Airplane Pics

[Ridge]

Oh, you're right! Didn't even think about it, I just assumed it had a traditional cockpit glass layout.

[flogger]

As cool as it is, given the technology of the time, that is one ugly airplane. Eye of the beholder I guess.

[Ridge]

Wiki says it was the first of it's kind in many fields and made just about every other bomber obsolete. So yeah, ugly, but revolutionary.

The B-10 began a revolution in bomber design. Its all-metal monoplane airframe, along with its features of closed cockpits, rotating gun turrets (almost simultaneously with the 1933 British Boulton & Paul Overstrand biplane bomber's own enclosed nose-turret), retractable landing gear, internal bomb bay, and full engine cowlings, would become the standard for bomber designs worldwide for decades.

[flogger]

[flogger]

Checkout the cockpit location.

This thing was a monster.

[arbol]

Larry, we're going to need you to scooch back a bit. A little bit more. A little bit more. Yes there.

Steady, steady. Good!

Larry?

[flogger]

I like the rope on the tail, that'll help get it down.

[flogger]

[FoxtArt]

A-10s granddad:



Side note that I find fascinating. These were using tungsten tipped 40mm, I am fairly sure lowly 30-06AP also has a tungsten penetrator from that era and is rated for something like 1/4" of plate.

Yet, I've heard many reports that USGI .50 AP is just used a hardened steel penetrator, which doesn't do much better than 30-06AP for pen until you get to something modern like the SLAP... that simply uses saboted 30 caliber solid tungsten.

Makes me wonder how well simple .50 AP off a plane would've performed against light and medium armor if they had used a better projectiles at the time. Most armor wasn't very thick, and an extra 200-350mph (~500fps) can't hurt.

I also bet that many pilots hated the lumbering performance and 15 round capacity, slow rate of fire on the hurricanes. For a comparative, the crews of B-25G's here often just pulled the 75mm and modified them back into forward firing 50 caliber platforms, simply because the ROF was crap - firing a single 75mm round or two at most on a strafing run isn't that great for effectiveness.

Side note: I had an uncle that flew and fired a B25G among many others for the record - but not in combat. He said it shook the hell out of the plane when you fired, didn't feel like it should be there.

SOMEDAY, I will scan his albums - probably inside of a couple years. He was originally US Calvary at the opening stages of WWII, then went into the air core, became a delivery pilot, flying nearly everything we had. Stayed in the air core / force through the berlin airlift and on awhile after that. 2 albums full of plane photos.

[flogger]

Great vid FoxtArt!
Love to see any images from the albums you mentioned, we are lucky some of these guys took pictures of what was going on in their lives back then, waited for the film to be processed and construct a photo album.