How often have we hijacked other WOFFers threads, until even the "hijacker's new thread"
got lost behind another hijacker's net?
And whilst Ariadne's famous thread led Theseus out of the Minotaur's labyrinth,
our threads within threads are rather confusing the original one - they are the
labyrinth to get lost in - happily!

So I thought: why not have a thread where hijacking is allowed? Where nothing is "off-topic"?
THE one thread where you can go from "Ariadne" to "aircraft" in one minute?

The "quote" function should still make it possible to keep a minimum order.
And the gathering con-fusion may kickstart new thought and ideas by the dozen?

Who wants to start?

I have been lost in time and space... err, threads.

Well, here is a place to continue any conversations, that had to be interrupted,
to not hijack other threads. I wonder if that will work?

Lost in time and space? That is the normal situation for everyone in this galaxy.

There was a thread like that in the oooold IL2 forums that grew to thousands and thousands of posts. So, here I am, fourth post in.

With an Alb photo:

What a nice start! That must be the overall "lozenged" Alb D.V, right at Johannisthal, I guess?

Since the Albatros is the current theme have a look at this thread and tell me what you think:

http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65739

Always interesting to speculate about the colours of the WW1 planes -
and also frustrating when we cannot find proof and evidence.

In your question you asked what the inner colour of the chevron might have been -
it looks quite bright, so maybe not black, nor red. Light blue is quite possible.
For the hood I'd go for factory-light-grey, or also light blue.

But: some day Bruno Schmäling will (hopefully) publish his book on Jasta 5,
and will contain a lot of first hand colour info on the craft of that unit.
Schmäling had said already, that there will be a lot of disappointment
among the "colour guessers" so far - even the Jasta 5 green might have been
different to what was agreed on.

Whether it's a huge sea bird, or an aircraft - or a tune - they are all beautiful!

Yes, I agree, ALL of them.

The Albatross is beautiful, but you really can't beat Peter Green and the original Fleetwood Mac. Won't shoot that one down. Play on lost thread!

Argghhh!!! You KNEW this would hit me! Teaser! Neaner! Monster! Brute!!!
(Where's my coffee - give me strength...!)
What an ugly exception!
But then it never saw service - so I guess I must not call it an "Albatros"!

Why don´t you like this one, Olham? She´s got still a lovely line, hasn´t she?!

Arrggghhhh!!!!! (Damn, now I ruined my new shoes...)

Your name suggests, why I hate it, LowDrag!

Ups. Sorry for your shoes. I do prefer the classic biplane version aswell. But at least they tried everything out ;-)
More is not always better...

Yes, indeed!
You're right - they were still in the baby-years of aviation,
and hadn't yet fully understood the balance between lift and forward energy, I guess.

Fokker's designer Reinhold Platz would have prefered a biplane instead of the Dr.I tripe.
He knew, the additional wing would cause much more drag, which would have needed a stronger
engine to compensate for.
After the Dr.I they constructed the Fokker D.VI, which was also very agile, had a great lift
and climb, and was even faster than the Fokker D.VII at low altitude.
But the D.VII was easy to build and fly, and the time of the rotaries was over in Germany;
the Germans didn't have access to castor oil anymore; the lubricant of the rotaries.

WIKIPEDIA - Fokker D.VI

.... and here is the proof showing a Fokker quintuplane

Olham hates the Albatros Dr.I because he loves the Albatros Dr.II so much!





(JimA and Olham, I'm having Deja vu...)

Here's my favorite Peter Green/Fleetwood Mac:

Here are some lost things. Just off the Pickering road, near York (AFAIK)

Trying to work out what plane that is RedToo... is it a Jenny? Looks a bit... bulkier than I remember.

I think it's a Blackburn Velos:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Blackb...589&bih=947

RedToo.

Edit: more here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tuuur/6312503418

That's a nice find RedToo! I can't say I've ever heard of the Blackburn Velos. Fascinating find. Thanks for sharing it with us!

Cheers!

If it's possible to be an 'unknown' classic, that's what The Green Manalishi is. Can probably find some very cool live Fleetwood Mac versions on utube, I have a couple on cd. What's an Albatross? I fly the Pfalz DIIIa when I fly German. Same basic fuselage look, but I've always thought the tail sections were a cleaner style without the curved shapes. Performance-wise I don't mind the Pfalz, but for me since I like to fly earlier time frame I wish it were available sooner.

RedToo, it is indeed a Blackburn Velos, and according to the Civil Aircraft Register and the number on the wing, G-AAAZ, it belonged to North Sea Aerial & General Transport Ltd., and it was scrapped out sometime in 1932.
Great old photo, thanks for sharing.

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Velos means arrow in Greek...

And while we're talking about hijacking threads...the Greek word for Ariadne's ball of string is a "clue". And ever since that little set-to with the Minatour, people have been unraveling mysteries by seeking 'clues'.

JFM, you are doing that (posting Alb tripe pics) on purpose!!!
Another pair of my shoes is ruined now . Having fun with such attacks on my taste?!

As for JUDAS PRIEST - I guess they would even make Green's "Albatros" sound like a battle of dreadnoughts.

Great photography, RedToo!


If you can't see the difference in shape, style and beauty, then carry on wrecking the Pfalzes.
Leaves more Albatros for me to wreck.


The Pfalz was much sturdier in dives, which makes it a good plane for single-run attacks from high up,
like balloon busting. Not good for turn-fighting though.
But if you want the best German fighter for late 1916, it would be the Albatros D.I or D.II
(Coming to Jasta 2 first, on 19 September 1916 ).

Thanks for the Greek lessons, Elephant and Hauksbee!
(We learnt so much from the Greek, didn't we?)

A thread for everything off-topic? Very well! My post will not be about airplanes or ancient Greek mythology - it's just a picture showing the latest addition to my gong collection. I know there are people here with an interest in such things, so here goes:



This is a French Croix de Guerre 1915 with two palms in its original box of issue. The CdG was instituted in 1915 to increase the number of military decorations available for French forces (and their allies) and to recognize deeds of courage and skill that weren't quite enough to merit the awarding of a Médaille Militaire or a Légion d'honneur, which were practically the only French military awards in existence until the creation of the CdG in April 1915.

Two bronze palms on the ribbon signify that the recipient of this particular cross was mentioned twice in the dispatches at the highest army level. One way to get such a mention was to shoot down an enemy airplane, but I have no idea whether this cross actually belonged to an aviator.

The year of the awarding is shown on the reverse side of the cross; in this case it's 1915. The year 1914 is the same on all crosses; it's of course the year that the Great War began. The rarest CdGs are those from 1915-1916. All the crosses that were awarded after the war have the year 1918 stamped on them. Because there were quite a few such post-war awards, the CdGs that people usually encounter in the market are the ones with the year 1918 on them.

What makes this CdG special is it's original box of issue. They are actually much rarer than the crosses themselves. People have a habit of throwing such things away!

Judas Priest/Peter Green, not an easy bridge to cross musically. Apologies to Clapton, Page, Beck, et.al. but IMHO Peter Green is the best of that group that came through John Mayall. I remember first hearing his song The Supernatural and being knocked out by it. I think he still performs, and the side note to this is that all these guys mentor, John Mayall is still on tour in his eighties!

Olham, yeh, I do keep an early Alb DI-II career going, 1916 as soon as they become available. Ties in to JFM's book on DH-2/Alb DI-II that I like to keep handy since I always have a DH-2 pilot going too. And true enough I will continue to plod along in the Pfalz DIII, I don't know, just kind of dig it! Seems a lot of my WOFF off hours are spent looking for the earliest time a plane is available, my earliest Pfalz I think is JG 22 on Sept. 7, 1917. Funny I'm always attracted to the squadrons that don't have many 'big name' pilots, kinda like to see if I can whip a bunch of scrubs into shape. And now since we can easily remove so many HA its even more fun.

Another question, has anyone seen on WOFF a crew member jumping out of an aircraft? I'm positive I saw it on OFF/HITR and I thought I had a screenshot of a time I saw it, but couldn't find it. I discovered OFF in 2010, have no history in flight sims and was totally blown away. And when I saw that happen I practically jumped out of my skin, thought 'holy crap', that's awesome, frightening and like a punch in the gut of how desperate it was to go in the air then. These men/boys were always right near the edge all the time. Our wonderful sim takes us about as close as a computer sitting here on my desk, coffee nearby can take us. Jump out or burn up! Holy s#!*.

I could never get into Lost...my step son loved it though..anyway jusy went to the toilet and the seat broke..cracked right in half...when I went to stand up the small crack snapped close with a small bit of my family jewel sack in i's tiny jaws..extremely painful and I screamed like a school girl..

I guess you 'lost' your cool!

This happened shortly after WOFF 3 came out (look at the SPAD's wing).

Hasse, how people can throw such medals away - even if they know little about them, like me -
is beyond my understanding! They were presented for - they stand for something exceptional!
Good that there are people like Lou and you, who give them a new home, and some understanding!

Great new achievement - especially as it still seems to "sleep" in it's original box!


Both great choices - the craft, and the book by JFM!"

Cool Medal photos and screenshot! I'd like to see pilots jumping to their deaths (you know what I mean by "like") and German 1918 parachute availability.

Couple Pfalz D.IIIs for Steve W:





Pfalz D.III/Albatros D.III(OAW) tail comparison:



AND... Since we've talked triplanes, here's another:

Just today, took me by surprise.
Thought I saw something unusual.. but had to land quickly.
After landing, took these.
It looked like they both bailed out of a fellow FE2B that had come under attack...
Far as I could tell, the plane kept flying and eventually landed.

Wow, Stache. Your jumpers are much more detailed than mine. I just got a 2D black silhouette.

They actually look like someone in a parachute. Notice how their hands are up like they are holding onto the cords. I imagine these were just borrowed from CFS3.

Yes I was thinking the same thing... took them a while to come down, as if they had a parachute as opposed to free fall.

Oh yeah, I have a short video I could post of them "landing" (actually just disappearing close to the ground) if anyone is interested.

So, off topic:

I am working on the painting for the Lafayette Challenge we just completed. Digital painting and actual painting share some things in common, but you can't really just jump into one from the other. Here's where my learning curve is so far:



I have done more on the piece, but there is definitely more learning to be done. The fact that I haven't really painted anything in over 20 years doesn't help, but some of it is coming back. Still, if you ever wanted to get into digital art, now is definitely a great time! I have been using a free program called Krita which is fairly powerful and slightly intuitive (if you've done any skinning in GIMP, it will go a long way towards helping you with the learning curve.)
You can work with it using a mouse, but getting a dedicated drawing tablet really unlocks the potential. I am using this one:

Huion Tablet
At $77 bucks on Amazon, that brings your total outlay to get into the world of digital art to, well, seventy seven bucks! Which is a steal if you are looking to take up a new hobby. Some things are a little bit easier in real life, like the actual painting part, but pretty much everything else is much better digitally. Did you draw a hand too small, like I did in the challenge video? No problem, you can just draw a selection ring around that part and drag it to the size you want. You can recolor, resize, reshape, re-use any part you desire. Here's the logo for the album my band will be releasing soon (when I get to finishing that...):

I was able to do everything with the "o" once and then just copy-and-pasted it.
So anyway, if ever anyone wanted to take up art at whatever age and ability level you are at, I really can't recommend this setup enough. I wanted a tablet for years but never really knew how they worked (when you hover the stylus about 1mm above the tablet, a little piper show up on screen to represent where you are...) and I am really glad I got one, it's a lot of fun and only hugely frustrating... (Much like playing the guitar, singing, flying missions, oh!...raising children)

I guess that answers my question of pilots or crew abandoning aircraft in WOFF. I saw it back in OFF and didn't know if it had carried through. Another part of the immersion of WOFF.

Jim, thanks for those great photos of the Pfalz DIII. The tail section shot is nice, and I also like the 'cleaner' horizontal stabiliser, which doesn't show as a comparison. For my part, just in the design element alone, the nicest looking liquid-cooled aircraft in WWI. The cool thing about WOFF, we all have these planes we appreciate and we can lead them into combat.

A quick further OT since we have so many UK and European friends on the forum and here in the US information and such is always different when heard from another perspective. So, 240 years ago we had a NAEXIT (North American Exit) from the British Empire. Some stayed, Canada, and some didn't, US, and nothing was ever the same. So for you guys are you ready for whatever may happen? Scotland, Northern Ireland, the rest of Europe? Now I don't know that much about the EU, it may be like so many things wrapped up in politics a good idea with too many administrators and bureaucrats. Will it hold together? More splitting up and nationalism? We can't get rid of nationalism, can we? As we in the US celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. I'm just curious, I feel a 21st century, internet kinship with members of this forum, so thought it would be a good place to ask.

Forgot to say that I found my screenshot of FE2b crewmember jumping out. From the OFF era.

Pretty cool drawings, Rick! I can make some profiles but I don't do any real art like that or anything. But, wait, you play guitar/are in bands? Cool. So am I. Let's (and any other players, too) bore people with axe photos! I'll start with a couple.

My 2011 Les Paul Standard bass:


2013 Ibanez DT520FM Destroyer.


I also have a 1980. Definitely inspired by Adrian Smith (although his was a DT-300; this is a DT-50):


My pleasure to post photos, Steve. And although I'm partial to the Alb Ds I think the Pfalz Ds are good-looking birds, too.

Wow - I like the GIBSON LES PAUL bass - not so extroverted in style;
but looking like it is great for the job. Guess it sounds good?

.

Nice axes Jim, very nice. I've played a Les Paul, but my oh my how I wish I could play LIKE Les Paul:





If I could play even a 20th as good as that man could I would not be selling and servicing ambulances for a living.

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...but you might again/still be travelling the roads of your country,
you'd have to keep up a band (worse than caring for a bag of flees!),
and wake up in a different bed everynight...

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Yes, well, that's quite like what I am doing now, just without the groupies.

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You guys better be careful or you will force me to start posting pictures of banjos.

Nice threesome Jim. Always wanted to be a guitar player but never had the discipline for it. Its a different "ax" but just finished a handle guard and sheath for it. One of these days I may stitch my own flying kit up!

Lets see pictures Bud! Always love banjo music, except when floating any secluded creek in a canoe down here in the south.

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Outstanding leatherwork MFair. Nice Celtic Knot, but I really love the oak leaf flap.

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Mmuahahahahaaa!!!


Are you saying you hand-made that piece of art, Mark???

That is a major chunk of Rock Cachet you have there, Jim! You could tear it up with authority with those! MFair, that is awesome work! You could go into business with those skills, of course, it would probably stop being fun then and start being...well, work!

I do have some pictures,but finding them proved to be amazingly difficult!

On the way I stumbled along this:

Butch O'Hare's...Wildcat, I suppose? Located at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

Being for the benefit of Mr. MudWasp:

One of my Mom's cats...the one with a sense of humor...

Here's the herd:


To make the noise, I built a kit amp based on a '69 Spec Marshall Superlead from Metropoulos:


And here's the head case my buddy helped me make:


Here's me some years ago with the one axe I leave at my parent's house for visiting:


And finally, here's a couple of songs, the sound isn't great as it's through a camcorder mike, off-angle.

Banjoman, you're next!

Rick, I do believe someone loves guitars! And yes, then it would become a job, and I don't care to work that hard anymore.

Lou, Ha! Must have done something right, you knew what it was. Thank you.

Olham, Don't know if I would call it a work of art, but will take the compliment! It is an old hobby that recently bubbled back to the surface. Always enjoyed making stuff with my hands.

GREAT photos and vid, everyone. Fantastic. The leather on that axe looks awesome.

Rick, nice collection. I don't have one mass photo of my guitars. I ought to do that, as there are a few I haven't photographed yet. Here're (is that a contraction? It is now) a couple more.

2008 Gibson Flying V


1992 Hamer B12A (12-string bass). Used to be pure white but time and a billion gigs in smoked-out clubs yellowed it considerably.


Yes, that's a Wildcat. I used to drool over that when I lived in Chicago and travelled to/from.

MFair, let's see some banjos! But, please, no

Oooh, nice! I always wanted a V. Are they neck heavy at all? I wouldn't think so with that big body... I had an SG for a while and the darned thing would sink to the ground if I ever let go of the neck...

Here are some shots of my newest openback banjo. I need to take some photos of my own.

Banjoman, Damn that is a pretty piece of work on that banjo! That looks like a 20 fret 5 string! Is that common? I thought they were mostly 22 fret!

It would be a 22 fret if I didn't have the scoop. The scooped fingerboard allows you to play further up the neck and it gives the banjo a real plunky sound. I used to play Scruggs 3 finger style but since I've discovered old time mountain music I'm playing clawhammer almost exclusively.

That's beautiful! I have often wondered, do you change strings one at a time so as to not mess up the bridge placement, or do you have to re-intonate with every string change?

Cripes, I had no idea so many of you are actively making music! Good show, everyone!
Rick, your amp beats them all, I guess! Marvellous crafted piece of art!

Maybe I must find and scan my old photo of me playing drums - but that was in another galaxy,
lightyears away... Perhaps I can ask Scotty to beam it back to me...

Oh, man, the inlays in that thing are awesome!

Banjoman, that is a great blend of craftsmanship and art. Beautiful! Is there a WOFF band in the making?

Rick, I change them one at a time, but you can just make a little pencil mark and take them all off at once. Olham, it's never too late to start making music yourself. It is probably the one thing I do that brings me the most joy. JFM, I actually designed the banjo but my friend and banjo teacher Rob Bishline actually built it.

Oh, I did make music, Banjoman - some 25 years ago.
But it's hard for drummers - you'd need a sound-proof space in a city.
Still play a little bit for fun on a multi-sound keyboard.

But mostly I rather listen to music - it just sounds so much better...

On patrol in another sim:

That looks awesome JFM. Silent Hunter 5?

Nice, JFM! I was playing SH3 for a bit with one of those giant mod packs and trying to do full manual attack runs and firing solutions...talk about task saturation!

Yes, that's SH5. I bought it when it first came out, spent two seconds with it, and now this week I've gotten back into to it and want to learn it. My attempts with auto TDC have been utter torpedo-wasting failures--I just don't get those circled numbers--so I'm going to go with the manual firing solutions. A bit more involved, as you say RR, but it can't get any worse for me!

View from the office, off the eastern coast of England. Not an exciting shot, just that the visuals are nice. Water drops on the screen that drip away are a nice touch.

JFM, very nice, I've given Silent Hunter a thought or two myself. Right now in my life if there's too much of a learning curve I might have to pass, but SH looks good. I guess I'd have to get rid of my virtual claustrophobia. A sub would be a trip! On the lost thread, other sim angle, any thoughts on a good WW2 armor sim. I have Panzer Elite and of course it looks archaic to my WOFF trained eye, and haven't put much time in on it yet to see how it plays. Any other?

SteveW, Graviteam's tanks sims are supposed to really good. I haven't played them, but what I've read sounds really good.

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I've spent many a long hour in Silent Hunter 4 patrolling the Japanese coast, the China Sea, the Java Sea, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea, the Solomons. Actually got fairly adept at manual targeting, but as noted it is indeed task saturation and should not be attempted by the faint of heart.

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It's hard to give a proper answer, which is likely to be why no-one else has.

No we are not ready for what comes next. Our politicians have fallen into internal power grabbing rather than dealing with the important question of how to actually do this thing.

Opinion is very divided and I was shocked at how much my opinion differed from the people I heard talking. I found that the British people are very bad at dealing with different viewpoints. I now think that schools should have proper debates to teach people to hear an opposing view without getting blood-boilingly angry. I had real trouble with it myself quite often. That's how bad it has been.

We will find a way to make it work, once the politicians start doing their jobs again.

Thanks Banjoman, I don't research games much, so will now check out Graviteam. Also again confess to being fairly ignorant of what's out there, but I did think Silent Hunter looked interesting. First aware of it on the Best Sims list that of course WOFF should have been at the top of. So any SH guys tell me what's up, SH Battle of the Atlantic, SH Wolves of the Pacific and a U-Boat add on (that looks cool). Any suggestions or just a choice of which theater of war you're interested in? OK with Windows 10?

Maeran, thanks for your opinion. Like in the US things can get so muddled and ideas vary so widely that realist choices seem like grabbing into a hat and pulling out 'what's next?' without a lot of forethought. And the next time politicians start doing their jobs will be the first. IMHO people may get into politics with some vision and hope but once they've been in for a while they owe too many people too many things to keep their head on straight. Good fortune for you guys, it's a much smaller world (for better or worse) now and everybody is affected more quickly nowdays. And believe me nobody is good at debating without getting blood-boiling angry. Look at us, we've got The Donald vs. Hillary for crissakes. S

Not exactly a banjo story or a WOFF story for that matter but in 2012 we went to the USA for the first and maybe the only time to visit friends in Bloomfield Hills Michigan which is just north of Detroit. While there we drove down to Hillsboro' in Ohio to meet someone I last saw in the RAF in 1968. He works at the airfield at Wilmington which is a bit of a disaster area since DHL pulled out. Anyway he still fixes 777s and such. We went with him to the USAF museum at Dayton and had a great day there. We then left and went to Cincinnati for a ride on a river boat. We actually stayed across the Ohio river in Covington. Went for a walk in ferocious heat to find somewhere to eat there. We saw this place which looks like a disused movie house changed into a shop. It is called Mike's Music and sells guitars. Neither my wife nor I play the guitar any more but we popped in for a look. I have never seen so many guitars in one room in my life. The salesman was very helpful even when we explained that we weren't buying at all but just looking. I saw a vinyl sleeve of Dire Straits 'Brothers in Arms' and asked him if he had any Fender Stratocasters as Mark Knopfler plays one. He had about four and proudly showed us them all, including one from the 50s. We got talking about Dire Straits and I mentioned that Knopfler often plays the guitar like an organ ie with no sound of the string being plucked at all. The store guy then picked a guitar, plugged it into a handy amp and demonstrated how to play like that. Simple really, you turn the volume off, pluck the string and then turn up the volume! That the guy went to all this trouble for two foreigners who weren't going to buy anything was quite amazing. I must say that I found the people in the US very helpful, pleasant and polite contrary to what I had been expecting after watching mostly New York and Los Angeles etc on TV.

ps our hotel room overlooked the motorway from Ohio and a booze shop. Here they are called 'bottle stores'. This place was doing a roaring trade all day with cars coming and going all the time. I figured out later after trying to buy some Gin in Ohio that it is almost impossible to buy booze in Ohio, but perfectly OK in Kentucky. So that was a good place to have a shop! I bought a bottle of Gin later in Ohio and thought it tasted a bit weak until I found out it was watered down about 50% which somehow made it legal to sell.

One last booze story. We were at Detroit airport waiting for our (terrible) Delta flight to Schipol. Ordered two beers in a bar and was asked for ID! I thought this was hilarious as we don't exactly look like teenagers any more - I was 64 at the time. Anyway, that's the rules and so we had to drag out our passports to get a beer!

Here is a picture of the guitar store: [url=http://www.mikesmusicohio.com/][/url]

Hey, Jim, that is a neat technique! Eric Johnson does it quite a bit, as does Jeff Beck, particularly in the first minute or so of this performance:

There are - or at least used to be (in the seventies and eighties) - volume pedals for guitarists,
so you didn't have to fiddle with the knob.

Jim, being a former Ohioan (for 17 years) let me say your booze problem was more a function of stone-age Cincinnati than Ohio (and kudos to you for knowing how to spell Cincinnati! Many Americans get that that wrong). They are a much more uptight socially down there than in Columbus, where I'm from. As far as watered down booze, that must be a Cinci thing, too, because Columbus had the full throttle stuff. I know: Back then I drank enough booze to float the Bismarck. And the Prinz Eugen. And the Royal Navy vessels that hunted them! You could buy booze from 0600 until 0200. The four hours in between were to sleep.

That volume swell technique is quite popular with many, many guitarists. It's a standard part of playing guitar. I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade or downplay any stated guitarist's talents, just making an informative comment. And, yes, Olham, there are still volume pedals. They are common.

Here's Van Halen in 1988 using volume swell and delay in a song called Cathedral. FF past the 25 seconds of noise to the start. In many spots it sounds like a violin.

Been WAY too long without mention of airplanes. Thus:

Well, guitars, weapons and fighter aircraft seem to be equally sexy to men.
This thread can be about ANYthing but forbidden stuff.

But alright, aircraft now - here is more of the "workhorse of the RAF" -
she shot down more than 2/3 of all the German intruding airplanes.

Hurricane Mk.II flown by Karel Kuttelwascher

Czech pilot Karel Kuttelwascher claimed 18 air victories and was the RAF's best night intruder and 6th best night fighter (others flew mostly radar-equipped aircraft).
Link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_Kuttelwascher

I didn't even know the RAF had night fighters - interesting!

Just about the best book is by Cunningham's observer/radar operator C.F Rawnsley "Night Fighter". Cunningham was nicknamed 'Cats Eyes' by the press to hide the fact that his victories were due to radar which was still top secret at the time. He hated the name. Cunningham went on to be the main test pilot for the Comet and was a pretty terrific pilot. There is one story in the book that they took off on a dark night and Cunningham came over the intercom to say 'Interesting - according to the instruments we are upside down and under the ground'. Not many pilots could have got away with that one! Rawnsley himself started as a Sgt rear gunner and ended up with the DSO DFC DFM and bar.

I believe some German night fighters knocked up larger scores but then they had more opportunity in the later part of the war. By 1943 very few German bombers flew over England at all.

The pilot with the best night vision must have been Kuttelwasher as most pilots never saw another aircraft at night.

Quite a few of them had extremely impressive scores. But the man with the most victories (all at night) was Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer.



Schnaufer had a total of 121 victories.

He survived the war unharmed, only to die in a car accident in 1950.

This pusher may be too advanced for many WW1 fans, but man, seeing this never gets old for me! I only wish I could see this beauty in person, in all its eardrum-shredding glory! (*Disclaimer: Sorry if offended over the title of the clip. I had nothing to do with that--although I agree with it. )

I remember seeing a Vulcan at an air show somewhere in the UK, probably in the late seventies. It flew low and very close along the crowd line then applied the power and went up VERY steeply. The noise was unbelievable! I kept watching it with my hands firmly over my ears. I glanced around me and a sizeable proportion of the crowd were on their knees with their heads down and their hands over their ears! Never forget it.

RedToo.

+1
I must recommend phantastic reading - Vulcan 607 by Rowland White:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vulcan-607-Rowland-White/dp/0552152293
You will not regret!

The Vulcan made its last tour of uk airshows last year. I couldn't go on the day it did Southport, but the Euro fighter did an impressive show.

Oh, man! I'd pay real money to experience that.

It's my birthday next month and a friend turned up last night with an early present:



Lots of leisurely reading ahead!

RedToo.

Yes, the Vulcan was a nice noisy aircraft but a barsteward to work on. Lots and lots of unpaid overtime often 72 hours a week. A friend of mine was posted to them but took to reading the "Morning Star" in the crewroom (it's the Communist Party paper). This worked as he was posted to fighters instead. I think I was lucky as I avoided the two worst aircraft in the RAF - the other was the Frightening (which was also popular at airshows being even noisier than the Vulcan).

The fuller XM607 documentary is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBJ99bIhAVk

That was great, Pol. Thanks for the link.

Wow - what a long mission! Thanks for sharing, Pol!

Jim, here is such an "almost vertical climb" of the VULCAN bomber... PLAY IT LOUD !



...this one is also very good IMHO!

Yeah, it was a nice aircraft to look at and listen to. The engines were early version Bristol Olympus (later RR-Bristol). That engine was developed for the TSR2 and later in the Concord(e). Nice to fly if you were a pilot with a MB ejection seat. Not so good for the other crew members who had to jump out of the bottom.

Also don't land with the handbrake on! I saw the half remains of the wheels of one that did this in Cyprus. Early Harriers could do the same on takeoff which didn't do the wheels and tyres much good either. They added an interlock after that so that over half throttle took the brakes off automatically.

Does anybody like these things?

Looks like a WW2 carrier? Which one is it?

Which one do you mean - the carrier or the pilot boat?

Personally, I prefer the carriers.

Here's a big and rather well-known Japanese one:

Yeah, no angled deck and splinter camo. As a wild guess it is the Ticonderoga no 14.

Yes, that's the Tico. And cool early photo of Kaga, Hasse.

Here's Tico in action:

How 'bout these babies?

How about this one.

Now we're talking business!

Again, something Japanese (this is actually my current Windows wallpaper):

USS Missouri. Fast-forward past the first 25 seconds of cheese:

Battleships and cruisers are always impressive to me.
I like these two "sisters" - GNEISENAU and SCHARNHORST.
Smaller than most battleships, they ran with a maximum speed of 31.3 knots
and carried 9 main guns with a calibre of 28 cm (11 inch).

Look at all those AA guns on the Ticonderoga! And the 3.5" guns were firing the proximity fuse invented in England and developed and made in their thousands in the USA. I don't think the Japanese ever figured out why so many of their Kamikazes were shot down long before reaching their targets. Of course they didn't get much in the way of first-hand reports

The fuses were also responsible for so many V1 flying bombs being shot down by AA fire which would normally be very difficult against such a small and fast target.

[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proximity_fuze][/url]

The word 'fuse' is again spelt differently as 'fuze' over the water.

Apparently one of the Gneisenau's turrets of 3 guns is now a museum in Trondheim Norway. I don't suppose they get fired much now.

The Yamato - the worlds biggest ever Kamikaze. Yet another battleship sunk by aircraft like the Prince of Wales and Repulse years before, though it took a bit of sinking it seems.

Olham......great vids about those old girls. What a time.... Thx for sharing

Olham, the Scharnhorst is probably my all time favorite battlecruiser of any time period. I built a model of her when I was around 12 and that's when the love affair started.

I wager that must have been a popular cockpit configuration.

A BE.9, I believe.

Scharnhorst is the name of my cat. He's 18. His predecessor was Tirpitz who lived to 17. Before her came Bismarck who sadly was sunk at 4... Anyone sense a pattern here?

Rick

Ha, yeah, when it comes to war machines, the Germans can be quite sexy!
I also had a model around that age - an AIRFIF 1:600 scale.




Seems your next cat will be named GNEISENAU ?
Luckily, the cats didn't realise what names they had been given. Might have gone to their heads!

I wonder what message those flags mean on the Scharnhorst? I see there is a seaplane on the turret at the rear. I believe they were an ARADO aircraft. I like the motor boat as well.

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Love the old battleships. I built a massive model of the USS Missouri back when I was about 10 or so, as I recall it was about three feet long and motorized. And speaking of old battleships, some of you may recall that about a year and half back I was fortunate enough to acquire this little item:


(right-click on image and open in new window to view it full size)

It is a carved wooden box from the SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm, the last of the König class battleships of the German Imperial Navy. Here is a photo of her shortly before she was scuttled in Scapa Flow in 1919:



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Interesting tidbit about the first observer who operated from the front office of the B.E.9 : Lt. Herbert "Stumpy" Tillson, during one of his early flights in the bus and in an attempt to get the pilot's attention concerning another aeroplane coming in behind them, waved his arm and pointed rearwards. This temporary lapse in good judgement was never repeated by Tillson who thereafter had to learn how to sign his name with his left hand. Later in life he became quite successful selling items specifically designed for the cack-handed.

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Lou, where on earth did you find that box? I love stuff like that.

He doesn't find this stuff - these items find HIM...

Yep, he's the cool stuff magnet.

I wouldn't say "the cool-stuff-magnet" - I think these historical items
are searching for a real good home, where they get well preserved, cared for, and honoured.
And they seem to sense, that Lou will provide them with all that.

I agree historical items look for Lou they know they will cared for, loved, and honored. He treats them better than most museums because he takes them down admires them then puts them back in their honored place.

Quite correct, Sir! I only have one at a time, so Gneisenau it will be. Gonna drive my vets receptionist insane with that one! Pushing 60, I have grave doubts as to my still being around for Deutschland/Lutzow, but it's nice to know naming ones cats will never be a problem...

Rick

I had a cat that was called 'cat'. It seemed to like the name.

When they like us, they make do with a lot of names.
I recently met a girl with a small grey pug dog, that had a face like a bat that had crashed into a train in full flight.
The pug looked at me, wagging his stumb of a tail, and I spoke to him in a friendly way;
while I bent down and stroked him, I said to him "Boy, you are ugly as hell - do you know that?"
He like the tone and the stroking, ignored the rest.
The girl though didn't.
She pulled him away from me and gave me a grim look.

I always found it much harder to impress girls - dogs: no problem!

Olham, you weren't looking at her when you said that, by any chance?

Good one, Jim!


No way - I am a gentleman!
She was even cute, by the way - I like the beauty of angry women!

Careful what you wish for. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, as the saying goes.

What about Baritone Women?

On an unrelated note, I'm still surprised no one has called me out on this.

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