WWII War Birds - pics and video

[Ganderite]

Huge wing and rudder. Thanks for that. never seen it before.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

The Short Shetland flying boat. Two built, neither survives.

http://3.bp.########.com/-B3DcTCcKKGc/TuZp8O5uLrI/AAAAAAAAAbE/_txBUvwL7uY/s1600/q.jpg

Prototype #2, in postwar civvie livery:

 

[XRCD011]

^ Jeez, that looks like a flying apartment building.

 

[grinder08]

^ Jeez, that looks like a flying apartment building.

Agreed, boat and that thing just don't seem to go together. Maybe flying cruise ship.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Lockheed Lodestar.

Eleven survivors, including this beaut:

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

The Boeing PB / B17H in Navy service:

 

[ipscgraz]

I hope you don't mind if I drop this here...obviously not dated in WW2 but the aircraft are from then...

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

No problem at all as far as I'm concerned, mate. Beautiful shots. That P38 is sure shiny.

 

[diopter]

And an added bonus

FAA should be called for the death of the pilot at 4:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4ozxN7MC-g

 

[Sharps '63]

Very entertaining! A lot of money, time and effort in that. You'd think that they could have done something about the ditch that claimed so many aircraft. The 'belly' landings were among the best, the WW1 types the most graceful.

 

[rocklin]

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

How to fly the A26 Invader:

[youtube]Uxj2Ugfm7Vs[/youtube]

 

[Sharps '63]

How did the A-26 stack up against the B-25 re: bomb load, speed, range, etc.?

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Well, let's check the ol' internets:

B25H specs:

Maximum speed: 272 mph (237 kn, 438 km/h) at 13,000 ft (3,960 m)
Cruise speed: 230 mph (200 knots, 370 km/h)
Range: 1,350 mi (1,174 nmi, 2,174 km)
Service ceiling: 24,200 ft (7,378 m)

Armament
Guns: 12–18 × .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns and 75 mm (2.95 in) T13E1 cannon
Hardpoints: 2,000 lb (900 kg) ventral shackles to hold one external Mark 13 torpedo[43]
Rockets: racks for eight 5 in (127 mm) high velocity aircraft rockets (HVAR)
Bombs: 3,000 lb (1,360 kg) bombs

A26 specs:

Maximum speed: 355 mph (308 kn, 570 km/h)
Range: 1,400 mi (1,200 nmi, 2,300 km)
Service ceiling: 22,000 ft (6,700 m)

Armament
Guns:
6 or 8 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns in solid, "all purpose" nose: or 2 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M2 machine guns in glass "bombardier" nose
Up to 8 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M2 machine guns paired in four optional under wing pods: or 3 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M2 machine guns in each outer wing panel
2 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M2 machine guns in remote-controlled dorsal turret
2 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M2 machine guns in remote-controlled ventral turret
Rockets: Up to 10 5-inch (12.7 cm) HVAR rockets on "zero length" launch pylons, five under each outer wing panel
Bombs: Up to 6,000 lb (2,700 kg) capacity - 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) in the bomb bay plus 2,000 lb (910 kg) carried externally on underwing hardpoints

PLENTY of A26 survivors:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_Douglas_A-26_Invaders

Ditto, although more so, for the B25:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_North_American_B-25_Mitchells

Looks like they tried the 75mm on the A26.

 

[CV32]

Good view of the lightweight version of the 75mm gun on the B-25H Mitchell.

Enough ammo (21 rounds) for four or five passes, but more than a single pass on anything better armed than a merchant vessel was probably not the best idea, given that the 75mm gun required a rather straight-in approach.

 

[purple]

The B-25 Mitchell is very cool. I bought a ride on the restored Commemorative Air force B-25, "Maid in the Shade", two years ago and it was worth every penny. Got to play tail gunner shooting down imaginary Me109s and Zeros as we buzzed over my house here in the Okanagan. Ear defenders are a must.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Short Sunderland tail turret.

And the other end.

Bit of a custom setup / field expedient.

 

[Sharps '63]

So it appears that the A26 had it all over the B25, yet one achieved greater fame than the other.

 

[purple]

The B-25 continued on thru the 1950s as trainers and utility aircraft. We even had 2 RCAF reserve squadrons of B-25 light bombers in Edmonton and Saskatoon. The A-26 soldiered on thru Korea and into Vietnam in the ground attack role. It was the better aircraft, but the Mitchell was there in big numbers when it was needed.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Lockheed Model 10 Electra, in USAAF mufti - the XC-35:

Lockheed’s XC-35 was the world’s first aircraft specifically constructed with a pressurized passenger cabin and, as aerospace medical historian Douglas Robinson notes, is “the true ancestor of all modern pressurized airliners.” Credit for the cabin goes to structures experts Major Carl Greene and John Younger, both of whom worked for the Air Corps Engineering Division at Wright Field (now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) in Ohio. They worked with Lockheed to redesign the fuselage of the Lockheed 10A Electra, adding two turbosuperchargers to its radial engines both to improve altitude performance and to feed air to the cabin. Designated XC-35 and delivered to Wright Field in May 1937, it began flight testing in July, flying up to 33,000 feet while maintaining a cabin pressure of 9.5 pounds per square inch. The XC-35 underwent an extensive series of high-altitude flight tests, proving the practicability of pressurizing the cabin. So confident were Army Air Corps leaders of its safety that they allowed it to be used as an executive transport for Louis Johnson, the assistant secretary of war. The XC-35 won the 1937 Collier Trophy for the Air Corps. But more significantly, it pointed the way for pressurized bombers and transports, the first of which were Boeing’s B-29 and Model 307.

Pretty wee thing. Very trim. Typcal Lockheed.