Picture of the day

[Sharps '74]

A deadly duo!

The Beaufighter as a torpedo bomber and a P-51 with Malcolm hood.

 

[HuskyDude]

Gonna say never mind the torpedo...Check out the Mustang!!!

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

The tailgunner position on the FW189 looks kinda awkward.

Apparently the whole "cone" rotated to allow firing from one side or the other. Pretty demanding when "Ivan is kommt" right up your hoopus at 200+ MPH, guns a-blazing...

Great looking bird, though. Best view in the place for the pilot.

 

[diopter]

FW187. Would could have been....... Predecessor to the TA154 Moskito

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_187_Falke

https://youtu.be/kHVwK6He8M4

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Apparently the whole "cone" rotated to allow firing from one side or the other. Pretty demanding when "Ivan is kommt" right up your hoopus at 200+ MPH, guns a-blazing...

German Engineering.

Grizz

 

[donor]

If infantry men memoirs are to be believed FW-189 was one of the most hated plane on Eastern Front Germans had for good chunk of the war.

I found few rants (for lack of better term) about "frame" as it was nicknamed showing up silently,hovering just outside the range of small arms fire and either raining destruction or worse yet directing accurate artillery fire and attacking troops.Polish Home Army vets mention it many times,Warsaw Uprising vets and civilians,Soviet,Yugoslav,Slovak and other partisans and of course Red Army vets.

Possibly because of its effectiveness Sukhoi designed SU-12 in 1945-47 period but it never went into production.Jet and rocket age was coming I guess.Much bigger than FW and it had a tail gunner house with 20mm cannon.



Some time later Antonov redesigned his AN-2 to artillery spotter configuration but it wasn't produced either afaik.

 

[diopter]

It did in a way. But design changed back to make it multipurpose.
An-2 Colt

 

[Grizzly Adams]

It did in a way. But design changed back to make it multipurpose.
An-2 Colt

Go to Cuba and you can still fly in one. Buddy tells me it's a bit of a scary experience.

Grizz

 

[HuskyDude]

For Whom the Bell Tolls...which has nothing to do with this pic....

 

[Ganderite]

It did in a way. But design changed back to make it multipurpose.
An-2 Colt

This is a terrific airplane. STOL.

 

[bush1]

Not a pic but a very interesting video.

Spitfire pilot Peter During was shot down behind enemy lines and convinced his German captors to become his prisoners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaN7B4NwmrQ

 

[tiriaq]

I recall a flight of AN-2s passing through Iqaluit on their way to their new owner in the US. The were ex-Czech. The Czech roundels had been hastily painted over.
They just grumbled along. When taking off, they grumbled down the runway, and just stopped rolling and started flying without any apparent change in speed.
They are a lot bigger than you would expect, just viewing photos.

 

[37patt]

For Whom the Bell Tolls...which has nothing to do with this pic....

OK now that is impressive - but - how much ungodly noise would there have been with any one of those hits!!!

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Fun fact:

The An-2 has no stall speed, a fact which is quoted in the operating handbook. A note from the pilot's handbook reads: "If the engine quits in instrument conditions or at night, the pilot should pull the control column full aft and keep the wings level. The leading-edge slats will snap out at about 64 km/h (40 mph) and when the airplane slows to a forward speed of about 40 km/h (25 mph), the airplane will sink at about a parachute descent rate until the aircraft hits the ground."[4] As such, pilots of the An-2 have stated that they are capable of flying the aircraft in full control at 48 km/h (30 mph) (as a contrast, a Cessna four-seater light aircraft has a stall speed of around 80 km/h (50 mph)). This slow stall speed makes it possible for the aircraft to fly backwards relative to the ground: if the aircraft is pointed into a headwind of roughly 56 km/h (35 mph), it will travel backwards at 8 km/h (5 mph) whilst under full control.

I watched one tow a banner up and down the beach at Palanga in Lithuania in the early 2000's. Moved as fast as the sun, or so it seemed. A mighty thing, the AN-2. And one can get a "modernized" version with a turboprop:

And because it's a military-themed photo thread...

 

[36 hamon]

I remember Palanga was there in 92 with the ex ..labas

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Labas to you, my friend. I can recommend going back. The place has changed mightily since you were there last, but the wild abundance of stunning, nine-foot-tall supermodels remains. Lithuania in 1992 would have really been something. LT in 2019 (the last time we went) was very cosmopolitan. Lotta Eurobux have been spent getting Kaunas up to snuff, and Vilnius is quite something.

Like Sweden with better looking women, and yes, that's possible.

These ladies are about a "five" by local standards.

 

[ipscgraz]

Very possibly a repost

Fire support from a white Tiger I, winter of 1944, Eastern Front.

 

[ipscgraz]

The harsh realities of imposing your beliefs and systems on other countries. Two Hungarian revolutionaries walk past the bodies of Soviet secret policemen killed during the Hungarian Revolution, 1956.

West Berlin and East Berlin police and border guards in a stand off

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Two groups argue over who has the sillier hat.

Not pictured - representatives of the Handschar Division.

 

[ipscgraz]

Soviet female sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko. Confirmed 309 kills.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko and Comrade.

And out with the boys.