Good book about the Southwest Pacific air war- Fire in the Sky, by Eric Bergerud. Now I appreciate all that Corsair weathering after reading the description of a typical airstrip. -- Jim Atkins Twentynine Palms CA USA "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark...

Just wanted to say thanks for writing a great book- a week ago I picked it up in a bookstore on my way to Arizona. My mom was operated on for lung cancer- took three hours. I was reading WTR the whole time and was totally engrossed, with no time to worry. I'd call that some pretty good...

Lots of air traffic around here all the time (Hornets, 53Es, Cobras) and I was thinking about getting a scanner to listen in to the traffic up on the base (Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, if you don't recognize the line in my sig). Any recommendations on a scanner that will hit military...

The two engines (P&W and GE) have different requirements for mass flow of air, hence the Big Mouth intake. BTW, it's not that much bigger- you'd have to be looking pretty close to tell the difference. -- Jim Atkins Twentynine Palms CA USA "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of...

there is a Detail and Scale book you might be able to get from Hannants or Squadron that has lots of pictures- might also try searching eBay. Oh- the other guy was right- use rec.models.scale for questions like this. It's a much friendlier and incredibly helpful group. I guess most of the...

Ever seen Stan Piel's book on the Martin Seamaster? Excellent stuff on how they would have supported the squadrons. Beautiful plane, too. BTW, if you want to see a Sea Dart, one is at the San Diego Aerospace Museum. Definitely worth the trip. One of my favorite things is taking the harbor cruise-...

There was a camp in Phoenix- some of the German POWs heard that they were not too far from the Salt River, so they put together some kind of raft and got through the wire. Imagine their disappointment at reaching the rock-strewn ditch that passes for a river in Arizona. Incidentally, they...

Just looking at a copy of "Into the Sunset", a history of Convair/GD operations in San Diego. They have a story about one of their test pilots, an ex-Navy man, doing some kind of B-24 test off the coast when he spots a carrier. He lowers the flaps and gear and turns downwind into the...

Interesting article. Hope the link works, haven't tried this before ;-) JB http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,470932,00.html

Seeing a couple fly over one at a time this weekend leads me to ask: Is there any easy way to tell a plain-old Hornet from a Super-hornet if it's alone in the sky? I know the E/F's are bigger, but, that ain't much help without the other one next to it. Is this one where you just have to really...

I heard that the Comanche helo development program had been cancelled, even though the development phase was nearly over, and many billions have been spent. Just got too expensive. Is this true?

I am doing research for a book detailing aircraft accidents in North Tynedale and Redesdale, Northumberland, UK and I am trying to identify a Hurricane that made a forced landing behind Rochester village during WWII. I have searched nearly all of the Air Britain Serial Number publications for a...

I'm not sure if this is the right group to be asking this question. If not, please direct me to the right one. Anyway, were the following books ever published by Aerofax? Minigraph 6: Boeing B-52 G/H Minigraph 10: Rockwell International Space Shuttle Minigraph 11: Lockheed P-3 Variants Minigraph...

Did the HS-117 ever have any accredited kills? I know it wasn't used operationally, but after a number of test launches the Germans must've tried it against a 'live' drone of some kind? I wonder how accurate a radio controlled SAM could be if the operator is staring through a telescopic sight at a...

Can anyone help me with a few quite specific details of the C-17? I'm really desperately in need of some help on this one! For the tail: dCL/da for the horizontal tail plane de/da (i.e. wing induced downwash at the horizontal tail plane) For the undercarriage: Any details as to how the MLG...

Has anyone noticed the Union Flags on the RAF's C-17's? Is it me, or are those on the starboard forward fuselage upside-down?! May be they're in distress? Jim D

Just yesterday a friend asked me if there were stability issues during the design of the Tu-20. This was on account of its extremely long and slender fuselage which obviously presents a huge mmt arm. I though maybe cruise/drag considerations or structure limitations may have been the rationale...

Hello all, Just a quick question - do any aircraft have slats installed on the leading edge of the horizontal tailplane? Rather like slats would be used on the main wing section but - instead of providing helpful lift - they're just to counter a very large pitching moment on approach when...

I found this earlier today, it may not be new to yourselves - but the thought of some pigeon tapping away frantically inside a speeding missile had me in stiches! http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m3161/24_47/57843983/p1/article.jhtml Hope it tickles something, Jim Doyle

Recently I've been reading about the UK BVRAAM project. One question really: Originally it had four mid-fuselage wings for manoeuvrability, now it has none. This seems a little odd, since it makes sense that the more agile missile will have a greater number of control surfaces. Since then I've...