contrailjjHere in Ontario we have the village of Swastika… http://www.answers.com/topic/swastika-ontario
and let us not forget the ‘Ugunskrusts’ in Latvia.
Even though I knew it was a cultural element, I was still quite amazed (when touring the Mekong in 2003) at the prevalence of the swastika in the region – on shrines, coffins, ‘churches’, etc.
contrailjjI have read long time ago “Samurai” by Saburo Sakai and I think he is mentioned that he was once attack by this plane from cloud. To regret I don’t have this book any more and hope that somebody could confirm this.
Cheers
I just finished re-reading ‘Samurai’ a couple weeks ago. An interesting read.
From Sakai’s account during early August of 1942…
” Meanwhile I returned to 7,000 feet…
…No sooner had we emerged from one cloud than, for the first time in all my years of combat, an enemy plane caught me unawares. I felt a heavy thud, the scream of a bullet, and a hole two inches across appeared through the cockpit glass to my left, only inches away from my face.
” I still had not seen any other planes in the air. It might have been ground fire which hit me. Then I caught a glimpse of an enemy bomber—not a fighter!—which had caught me napping. The Dauntless hung on its wing, racing for cloud cover. The audacity of the enemy pilot was amazing; he had deliberately jumped four Zero fighters in a slow and lightly armed dive bomber.”
He states he did give chase and shot it down (his 60th kill) the gunner being killed in the aircraft and the pilot taking to the silk.
JJ
contrailjjcoanda…
check these guys out… JBOT decals..
http://www.jbot.ca/aircraft/22/boomerang.shtml
they’ve even got a BW photo of ‘Boomerang’ on the web page.
… at $20 (Canuckistan bucks) for 1/32 scale, it sounds like a good deal.
and…
http://www.tomcampbellblack.150m.com/
just past the halfway point down the page… 5 pics of Campbell-Black and ‘Boomerang’
JJ
contrailjjThat victor pic, isn’t she one of the surviors??
not a survivor, but she did go on to become ‘Sweet Sue’ during ‘Gulf War I’ and is immortalized in Matchbox’s (and Revell) 2003 release in 1/72…
contrailjjand part 2
A-4M Skyhawk – (first and only A4 I’ve seen)
CH-147 Chinook – (now with the KLu – this stangely enough is the only CF Chinook shot I have)
CC-109 ‘Cosmo’
A-7 Corsair II
AV-8B Harrier/CH-116 Labrador
I’m still shaking my head at the amazing array of types on that static line… others no longer in service… CT-133, CT-134 Musketeer, CP-121 Tracker, CC-137 (B707), C-141, A-6 Intruder, FB-111, Luftwaffe Alphajet A…
oh man those were fun days.
contrailjjYou may be right, on the 16s…but Cape Cod also had a role…
But I don’t think Syracuse had 106s.
In the 80s they had A-10s (and A-37s before that) …I think they went from Warthogs to F-16s and Griffiss’ F-106s went to the boneyard/drone program.
The 106s were 49th FIS out of Griffiss (Rome) – My oopsie there…
When the Air Defence role was passed to the Guard (which in this area is the 174th) in 1987, the 49th was inactivated – last USAF 106 unit.
contrailjjThat’s correct..no fighters at McGuire.
Like the RAF, not all air bases have the same mission.I believe the fighters that were on CAP after the attack came from Cape Cod (Mass.) ANG Base (formerly Otis AFB).
In the 80s, the nearest active duty base with fighters (F-106s) was Griffiss in upstate New York. It (a B-52 base) was closed in the post cold war drawdown.
If I remember correctly, the ‘Boys From Syracuse’ (174th TF) NY ANG, (Hancock Field – Syracuse) in their F-16s did get to NYC that day.
The 174th had in the past been an A-10 unit and took over some of the local Air Defence role after the 106s (from Syracuse) were retired.
contrailjjI think these particular aircraft are ‘lemons’ and that these issues with the airframes would have been avoided if the oginal aircraft spec’d in the original contract had been purchase. This ‘stripped down’ EH-101 is unique to the Canadian Forces and so far I haven’t heard of any problems encountered by operators of the ‘full’ version.
From the Air Force’s web site…
“The Agusta-Westland CH-149 Cormorant, is a fully certified off-the-shelf civilian utility helicopter. It has been modified from the military specifications of the EH-101 to include search and rescue-specific equipment and physical characteristics and performance requirements to meet Canada’s SAR responsibilities. This modification provided reduced procurement costs, a rear-fuselage ramp, a single rescue door with both hoists on one side, and eliminated unnecessary military equipment.
Shaped rotor blades, strengthened by titanium strips along the leading edge, allow the CH-149 to improve lift and increase speed, lowering the stall speed and reducing vibration. This enables it to withstand high winds (exceeding 50 knots), provide superior gust response while carrying out routine tasks of hoisting, starting and stopping.”
The airframe is the one that was preferred by our SAR-Techs, but the joys of politics intervened and when the purchase was finally made, the ‘Cormorant’ was not the same aircraft as the EH-101s ‘Chimo’ originally ordered.
Interestingly enough, I’m almost certain there was a Cormorant flight over my house 2 days ago. I do miss the regular SAR flights – when the Labradors were guaranteed to be going by almost every 3 days – the last year has been almost nothing by Griffons… 🙁
contrailjjI am still uncertain about these perspex blisters, which began to appear on Lancasters and Halifaxes in 1944.
Are they to allow the bomb-aimer to scan the area below the aircraft, or are they window release chutes (a confusing subject in it’s own right). Note how the rear of the blister appears to be open, or flat faced. Observation blister, window chute, or both?
That got me wondering too, so I took a look through a few pics and became even more baffled. Lets say there are 3 observation window configurations for this position…
1) this blister over a round/oval opening
2) a flat round/oval window in this exact position
3) the wide rectangle abutting the nose dome.
The choice of window style doesn’t seem to correspond to any particular Mk # except that the blister only seems to show up on some B.IIIs.
B.I LL783 (619 Sqn) – Flat round/oval window
B.I W4366 (12 Sqn) – wide flat window
B.II the few I could see well – the wide rectangle
B.III ND709 (635 Sqn) – the ‘Blister over round/oval opening
numerous other B.III (no specific numbers) – the wide rectangle
numerous B.X…. wide rectangle
So now we have B.IIIs with round or rectangular windows, some with the blister, some without. B.Is with round and rectangular. Might this whole ‘issue’ be simply a matter of the source of component production?
As for the blister – just supposition here – but perhaps it was intended to allow the bomb-aimer to get a ‘drop-count’ to ensure all ordnance got away. Or even a location to set a camera for some on the spot photos of ‘in-progress’ bomb patterns.
I’m just getting more and more confused… I think my own modelling project rapidly changing into a post-war B.X SAR bird.
JJ
contrailjjI had the same problem so I took the liberty of downloading and presenting them here (approx half the size they are on the site)
If you go to…
http://www.familienbetreuung.com
The second item in the left column (Meldungen) gets you to the diary page, then go to… “Vom 11.10.2006: Bilder vom Einsatz im Kongo sind online” and follow the link at the end of that paragraph which takes you to the “Index of /downloads/bilder_Kongo and the pics are in the last listed Sub directory (N Jili)
JJ
contrailjjFresh from Africa
And here’s a fresh one I received this morning… Congolese HIP
contrailjjOnly 15cm or so here – and its only been here for about a month. Unfortunately the average temp has been around -15 since the snow arrived. Neither the cold nor the snow show any sign of leaving any time soon.
I know, I know – its supposed to be here, but that doesn’t mean I’m supposed to like it.
That chick Mother Nature sure does have a bad sense of humour.
OK, I think I can stop complaining – Oswego County NY (just over 1 hr drive away) has had close to 3 METRES in the last week!!!
http://news10now.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=94668
contrailjjOnly 15cm or so here – and its only been here for about a month. Unfortunately the average temp has been around -15 since the snow arrived. Neither the cold nor the snow show any sign of leaving any time soon.
I know, I know – its supposed to be here, but that doesn’t mean I’m supposed to like it.
That chick Mother Nature sure does have a bad sense of humour.
OK, I think I can stop complaining – Oswego County NY (just over 1 hr drive away) has had close to 3 METRES in the last week!!!
http://news10now.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=94668
contrailjj4 Torpedoes
This must be your lucky day Franc… I knew I had seen these pics and it took me a while to find them. These came from Scale Aircraft Modelling Volume 6 Number 6 (March 1984).
This feature was also built into the original Airfix Seaking kit in 1/72 scale… I still have the kit torpedoes and ‘racks’ somehwere.
JJ
contrailjjOnly 15cm or so here – and its only been here for about a month. Unfortunately the average temp has been around -15 since the snow arrived. Neither the cold nor the snow show any sign of leaving any time soon.
I know, I know – its supposed to be here, but that doesn’t mean I’m supposed to like it.
That chick Mother Nature sure does have a bad sense of humour.
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