't hold it, so the cranked up the Vulcan's engines again and moved it under its own power. - Next day the grass was yellow for a hundred yards behind where the exhaust had scorched it.

Hans
 
MRC_Hans said:
Aye, I've seen an operative Vulcan, flying. (Yes, I'm old enough for that)...

Hans
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Or been alive in the South Atlantic in 1982!

It was great seeing a Vulcan in the air just last month, especially as the commentator on the practice for the GB Grand Prix mentioned one passing overhead and then half an hour later it flew over me. Wonderful.
 
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When I was growing up our house was directly under the flight path of the Vulcans when they used to fly over London for the trooping of the colour nad the practice flights they used to do leading up to it, quite a sight 6 Vulcans low level tight formation and that roarrrr
 
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