Picture of the day

A friend of mine flew the B29. Has nothing good to say about it. He said it was under powered and engines were unreliable. he was very pleased with the B50, which was a B29 with bigger, better engines.

The B50 was the bomber which, in the fifties, jettisoned its nuclear device in the St Lawrence River.

This event was chronicled in Farley Mowat's "Eastern Passages".

Piscine mutants continue to this day.
 
Kjohn, an RD-8 or D-8 maybe? I read the book one of the fellows who worked on the Alaska highway and the winter road to Norman Wells wrote, really neat stuff. Seemed like all the cats they had there were a mix of diesel and gas D8s and D4s for finishing. The part about pushing into Muncho lake off the cliffs above was unreal. Would have been a fun push!
 
Good day Gunnutz :) New day new picture :)


Fliegerfaust 9 barreled rocket launcher. Sequentially fired. Didn't make it into production in time.

Interesting concept but pretty useless for the intended purpose - antiaircraft fire. The ammo was 20mm cannonshells with the cartridge case replaced with a rocket engine in a steel tube to launch them as small warheads. But the range was abysmal - stated range of 2000m but actual effective range more like 500m. I suppose they would have been some use against fighters doing close air-support strafing runs or Typhoons doing rocket attacks on ground targets, but absolutely useless against the heavy bomber wings.

And given a choice, I think I would rather let loose at a CAS fighter or fighter-bomber with an MG42 on high rate than with an oversized 'duck gun' firing a spread of 9 20mm explosive-tipped 'pellets'. Better odds of a hit with the MG42 probably.

According to official records, only 80 of the Fliegerfaust B saw even limited combat use - they were shipped to a unit at Saarbrucken for combat testing. However, one of the photos from Berlin after the streetfighting apparently shows three lying in the rubble near the Brandenburg Gate, so it's possible more did get used in the final days than previously thought. Actually, that 'duck gun' may well have been a useless AA weapon that would have been quite effective in urban house-to-house fighting.
 
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Interesting concept but pretty useless for the intended purpose - antiaircraft fire. The ammo was 20mm cannonshells with the cartridge case replaced with a rocket engine in a steel tube to launch them as small warheads. But the range was abysmal - stated range of 2000m but actual effective range more like 500m. I suppose they would have been some use against fighters doing close air-support strafing runs or Typhoons doing rocket attacks on ground targets, but absolutely useless against the heavy bomber wings.

And given a choice, I think I would rather let loose at a CAS fighter or fighter-bomber with an MG42 on high rate than with an oversized 'duck gun' firing a spread of 9 20mm explosive-tipped 'pellets'. Better odds of a hit with the MG42 probably.

According to official records, only 80 of the Fliegerfaust B saw even limited combat use - they were shipped to a unit at Saarbrucken for combat testing. However, one of the photos from Berlin after the streetfighting apparently shows three lying in the rubble near the Brandenburg Gate, so it's possible more did get used in the final days than previously thought. Actually, that 'duck gun' may well have been a useless AA weapon that would have been quite effective in urban house-to-house fighting.

Thanks for the information :)
 
Propaganda maybe?? Dunno.

But looking at the bandoleers, I would say Navy as well.

What's going on with that guys sling? Is that a 'field modification' or a specific type of sling? [that I have not seen before...]


Looks kinda like a movie still. The composition and framing are really, really good.

Bell bottoms - are these navy lads?
 
Propaganda maybe?? Dunno.

But looking at the bandoleers, I would say Navy as well.

What's going on with that guys sling? Is that a 'field modification' or a specific type of sling? [that I have not seen before...]

It looks like he's wrapped the dog collar with cloth to dampen noise.
 
It looks like he's wrapped the dog collar with cloth to dampen noise.

You think so? kinda looks a little like it's looped over and tied like I necktie ~ kinda looks like a quick release on the end there as well? [or maybe the buckle has gone missing somehow?]
 
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