Picture of the day

RRCo. said:
Yes, I know what you mean, but some of the thinnest armour is on the rear of the tank so sticking your ass over the top of the hill to take a shot before running away? Instead of sticking your front armour, the thickest over? Doesn't make sense to me.
Click to expand...

Oh, I don't doubt that if given the chance, any crew would prefer to be front facing and hull down, just like the US marines dig in if they stop for a smoke break. But if it doesn't cost you mobility, engine power, or stability, why wouldn't you try and get as much gun depression as you can get from every possible angle? Sure, maybe useful in 1 shot out of 500, but if that's the shot that saves your prosciutto (Italian Bacon joke), then it's worth it.

Engineering is all about trade offs. You trade speed for armour, agility for stability, ammo punching power vs. ammo capacity, etc. etc. For that tank, without knowing much about WWII era Italian Tank design, I can see the logic. They chucked a bunch of "features" that proved mostly useless, and in return they got the benefit of extra gun depression - as well as probably some extra speed and agility, because the updated version looks like it would weigh a fair bit less. Seems like a reasonable trade-off to me.
 
grelmar said:
...Engineering is all about trade offs...
Click to expand...

Yes. Surprising they didn't have welded armour by 1942/43 though.

Getting back to the CF-100 for a minute, I am reminded my copy of the book is still in the cellophane! But quite a plane:

On 18 December 1952, S/L Janusz Żurakowski, the Avro company chief development test pilot, took the CF-100 Mk 4 prototype to Mach 1.0 in a dive from 30,000 ft. being the first straight-winged jet aircraft to achieve controlled supersonic flight.[5]

....four [CF100] Canuck squadrons were based in Europe with 1 Air Division from 1956–1962, and were for some time the only NATO fighters capable of operating in zero visibility and poor weather conditions.

When the Korean War started, the USAF was in urgent need of a jet-propelled, all-weather, interdiction/surveillance aircraft. The urgency was so great that the USAF was willing to consider two foreign designs: the CF-100 and the English Electric Canberra. The CF-100 was rejected because of insufficient range and payload. The English Electric design was selected and developed into the B-57 Canberra.

During his Avro Canada years, the Chief Development Pilot, S/L Żurakowski, continued to fly as an aerobatic display pilot, with spectacular results, especially at the 1955 Farnborough Airshow where he displayed the CF-100 in a "falling-leaf." He was acclaimed again as the "Great Żura" by many aviation and industry observers who could not believe a large, all-weather fighter could be put through its paces so spectacularly. His performance led to Belgium purchasing the CF-100.

In its lifetime, 692 CF-100s of different variants were produced, including 53 aircraft delivered to the Belgian Air Force. Although originally designed for only 2,000 hours, it was found that the Canuck's airframe could serve for over 20,000 hours before retirement
Click to expand...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-100_Canuck

So the head-on photo above shows the 8 x .50 CAL BMG gun pack.
 
Couple cool old war time instructional videos:

[youtube]14qTdp-Dd30[/youtube]

[youtube]Oyj-ZHXFKQI[/youtube]

1CanadaFlag.gif

-----------
NAA.
 
Auggie Doggie said:
The second video was interesting. No hearing protection. Bet they were all deaf as posts!

Auggie D.
Click to expand...

Yup, that's why a lot of us are wearing hearing aids nowadays. We used to do all range firing wearing a steel helmet/echo chamber to boot, which made it even worse. My ears used to ring for a couple of days after a range session and I used to shoot on the rifle team which meant that happened a lot. The tank guns were even worse. We were issued those iddy-bitty earplugs for that, but you had to keep your mouth open to equalize the pressure on your eardrums.
 
You still have to do that with incoming arty/mortars or using the Carl G. My favorite is someone being near a Leo for the first time. You only forget to keep your mouth open once.
purple said:
Yup, that's why a lot of us are wearing hearing aids nowadays. We used to do all range firing wearing a steel helmet/echo chamber to boot, which made it even worse. My ears used to ring for a couple of days after a range session and I used to shoot on the rifle team which meant that happened a lot. The tank guns were even worse. We were issued those iddy-bitty earplugs for that, but you had to keep your mouth open to equalize the pressure on your eardrums.
Click to expand...
 
purple said:
Yup, that's why a lot of us are wearing hearing aids nowadays. We used to do all range firing wearing a steel helmet/echo chamber to boot, which made it even worse. My ears used to ring for a couple of days after a range session and I used to shoot on the rifle team which meant that happened a lot. The tank guns were even worse. We were issued those iddy-bitty earplugs for that, but you had to keep your mouth open to equalize the pressure on your eardrums.
Click to expand...

What did he say????
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
Irish Hawker Hurricanes, JUST post-war:

IrishAirChurricaneslineup.jpg
Click to expand...


They got a lot of free Mustangs, Spits and Messerschmitt's as well as many other types. I was talking to a fellow at one of the grass airfields they had and he told me there were hundreds of different types parked side by side from several different nations. They were in all shot up to pristine condition, with only a few hours of flight time on them. I understand, Switzerland and Sweden had similar airfields with similar aircraft. It is rumored that many of the fighters picked up by Israel came from these stocks.
 
A few things: Ferguson let Washington live because he had his back to Ferguson, not because he was an officer. Sgt. York used a M17, but I had to laugh when they twice made statements about York "favouring" the Springfield before and after they described his famous exploit, and a very quick passing mention was made of the fact that it was an M17 not a Springfield York used that day. Still a sensitive subject that York used a "British" rifle!

No mention of the 60th Rifles "Royal Americans", but no mention of Loyalists at all of course! It was just us and them British!

"Once an officer fell many British broke ranks and ran". Looks like historical :jerkit: is still in fashion in some places.;)
 
They certainly got some knowledgeable talent to say a few words - Ian Hogg knows his stuff, and Gary James has been writing about neat old guns for G&A since I was a kid. But they seem to have squandered that talent. There's not a lot to learn from fluffy stuff like this.

And as much as I love our American cousins, their yankocentric focus gets to be a little much. Big things happen elsewhere, and the son does not rise and fall out of the arses of the Founding Fathers. And yes, as a descendent of United Empire Loyalists, I can't help but notice they seem to always tell only half the story of what my old History prof used to call the "American Insurrection". :)

Anyhoo, WW2 pictures for discussion:

vickamf_001


According to the website:
Vickers amphibious Tank of the Royal Dutch East Indies Army, In1942, at the time of the Japanese assault on the Netherlands East Indies, one of the two K.N.I.L. amphibious tanks was out of service, the other one was deployed (together with two Vickers-Carden-Loyd light tanks) on Western-Borneo, where it was lost in the fighting.
Click to expand...

Looks like very little fun for those entombed in such a wee critter.
 
Last edited:
UE
Are you registered with the UELAC?
Dark Alley Dan said:
They certainly got some knowledgeable talent to say a few words - Ian Hogg knows his stuff, and Gary James has been writing about neat old guns for G&A since I was a kid. But they seem to have squandered that talent. There's not a lot to learn from fluffy stuff like this.

And as much as I love our American cousins, their yankocentric focus gets to be a little much. Big things happen elsewhere, and the son does not rise and fall out of the arses of the Founding Fathers. And yes, as a descendent of United Empire Loyalists, I can't help but notice they seem to always tell only half the story of what my old History prof used to call the "American Insurrection". :)

Anyhoo, WW2 pictures for discussion:

vickamf_001


According to the website:


Looks like very little fun for those entombed in such a wee critter.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom