I recall that loosing an engine in a Brigand…

Really? :diablo: (Rubbing hands together.)

Out of interest (since I’ve put some blame on the aircrew in an earlier post) do you know why the engine on your Brigand failed?

I love the way these threads develop; one minute you’re speculating about something the next you have the opportunity (I hope) to hear the opinion of somebody who did it for real!

What was your opinion of the Centaurus as an engine (in comparison to the Merlin say, or any other for that matter)?

And what did you think of the Brigand…..5000 horsepower trainer! Sorry, so many questions. 😮

I have to say I admire your courage joining this forum to face your critics…..and in posting more combat reports.

I know virtually nothing about Battle of Britain combat reports but I think if I was preparing to spend up to £500 on what is effectively a single sheet of paper my suspicions would be aroused by some of the content of the S/L Kellet combat report. For example was ‘BFI09’ in common use by squadron pilots in 1940? And did fighters ‘take out’ other fighters, would a pilot of 1940 describe himself as being ‘okay’ and wouldn’t he know the difference between ‘to close’ and ‘too close’?

Would the pilot also know his aircraft was ‘cat 3’ damaged (Was this system in use in 1940?) when he was filling in this report so soon after landing?

Honestly I have no idea if this is a genuine combat report and because of that fact I wouldn’t want to part with my cash…

…that doesn’t mean that it isn’t perfectly genuine…..rather the fact that I couldn’t be sure!

I for one am very glad that I don’t collect this sort of thing anyway…..and I admire the courage of those that do!

I hear what you say. The terminology does vary from pilot to pilot…

I’d be just as suspicious if the combat report was full of ‘wizard prangs’! :confused:

As for collecting…

…I was chuffed-to-bits when I bought my first piece of Me110 (or should that be Bf110?), a nice crash-damaged piston (with some newspaper clippings about the ATC squadron that recovered it and the Luftwaffe pilot being reunited with the wreckage)…

…I wasn’t so chuffed when I discovered later it was a piston from an American radial engine! 😡

I can now identify a Daimler-Benz piston but I still only reckon 25% of the ‘value’ of a relic (to me anyway) is because it was out so-and-so’s aircraft; even if I ‘prove’ later that it couldn’t have been, I still have 75% of the value (and it is fun researching the evidence). It is simply too tempting for people to add a bit of ‘history’ (and a lot of value), virtually impossible to detect (unless they have been careless with their research) and so you just have to trust people.

Possibly half the stuff I own has a ‘faked’ history but the really important thing is that the names of some of those who lost their lives are remembered by me…

…even if I’m remembering a Battle of Britain pilot because I own a valve out of a Boulton Paul Balliol! 😮

…have you factored in engine thrust for the airborne figures?

Yes, these are covered by the expression ‘blah, blah, blah’ about halfway through my calculations! 😀

You are quite right of course; the speed of the aircraft is stable when the thrust equals the drag (related to the speed, squared) so as soon as the aircraft slowed the engine would begin to accelerate the aircraft until the thrust equaled the drag again! 🙂

…the history of Vermeer by the acceptance of multiple fake paintings by Han van Meegeren.

For Pete’s sake don’t post any Vermeer paintings up here…

…they’ll all turn out to be fakes…..because Andy has the real ones in his loft! :diablo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-8_Avenger

Interesting statement:

“The recoil force of the GAU-8/A is 10,000 pounds-force (45 kN), which is slightly more than the output of one of the A-10’s TF-34 two engines (9,065 lbf / 40.3 kN each). While this recoil force is significant, in practice cannon fire only slows the aircraft a few miles per hour.”

That’s why I deferred to gunnery experts!

It would be nice if Tony Williams were to pop by…

With regard to the effect of the escaping propellant gasses on the Lysander assuming the propellant weight is converted into gas of equivalent weight (plus the small weight of the oxygen in the shell case) all we really need is so approximation of the speed that the gas escapes so we can work out the effect on the forward speed of the aircraft.

A bit of ‘rocket science’ maybe but my guess is the effects will be less that that of the cannon shells themselves.

…any of the other space things which are totally useless on a gravity based planet!!

Not like all those Spitfire control columns that people collect, right? :rolleyes: