GAU-8

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dave lukins

I looked on the RAF site for Aircraft PRIOR to 1950...This one was designed in '51

7thsfsniper

This one took a little research and following a hunch. One method I use is I find similarities that carry over into newer designs from older ones in respect to certain designers/manufacturers. Earlier I thought it might be a version of the short sb3. I realize it looks nothing much like it but I could see design ques. After your musical hint I found that those songs were from '52 so I concentrated on that year. After researching all short productions for 1952 I found it and then looked it up in wiki.

Short Seamew - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

only 19 built and it never saw service! Good one GAU!

I will have a question this afternoon when I get home. I have one ready it is just on my other computer. I think another round of name the plane sounds fun. see you buddies!

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GAU-8

Gad Zooks Holmes! Good show!

7thsfsniper

Ok, Name this plane? And could some one explain or PM me how you guys post the pics without attachment? That's just slick!

Attached Images

300px-Bell_Airabonita.jpg (19.6 KB, 26 views)

RustyBattleship

Looks like a Bell P-63 King Cobra. It certainly has the signature Bell fuselage shape but looks a bit short.

Maybe it was a test model for the P-39 Aerocobra. They had to lengthen the nose a bit to fit a 20 mm cannon in the propeller hub.

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GAU-8

XFL-1: Bell Model 5 AIRABONITA?

The tail wheel configuration on what looked like a P-39 threw me.
I didn't know about this aircraft.
This may not be the right answer, but I sure learned something new today.
Thanks.

Link: BELL FL AIRABONITA

On 13 May 1940, the XFL-1 was scheduled to engage in taxi tests at Buffalo Airport, New York. While engaged in a high-speed taxi test, a gust of wind caused the aircraft to become airborne and since the pilot was running out of runway, he chose to remain in flight. After rising a few hundred feet, one of the doors for the flotation bag opened and the bag to exit the compartment; the second compartment also opened and the bag exited. After a short period, both bags were carried away by the wind.

The initial ground test in May 1940 revealed engine cooling problems which plagued the aircraft through its four year life. Another problem was inadequate directional stability, a problem that had first been determined by wind tunnel tests made at the University of Michigan. As a result of these tests, Bell had added fillets, dorsal fins and duct modifications to the XFL-1 but none cured the stability problems. Bell then tried larger horizontal and vertical tail surfaces to no avail.

After testing by Bell, the aircraft was flown to the Naval Aircraft Factory as NAS Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 27 February 1941 for further tests. During carrier qualification tests on 12 May 1941, the landing gear failed and the aircraft was declared “to be unsatisfactory for use as a carrier aircraft or for arrested landings.” As a result of this failure and the superiority of Vought’s Model V-166B or Grumman’s Model G-34 XF5F-1, the Navy signed a contract with Vought-Sikorsky for 584 F4U-1 Corsairs on 30 June 1941.

In 1942, the XFL-1 was transferred to the Aircraft Armament Unit at NAS Norfolk, Virginia, for anti-aircraft tests. In March 1944, it was transferred to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, and was stricken from service on 25 April 1944. After the war, the runways at NAS Patuxent River were extended into the Chesapeake Bay to accommodate jet aircraft and the XFL-1, sans engine and equipment, was used as landfill. An inglorious end to a unique aircraft.

7thsfsniper

That's wierd. I thought I had posted the answer already. Apologize for the delay gents! Gau, once again, you were on the money! I think I may have to post a pic of an instrument cluster or a wheel to give you a challenge

Your turn Sir!

BTW, that was an interesting design. Gun through nose and putting the engine behind the pilot. Obvious reasons why it got the nogo though.

GAU-8

Albany Rifles

Those successes inthe East was because it was used in the air defense role agaionst German bombers...which were all battles fought at lower than 15,000 feet.

Western Europe's air battles were all high altitude affairs...where ti was a lead sled.

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GAU-8

Direct Hit AR.

From P-39 In Soviet Use by James Geghardt:

Why was the P-39, which achieved so little air combat success in other theaters, so effective on the Eastern Front?

The answer to this question lies in the nature of the air war itself on that front. Neither the Germans nor the Soviets engaged in high-altitude, long-range, strategic bombing. The bulk of Soviet war industry had been moved east of the Ural mountains, beyond the range of the Luftwaffe. German medium level and dive bombers went out every day, escorted by Bf-109s and FW-190s, to find and attack Soviet Army ground units. These bombers, and by necessity their escorting fighters, flew at altitudes well within the high performance envelope of the P-39-under 15,000 feet. The P-39, with its nose armament alone, had devastating air-to-air firepower. A hit on a German bomber with a single 37mm round was frequently sufficient to disable or destroy it. The Red Air Force compensated for the P-39's short range by locating their tactical airfields extremely close to the front line-often within artillery range. And during surge periods, when German air activity was intense, Soviet P-39 pilots were known to fly five and even six or more sorties in a single day.

How do we know all this? Many Soviet P-39 combat pilots wrote memoirs in the 1970s and 1980s in which they described their wartime experiences, hundreds of pages of descriptions of life in fighter units and of air combat. Other publications released since the collapse of the Soviet Union offer new information on what units were equipped with the P-39 and when, lists of pilots and their total sorties, aerial engagements, and scores. When fully exploited, these sources will reveal an enlarged and much improved picture of the P-39 Airacobra. It will be shown to be an outstanding combat aircraft, as worthy of respect as the P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt, and P-51 Mustang.

--James Gebhardt, a noted expert on Soviet World War Two aviation, has studied hundreds of pages of original Soviet dvocuments and translated Attack of the Airacobras.

Your question AR:

Albany Rifles

Who was the highest ranking Allied officer killed in a glider during WW II?

braindead

Damn , I was sure it could do THE COBRA !!!!!

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braindead

Orde Wingate ?

Knaur Amarsh

BrigGen. Don F. Pratt?

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