WWII War Birds - pics and video

Bastard child of a Westland Lysander and a Handley-Page of some description?

Interesting aerodynamics, but then, a bumblebee isn't supposed to be able to fly either.
 
Westland P12 .
Some say it was designed to straf the beaches of England should operation Sea Lion actually started.
Other say it was to prevent the Lysander from being such an easy unprotected target for the Luftwaffe.
https://travelforaircraft.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/delanne-write/

Rear wings lift the weight of the rear turret, guns and gunner correcting the center of gravity.
How is that for the most wing offset/stagger on a bi-plane?
 
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All sorts of pitch and yaw authority on that one...:)

Speaking of staggered wings on warbirds...

Staggerwing-1000_zps378ccc2e.jpg


Our species has built few things as beautiful as the Beechcraft D-18. They even look good in Mufti.

071102-F-1234S-010.jpg


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Ah, yes - Black Flight, #10 RNAS Squadron, Raymond Collishaw, etc.

Here's a nice replica, flying in NZ:

[youtube]Zex2dJtWhyA[/youtube]

It's one war early for the thread, and nowhere near as pretty as a Staggerwing, but still a neat kite. :)
 
JR Hartman said:
wonder who that pilot is?
Click to expand...

"I believe these were taken from 'Luftwaffe im Focus Color Special #1', as they all appear in that publication.

Here's some info taken from the book:

The first two shots show a Bf 110C-5 of 7(H)/LG 2 in Russia during the Spring of 1942 and were probably taken at
Stalino airfield.

The third photo shows a Hungarian Bf 109F-4 of Squadron 5/1.

The fourth and fifth photos show Bf 109E-4 'Weiss 13', the personal mount of Lt. Walter Blume from 7/JG 26. The photos
were taken at Caffiers during the summer of 1940... sometime after Blume's fourth kill on July 25th and before his loss
on August 15th. If you look closely at the cowl panels on the ground, you'll see that the aircraft came home with a souvenir
after its last mission!

The sixth and seventh photos show more Hungarian Bf 109F-4s of Squadron 5/1.

The eighth photo shows a Bf 109G-6/R6 of I/JG 3 during the summer of 1943, possibly at München-Gladbach or maybe
Bönninghardt. Certain details such as the long radio antenna mast identify this as a very early G-6.

The ninth photo shows an Fw 190A-2 assigned to either JFS 2 or JFS 4, probably in the summer of 1942.

The tenth shot shows a seldom-seen Fw 190A-5/U8. "

from
http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=12744
 
P39. Neat idea, most fully utilized by the Hard Fightin' Comrades of the Soviet Air Army.

And why stars instead of swastikas? What decent hero of the Soviet Union would be caught dead in anything with the insignia of the Hitlerites on it? :)
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
P39. Neat idea, most fully utilized by the Hard Fightin' Comrades of the Soviet Air Army.

And why stars instead of swastikas? What decent hero of the Soviet Union would be caught dead in anything with the insignia of the Hitlerites on it? :)
Click to expand...

P39 is a very different bird when it comes to it's engine setup. Engine behind the pilot with a drive shaft running between his legs to the reduction gearbox in the nose. One advantage was the ability to mount a 37mm cannon right through the centre of the spinner.
Apparently the weight distribution was very critical or you could end up getting into a flat spin which was difficult to get out of...
I think there is even a song about it written by the pilots.
 
Yeah, the centre of gravity was known to shift as fuel was consumed. Made the P-39 tricky to handle. It's successor, the P-63(?) was a winner on the closed course race circuit.
 
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