Sunday, July 28, 2024

I"d commute in that. I might even strafe something in that while commuting.

 



If I had been alive during WWII, I would for sure attempt to get myself into one of those.

11 comments:

  1. This looks like an F8F Bearcat, which was not in service until after the war. The closest you could have come was an F6F Hellcat, which was quite an excellent plane, too.

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    1. It was the last in a long line of propeller driven fighters, that last of the prop gun fighters before the jets took over…

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    2. It was in service, but it didn't reach the front in time to see combat.

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  2. As noted, they did not see combat in WWII. However, the Blue Angles flew them--

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy3nsRvhgSE

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  3. You certainly could convince the 50mph jerk in the left lane to get over.

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  4. A number of Bearcats were given th ethe South Vietnamese Air Force but most were crashed due to pilot issues. Replaced with the Skyraiders. That was a great aircraft loved by all that flew it and those that were on the ground needing close support. Being on Huey Gunships we got to watch them work many times. The Skyraider could stay on target for a long time and carry a lot of ordinance including 20mm cannons, rockets bombs and napalm.

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  5. My dad wanted to be a pilot and even had training before the war, but he still ended up as an Army private.

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  6. Be like Sky King and huck a five pound bag of flour at the car you are chasing. I'm old.

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  7. 6 Ma Dueces will sure get some attention. 6 50's would be around 3600 rounds per minute. They were devastating to ship's, trains and lesser targets. Keep in mind, 50 BMG entered service in 1921, it's still used for a basic heavy machine gun and as an equipment degrader out to 2 miles.

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    1. The first model, the F8F-1 Bearcat had 4 .50s, the F8F-2 (of which this is an example) had 4 20mm cannon, a much more potent armament. British and Navy testing had shown that each 20mm cannon was the equivalent of 3 .50-caliber machine guns in effectiveness. The Navy really wanted the 20mm during the war, but the Bureau of Ordnance screwed the pooch in adapting the Hispano-Suiza cannon to US specifications. We built thousands of cannons and manufactured millions of shells, but it was too unreliable to use in combat. The slightly too long headspacing resulted in a percentage of light primer strikes. They dicked around with the design, making some improvements, but refusing to alter the headspacing despite British experts brought over to help out having pinpointed that as the culprit. Finally, they adjusted the chamber length after the war was over.

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  8. If cars had forward-facing .50s, commuting would be O so much more polite and enjoyable.

    Especially the kills.

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