antarmike

I posted this one in the old Tank Transporter gallery, just before the accident so not everyone may have seen it. It is one of the Snowy Mountain Antars. Everyone should know that the MkI and MkII Antar had a Rover metoerite petrol engine, A V8 derivative or the Merlin, It is less well known that the early civilian Antars used a dieselised version of the Meteorite.. The two curved bulges on the bonnet top give this one away as a diesel metoerite engined Antar

Same truck, real photo, not a posed publicity shot this time.

And their Southall depot Service truck

And this is AEC's Coventry Matador service truck...

AEC service depot Matadors.... If you remember the Lndon Transport converted recovery vehicles and their unique cab shape you will recognise the origins of this Mat, but it ended up at AEC's Nottingham depot as their service truck

Imagine you were given a hanger on an operational airfield and told you could fill it with 10 (WW2) aircraft, what would be your choice? Me, i'd go for 1 Mosquito fighter bomber V 2 Lancaster B1 special 3 North american P82 twin Mustang 4 P47 thunderbolt probably the D model 5 Lockheed P38 Lightening 6 Focke Wulf Ta 152 7 Bristol Beafighter 8 Ilyushin Il-2 Stormovik 9 Yak 9D 10 Messserschmitt Me 262 and on the substitutes bench probably A Gloster Gladiator! (just because they did so well in Malta!!!)

If you like Aggressive look, then I guess you like the Bristol Beaufighter, and with four cannons and six machine guns, with room to fit radar a true killing machine. Arguably the first true night fighter, but also highly effective as a ship killer, flying alongside the the mosquito in the Banff strike wing...

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q208/antarmike/16-01-2008213654.jpg[/img] http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q208/antarmike/16-01-2008214037.jpg[/img] http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q208/antarmike/16-01-2008214348.jpg[/img] Beautiful

Mosquito verses Ju88, which was best. These two are probably the most versatile aircraft of the war (in repect of number of roles served. The Mosquito was once described as "Jack of all trades and master of all" Someone else said that after the Mosquito the RAF had to wait for Panavia Tornado to have another Jack of all trades master of all. In as much as the germans decided to copy the Mosquito (even down to it's name and it's wooden construction) I would argue that the Mossie is the best Multi role aircraft of the war.

Mighty Antar C6T (already got that one!) Mk1 Antar Mk 11 Antar Mk 11B antar Mk 3 Antar Mk3A Antar Dyson 50 Ton 32 Wheel Tank transporter trailer FV3601 Dyson 50 Ton 32 wheel Plant transporter tratiler (already got that one) 50 Ton Trailer FV3011 60 Ton FV3001/FV3005 Trailer As Meatloaf once sang (almost) two out of ten aint bad...

I can't find recorded the nature of the complaint, but it may have been the different tragectories of the cannon and the machine guns. This was the nature of the complain against the tail turret of the B29 Super Fortress,. It was designed with one 20mm Cannon and two 0.5" machine guns, but the cannon had a much greater range, with the machine gun bullets falling to earth on a much more curved trajectory. I beleive the cannon was deleted from later marks, (but i can't find that in print, it might just have been the machine guns that were taken out, No doubt someone will tell us)

The Bf 109 definitely had an engine mounted MG FF 20mm (0.79") cannon firing through the propellor hub. (But not on all models) The Bf 109 E-3 carried the engine mounted Cannon as well as two 7.92mm (0.31") mg 17 machine guns mounted above the engine, firing through the propellor arc, and two further wing mounted MG 17 machine guns. Complaints against this arrangement led to the deletion of the nose mounted cannon and the BF 109 E-4 had it replaced with two wing mounted Oerlikons

Having sat in the BBMF Dakota last year I can't beleive how close the windscreen is to the pilots face. I found it very claustrophopbic....

But you didn't need two engines to see the wisdom, The Me 109 had a cannon firing through the spinner, and two machine guns lying in the fuselage above the engine, firing ( with interupter gear) through the prop.

Some of the british single engine fighters mounted 12 not 8 0.303" Brownings in an attempt to increase their punch The Hawker Hurricane from 1941 ), but being wing mounted all the guns were aimed in a converging cone, so all guns only hit the same point at one range, By the contrast the Mossie Fighter with four Machine guns and four cannons all mounted in the nose and aimed to fire parallel had a much more massive and effective punch,

What I like about the proto was they weren't sure if they were building for home market or export, so they put steering wheel in the middle with one front seat, also in the middle. The original Jeep steering box was kept in it's original location, but the tube and shaft were cut. A steering wheel was mounted on another shaft running in bearings, and the two shafts linked together with chain and sprockets. I bet there was a bit of play in the steering. If I remeber the Jeep wheelbase is 80" and that is why the first Series one's were also 80". A straightforward copy

Why was this topic called "before you went green"? My RAF Blue Grey vehicles are Historic military Vehicles, as would be Navy blue RN vehicles., Sometimes I feel that if we don't play "Army" we are second Class....

Personally I prefer the Hornet with this tail http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q208/antarmike/08-01-2008004956.jpg[/img]

There are other obvious comparisons to be made between similar aircraft built by the british and the Americans with a view to deciding which was best. In the ground attack role one could obvously compare the P47 Thunderbolt to the Hawker Typhoon. But neither the Thunderbolt nor the Typhoon was conceived as a ground attack Aircraft. Both were air superiority fighters, and the Thunderbolt was excellent in this role. Unforfunately for those trying to defend British Aircraft, the Typhoon was pretty disaterous as a fighter, and it took The Hawker companies next aircraft , The Tempest to come up with an excellent fighter. Never conceived as a ground attack Aircraft it took a Maverick RAF pilot, to keep pestering his superiors to let him take his typhoons on a Rhubarb mission to see what they could acheive. It took many requests before permission was granted, but that Pilot saw what the Air Ministry couldn't, that the Typhoon was a truly excellent, stable gun platform, ideal for attcking ground formations and armoured columns, or simply targets of opportunity. Since the P47 was an excellent Fighter and Ground attack, but the Typhoon was only excellent in this one role, I would argue the P47 was a far better aircaft. ( Is anyone going to argue the Typhoon (Eurofighter) verses the Mirage, which is better debate?)

oops Mustang P51-H 487 MPH

I have the Mustang at 437 Miles per hour... Thats quite a bit slower...

Whatever they were designed for, they ended up doing much the same job, daylight heavy bombing..., Maritime patrol... Surveying,... air sea rescue duties ( both with a lifeboat fitted under the fuselage )... Converted to transport aircraft...Electronic counter measures etc so I think comparison is perfectly valid... There was however no equivilent role for the Lanc to the YB40 variant of the Fortress, The Escort fighter version (bristleing with up to 30 0.5" machine guns, which was probably just as well because these were planned to fly amongst the bomber stream to provide extra fire power against fighters. Fine on the outward leg where the speeds of the Fighter and the bomber versions were broadly similar, but on the return leg the YB40 were still carrying the weight of 30 brownings and extra gunners, and could not keep up with the now unladen bombers. They had to defend themselves alone in the sky, and unfutunately a large number were shot down, and the whole idea was dumped after a few missions...

Whilst singing the praises of the Mosquito, let us not forget The DeHavilland Hornet. Built with the same principles it was ( I beleive) the faster Piston engine Fighter ever to be built (at 472 Miles per Hour ) They were the last piston engine fighters to serve with the RAF, being withdrawn and replaced by Vampires in early 1956 and as bueautiful as the Mossie

The Sunderland hull shape changed with the Mk111. This saved 10% of the total air drag, but did it also help with the Sunderland unsticking from calm water?

I thought they decided in the program that the Omaha casualties was close to 6000