Peter C Smith is quite critical of the claims of tanks destroyed by Typhoons at Falase…and that the rocket claims were inflated for propaganda reasons…

A panzer or panzer-grenadier division of 1944 would consist of hundreds of vehicles, the vast majority of them unarmoured, and relatively few tanks. Much of the transport of an infantry division, even in 1944, would have been horse-drawn.

While rocket-firing Typhoons may not have destroyed many tanks by direct-hits or near-misses the destruction of the accompanying ‘soft-skinned’ transport would have been just as, if not more, effective.

One of the four engined bombers the Soviets had in service during WWII was later fitted with diesel engines because of the shortage of standard engines.

It is my understanding that diesel engines can be run in either direction, though they must be stopped to change direction AFAIK.

BTW fitting diesel engines greatly improved range and bomb load.

Some older diesels will run in the wrong direction ‘accidentally’ but they will not produce much power and will wreck themselves in the process. The critical thing is the ‘timing’ of the injection of fuel into the cylinders.

Very few diesel engines are designed to run in both directions, the exception being very large marine diesels for super-tankers (that run flat-out at 80 RPM). These are designed to run backwards to give power ‘astern’ without the necessity for any costly gearbox.

Diesels by nature tend to be heavier than a petrol engine developing the same power, but they use less fuel, so the trade-off in aircraft is between the weight of the engine plus the weight of the fuel. Basically the greater the range the better a diesel is for an aircraft.

If you do and get caught the first time 2 year ban,the second time 10 year ban and prision time and if your daft enought to be caught a thrid time a lifetime ban…

Well that will only work on those who have a driving licence, and who aren’t already banned…

…plus the prisons are full (and those who can’t afford a fine can’t be fined and those who can…well, they can afford it can’t they).

I think the mistake made here is to assume a ‘drink-driver’ is otherwise a completely law abiding driver and to base the deterrent punishment on this assumption (as much of government legislation is).

Engineering Tolerances

…begging the question, if both Packards and Fords (UK) had to redraw the Merlin (because the original RR tolerances were too wide) why does it all fit?

For the sake of argument, if Ford (UK) built a Merlin and some (or all) of the Ford tolerances were ‘tighter’ than the Rolls-Royce tolerances, then the Ford Merlin would fit together and run perfectly without the need to modify anything else on the drawings…

…also any part of the Ford Merlin could be used as a spare part on a Rolls-Royce built Merlin. The Rolls-Royce parts could not be guaranteed to fit the Ford Merlin however.

But if Rolls-Royce were ‘hand-building’ the Merlin and selectively fitting parts together (or modifying parts out of tolerance) then this would not necessarily be the case.

I suspect what we have here is not an issue of tolerances alone but a rather more complex situation regarding the differing working practices, drawing standards and workforces employed by Rolls-Royce, Ford and Packard.

Who has time for a bath?

Ain’t that the truth JB?

Well, judging from the amount of time we spend here I’d say we all need a PC in our bathrooms…

…just think how clean we’d all be! 😀

Found it – as I thought, the Exe, Pennine and Crecy were all sleeve-valve two-strokes. Just when things began to look promising, gas turbines arrived.

All sleeve-valves…but only the Crecy was a two-stroke.

Another movie mistake is that 747’s etc always have tunnels from the undercarriage bays to the passenger cabin!

Absolutely! Most recently, Air Force One has such a secret connecting passage in “Transformers”.

This seems to be pretty standard for modern action/adventure films…

…huge cavities, avionics-bays and ‘service ducts’ within passenger aircraft.

Can’t remember the title of the film but there is one where an anti-terrorist force is transferred to a 747 from an ‘F-117’ thingy in flight…no really…and several of them end up above a ‘false ceiling’ over the main passenger deck…

…the cavity is enormous and empty…you could park a bus up there! 😀