Picture of the day

[diopter]

Caption from Russian website.
The crew of Char B1 ı350 “Fleurie” poses by his car during maneuvers in February 1940.
In the center is Sergeant Chef Jacques Dumay (killed June 15, 1940 by Montsuzain).
Right adjutant Levasseur ( killed June 12, 1940 in Mourmelon (Mourmelon).
Each In 1bis had its own name, usually in each battalion the names of the tanks corresponded to a specific theme:
41 and 49 battalions (tanks B 1bis No. 346-375) carried the names of French wines. Fleurie - "blooming."
Pay attention to the TPU plugs hanging in the belt of the tankers.

 

[Ganderite]

TPU plug?

 

[fraserdw]

TPU plug?

Intercom

 

[sidester]

Korea 1951

 

[donor]

Brewster F2A Buffalo at EWA station ,Hawaii. I guess that's very shortly after Dec 1941 or somewhere else and caption is wrong.Still.interesting picture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Corps_Air_Station_Ewa

 

[Sharps '74]

The Brewster 'Buffalo"; America's proof that given sufficient power, even a beer barrel can fly. Well, sort of .....

 

[diopter]

And the winner of the fattest beer barrel award in the Portly Pursuit Plane Category is........

Polikarpov I-16

I wonder if Mao knew?

¿Hablas Ruso, camarada?

 

[diopter]

Canadian Car and Foundry FDB-1

Design and development
In 1938, American and Georgian expatriate designer Michael Gregor/Mikheil Grigorashvili approached Canadian Car & Foundry, at the time, that country's leading manufacturer of rolling stock, which had limited experience building airplanes, but wanted to enter that field. Instead of building its own designs, Can-Car was producing Curtiss, de Havilland, Consolidated, Bristol and Hawker products under license. In 1936, Grumman and Canadian Car & Foundry or "Can-Car" concluded an agreement for production of 50 revised Grumman SF-1 carrier fighters, with 700 hp. Wright R-1820-78 radial power-plants and known as GE-23s or Grumman Exports 23s, that would be put together in Canada (although some were actually assembled in Spain).

In 1938, there were many aviation observers who doubted the supposed merits of the emerging monoplane over the proven performance of reliable biplanes. Most of the major powers' front line fighter units employed biplanes. The Soviet Union, despite having recently developed the Polikarpov I-16 (the first successful production monoplane fighter with retracting gear), still depended heavily on biplanes. Great Britain's RAF and Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe had likewise embraced the monoplane but, respectively, continued to deploy the Gloster Gladiator and the Heinkel He 51 biplane fighters. In Fascist Italy, the series of Fiat CR.32 in operation and the Fiat CR.42 biplane fighters were entering service while the U.S. Navy operated biplane fighters exclusively.

https://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/cancelled-gregor-fdb-1-180952402/

 

[sidester]

X31 vector

 

[smellie]

Finns have what I am told is the very last Brewster Buffalo in their museum at Tikkakoski.

 

[oldstarfire]

I wonder if Comrade Polikarpov saw the GB racers??

 

[diopter]

Finns have what I am told is the very last Brewster Buffalo in their museum at Tikkakoski.

Think it's the 3rd one. Easy on the direction arrows, it can make you dizzy.
http://ilmavoimamuseo.fi/virtualmuseum/

The diagram on the left gives you a cockpit view of that particular plane.

 

[donor]

I wonder if Mao knew?

He knew very well.He and Chinese communist leaders went to great lengths to take over Russian supplies going to Kuomintang and failed for a long time.Stalin wasn't very fond of them till his very end.

Btw-If I remember well enough that is a not very good static replica of I-16 build by some organisation in China (I think students of some sort).They donated it to museum since they didn't have room to display it.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Not all Soviet arcraft looked like flying potatoes. Here's the MiG 1, the one that started it all:

Good looking bird.

And now we have the MiG 35.

Mikoyan Guerevich have come a long way.

 

[weimajack]

MIG35, a nice bird for Canadian Air Force!

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

We can dream, Weimajack. We can dream.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

We can dream, Weimajack. We can dream.

Now that would get Trump's attention.

Grizz

 

[Tikka223]

Mig 35 ... F35 ... coincidence?

 

[points]

And I would bet the M35 is cheaper and probably actually works.

 

[smellie]

If the MiG-35 is anything like other Russian equipment, it will be low-maintenance, rugged, expensive on fuel and able to operate almost anywhere.

Almost sounds like a recipe for duty in this country.

Why haven't we designed and built our own?