Recent content by MIflyer

You can download a copy of the Spit 21 pilot's notes here: http://aviationarchives.blogspot.com/

The gun camera looked similar to this one.

And the BF-108.

Here are some scans from the book Tigers Over China showing details of the Flying Tiger's Hawk 81A gunsights that I had not seen before. I've never seen gunsights like these before. I assumed they only had the ring-and-bead type.

I got a letter from my home insurance company. They are not renewing my policy. Well, good! I will just go without. Cost had tripled over the past few years. House was paid off decades ago. Liability lawsuits can be handled with the proper application of lead and brass. Screw'em!

Logic is not a feature of those kind of people.

In a given barrel of crude oil, considerably more gasoline will be produced than diesel, kerosene, Jet-A, etc. The reason the USAF went to JP-4, a mixture of gasoline and kerosene, instead of 100% kerosene JP-1 was because using just the kerosene would create a problem with what to do with the...

"Hold My Beer!"

"We have liftoff!"

Yes, no doubt for survivors' benefits. I am aware of a USAF captain who died quite suddenly while TDY and was retired posthumously because of that.

I was at the Pentagon when Cheney was SecDef. It was hard to get through to him. He issued a policy that said that BEFORE a service sent him OR one of his deputies a letter he wanted them to get coordination from the Deputy to who it was directed. Okay, so you basically had to get concurrence...

I have a book that has a picture of a US Army tank destroyer unit moving through Germany late in the war. One of their guns was being towed by an STG III. I guess having a roof over your head was a nice thing in the German winter and thus beat the heck out of a US half track, even if you did...

I was surprised to read that when US troops overran operational German artillery they used it until they ran out of ammo. A cannon is a cannon and figuring out the range info was not hard to do. They would not have used the radios, though. Frequencies were wrong.

It was shoved down the USAF's throat as well. Lemay favored the Boeing design but it was only about 25% common between the USAF and USN design. The GD design was more like 75% common and thus got the nod, not to mention it being built in Texas, which made Johnson happy. The Super Weight...

It accompanied a Youtube item on US survivors of the Hurtgen Forest being deployed to the Ardennes in early December 1944.