I use a product called bio-deruster, sounds a very similar product to the above sugestion. Uses a chelation process.

Doesn’t burn and removes all the oxidisation right into the pits. Great for seized assemblies and doesn’t harm plastics, rubber or even touch paint or chrome. Cast iron emerges from an overnight soaking a nice uniform grey.

Blasting is pretty agresssive.

If you can find a company that does soda blasting (as in bi-carb), then you’ll find that is an extremely gentle medium. It is possible to take paint off layer by layer, and it’s good for the environment.

I’ve used it on various classic car and motorcycles panels etc, and it’s very impressive.

As I understand it, the original picture on “Marge” was a very large photograph pasted on the nose.

The artwork on Bong’s P-38 was a facsimile of a photo of Marge, his then-fiancee. I’ll stand corrected, but an officer in the admin section of his squadron had the know-how to enlarge it and it was indeed pasted on the side of the aircraft and covered with lacquer by Bong’s crew-chief.

An extraordinarily pretty lass!

Maybe the only reply to Proc would be “Thank God we had all 3!!!”

Been watching a f British videos over the break and I started to wonder what Bomber played the more important role in liberating Europe during WW2, the Liberator (B24), the Flying Fortress (B17) or the Avro Lancaster?

I suspect that its a toss-up between the B17 and the B24.

cheers

Without going into facts, figures, quotes and slide rules, I’ll go with Proc’s subject title: “most significant”. It has to be the Lancaster: British designed, British built, crewed by members of the Commonwealth, easily recognisable (by sight and sound), and lauded by Harris after the conflict.

Roberts Dunstan was sent to the Middle East as a sapper and lost a leg after being wounded by a shell splinter just before the siege on Tobruk. He had lied about his age to get into the army, and was now facing a life with one leg, having barely experienced his ‘great adventure’. Subsequently he badgered the RAAF until they accepted him as an air gunner, in the best Bader tradition.

He flew as a Lancaster rear gunner with 467 Sqn, preferring to leave his aluminium leg on the ground, as it was easier to crawl around the aircraft. He also had more room in the turret than other gunners!

The RAAF Museum in Point Cook, Victoria has a few bits and pieces of the triplane, as does the Australian War Memorial. The stunning new WW1 Aviation Museum in New Zealand (which name escapes me, but it’s run by Graham and Jane Orphan) has some of the wing fabric. I seem to remember reading the aluminium seat is in Canada, but I’ll happily stand corrected on that……

It’s worth bearing in mind that the last genuine Fokker DR1 was destroyed by Allied bombing during WW2, so we’re probably lucky that so many pieces of Richtofen’s triplane were souveniered when it came down and thus they’ve survived for us to study today.

There was a Mk1 and Mk2 type ‘E’ turret for the Halifax, but they are all but identical. There was no room for a parachute in the turret, but if I remember correctly, towards the very end of the war some pilot-type parachutes became available for the rear gunner.

The type ‘E’ turret was well-liked by its crews, and was unique in that the four .303 guns were mounted on their sides to facilitate the feed mechanism. It was controlled by a single ‘joystick’, with the trigger button on top.

Muchly hoping this is of some use!

I seem to remember reading that landing the Bulldog was like “trying to control a loaded wheelbarrow at arm’s length”.

Correct me if I’m wrong (not an unheard-of occurance) but I think it was in “in The Cockpit”