Messages

691

Warplane Art / Re: Dewoitine D520

« on: February 08, 2007, 10:47:29 AM »

D.520 is a very interesting plane!
It flew not only in Luftwaffe markings, but also in very colourful markings of the 'Free French' Vichy air force!

692

Warplane Art / Re: XP-46

« on: January 27, 2007, 10:02:45 PM »

It is indeed nonsense to say the the P-51 was developed from the XP-46!
Originally, the Mustang, or NA-73X was not even developed for the AAC, but for the RAF!
North American produced the NA-73X prototype on the request of the Britihs Purchase Commission when they were short of fighters in 1940! Even when it was already flown, the AAC was not interested in this type until it was evaluated at Wright Field showing its highly efficient airframe. And even then it was not ordered as a fighter but as a ground-attack plane!
With the original Allison V-1710 its performances detoriated very fast at higher altitude and it was not until the Mustang airframe was mated with a Rolls Royce Merlin when it showed its real potential. And..........the Merlin was fitted for the first time by the British to a UK supplied Mustang!
Fitted with a Merlin, a bubble canopy and an extra 1200 l fuel tank behind the cockpit it became the great fighter it is now claimed to be! It is ironical that the original AAC specifications for a long-range escort fighter only produced big monsters like the XP-67 and the P-75A that were totally unsuitable while the Mustang was already flying around for some time..........

693

Combat Warplanes / De Havilland Vampire

« on: January 21, 2007, 11:59:29 AM »

I found this original De Havilland photo yesterday on an aviation fair and it was just too nice to leave it there!
It shows the Vampire Mk. III.
It is one of a series of publicity air-to-air shots taken late fourties/early fifties.

694

Combat Warplanes / Re: Ryan VTOL

« on: January 19, 2007, 06:22:38 PM »

Sorry, spelling mistake! Of course it was the X-13!

695

Combat Warplanes / Re: Ryan VTOL

« on: January 19, 2007, 06:21:46 PM »

This was not the only VTOL jet from Ryan. They also produced the X-13 delta-wing tailsitter. To be more precisely it was a tailhanger since it did not sit on its tail like the turboprop powered XV-1 and XFY-1. Instead it was recuperated using a special vertical platform that could be raised down once the plane was coupled and secured.

696

Combat Warplanes / Re: Payen

« on: January 07, 2007, 01:56:45 PM »

Interesting, but these shots are not so very rare! In fact they were published many times!
The Pa.22 was not the first Payen delta. An earlier design was the Pa.100 fitted with a radial engine.
It was intended as a racer in the Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe, but it was not very successfull!
After the war, Payen built a last small delta plane as the Payen Kathy, which is now on display in the Musée de l' Air at Le Bourget.
This shot of the PA.100 is much less known!

697

Combat Warplanes / Re: Syntetic fuel test

« on: December 16, 2006, 10:38:45 AM »

Very interesting news!
Basically coal and coal tarr-oil are used as raw materials for the Fischer-Trops reaction process.
Just guess who invented and developed this process: the Germans and they already used 'Ersatz' synthetic fuel on a large scale during WW-II.

698

Combat Warplanes / Re: Duxford trip

« on: December 02, 2006, 06:31:44 PM »

Yes, I still can remember that Javelin during my visit many years ago! Duxford had at that time also some interesting prototypes on show like the TSR-2 and the Saunders Roe SR.1/A flying boat fighter! I can also remember they were stencelling German text parts on the Me-163 rocket fighter containing many German spelling errors that I corrected!

699

Warplane Art / Re: Defiant Britain

« on: November 11, 2006, 01:31:37 PM »

This is the Defiant in its less spectacular role as a target tug!

700

Combat Warplanes / Captain Hook

« on: November 04, 2006, 05:06:26 PM »

The legless pilot Douglas Bader is of course well known. However, there also was a handless pilot in the thirties when looking at this picture. I have scanned it in its original sepia colours. Unfortunately the picture came without any explaining text It is an original Wide World Photos press photo and there must be a story behind this shot of this modern Captain Hook!

Anybody out there with any ideas??

701

Aircraft Modeling / Re: La-7 three cannon from Eduard

« on: October 05, 2006, 07:18:32 PM »

Yes, it is 1/48 scale. Hobbycraft also had a La-5 at the same scale I believe.
I still have unbuilt the 1/48 scale MIG-3 kit in the Flashback series of the Czech AMC. It can be built als the well known white 'Za Stalina' from the Russian ace A..V. Shlopov or as camouflaged version flown by A.I. Pokryskhin. It is a nice kit with good decals and additional resin parts + photo etched stuff. I swapped it some years ago with a Czech friend with the old Esci kit of the Dutch police Bölkow helicopter.
Am afraid it will have to wait until after my retirement!

702

Aircraft Modeling / Re: La-7 three cannon from Eduard

« on: October 05, 2006, 03:30:06 PM »

Very nice model! Reminds me of an earlier 'winterized' MG armed La-7 from Hobbycraft some years ago!

703

Combat Warplanes / Fokker 60

« on: September 12, 2006, 07:49:32 PM »

The Ducth air force KLu operates some Fokker 60 transport planes.
Only a handful of this type was built!
This is a Fokker 60 shown at Lelystad airport on Saturday 9 September 2006 during a low-level flight at the 'Airsport days' week-end of the Aviodrome Museum.

704

Combat Warplanes / Re: Transport glider?

« on: September 03, 2006, 06:20:29 PM »

This is one of the small batch of Jakovlev Jak-14 (locally known as NK-14) tranport gliders used by the CSSR air force.
Also some Tsybin C-25's (NK-25) were in use!
See: Czeckoslovenska Letalda (1945-1984) from Vaclav Nemecek.

705

Aircraft Modeling / Convair XF-92A

« on: August 26, 2006, 03:03:50 PM »

Today I found at a car-boot sale this model of the Convair XF-92A. It seems to be a display model from the fifties maybe used for aircraft recognition instruction. Scale is ca. 1:50. It is a ready-manufactured product of white plastic without any surface detail or decals. I could take it for free from a box of 'rubbish' containing various partly built aircraft models and parts. There were similar models in the box for the Douglas Skyray, the Douglas X-3 Stiletto and the Gloster Javelin but they were broken up and only the XF-92A was in one piece without any substantial damage. I can try to 'refurbish' this model by scratching surface detail and adding decals from the Collect-Aire kit but I am afraid it would only spoil further a quite rare model.
Has anyone any guess about this model? (more types? mark? etc.)