Recent content by Icorps1970

Question(s). Was not the R2800 in the P-47 making peak power well over 2000 by mid/late 1943? Did not P&W run it on test stands at very high power outputs 3000 or so for hours continous?. Now cooling would be an issue in cowled engines, I don’t know how the engine stand engines were cooled. But...

In talking to an 8th AF B17 pilot some years ago he told me that, 1. They lied to the public about the losses. 2. The B-17 was slower than advertised and 3. He would not fly a B24 at all. Given #1 I would think ALL the loss figures were skewed. Did they “keep two sets of books”? Did they correct...

The P-51 had its good points too and was a fine fighter so the P47 did not out perform it in all respects and Greg explains this in both the speed and the climb performance videos And maybe in “maneuvering”. But he does point out, correctly that the P-47 was responsible for crippling the...

By the time the P-47 was in service they had a 200 gallon belly tank COMPLETELY tested to 30000 ft. ALL P-47s except the first 173 aircraft were equipped for drop tanks and there was that tested 200 gallon tank. But ARNOLD wrote an order in 1939 SPECIFICALLY banning drop tanks on fighters. It...

Some years ago I talked to a B-17 pilot, 8th AF. He told me some Interesting things. Such as the Landcaster being much faster. He also told me be would not even fly a Liberator. Thought they were dangerous. But we need to remember what the B-17 and B-24 raids over Germany were REALLY about...

I doubt they could get the Germany with that bomb load. So what they could CARRY and what was practical is two different things. The B-17 was probably the best heavy in Europe. But it was not a super bomber.

I think you might look to the damage the P-47 did to the Luftwaffe BEFORE the P-51d was in theater which prevented any Luftwaffe interference with the D-Day landings. I would also recommend a youtube video I recommend ALL of Greg's videos on WW-II aircraft. HE did a whole series on the P-47...

They were at least once launched with fuel and ammo to drive off attacking Japanese planes then flown on to their destination when the enemy was cleared. The P-47 could be and was catapult launched. I have seen a photo of a TBM/TBF being launched out the side of a hanger deck.

First by the time the P-51D was in service in Europe the standard fuel for US fighter A/C was 150 octane not 130. So a test with 130 octane was irrelevant especially if they did not run the full MP the 130 could tolerate. AND the 801 was a low altitude engine and once above its critical altitude...

Once the United States entered the war the Axis was doomed. Did not matter what they had access to. The problem with German aircraft was fuel not alloys. They had no way to make 150 octane fuel. Though their turbine engines would have been better perhaps with better alloys. Then there was pilot...

Exactly. Japan lost everything with the first A/C attack on Pearl Harbor. There was no way for them to win. By the time the first bomb fell we already had enough naval power in the water or keels laid/on order to take back the Pacific. And that was just the start. This was demonstrated when the...

What you expect has little to do with what really happened. Someone sent him out there so he went.

It was not necessary to sustain the load, just achieve it, no pilot in WW-II is going sustain 6-8 gs for any length of time. While the official version was "turbulence" Robert S. Johnson stated that Zemke "pulled the wings off his P51". I suspect that he got this direct from Zemke after the war...

I started flight school in 1971 when I got out of the Army and spins were not taught then. Don't know when it was dropped. When I was flying it was illegal to do them in an a/c not certified for acrobatics. But CFI candidates had to do a 3 turn spin and recover and have it in the log so...

Its considered an acrobatic maneuver by the FAA. When I was teaching people in Cessna 150, 152, 172 they ALL knew spin recovery. Though the 172 generally needed a shot of power and rudder to start otherwise would just rumble. CFI required a 3 turn spin and recovery in the log book, but its not...