USA Spitfire WWII

[bunyip]

Maybe of interest if anyone knows any vintage WWII pilots or their families.
Until this was sent to me I had no idea that the USA flew Spitfires or had their insignia on them, this is an interesting short story.
SPITFIRE 944 - YouTube

 

[smstonypoint]

Thanks for posting. Quite a story!

Steve

 

[mddorange]

Maybe of interest if anyone knows any vintage WWII pilots or their families.
Until this was sent to me I had no idea that the USA flew Spitfires or had their insignia on them, this is an interesting short story.
SPITFIRE 944 - YouTube

Yes and most people don't know that the infamous P51 Mustang was originally built for the UK. When we delivered it, it had an Allison V-1710 engine which greatly limited its high altitude ability and range. The replacement of the Allison with a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine by England resulted in the P-51B/C (Mustang Mk III) model and transformed the Mustang's performance at altitudes above 15,000 ft, allowing the aircraft to compete with the Luftwaffe's fighters.

So, what did the US do for their P51's? The definitive version, the P-51D, was powered by the Packard V-1650-7, a license-built version of the Rolls-Royce Merlin 66 two-stage two-speed supercharged engine and was armed with six .50 caliber (12.7 mm) M2/AN Browning machine guns.

 

[TripleR]

Very interesting, thanks for posting.

 

[cqaigy2]

Wow! Just Wow!

 

[/pine]

FWIW the Allison V-1710 also had a marine version that was used in the (plywood) PT boats...

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I believe the P-38 was also equipped with the Allison engines.

 

[MossRoad]

What a story! :thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

All 69,000 + of the Allison engines were built in Indianapolis.

 

[RSKY]

Fantastic, thanks for sharing.

World War II aviation has always interested me.

I have a personally signed autobiography of Herky (Hershal) Green. He was the top scoring USAAF ace in the Mediterranean Theater in WWII. He was born in our county and my wife compiled a series of books of local veterans and corresponded with him until his death. The book is called "Herky; The Memoirs of a Checkertail Ace".

The Allison engine was used in the P-39, P-38, P-40, P-63, and early versions of the P-51 Mustang. It was supposedly great at low altitude but lacking up high.

RSKY

 

[bcp]

The Allison engine was used in the P-39, P-38, P-40, P-63, and early versions of the P-51 Mustang. It was supposedly great at low altitude but lacking up high.

RSKY

Good fit for a PT boat. They mostly stayed at low altitude.



Bruce

 

[bcp]

From:
http://spitfiresite.com/2010/04/uncle-sams-spitfires.html

Uncle Sam's Spitfires had written a little-known chapter in US fighter history. Though the USAAF used over 600 Spitfires during the war, the aircraft was never given a US designation, and little publicity was given to the exploits of the 31st and 52nd Fighter Groups nothing like what they would get in the summer of 1944 during the wild air battles over Ploesti when they flew Mustangs. This is most likely a good example of the US military's overall dislike of having to admit to using "NIH" (Not Invented Here) equipment.


Bruce

 

[k0ua]

Thanks for posting. That was great. :thumbsup:

 

[Lbdg8885]

I really enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing.

 

[mddorange]

Allison engines have been a mainstay for US aircraft from WWII until today. In fact the C-130's I flew on had Allison engines.

 

[bunyip]

I had more than my fair share of flying in C130's, pretty much an unstoppable bird.

 

[rhunt]

GREAT!!! Somewhere in my lost history of memories, some PT boats had twin Packard engines. Bob

 

[buickanddeere]

Yes and most people don't know that the infamous P51 Mustang was originally built for the UK. When we delivered it, it had an Allison V-1710 engine which greatly limited its high altitude ability and range. The replacement of the Allison with a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine by England resulted in the P-51B/C (Mustang Mk III) model and transformed the Mustang's performance at altitudes above 15,000 ft, allowing the aircraft to compete with the Luftwaffe's fighters.

So, what did the US do for their P51's? The definitive version, the P-51D, was powered by the Packard V-1650-7, a license-built version of the Rolls-Royce Merlin 66 two-stage two-speed supercharged engine and was armed with six .50 caliber (12.7 mm) M2/AN Browning machine guns.

The man that was in charge of converting the Packard production lines to build aircraft engines was Lavern Pentland from Dunganon Ontario . The Rolls engineers could not grasp that semi skilled workers could rapidly build precision engines on an assembly line . Rolls machinists hand fitted every engine part to each other . The Rolls representatives were dumbfounded when any Packard piston/rings/pin/rod/bearing set could be mixed and matched and fit within spec in any cylinder .
Lavern also bid on and won the contract for something they had no idea what it was at the time . It was a long precision machined heavy tube with a slight decreasing internal taper in the diameter from one end to the other . They also machined a steel plug that would slide into the tube but start to bind and stop about 1/2 way down the bore . There was a ledge inside the tube that ensured the plug had a hard stop near the far end of the tube . No one could figure out how that plug was supposed to squeeze down the taper to the far end of the tube . At the machine shop they had no idea what blueprints with a Manhattan Project title ment . They built 13 assemblies for the Little Boy Bomb.

 

[smstonypoint]

The Rolls engineers could not grasp that semi skilled workers could rapidly build precision engines on an assembly line . Rolls machinists hand fitted every engine part to each other . The Rolls representatives were dumbfounded when any Packard piston/rings/pin/rod/bearing set could be mixed and matched and fit within spec in any cylinder .

They had not heard of Eli Whitney?

Steve