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.
A lot of air-to-air photography is done from the ramp of a cargo aircraft such as a C130 Hercules or the rear turret of a bomber with the plexiglass removed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT9Jk8sOTps Al_in_Ottawa
It's a PR (Photo Reconnaissance) Spitfire, they were painted sky blue. It has the one-piece acrylic windshield instead of the bullet proof one on the fighters. It also has the Griffon engine, you can tell by the bulges to clear the cylinder heads. That round hole in the edge of the fuselage roundel is a camera window. Search "spitfire ps853" for more pics Al_in_Ottawa
Whats Av gas up to now, $8 bucks a gallon? Warm up and taxi be about $100 alone, those Merlin's really love them some low lead 101 Av gas, at cruise probably running 10-15 gals per hour. Great engines, got a bud with a racing boat has a converted Merlin, beautiful engines, look like pieces of industrial art, wonderful aluminum engine block and head castings, those Brits back then did more craft work than say straight up Detroit industrial manufacturing, era of same skilled labor made Vincent's and BSA's and Triumph engines. Whitworth is the man who seems to have been behind that whole Brit industrial age, pretty stinkin' sharp engineer, invented a lot of great things, kind of like the John Browning of British metal fab industry. Though Whitworth made a series of way way ahead of his time accurate rifles, the Confederacy used them to great effect sniping Yankee soldiers.
An article I read comparing WW2 fighters as used privately today said cruise fuel consumption was 40 - 45 GPH for a P40 and that was the best as I recall. The P40 is surprisingly slippery. Other supposedly later and faster stuff like Mustangs, Corsairs etc... used 50 - 70 GPH. My dad was an engine technician in WW2 and loved the American aero engines that came into use to replace English stuff he was maintaining at the start of the war.
Yeah heard that. You talking about Allison's or Packards, with special superchargers, (think it was Caddilac also, produced a flight rated engine at one point)? Read somewhere the early American engines had not near the power output of the Brit engines.
Hanscom Field still flew a few Mustangs in the early 70's, its where I got high octane fuel for race go carts, it was beautiful purple colored, had the greatest smell when burning it in McCholloc 91B's mixed with castor oil, mechanics said it had a 119 octane rating for their piston engine aircraft. Probably at least that rating specially with the late superchargers and water injection they used to maintain spec'd combustion temps. Can't recall which laboratory research octane designation it was. Great stuff. My engines never ran so nice on it. Back then you could still get Sunoco hi test and Gulf Golden too, but still there was definitely a power advantage using the Mustang av-gas. Most likely it had high oxygen formula additives. Secret Sauce!
FWIW: Purple AvGas was 130/145 octane. 130 at lean cruise settings - 145 at full rich. Lots of lead (TEL). As only 100 octane is possible (100% iso-octane) all numbers above 100 were formally called "performance numbers" or "octane equivalency rating".
Good book: "Not Much of an Engineer". Brit mathematician who started working for Rolls-Royce shortly before WWII. His skills enabled them to vastly improve the superchargers on their engines. The Merlin engines went into all sorts of planes, and when the Brits couldn't make them fast enough, they asked the Americans to assess the viability of producing them here. The Yanks came back and said, "No, not without some design work." The Rolls folks smugly asked, "Are the tolerances too tight for you?" "No! They're too loose. We could never achieve interchangeable assembly with those parts. We'd have to sort pistons and select ones that were a decent fit in any given cylinder . . ." Etc.
I read somewhere that the cockpit of of an ME 109 was so tight, the pilot didn't really climb in--it was more like putting it on like a jacket.
ReplyDeleteWeight is everything.
ReplyDeleteAlmost as tight an an Indy car.
ReplyDeleteQuite a photo achievement, when you think about it.
ReplyDeleteLol, photoshop you mean.
DeleteA lot of air-to-air photography is done from the ramp of a cargo aircraft such as a C130 Hercules or the rear turret of a bomber with the plexiglass removed.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT9Jk8sOTps
Al_in_Ottawa
Spitfire...??
ReplyDeleteBiggskye
It's a PR (Photo Reconnaissance) Spitfire, they were painted sky blue. It has the one-piece acrylic windshield instead of the bullet proof one on the fighters. It also has the Griffon engine, you can tell by the bulges to clear the cylinder heads. That round hole in the edge of the fuselage roundel is a camera window.
DeleteSearch "spitfire ps853" for more pics
Al_in_Ottawa
No getting out in a hurry think.
ReplyDeleteGriffon powered Spitfire
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Spitfire_(Griffon-powered_variants)
Whats Av gas up to now, $8 bucks a gallon? Warm up and taxi be about $100 alone, those Merlin's really love them some low lead 101 Av gas, at cruise probably running 10-15 gals per hour. Great engines, got a bud with a racing boat has a converted Merlin, beautiful engines, look like pieces of industrial art, wonderful aluminum engine block and head castings, those Brits back then did more craft work than say straight up Detroit industrial manufacturing, era of same skilled labor made Vincent's and BSA's and Triumph engines. Whitworth is the man who seems to have been behind that whole Brit industrial age, pretty stinkin' sharp engineer, invented a lot of great things, kind of like the John Browning of British metal fab industry. Though Whitworth made a series of way way ahead of his time accurate rifles, the Confederacy used them to great effect sniping Yankee soldiers.
ReplyDeleteAn article I read comparing WW2 fighters as used privately today said cruise fuel consumption was 40 - 45 GPH for a P40 and that was the best as I recall. The P40 is surprisingly slippery. Other supposedly later and faster stuff like Mustangs, Corsairs etc... used 50 - 70 GPH. My dad was an engine technician in WW2 and loved the American aero engines that came into use to replace English stuff he was maintaining at the start of the war.
DeleteNo doubt a rich man's toy, to afford a grand an hour in fuel, plus TBO.
DeleteYeah heard that. You talking about Allison's or Packards, with special superchargers, (think it was Caddilac also, produced a flight rated engine at one point)? Read somewhere the early American engines had not near the power output of the Brit engines.
ReplyDeleteHanscom Field still flew a few Mustangs in the early 70's, its where I got high octane fuel for race go carts, it was beautiful purple colored, had the greatest smell when burning it in McCholloc 91B's mixed with castor oil, mechanics said it had a 119 octane rating for their piston engine aircraft. Probably at least that rating specially with the late superchargers and water injection they used to maintain spec'd combustion temps. Can't recall which laboratory research octane designation it was. Great stuff. My engines never ran so nice on it. Back then you could still get Sunoco hi test and Gulf Golden too, but still there was definitely a power advantage using the Mustang av-gas. Most likely it had high oxygen formula additives. Secret Sauce!
ReplyDeleteFWIW: Purple AvGas was 130/145 octane. 130 at lean cruise settings - 145 at full rich. Lots of lead (TEL). As only 100 octane is possible (100% iso-octane) all numbers above 100 were formally called "performance numbers" or "octane equivalency rating".
DeleteGood book: "Not Much of an Engineer". Brit mathematician who started working for Rolls-Royce shortly before WWII. His skills enabled them to vastly improve the superchargers on their engines. The Merlin engines went into all sorts of planes, and when the Brits couldn't make them fast enough, they asked the Americans to assess the viability of producing them here. The Yanks came back and said, "No, not without some design work." The Rolls folks smugly asked, "Are the tolerances too tight for you?" "No! They're too loose. We could never achieve interchangeable assembly with those parts. We'd have to sort pistons and select ones that were a decent fit in any given cylinder . . ." Etc.
ReplyDelete