And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Monday, January 29, 2018
A U.S. Navy Curtiss SBC-3 Helldiver biplane from Scouting Squadron Three (VS-3), assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3), flies over San Diego, California.
Not true LL. They were not much slower than the SBD-1, and with an engine upgrade would have had the same range and speed as the later SBD's. They would certainly have been as good as the VAL, and IMO a better "get me home" aircraft than the gawd awful SB2C's. AND: the caption is wrong. That is an SBC-2. Says so on the tail, right behind the serial number.---Ray
devil is in the details. wonder what powered the MLG retraction? I know that in the F4F, the pilot has a hand crank connected by bicycle chain to a gearbox which drives the retraction of the MLGG=. light weight and simple. back in the day, no one in their right minds trusted hydraulic systems for a combat aircraft. B-17 had electric MLG, flaps and bomb bay doors. cut half way thru a wire and it will still pass current. cut half way thru a hydraulic hose, and you get a flammable mess and no movement of what you are wanting to move. design engineers back in the day were about keeping it simple and stupid.
I would love to have one to fly around now -- but then, in 1941, they were sitting ducks.
ReplyDeleteNot true LL. They were not much slower than the SBD-1, and with an engine upgrade would have had the same range and speed as the later SBD's. They would certainly have been as good as the VAL, and IMO a better "get me home" aircraft than the gawd awful SB2C's. AND: the caption is wrong. That is an SBC-2. Says so on the tail, right behind the serial number.---Ray
ReplyDelete0571-SBC-3. do not see an SBC-2 anywhere on the tail.
DeleteRetractable landing gear! Pretty high tech for a biplane.
ReplyDeletePS It should be called "taxiing gear". Plenty of people have landed without it.
devil is in the details. wonder what powered the MLG retraction? I know that in the F4F, the pilot has a hand crank connected by bicycle chain to a gearbox which drives the retraction of the MLGG=. light weight and simple. back in the day, no one in their right minds trusted hydraulic systems for a combat aircraft. B-17 had electric MLG, flaps and bomb bay doors. cut half way thru a wire and it will still pass current. cut half way thru a hydraulic hose, and you get a flammable mess and no movement of what you are wanting to move.
Deletedesign engineers back in the day were about keeping it simple and stupid.