Just out of curiosity - Airplane Guys

The airframe fitters loved the Hurri, as it was so easy to repair. The Spit, on the other hand, was a total bitch to fix, with panels needing to be removed laboriously, damage fixed internally, then panels laboriously fixed back on.

Can't find it just now but I know I read somewhere that the cobby Hurricane shot down more enemy aircraft during the Battle of Britain than it's glamorous Spitfire co-worker.
 
I have also seen the data showing how well the Hurricane did. I also read that the Spitfire superseded the Hurricane because it was a more modern design and better suited to upgrading.
 
Again, don't have the citation to hand, but I believe the Spitfire was the only plane anywhere which was in mass production prior to the start of WW11 - that's September 1939 BTW - and still in mass production at the end of the war.
 
Of course, production ended due to management problems and a sharp drop in customer interest in April 1945......

I've heard they couldn't get the staff. Or the parts. Or the fuel.

But I'm sure the fascist regime in Spain used the Bf109 or a derivative in the decades after the war? Surviving examples of Spanish Mes went on to have a second career in war films. Though teenage boys who made Airfix models - me - always muttered in disgust 'That's not a Me Bf109G!'
 
I have a question for you guys
I've been on a few commercial jets and when they land do they use reserve thrust to slow the plane down or just lay on the brakes
It sounds like the engine just roars once they get on the ground
 
I have a question for you guys
I've been on a few commercial jets and when they land do they use reserve thrust to slow the plane down or just lay on the brakes
It sounds like the engine just roars once they get on the ground
Yeah... brakes alone won't do. Thrust reversers are used.
 
I've heard they couldn't get the staff. Or the parts. Or the fuel.

But I'm sure the fascist regime in Spain used the Bf109 or a derivative in the decades after the war? Surviving examples of Spanish Mes went on to have a second career in war films. Though teenage boys who made Airfix models - me - always muttered in disgust 'That's not a Me Bf109G!'
The Hispano built 109 (don't remember their designation) was produced up into the mid 50's. Without looking it up, I think they served on active duty up to the early 60's
 
That's what I thought
Could those reverse thruster ever engage during flight by accident ?
Thanks
Extremely rare for that to happen. In the early 90's, a 767 operated by Lauda Air (Niki Lauda of Formula One fame) went down because a reverser deployed in flight. Killed everyone aboard. We had to do a mod on all 767's after that was pretty involved... took several hundred man-hours iirc. It added lockouts upon more lockouts. We had one deploy on a 727 I was a flight mech on. Since the engines were in the back instead of on the wings, we had plenty of time to deal with it. We shut that engine down and pressed on. Like I said... a tough, well built airplane. :D

Other than that, I don't recall any reversers deploying in-flt.
 
Extremely rare for that to happen. In the early 90's, a 767 operated by Lauda Air (Niki Lauda of Formula One fame) went down because a reverser deployed in flight. Killed everyone aboard. We had to do a mod on all 767's after that was pretty involved... took several hundred man-hours iirc. It added lockouts upon more lockouts. We had one deploy on a 727 I was a flight mech on. Since the engines were in the back instead of on the wings, we had plenty of time to deal with it. We shut that engine down and pressed on. Like I said... a tough, well built airplane. :D
Other than that, I don't recall any reversers deploying in-flt.[/QUOTE

Ya that would be one hell of ride if that happened
Thanks again
Now if I could only fly again I was hoping this coming March being able to see the Twins or the Royals in spring training but were not in a big hurry this time around
 
Wasn't there a hostile takeover involved?

Raymond and Jim are dead right on this. The Bf109 was built for a time after war in both Spain and Czechoslovakia. I think that the Czech planes used leftover Jumo 211 engines and for sure, the Spanish planes used Rolls Royce Merlins. Spain also operated a gaggle of He111 medium bombers (known there as the CASA C2.111) that were RR Merlin-powered as well. The photos below shows an original Junkers Jumo-engined Heinkel He111 in Spanish colours (with a flexible fuel bladder lying on the ground under the wing) and below that, two Merlin-powered CASA C2.111s as used in the film - painted in Luftwaffe colours. The rest of the aircraft is the same, but the engine cowlings are entirely different.
CASA-C-2.111-B2H-49-Spanish-AF-11-Escuadron-11x8-cn-049-Spain-1952-01.jpg

P130_two_HE-111s_in_flight.jpg


The Spanish planes (the fighters and the bombers) were indeed used in the 1969-70 (??) movie The Battle of Britain - and many of those aircraft survive to this day. In fact, one of the Spanish He111s from the film is based at an airport in suburban Los Angeles (Long Beach perhaps...?).

The fighters were called (I think) Ha1112 Bichons and were reportedly even nastier to fly than the original Messerschmitt version - because for one thing, the Merlin turns in the opposite direction from the original D-B engines and also, the thrust line of the RR was higher plus it was heavier (both of which interacted with the tail controls in an unfortunate way). On the other hand, the Merlin-powered bombers reportedly flew about the same as the original Jumo-engined variants.

Identifiers are that the Merlin-engined planes had their exhaust manifolds much higher on the cowl and had a radiator under the engine (somewhat like a P40) while on the D-B and Jumo-engined planes, the radiators were under the wing roots (as on a Spitfire). This is because the German V12s were all inverted with the crankshaft running at the top of the engine and the heads at the bottom. The Spanish fighters also used four-bladed props while no production-model Messerschmitt ever had more than three blades. In the two photos, the upper one is of a D-B engined Messerschmitt Bf109 G-10 while the lower photo shows a Spanish Merlin-engined Ha1112 in German colours.
180809-F-IO108-001.JPG


messerschmitt-bf-109-1.jpg


The Messerschmitt Bf109 really is an incredibly small airplane (much smaller than the Spitfire, Hurricane, FW190 or Mustang) and these changes made an already challenging airplane, even trickier.
 
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Extremely rare for that to happen. In the early 90's, a 767 operated by Lauda Air (Niki Lauda of Formula One fame) went down because a reverser deployed in flight. Killed everyone aboard. We had to do a mod on all 767's after that was pretty involved... took several hundred man-hours iirc. It added lockouts upon more lockouts. We had one deploy on a 727 I was a flight mech on. Since the engines were in the back instead of on the wings, we had plenty of time to deal with it. We shut that engine down and pressed on. Like I said... a tough, well built airplane. :D

Other than that, I don't recall any reversers deploying in-flt.
There was a fatal accident in Cranbrook in 1978. Not a case of accidental deployment. A 737 tried to abort landing after the reverse thrusters were deployed. One thruster was retracted, the other remained deployed.
 
Used to work in Camberley, on the Surrey-Hampshire border.

This must have been the early 1990s? Came out of work one day, about 5pm, headed down London Road and to my surprise - that's British understatement - met a B2 bomber coming the other way. Well, no, he wasn't taxying up London Road. Just flying up along that route at a surprisingly low altitude. Seemed to be just above the rooftops.

That's the only time I've seen a flying wing aircraft and seeing that picture of the YB49 kind of brought it back.

I should mention that where I was on London Road is about five miles from Farnborough airbase, next day was the start of the Farnborough airshow, and that year the B2 made an unannounced appearance. The show is perhaps the world's premier international show for military aircraft.
 
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