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Speaking of Merlin engines and Spitfires, I once lent out a book with a whole bunch of Pilot Officer Prune cartoons in it from WWII era, but never got it back. I always thought those cartoons were excellent. The book had an excerpt from the RAF Pilot's handbook from the mid-1930's which stated something like 'if you are to crash land - pick the softest, cheapest crash site'.
Pilot Officer Prune says 'A good landing is one you can walk away from'.
I don't think any Merlin engines supported contra-rotating props, although as noted above some reverse rotating props were made for twins. The Spitfires with contra-rotating props had Griffons.
(The Griffon was a much larger capacity engine than the Merlin, but same external size, and was designed as a drop in more powerful replacement in 1940, but did not catch up to the Merlin in power output until 1945.)
I always remember the Short Sturgeon as a nice looking aircraft, that went from sleek...
Attachment 171832
...to not so sleek...
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Originally Posted by V8Ian
You heard that? OMFG! :wub:
She did say something about providing I do not have to claw my way past Miss Moneypenny's skirt to the Spitfire Stolen Specs. cupboard under her desk though.
Devious? I can do that.[bigrolf]
Sgd. James 3.
And then nearly back again to a Droopnose ASW Rotary wing. Should have been named the Short Sea Elephant.Quote:
Originally Posted by cripesamighty
Quote:
Originally Posted by cripesamighty
Don't talk to me about lending aircraft Books!:bat::bat::bat: By pure chance I found a brand new Lancaster Hardcover book on an ABC book stall. A4 Size with oodles of B&W images of the time. Excellent price as well.
So what did I do? Being tre tre generous beyond belie,f I loaned it to an ex RAAF Lanc crew member client of mine. Never had time to even note my contact details in it. Time went on & I think he probably died, house cleared, no name or phone no. so bye bye book.
I had it for so short a time so never even recorded the title of it. Have you ever tried to locate a book that you don't know the title of? Bloody difficult I can assure you. Searches turn up thousands but you never recognise the title.
Only in special circumstances will I lend a book these days & only to special people.:rulez: Then they have to forcibly be fitted with Prison GPS Bracelets.
[bigrolf]
I knew they had contra rotating props in the end, but have obviously forgotten about the engine change.Quote:
Originally Posted by cripesamighty
It'd be 40 years since I read the book.
They did get bigger rudders.................. all the mods are listed here:
Supermarine Spitfire (late Merlin-powered variants) - Wikipedia
Mrs 4B could read it to her beloved in bed tonight. [biggrin]
cheers, DL
I know what you mean. Gone are my school days decades ago when I had a bunch of aviation reference books memorised from cover to cover!
A great landing is being able to use the 'plane again tomorrow...Quote:
Originally Posted by cripesamighty
A
