MossRoad
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And your Merlin's are pretty sweet, too...
USA Spitfire WWII
- Thread starter bunyip
- Start date
- Views: 7944
MossRoad
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But I'm more of an 18 cylinder radial kind of guy... 
Radials just have a unique sound and I run outside every time I hear one.
Radials just have a unique sound and I run outside every time I hear one.
MossRoad
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Last one... as this is a spitfire thread..
OP
bunyip
Elite Member
I was at our Air Force No 1 Flying Training School back in the 60's and saw a few beginner pilots do some ploughing with planes (now slinks off with head down for putting up counter rather than contra although I am a classical musician and understand counterpoint which means opposing, also contrapuntal which is the same thing in a different language but commonly used, based on that could either be correct?)
k0ua
Epic Contributor
The Butcher Bird
RSKY
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The best fighter pilots at the WWII era all had exceptional eyesight. Erich Hartman, the top ace that will ever be with 352 kills, supposedly could see enemy aircraft minutes before any of the other pilots he was flying with. He was also a great shot with a rifle or shotgun.
They were also super aggressive. In the book about Herky Green another pilot tells of flying beside Herky on an escort mission. He saw some German planes below them and told Herky over the radio. When he turned to look at Herky's plane all he saw was two wing tanks coasting along beside him. Herky had already dived to attack.
Getting back to engines, I have never figured out how the British 'sleeve valved' engines worked. I have seen diagrams but just cannot picture it in my mind.
RSKY
They were also super aggressive. In the book about Herky Green another pilot tells of flying beside Herky on an escort mission. He saw some German planes below them and told Herky over the radio. When he turned to look at Herky's plane all he saw was two wing tanks coasting along beside him. Herky had already dived to attack.
Getting back to engines, I have never figured out how the British 'sleeve valved' engines worked. I have seen diagrams but just cannot picture it in my mind.
RSKY
OP
bunyip
Elite Member
One hopes they never used Lucas Electrics.....
RSKY
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I have just ruined an entire morning, when I should have been doing something else, watching videos of different aircraft engines starting and listening to them run. The P&W radial 'corncob' 28-cyl engine is a fascinating looking monster.
RSKY
RSKY
dmccarty
Super Star Member
Not sure I have read about pink Spitfires but I have read that pink is a very good color to make aircraft hard to see. Of course macho fighter pilots ain't flying no pink plane.
Later,
Dan
dmccarty
Super Star Member
Way back in the 80's, seems like yesterday, a B17 and B24 flew into a local airport in South FLA. I did not have time to visit the planes but I did go and watch them take off. I was able to get pretty close to them in my car at the end of he runway where they were running up the engines prior to take off. The SOUND was AWESOME. :thumbsup: The two planes sat there for quite some time warming up the engines, then they took off, and circled back to "buzz" the air field. Unreal. The sound of just eight P&Ws was unreal. To Germans or Japanese seeing and hearing hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of those planes overhead must have been mortifying.
A B17 flies into our area every few years and one year we went to see it. We climbed aboard and it was immediately obvious that the crew flying in those planes had some b....ls. Not that I did not know that before, but to see that little bit of aluminum skin, that was all but tin foil, and then see the little hatches the crew would have to use to bail out was humbling. Course people were thinner and smaller back then but I could immediately understand why the crew preferred to bail out from the bomb bay. There were people touring the B17 who were too fat to cross the bomb bay "bridge" from the rear of the plane to the front because of the supports in the way. Not sure how the crew moved around with heavy clothes, coats, flak jackets, and parachutes. :confused3:
Later,
Dan
turnkey4099
Elite Member
But I'm more of an 18 cylinder radial kind of guy...
Radials just have a unique sound and I run outside every time I hear one.
Same here. A crop duster used to fly a radial. He would come past my back lot line at 10ft off the ground lift, do a chandelle and repeat the pass going the opposite direction.
turnkey4099
Elite Member
Ah, the Prince of Darkeness.
buickanddeere
Super Member
On my to do list . The museum is only 2-3 hrs away depending on traffic and I still haven稚 got around to visiting . Last time I seen that Lancaster when it was on a display pedestal at the Goderich Airport .
buickanddeere
Super Member
bigdeano
Platinum Member
Hydroplane racing used up the supply of Allison engines. When they were gone they went to the Rolls Royce engines and used them up. Now they use helicopter turbines. There were some 24 cylinder Allisons made, don't know how many.
MossRoad
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MOSSROAD I think you like planes more than tractors
It's close! :laughing:
As I mentioned before, I had friends whose fathers were aircraft salesmen, charter pilots, and owned FBO's. Neighbor had a plane. Dad's company had a plane (a v-tail bonanza). And we lived near the final approach path to our local airport. For the past 22 years we've lived very close to the same airport, but on the other side. I see and hear all kinds of cool stuff.
OP
bunyip
Elite Member
Although not as bad as the Lada Samara, came with an unregulated generator and if you exceeded around 30mph at night the headlights blew out, someone imported them here and changed them all over to alternators, not a bad looking car but an absolute shocker to drive, they never took off.
And they said the cold war was over....
Here are some similar links:
