Great Entertainment!

Thanks for improving my Saturday evening. Ray:D

Considering that far older and simpler aircraft are flying, I would not expect Il-2 to have this problem. I could imagine that single aircraft had “mistakes” due to rushed production, but in general it’s my understanding that the Il-2 was a good design and a fine craft.

Mondariz you’re right about the good design but due to limitations with metal supply the rear fuselage was made of wood until late 1944 as were the wings. The strength of the wooden tail was clearly insufficent to sustain heavy damage. The wings suffered in some cases when the plywood skin broke away. The armour shell around the cockpit and engine was only holed by shells larger than 7.62mm. The IL-2 suffered heavy losses from fighter attacks and groundfire although some were brought back to base with what might be termed as ‘fatal injuries’ to the airframe. The above details are taken from ‘ILYUSHIN IL-2 AND IL-10 SHTURMOVIK’ by Yefim Gordon and Sergey Komissarov. Published by Crowood in their ‘Aviation series’ which I consider to be the only available book on the subject. I suspect any preserved IL-2’s are from the later production which were all metal. Kermit Weeks has one!
Ray

Nice to see ‘Edward Scissorhands’ in the air at last…:D

I like it! This is sounds like a name we in the RAF would have called it in the Sixties, if the film had been out as well as the A400M.:D
Ray

Same action, different story!

Quoting from Steve Birdsalls ‘Flying Buccaneers’ the illustrated story of Kenney’s Fifth Air Force. Sub heading – ‘The Flying Undertaker’ On January 11 1945 two Mustangs from the 82nd Tactical Recon Squadron left Mindoro to check over the Japanese airdromes on northern Luzon. They never got as far as their primary target, because Captain William Shomo and his wingman, Lieutenant Paul Lipscomb, spotted a Betty bomber with an escort of eleven Tonys and a Tojo about two thousand feet above them. Shomo climbed from five hundred feet, with Lipscomb on his wing.
In his first attack Shomo hit the leader and the wingman of the trailing element of fighters and both Tonys exploded. The Japanese fighters did not break up or try to fight during the first pass, evidently mistaking the F-6s for friendly fighters- the pilot of the second Tony opened his canopy and stood up, waving his arm, and other aircrafthad waggled their wings.
Cutting back in, Shomo blasted another fighter and it went down in flames. Then the Japanese broke up into pairs,but seemed confused about what to do. Shomo blew up a fourth Tony and saw that the Betty was trying to dive away and escape. Shomo flew his Mustang down below it and fired up into the belly of the bomber. It began to burn and glided down towards a field, the Japanese pilot trying to line up for a belly landing. Just above the field the bomber erupted. Shomo was so close that his Mustang lurched, and bits and piecesof the Betty pelted his plane.
Shomo climbed sharply again, and the Tojo fired a deflection shot at him on the way up. Pulling the F-6 into a tight turn Shomo watched the Tojo skid under his Mustang and disappear into a cloud layer. Heading for two of the remaining fighters, Shomo shot down one from behind and the other tried to get away. Shomo dived a hundred feet and caught the last of his seven victims.
The sky was clear. There was only Lipscomb’s Mustang up higher, and he had disposed of three of the Tonys in his first combat.
William Shomo was awarded the Medal of Honor. Before the war Shomo was a licensed embalmer!

If you go to the site below all will be revealed!

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-whole-nine-yards.html

Ray
Sqdrn. L/Scramble beat me to it.

Why doesn’t this “budding writer” take all the carefully thought out, constructive comments and criticisms and the few encouraging words and GO AWAY and think long and hard about it, them spend a month re-writing and then, and only, then offer us all something worthwhile to read.:(

Having only just read this thread tonight, I think the U/T author should take note of the accumulated knowledge provided to him by everybody and come back later, much later I hope. The phrase ‘ignorance is bliss’ comes to mind!:eek:

PHOTOS FROM TWO MINUTES EXTRACT FROM ‘WAR IN THE AIR ‘ DISC 2

These photos are from the DISC 3 not that mentioned above. Are they any use in the Dominique Biaggi story which I have followed with great interest since it started.
Ray
[ATTACH]179233[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]179234[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]179235[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]179236[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]179237[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]179238[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]179239[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]179240[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]179241[/ATTACH]