It seems that I either dash off messages before I get them right, or I
hone them untill they are perfect, and I never get them posted.

First problem with my message was that it was "after the fact".

I have to remember to quit arguing when other people change their
position. Sorry.



On Sat, 06 Jan 2007 05:09:01 GMT, "Overlord"
wrote:

The Pacific was a "sideshow" ???? Tell that to the men who fought there,
including my Grandfather....

No point asking. In "Up Front" Joe says to Willie "I don't give a damn
what they say, this is the most important hole in the world, I am IN
it!"

A side show for deciding which was the best engine.

I was thinking about that, and it is really scary that we came very
close to losing more people in the secondary theater than we did ni
the primary one. Jeeze!

As to the R-2800...

Ask anyone who has ACTUALLY flown a round engine...

Asking anyone who has flown a radial, and only a radial is just the
same as asking the guy if hile is important.

The shake, they leak, and when a cylinder blows completely off they still
get you home. Been there, done that.

The fact of the matter is that both the Packard-Merlin and the P&W-2800 were
excellent engines in their time. Each had it's strong points, and it's
weaknesses.

Ruggedness went to the P&W. Fuel efficiency went to the Merlin. Both powered
excellent aircraft.

Arguements about which machine was best are silly. The real discussioin
should be about which men were the best. Men win wars, machines don't.

As an engineer, I tend to think about machines, and if I think about
men, it is mainly the ones that made the machines!

It is easy to find cases of brave, heroic men who lost because they
had the wrong machines, or had some other "system" failure.

Henry_H.

OL