Picture of the day

General Aircraft Co. in the UK came up with some interesting gliders for the RAF. There was the Hamilcar:

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(and a big ol' girl she was, too)

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...and the rather-lovely Hotspur...

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...also available, just once, as a twinned version.

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The Hamilcar was quite successful. The Hotspur less so due to changes in airborne doctrine. They could only accommodate eight guys, and that was deemed too few to bring to a party in one load. They served as trainers, and in this role did well.
 
The Blenheim was produced locally as the Bilingbroke and served through the war in Canada, mostly as a training aircraft and target tug. Some were operated on coastal patrol duties.

They were certainly versatile:

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And, just for interest's sake, here's an Anson on floats:

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I have a question about Packard-Merlins and Griffons. Read on a website about a shop in California the rebuilds V-12's that was referred to on this site, That the Griffon rotated in the opposite direction to the Merlin. don't know the reason for this. If the Merlin's all rotated (right I assume) did this cause handling problems in twin engine aircraft like the Mosquito? Read that twin engine aircraft with engines rotating same way were hard to control if one engine failed, moreso than if the other one failed. Guess I thought they probably built both rotations.
 
Spits were built with both Merlin and Griffon engines. A Merlin plane will pull right on take off, so one starts with full left rudder trim.

With a Griffon, you crank on full right trim.

If you have a lot of time on Merlins, and then transition to Griffon, there is a tendency to crank on full trim the wrong way. Makes for an interesting take off....
 
Good question...I thought I read that the DH Hornet might have...Gotta do some reading.
I know the Lockheed P-38 had that...(left turn clockwise, right turned counter clockwise)

Edit:

List of aircraft with counter-rotating propellers
Type Country Date Notes
Airbus A400M Atlas EU 2009 Four engines
Beechcraft 76 Duchess US 1974 Twin engines
Cessna T303 Crusader US 1978 Twin engines[citation needed]
de Havilland Hornet UK 1944 Twin engines
Dunne D.1 UK 1907 twin engines in fuselage on a common driveshaft
Dunne D.4 UK 1908 Single central engine
Dunne D.5 UK 1910 Single central engine
Fairey F.2 UK 1917 Twin engines
Gotha Go 244 Germany Twin engines
Heinkel He 177A Greif (fourth prototype onwards) Germany Twin engines
Henschel Hs 129 Germany Twin engines
Junkers Ju 288 Germany Twin engines
Linke-Hofmann R.I Germany 1917 four engines in fuselage
Lockheed P-38 Lightning US 1939 Twin engines
Messerschmitt Me 323 Gigant Germany Six engines
North American P-82 Twin Mustang US Twin engines
North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco US Twin engines[citation needed]
Piaggio P.180 Avanti Italy 1986 Twin engines[citation needed]
Piper PA-31 Navajo (some variants) US Twin engines
Piper PA-34 Seneca US Twin engines
Piper PA-39 Twin Comanche C/R US Twin engines
Piper PA-40 Arapaho US Twin engines
Piper PA-44 Seminole US Twin engines
Vought V-173 Flying Pancake US 1942 Twin engines
Vought XF5U Flying Pancake US 1947 Twin engines
Wright Flyer and most other Wright models to 1916 US 1903 Single central engine.
 
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Other multi engine problems such as on the Junkers 53/3M transport.

The Junkers 53/3m had the wing engines canted to compensate for a wing engine failure.

The two wing-mounted radial engines of the Ju 52/3m had half-chord cowlings and in planform view (from above/below) appeared to be splayed outwards, being mounted at an almost perpendicular angle to the tapered wing's sweptback leading edge (in a similar fashion to the Mitsubishi G3M bomber and Short Sunderland; the angled engines on the Ju 52 were intended to make maintaining straight flight easier should an engine fail, while the others had different reasons.

From; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Ju_52

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/31137-lots-of-questions-on-flying-the-ju-52/
 
HuskyDude said:
Good question...I thought I read that the DH Hornet might have...Gotta do some reading.
I know the Lockheed P-38 had that...(left turn clockwise, right turned counter clo….
Click to expand...

Correct about the DH Hornet. First prototype had unhanded Merlin 130s. All production A/C had Merlin 130 on the port cw rotation and Merlin 131 on starbd ccw rotation. 130/131s were designed solely for Hornet use. Modified to reduce the frontal area. These were the ultimate expression of the Merlin with more than twice the hp of the engine in the first Spitfire and Hurricanes. Hornet thundered along on over 4100hp.
Flying a Hornet -Not a bad way to spend your weekends in the RAF Reserve after hostilities ended in '45.
 
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Sharps '74 said:
The Dak on floats was a new one for me. Any tactical/practical use?
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Yes.Projected use was supply of remote Naval bases and outposts in Caribbean and SE Asia including Oceania.

That job was formerly done by flying boats but instead of Daks it was taken over mostly by ANZAC Navy afaik.
 
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