antarmike

I was once walking behind the horse, next to the tow rope going back to the boat, when the horse decided to take a shortcut, through a gap in a Hawthorn hedge, down a steep bank, through nettles, to reach a field we used to keep her in. As she went through the hedge, the rope got me by the chest, under the arms and I was dragged though the hedge and the nettles, at this point the horse was running at 90 degrees to the bank, the towrope pulled the boat to the side of the cut, stretched a lot and broke, the loose end flying back into my face, so yes, walking behind a horse isn't always a good idea...

The front axle drive shaft in the Aux Box runs in a bronze bush presssed into the end of the Rear Axle drive shaft, They turn at almost the same speed when out of 4 wheel drive, unless you fit free wheeling front hubs, which stop the front shaft turning. I was always worried about the long term durablity of this bush when I ran Series LR with freewheeling hubs...

The ill fated Vulture was anh X24 engine. It reminds me of another myth, That the Merlin was named after King Arthurs magician. It wasn't, A Merlin is a bird of prey, as is Griffon ,Vulture, Pergrine and other Rolls Royce engines of the period!

The range or he Condor I quoted is with a 3000 Lb bomb load

The Lancaster was also built in two forms, one with Rolls Royce Merlins, but a significant number were also built with Bristol Hurcules Air cooled radials, and having engine production spread between to manufactures ensure engines will always be available, should a manufacturers factory be bombed. American aircraft were never at risk of losing engine production, so never needed a backup plan, but as backup plans go tis one was very good, since both versions of the lanc were excellent. The Merlin Lanc had a total of 6560 Horsepwer, but The Hurcules engine version had 6900. with Bombs away it was faster than the Merlins and was loved by the crews because it got them out of danger zone far quicker.

Another plus fror the lanc was it was modular, and it was relatively easy to uses whole sections of one damaged lanc and bolt them into another with different damage. I have seen photos of Lancs where the paint line between the black undersurface and the upper camoflage has had distinct steps in it at the joint lines indicating part of one aircraft has been bolted straight into another without repainting. Easy Battle damage repair has to be a big plus foor a warbird.

The Americans also used Phosphorus bombs against the Japanese, equally as ungentlemanly as Napalm...

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q208/antarmike/paerseveranceandspeedwell.jpg[/img] http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q208/antarmike/jaguarprudence.jpg[/img] When I was on the Canals I also worked withy Horses, Mainly Shires but we did use a heavy hunter

Altough that isn't very good when you concider the Focke-Wulf FW 200C-3 (Condor) had a range of 2759 miles

The Atlantic was also closed by the B24 liberator with 2000+ miles range and another Consolidated aircraft, the PBY Catalina with a range of 2545 miles.

The B29 was developed into the B50 (although substantially changed and was copied more or less exactly (apart from powerplant) as the Tupelov Tu-4

The spare parts manuals for the Antars have lots of parts (Cab, and bodywork in particular that have a desription but no part number, merely saying "local manufacture" Ie they do not exist as spare parts, you have to make them yourself. To have a part name and no part works out as infinity. since anything divided by zero equals infinity. This ratio is hard to beat!!!

My Matador has 12 Volt 36/36 Watt headlight bulbs, on a small bayonet cap, without indexing pins. In order to get the bulb in the right way so it dips down, instead of up, it relies on the word "top" printed in black ink on the brass bayonet. Imagine taking one out after it has been fitted to a fairly close fitting lampholder and this writing still being on it!

In the late eighties you could walk round the Auto Jumble at Great Dorset Steam Fair and several traders were selling Coal fired cooking ranges with a "broad Arrow" cast into them. They were almost all dated 1953. I thought about buying one. In the last three years one of these (again dated 1953) came up for sale in a junk shop in Woodhall Spa, but it wasn't pristine as the Dorset ones had been. In fact it would have taken a lot f work to brig it rund. Where would these big heavy solid fuel coking ranges have been indinted to be used?

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q208/antarmike/15-03-2007203027.jpg[/img] This lead to me buying the Ex Heathrow Airport Douglas Transporter, I still have. http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q208/antarmike/23-01-2007190505.jpg[/img]

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q208/antarmike/stuckatrushden.jpg[/img] I moved on to the land and started some tree sirgery and soon I found the "need" and was able to justify (to myself) buying a Matador (Ex RAF and 118 Recovery Northampton Barracks, bought as a chasssis cab from David Crouch and converted by myself to Timber Tractor spec, used to pull a 24 ton capacity Pole trailer. Here I am getting stuck.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q208/antarmike/bilster4.jpg[/img] I was messing around with Narrowboats, and even carried abit of coal in my boat (Ex GUCCCo No 118 Bilster) My brother had Butty boat "Angel" and later also owned Lyra

I saw the guy who told me that the Mossie had suffered structural failure, and he said that was his beleif this was so , but he is obviously wrong!

If I remember correctly the US operated a number of armoured Cobras as targets for air gunnery schools. The cockpit had armoured glass and the leading edges of the wings, the nose etc had fairly heavy steel armour and other vunerable area lighter protection. The Air gunners fired frangible bullets from unmodified aircraft ( I beleive they carried a dye also). (somewhat like early paintballing) If I remember, there were shutters over the radiator which were closed before each target "attacked the gun training aircraft, and opened as soon as each attack was over. I don't beleive any were ever damaged enough to be shot down, but it must have been a bit hairy for the pilots. I think part of the decision to use the Cobra was the engine being behind the pilot was extremely unlikely to be damaged in a frontal attack.

I have a picture of Mossie (a PRXVI) in Overall Blue and red tail operated by 25th (Reconnaisance) group 8th US Airforce at Watton in Norfolk, so the answer is yes.

My mistake. It doesn't pay to take the word of others does it. My info came from a Tiger Moth Owner, who I used to work with, and he relaed to me that the nose had broken up. I don't know why he thought that>

I saw the British Aerospace Mosquito flown many times before it was lost. I have seen it flown tamely at airshows but I will allways remeber it beating up Woburn Safari park at the Tiger moth fly in a few weeks before it's fatal crash. To my mind it must have been flown outside its recommended flight envelope because the pilot was simply hurling bit about and turning it at the end of each run standing it on it's wingtips. I have never seen the like since. The Mossie was lost when the nose broke up in flight, and I wonder if the pasting it got ( official or otherwise) at the Moth fly in wasn't the start of the end of an old Airframe. But seing A Mossie flown with such guts is totally awe inspiring and She was my favorite Aircraft from that day onwrds. but living in Lincolnshire and often working at RAF Coningsby I get to see an awful lot of the Lanc, (even climbing around inside and sitting in the Pilot's seat, I love that too.

With regard to the B29 carrying TWO Grand slams, The B29 had two bomb bays and when dropping even the bundled M-27 incendary bombs, these were released alternately from each bomb bays to preserve the centre of gravity of the aircraft on it's bomb run. Sreeing as one grand slam exceeds the normal total bomb load of a B29 (20,000 Lbs), if it were possible to fly with two, these must be an equal distance from the centre of gravity, to ensure level flight, but what happens to the C of G when you drop one, or is it suggested that both were dropped simultaneously? If dropping Grand Slam from a lanc meant it lept 600 feet vertically, what would happen to a B29 if it dropped just one? its would go so nose or tail heavy as to be unflyable! or if two where dropped two? The change in weight would cause such an upward jump as to leave the wings behind! I just can't see it as being feasable!

The first version of Americas Atom bomb was "thin Man", a gun type plutonium bomb (with a 17 foot long barrel), and this was developed alongside an implosion type "fat man" Test drops of both bomb type dummy casings (known as shapes) commenced at Mirror lake in March 1944. The test aircraft was seriously damaged on the last drop and became unavailable until June. During this delay the Boffins had decided that the Plutonium Barrel type bomb would not work, so a third design , another gun type device but using Uranium 235 was progressed. This was christened "Little Boy" The Lancaster was suggested as a suitable candidate for dropping the 17 foot barreled "thin man" and it was the death of this project that relegated the Lanc to the sidelines. Little boy could fit in an unmodified B29 Bomb bay. Fat man tests were undertaken by 509th Composite group, the dummy bomb being called Pumpkin. Pumkin was a Fat man, with a conventional explosive filling. However the B29 Had to be modified to carry this casing, Test drops were made over Inyokern rocket range, but there were serious problems with the way the B29 had been modified and a second batch of modified specials was ordered to a new standard. The First special B29 landed at North Field Tinian on 11th June 1945. From 20th July onwards the 509th began dropping High explosive filled Pumkins on Japanese targets. Twelve Pumkin raids were flown in total, on 20th, 24th, 26th and 29th of July. These drops were successful and the stage was set. we all know what happened next.

The Lincoln (originally called the Lancaster B Mk IV or V ) had a range of 4450 miles carrying 3000 Lbs bomb load, 2798 Miles with 14,000 Lbs bomb Load or 1353 Miles with A 22,500 Lbs Grand Slam. the normal stated Max range of the B29 is 4098 miles. The Lancaster carried Tallboy within it's bomb bay, Although with modified bulged doors. The lancaster not only dropped 4000 lbs cookies, but double and treble versions of the soft skin High Capacity bomb. (8000 and 12000 lbs) The point of the mixed load wad the cookie blew of the roofs of buildings so that more of the incendaries could end up inside buidings and start fires. On there own, most of the incendaries would had bounced of the typical steeply sloping german roofs and ended up harmlessly in the streets. When working in raids of 500 to 1000 aircraft, the different ballistic charecteristics of cookies and incendaries is irrelevant, because if a cookie from one bomber rips of a roof, incendaries from a different bomber can get inside the building, even if this happens two nights later on a seperate raid. The logic for suggesting an all Mossie bomber fleet, is not to send them all to the same target at the same time. (and getting congested) They could simultaneously attack targets over the whole of Occupied territory, further stretching opposing night fighters and reducing their effectiveness.