Recent content by Fatboy Coxy

Hi JoeP, thank you for your reply. Articles on the web covering the Bab's variants don't do enough justice to the naval versions, especially the C5M2. I also think the arrival of the superb Mitsubishi Ki-46 then overshadowed it as a reconnaissance aircraft. I've read through your reviews and in...

Hi slaterat, thank you for the link, a most interesting article, the Vokes air filter does get a 'bad press'

One though did strike me as a negative about the "Pete", was, like all floatplanes, the vulnerability of the float. While you might not shoot the plane down, as it flies into a defensive turn, several bullet holes in the float is going to cause a lot of problems later, potentially sinking her...

Hi Taly01, thank you for this, I'm not trying to promote the 'Pete' as a fantastic plane, but determine what chances of survival it had when attacked by an allied fighter. "The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign" does look like a book I would very much enjoy, as do all the rest of...

Hi Shortround6, yes claiming it as a transport is quite a stretch, unless we have a lost in translation thing from a Japanese document. Obviously working in the Pacific theatre, with a lot of small islands, the need for commanders to move about is greatly facilitated by the seaplane, and perhaps...

Hi Barrett, I've looked up the three pilots you mentioned, and saying they snacked on them is a bit of a stretch for me. I'll say at this point I'm quite ignorant of US aces and their exploits, so I can only go on the little I can read on the internet. Foss clearly was a class above the average...

Hi all, I have been looking at the Mitsubishi F1M Pete, and just how versatile it was. The only real question mark against it for me is its survivability when encountering enemy fighter aircraft. Now traditionally, the Japanese went for very manoeuvrable fighter aircraft, able to out turn...

Hi all, while researching the flight characteristics of the Mitsubishi F1M Pete, I came across the expression having good sound controlling. 'The wings were of a biplane arrangement which added drag but made for excellent lift qualities and sound controlling'...

The world as we know it is entering a much more dangerous age, a pre war ear, is a saying I've picked up on, and its not hard to see. China poses a massive threat to the western way of life, our free market, open society and liberal lifestyles. And at the same time as China grows into a military...

With a cheapness and numbers theme to it

That's some garden, to have a couple of aircraft land in it! Is that a Swordfish in the second photo, and which tent is serving Pimm's?

Ii might just be the light, or angle of photograph, but those two aircraft look to have been given very different camouflage colouring

Hi EwenS, the only exception I know of is HMS Repulse carrying radar sets to the Far East August 1941 30th – At 1000 hours REPULSE, SHEFFIELD and destroyers LIGHTNING, BADSWORTH and VIVACIOUS arrived at Greenock. Whilst at Greenock REPULSE embarked 6 type 286P, air warning, radar sets. One of...

A bit more on that aircraft loss here, 402 Squadron Hurricane IIb Z3424 AE-H Sgt. Jenkin, RAF Hornchurch, near St Omer, France Says that 13 Spitfires and 2 Hurricanes lost this day, that was an expensive Rhubarb!

Hi Shinpachi, I think I have misled us all, what I posted in bold is incorrect, I think the 59th Sentai was equipped with Ki-43 Hayabusa, and flying from Phu Quoc Island, and had to provide fighter cover over Kota Bharu. I also think the 64th Sentai, also out of Phu Quoc, but a different...