And it's still not finished. World of Warplanes download...(probably will cause my computer to crash)
I'm a WWII warbird guy. Between the different theaters and regardless of the side,...I like alot of them. It doesn't matter whether it's a fighter, bomber, or lowly cargo plane,...I find it amazing that these guys did what they had to do to fly them.
Like try watching one of the You tube clips of one of the training manuals that a B-17 bomber pilot had to do while flying that thing... (They are told to turn the turbo's off in pre-flight warm up,.how do you turn a turbo "off"?)
If you are into engines (and who here isn't) you owe it to yourself to go to one of the really good aircraft museums that are around the nation. The one in DC still being the best I've been to, followed up by the Pensacola NAS museum,...the engineers that designed these things were using multi-valve technology, turbocharging, and supercharging to eek out the power required to get the speed, and altitude required to be competitive and survive. The Germans, and Brits even used nitrous oxide as an oxidizer in select high altitude aircraft.
My fav bomber was the B17....loaded w/ 4 .050 cal machine guns in the nose, w/ twins in turrets on top and bottom, singles hanging out of the sides of the fuselage, and a twin set in the tail, they called this thing a Flying Fortress.
They would send huge formations of these planes... in the early years 300 at the same time, (sometimes counting up to as much as 1000 planes) to bomb targets in Germany. Routinely losing as many as 60 planes in one bombing mission. 600 guys that didn't come back...
Eventually,...they figured out how to fly these things in "boxed formations" so that they could defend the squadrons better,..making it very perilous for a enemy fighter to fly into the formation to attack it....
The Germans called the plane a fliegendes Stachelschwein (Flying Porcupine) and had to come up w/ an over head and behind attack procedure..
Not only did they have to survive the guaranteed fighter attack,..they had to fly through flak
And despite all of this, the planes were notorious for being able to withstand battle damage though,...and several of them defied physics..like this one
Hit by a german fighter that the crew "shot down," the entire tail section is almost severed. Yet this plane landed, and all of the crew got out.
Or this one,..hit by debris...the Bombardier died, but the plane returned and landed.
If you haven't seen it before....The movie "Memphis Belle" was made in the 90's I believe,..and it's about having to survive 25 bombing missions in a B17.... Pretty decent effects,..great story...based on truth. I give it a
So,..On this Sunday....This is your little tidbit of WWII history on a Mustang website (while I still wait for the DL to complete).. The tie in being the use of advanced engine technology, and power adders over 40 years before the first multi valve engine made it into production in the automotive industry.
Now,....go work on your cars,...and try to figure out how to put a ball turret w/ twin .050's on your roofs so my thread won't get moved....
And if you ever talk to one of these old guys that flew these planes (if there are any left alive) shake that man's hand and thank him.
I'm a WWII warbird guy. Between the different theaters and regardless of the side,...I like alot of them. It doesn't matter whether it's a fighter, bomber, or lowly cargo plane,...I find it amazing that these guys did what they had to do to fly them.
Like try watching one of the You tube clips of one of the training manuals that a B-17 bomber pilot had to do while flying that thing... (They are told to turn the turbo's off in pre-flight warm up,.how do you turn a turbo "off"?)
If you are into engines (and who here isn't) you owe it to yourself to go to one of the really good aircraft museums that are around the nation. The one in DC still being the best I've been to, followed up by the Pensacola NAS museum,...the engineers that designed these things were using multi-valve technology, turbocharging, and supercharging to eek out the power required to get the speed, and altitude required to be competitive and survive. The Germans, and Brits even used nitrous oxide as an oxidizer in select high altitude aircraft.
My fav bomber was the B17....loaded w/ 4 .050 cal machine guns in the nose, w/ twins in turrets on top and bottom, singles hanging out of the sides of the fuselage, and a twin set in the tail, they called this thing a Flying Fortress.
They would send huge formations of these planes... in the early years 300 at the same time, (sometimes counting up to as much as 1000 planes) to bomb targets in Germany. Routinely losing as many as 60 planes in one bombing mission. 600 guys that didn't come back...
Eventually,...they figured out how to fly these things in "boxed formations" so that they could defend the squadrons better,..making it very perilous for a enemy fighter to fly into the formation to attack it....
The Germans called the plane a fliegendes Stachelschwein (Flying Porcupine) and had to come up w/ an over head and behind attack procedure..
Not only did they have to survive the guaranteed fighter attack,..they had to fly through flak
And despite all of this, the planes were notorious for being able to withstand battle damage though,...and several of them defied physics..like this one
Hit by a german fighter that the crew "shot down," the entire tail section is almost severed. Yet this plane landed, and all of the crew got out.
Or this one,..hit by debris...the Bombardier died, but the plane returned and landed.
If you haven't seen it before....The movie "Memphis Belle" was made in the 90's I believe,..and it's about having to survive 25 bombing missions in a B17.... Pretty decent effects,..great story...based on truth. I give it a
So,..On this Sunday....This is your little tidbit of WWII history on a Mustang website (while I still wait for the DL to complete).. The tie in being the use of advanced engine technology, and power adders over 40 years before the first multi valve engine made it into production in the automotive industry.
Now,....go work on your cars,...and try to figure out how to put a ball turret w/ twin .050's on your roofs so my thread won't get moved....
And if you ever talk to one of these old guys that flew these planes (if there are any left alive) shake that man's hand and thank him.
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