Picture of the day

[Sharps '74]

The Warthog of soft tired AFVs.

 

[fat tony]

1934 Handley Page Heyford

What a thing of grace & beauty. You can just imagine the crew toting Mauser Zig Zag revolvers & sporting Sam Browne belts.

 

[Gibbs505]

The Boeing B-50 Superfortress

A strategic bomber that was a post–World War II revision of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, fitted with more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-4360 radial engines, stronger structure, a taller fin, and other improvements. It was the last piston-engined bomber designed by Boeing for the United States Air Force. The aircraft served with the USAF for 20 years, being retired in 1965. A total of 370 were converted or built.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

You can really see the jet-age influences creeping into that piston-era design. There's something very Flash Gordon about bits and pieces of that bird. The way the fuselage tapers, those great teardrop tanks...

Plus it has increased seating for essential crew:

 

[albayo]

Is that engine that had four banks of 7 or 9 cylinders in the engine instead of 18 cylinders it had originally?

 

[ipscgraz]

Is that engine that had four banks of 7 or 9 cylinders in the engine instead of 18 cylinders it had originally?

A 4360 had 4 rows of 7 cylinders, with pistons the size of the old jam cans. 56 spark plugs.

Radial engines were great for power to weight but as they got bigger, they got to a point where you could not keep them cool.

and speaking of radials,

Gear most of the way up.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

By the time the B-50 hit the ground as a flyable prototype, the writing was already on the wall for reciprocating engine bombers. In 1943, the USAAF had already asked designers for ideas about jet powered bombers. Boeing ended up getting that contract with the B-47, but I think it's a damn shame there weren't more Convair B-46s built.

What a lovely clean design. And far more "jet-ish" than the B-45 Tornado:

You can really see the old-school prop architecture in that design.

Looks like an A-26 with jet engines.

 

[CV32]

Nuclear powered attack submarine USS Missouri (SSN-780) meets the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63).

 

[Sharps '74]

What a thing of grace & beauty. You can just imagine the crew toting Mauser Zig Zag revolvers & Sam Browne belts.

More like Webley-Fosberrys rather than Mausers.

 

[Ganderite]

A friend of mine flew the B-29 and the B-50. He called the 50 a 29 with real engines. Apparently the B-29 lacked power and engine reliability.

He flew the RB-50 on electronic snooping missions. He said if he told me more he would have to shoot me...

 

[fat tony]

Somewhere someone has a tally of missing aircrew from the aerial surveillance missions. I am assuming at least some of this information is not yet public.

 

[XRCD011]

A friend of mine flew the B-29 and the B-50. He called the 50 a 29 with real engines. Apparently the B-29 lacked power and engine reliability.

He flew the RB-50 on electronic snooping missions. He said if he told me more he would have to shoot me...

Crikey.

 

[purple]

The early B-29s were plagued with engine problems and the difficulties getting such a revolutionary aircraft into service were pretty intimidating.

The Russians interned a number of B-29s which made forced landings in Russia after bombing Japan and reverse engineered them to produce their a number of their own. One of the comments I read on this was that people hoped that the Russians had mimicked some of the engine problems in their knock-offs.

 

[fat tony]

Crikey.

Those be Washington bombers, the Brit corrected version of the B29. I don't know if Lucas provided the electrics for it.

 

[donor]

The early B-29s were plagued with engine problems and the difficulties getting such a revolutionary aircraft into service were pretty intimidating.

The Russians interned a number of B-29s which made forced landings in Russia after bombing Japan and reverse engineered them to produce their a number of their own. One of the comments I read on this was that people hoped that the Russians had mimicked some of the engine problems in their knock-offs.

If my memory is working well enough I recall reading of some changes done to engines after first 15 Tu-4 build. I don't know what they did but it worked well.They didn't have problems with engines,there were some problems with electrical systems management but that was solved too since production took off like a bat out of hell.Then again mind you Tu-4 spend a lot of time working in much colder environments than B-29s did.Later on when Chinese got some Tu-4s they started having engine problems as well due to environment and huge milage those Tu-4 had.Chronic lack of parts,manuals and qualified engineers didn't help either.

 

[Gibbs505]

 

[Gibbs505]

Navy pilot and RIo Randy Cunningham and William Driscoll pursue their 5th MiG kill a MiG-17 flown by Col.Tomb of the People’s Liberation Air Force an Ace already with 15 U.S. kills. Cunningham and Driscoll would become the first U.S. Aces of the War but not before being hit by an SA-2 SAM missile on the way back to their carrier. Both were recovered after Cunningham flew the burning Phantom as close as they could get to the coast before punching out. Cunningham and Driscoll went on to become Top gun instructors and train new pilots going to the War.

 

[AP]

So thats what happened to 'Vito' ... https://youtu.be/E8KKqQc-6hU

Check him out at 9 seconds... through to 50 seconds

 

[CV32]

It is such a shame that Randy Cunningham would go on to disgrace himself in politics, after a bribery and tax evasion scandal.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

So thats what happened to 'Vito' ... https://youtu.be/E8KKqQc-6hU

Bets possible use for a Stevens Model 77. They were a fine example of "lowest bidder" workmanship.

While the utility of a shotgun in the jungle is beyond argument, they had so many better choices. But budgets reign supreme sometimes.

From the Jesse James Polishes a Turd file: