Subject: Re: Loads of BS galore!!
From: "Steve Bamford" <[email-masked]>
To: "Al & Peggy Petrie" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 25 Dec 2001 23:24:43 -0800

Steve Bamford
Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com

Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you have never been hurt; and
Dance like no one is watching!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Al & Peggy Petrie" <[email-masked]>
To: "Steve Bamford" <[email-masked]>
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 1:00 AM
Subject: Loads of BS galore!!

> Victory Aircraft B-17M
>
> During the early stages of WW II, Victory Aircraft of Canada looked a
> several large bombers to build for the war effort. The B-24 and Avro
> Lancaster were considered, as was re-engining the B-17 with Merlin
engines.
> Eventually, the Lancaster was chosen as the plane to build, but one B-17M
> was built as a proof-of-concept vehicle. This odd one off was eventually
> given to 469 Squadron as an executive transport. Post-war, the plane was
> eventually converted to meteorlogical observation capability, and operated
> by Maritime Air Command into the mid 1950s. Being a cross between the
Flying
> Fortress and the Lancaster, some witty boffin landed the name Fort-Caster
> upon it, with it subsequently being called the Weather Fort-Caster in it's
> Met flight role. Sold off in the early 1960s to Bolivian sheep farmers, it
> was destroyed in 1969 outside of Lubbock Texas in an unexplained forced
> landing.
>
> Hindustan RP-1
>
> During the early years of conflict on the Indian Front, a forward RAF
repair
> facility hastily improvised a solution for six damaged Brewster Buffaloes.
> Lacking spare undercarriages, they attached the floats from several
damaged
> Vought Kingfishers, creating a reconaissance plane known as the Water
> Buffalo. The handling was atrocious, and the six planes were consigned to
an
> out-of-the way warehouse.
> Once achieving independance< India looked for any way to be
self-sufficient.
> One of the first attempts was to provide their own patrol aircraft.
> Refurbishing the Water Buffalos looked good on paper, so it was done.
> Unfortunately, the still handled like, well, Water Buffalo, and were
> universally disliked. Painted in a two-tone brown finish (so as to
> camouflage them when anchored on the Ganges River), the six planes were
kept
> as far away from conflict situations as possible. Eventually, in 1958, a
> terrific monsoon sank them all, to great relief of the pilots.
>
> Lockheed F1V Sea Lightning
>
> Assuming that the island hopping campaign of the Pacific in WW II would
> require extensive fighter cover, Lockheed looked at modifying their
> successful P-38 Lightning into a fighter on floats. Designed for use by
the
> Navy, they were rejected by the carrier-happy commanders and shuffled off
> onto the Marines, recipients of many a rejected Navy plane. However, the
> Marines loved the Sea Lighning, or C-Fork, as it had tremendous range and
> hitting power, and a second engine to get you home. Most were capable of
> jettisioning the floats should this become necessary, but it was rarely
> done. Usually loaded with all sorts of rockets and napalm, the C-Forks
> wreaked havoc across the south Pacific and right onto the Japanese
homeland.
> All were scrapped shortly after the war ended, and the only example today,
> hanging in the Smithsonian, is a modified P-38J with floats, not an
> authentic F1V.
>
> Junkers JU-87Z Stuka
>
> German forces attempting to force the British from greece were dealt a
> severe blow by the appearance of Spitfires and Beauforts of floats. To
> counter these mobile based aircraft, the Germans attempted to modify
several
> of their existing fighters. The Bf-109E (Z) variant, known as Rudolf, was
> dangerously unstable, but the Stuka took to water like a duck. The
reduction
> in airspeed made aiming bombs all that much easier, but the struts
> eliminated the centerline bomb rack. The ingenious engineers at Fiesler
> created electrically operated bombay doors in the floats themselves,
> allowing the carriage of two 150 kg bombs internally. Unfortunately, these
> electical devices often shorted out when immersed in salt water, causing
the
> bombay doors to open spontaneously. Most JU-87 Zs were lost while
anchored,
> sinking themselves.
>
> ShuttleBug
>
> A large infusion of cash into the European Space Agency in the late 1970s
> led to several unusual designs. Ariane designed the Spaceplane, Britain
> designed the HOTOL spaceplane, and Germany came up with: The ShuttleBug.
> Utilising the natural lifting body shape of the classic original Beetle,
> hypersonic wings and tail were grafted on, an orbital guidance and
steering
> system installed, and a pressure cabin fabricated. The miniscule cargo bay
> could hold a Blaupunkt BP-22GMKFG orbital pre-amp unit, or several cases
of
> Lowenbrau. The two "Bug-o-nauts" were to steer the vehicle to a projected
> rendezvous with an  European Space Platform (ESP), but it never got built.
> Several launches of the ShuttleBug were achieved using the Ariane 4
booster
> system, and while the vehicle performed flawlessly, it eventually was
> relegated to delivering pizzas to the Canadian Space Agency's Orbital
> Hydroponic Growth Research Facility.
>
>
> UGH! That's enough pulling stuff out of my...head! Oh, by the by: At work,
I
> am known under a variety of spurious titles, such as "Front Dweller",
> "Counter Flunky", and "Chunky Boy", but the one that seems the most
> appropriate here is..."Front Monkey!" It seems to be fate to be linked
with
> the Mon-Key!!! Ick!
>
>
> Alvis
>
>
>
>
>