Comments on: Uh, Death, Please. No, Cake! Cake!

By: HalfEmpty

HalfEmpty — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 19:47:41 +0000

Maybe the Albacore was a Dive/patrol bomber? Im kinda vague about Fleet Air Arm machinery. Which makes is nice since the RAF was kinda vague about the Fleet Air Arm machinery as well.

By: Rueful Red

Rueful Red — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 14:44:21 +0000

There was something called the Fairey Fullmar which carried torpedoes. Dunno whether it was any good.

By: HalfEmpty

HalfEmpty — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 19:30:44 +0000

Har! Make fun with yr muzzle loading cannon jibs, but many of the pilots preferred the StringBag to the later arriving (Albacore?) much like many US pilots preferred the Dauntless to the much more modern SB2C HellDiver or more colloquially Son-of-A-Bitch 2nd Class.

By: Rueful Red

Rueful Red — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:13:45 +0000

Was that one wing out of the four? Lots of lift surface is really useful when you’re getting shot at.

They flew too slowly for the German gunners to be able to set a fuse for them, I’m told. Even at their shortest fuse they were still hundreds of feet past the Stringbags when they exploded. They’d have had a better chance with a muzzle-loading cannon.

By: HalfEmpty

HalfEmpty — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 13:43:54 +0000

Toughness thru simplicity and quality wire.

By: Brett_McS

Brett_McS — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 13:00:52 +0000

A friend of my dad’s saw a Fairey Swordfish fly through a barrage balloon, emerge from the other side minus one wing, and keep on flying. They are featured in that great WWII film Sink the Bismark!

By: HalfEmpty

HalfEmpty — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 23:48:39 +0000

And that’s why you can’t fly your Sopwith thru the eye of a needle.

By: Rueful Red

Rueful Red — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 17:58:41 +0000

“…for where your treasure is there will your heart be also”.