Picture of the day

[koldt]

Canadian waist gunner in a RAF Dakota/C-47 keeps watch for Japanese fighters during a supply mission to Chindit-held bases in Burma - 1943
Note Vickers K gun and extra ammunition drums behind him
LIFE Magazine Archives - William Vandivert Photographer

The gun looks like a modified Bren and the drums look very much like Bren 100rd drums.

 

[bogusiii]

The gun looks like a modified Bren and the drums look very much like Bren 100rd drums.

They do, but the gun is a Vickers K. Drums are similar but not interchangeable.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Looks heavy...still like it though.
I guess 2 floats are better than one.

Ah, Blackburn. A company that worked hard to defeat the idea that airplanes are inherently beautiful. "No they're not" said Blackburn. "Hold my sliderule. Here are aircraft so ugly that they attain flight by being repelled by the Earth..."

The Blackburn Blackburn, just so you never misunderstood who made it:

(also available on floats

The Blackburn Blackburd, which looks like the designer didn't posess a French curve and really liked LEGO:

The Blackburn Firebrand - a.k.a. Dat Ass (STILL not enough yaw control? Well, scale up the vertical stab and let's see if we can make it quit weaving about...)

The Blackburn B54: "I don't like the puffin. They wet their nests."

The Blackburn company seemed to hate attractive shapes. A ghastly collection of flying objects left their hangars.

 

[koldt]

They do, but the gun is a Vickers K. Drums are similar but not interchangeable.

Thanx. Learned something today.

 

[diopter]

Consolidated Catalina Mk.1A RCAF, Ottawa River près de Rockcliffe/Ontario, 1942.

 

[ipscgraz]

Every find a photograph and your first reaction is "I want..."?

Inglis production line, 1944 I believe.

 

[HuskyDude]

All the time, but lets just show firearms.

 

[CV32]

A sonar scan of the wreck of the Kriegsmarine light cruiser Karlsruhe sunk during the Norwegian invasion in 1940

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

And in better days:

I thought that "bobbed" stern might have been that way from the start, but she's now short one turret back there...

Trim wee thing, big guns. Wonder how deep she is.

 

[bogusiii]

I thought that "bobbed" stern might have been that way from the start, but she's now short one turret back there...

Are you sure you've got the fore and aft right on the scan?

 

[diopter]

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Are you sure you've got the fore and aft right on the scan?

I wondered. Diopter's pic clarifies things. The rear offset turrets are distinctive.

Looks like she suffered a bit of "explosive rhinoplasty".

 

[bogusiii]

I wondered. Diopter's pic clarifies things. The rear offset turrets are distinctive.

Looks like she suffered a bit of "explosive rhinoplasty".

Bow is gone, either by hitting the sea floor (1,610 feet down) or by one of the two German torpedos used to scuttle her. The British submarine HMS Truant fired the fatal torpedo amidship.

 

[55recce]

That's a multibeam echo sounder image not a sonar scan (yes I know that's being pedantic but that was 37 years of my life....)

 

[bogusiii]

That's a multibeam echo sounder image not a sonar scan (yes I know that's being pedantic but that was 37 years of my life....)

Apparently it was done because a major cable is very close and they wanted to see if there was any damage. I know I'm a layman but wonder if they realize the wreck was there long before the cable.

 

[CV32]

That's a multibeam echo sounder image not a sonar scan (yes I know that's being pedantic but that was 37 years of my life....)

Which is a type of sonar.

 

[diopter]

September 22nd 1964; The XB-70 Valkyrie took to the skies on her first flight test between Palmdale and Edwards AFB. Much like its difficult operational future, the flight was not without complications. One engine had to be shut down shortly after take-off, due to an undercarriage malfunction that caused the flight to be flown with the gear down as a precaution, limiting speed to only 390 mph. On landing, the rear wheels of the port side main gear locked, the tires ruptured, and a fire started.
The North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie was the prototype of the B-70 nuclear-armed, deep-penetration strategic bomber for the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command. North American Aviation designed the Valkyrie as a mammoth, six-engined air breathing aircraft capable of reaching Mach 3+ while flying at 70,000 feet.
Although only two aircraft were built, and the program was eventually cancelled, the XB-70 remains one of the most loved of all aircraft designs due to its sheer beauty, impressive scale, and undeniably futuristic design.
www.Sierrahotel.net

 

[Ganderite]

The Do 18 (1935-38) was a patrol plane used throughout world war 2. First flight March 1935
100 were produced in total and it featured a unique top mounted push/pull dual engine system and light armament. It was a sesquiplane (one and a half wings) and the bottom wing doubled as a float while landed in water.

Reminds me of a PBY Catalina (1936-45) First flight March 1935

Nice looking airplane. Unlike the Cat, it does have flaps.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

September 22nd 1964; The XB-70 Valkyrie took to the skies on her first flight test between Palmdale and Edwards AFB. Much like its difficult operational future, the flight was not without complications. One engine had to be shut down shortly after take-off, due to an undercarriage malfunction that caused the flight to be flown with the gear down as a precaution, limiting speed to only 390 mph. On landing, the rear wheels of the port side main gear locked, the tires ruptured, and a fire started.
The North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie was the prototype of the B-70 nuclear-armed, deep-penetration strategic bomber for the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command. North American Aviation designed the Valkyrie as a mammoth, six-engined air breathing aircraft capable of reaching Mach 3+ while flying at 70,000 feet.
Although only two aircraft were built, and the program was eventually cancelled, the XB-70 remains one of the most loved of all aircraft designs due to its sheer beauty, impressive scale, and undeniably futuristic design.
www.Sierrahotel.net

And arguably a colossal waste of money.

Grizz

 

[bdft]

Looks like the Concorde and Sukhoi borrowed liberally from the design.