onetrack

I've only just found out that numerous copies of the WW2 magazines in my possession, are available online.

The magazine is the U.S. Army-Navy Journal of Recognition, and it was produced to ensure that soldiers and sailors could identify the difference between friend and foe. "Friendly fire" has cost a lot of lives, in all wars.

[/url]https://archive.org/details/USANJOR194501

Red, I've got quite a few WW2 publications (some Restricted rating), and they have a lot of B&W photos in them, that I could scan, if they suit your purpose. They are not "professional quality", or high resolution, due to Wartime restrictions.

The problem with most WW2 aircraft is that they were under constant and major development, and you can't just produce one photo and say, "This is a Spitfire, or this is a Beaufighter - because the design changes were major and frequent.

Oil dilution is a problem with many modern diesel engines, let alone trying to burn it in a petrol engine. Regular oil testing will show up oil dilution in diesels, diesel in a petrol engine will go past the rings in sizeable quantities.

Fuel containers holding fuel must be under your tight control if you want to ensure fuel integrity. Letting others near your fuel containers, or letting them use your fuel containers, and you don't know what you'll end up with in them.

It's like cutting open drums. I caught an old mate cutting open a 200L oil drum with an oxy-acetylene torch a couple of years ago (because he was scrapping the drum and cutting it up).

I went ballistic, and said to him, "Joe, don't you know how many blokes have been killed cutting open drums with gas axes?"

He protested, and said, "It's O.K., I know its only ever had oil in it!".

And I said, "Yep, you think you know it's only ever had oil in it - but more than one bloke has been in your workshop, and who knows, someone could have tipped a litre of dirty petrol in there!"

"That's all it takes to kill you". He wouldn't believe me, he was older and knew better. Luckily, he was right that one time. He retired not long afterwards and closed his shop, so I was glad for that.

Take your clues on bushing material from vehicle suspension bushings, they take a hiding.

The aftermarket suspension bushing manufacturers use Delrin (cheapest and softest), HDPE - High Density Polyethylene (better), or UHMW - Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (the best).

[/url]https://www.superatv.com/blog/uhmw-bushings-the-ultimate-material-for-better-bushings/

The article below, written by a pilot of a skydiving King Air says W&B are rarely a problem when skydiving with the King Air.

He says most King Airs can handle "up to 15 jumpers" - but then goes on to qualify that statement, with a wide range of variables.

One has to suspect this King Air was near to fully loaded - and with a major fire on impact, it was obviously carrying a substantial amount of fuel.

I understand that the turboprops have a very good record as regards EFATO, with the chances of EFATO with them, being much less than a piston-powered twin.

One has to then suspect pilot error - and we did see a trim error in a King Air recently, that lead to a low-level runway departure, in a very similar fashion to this crash.

[/url]http://diverdriver.com/king-air-90/

Reading the King Air crash reports and the piloting advice, shows that ensuring skydiver clearance to the horizontal stabilizer on exit, is a crucial point, with at least one skydiver fatality from contacting the HS.

But if you watch the video of the "King Air stalls while dropping skydivers", you'll note one skydiver just misses the HS by a hairs breadth on exit - not helped by doing so, with his back to it!

Update - the Hawaii late evening news (10.00PM) is carrying an extended interview with Tim Sakahara from the Hawaii DOT, and he is stating that the crash occurred on takeoff.

Witness video footage of the burning wreckage, apparently taken from the Farrington Hwy that runs parallel to the airfield, appears to show the aircraft wreckage against the airport runway side fence.

Officials are stating that the victims were 6 skydiving company employees and 3 skydiving clients, who were going to carry out tandem jumps.

[/url]https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2019/06/22/authorities-responding-reports-possible-plane-crash-north-shore/

Spacey, you can purchase aftermarket alloy diff housing covers, and transmission pans, with fins cast into them. In the case of the Ford 6R80 transmission, you can purchase a deeper aftermarket oil pan with fins, that holds an additional 3 quarts (2.8L), which reduces transmission operating temperature, not only via the fins, but via the additional oil capacity, as oil does as much cooling as it does lubrication.

rhtrudder - Usually, any coolant leakage past the water pump seal leaves a visible trail, after it's dried. Have you considered that a head gasket may be leaking coolant into the exhaust?

Have you considered doing a static cooling system pressure test to see if there's a pressure drop, and to see if you can spot any leakage? (while the system is pressurised).

Clinton, there could have been a technical problem that required a return to the airfield, before an adequate jump height was achieved.

Witnesses say they sighted the aircraft go down whilst inbound, and it crashed onto a fence, away from the runway. It caught fire upon impact, and there are no survivors from all on board.

[/url]https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/06/21/photo-gallery/9-dead-aircraft-crash-dillingham-airfield/

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/22/us/hawaii-twin-engine-plane-crash/index.html

The new Albuquerque electric buses (from BYD), have been a technical flop, with inadequate range and overheating issues.

[/url]https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/11/21/albuquerques-groundbreaking-bus-project-stalled/

The weight factor of electric motors is why they haven't made inroads into lighter equipment. In locos, weight is a necessity - in everything else, weight reduction is a necessity.

That's what I meant when I was talking about "more efficient" electric motors - motors that are relatively light in weight, as compared to current electric motors.

And on the other hand ... a former Ford CEO, who was a great proponent of EV's when at the helm of Ford, is now saying that the rush to EV's and electric motive power is not going to happen at the speed that everyone is predicting ...

[/url]https://www.autonews.com/executives/former-ford-ceo-says-industry-faces-reckoning-over-ev-goals

The second and third comments under the article are very much on the mark. China is definitely leading the charge to EV development, but there's the worrying factors that China owns and controls the rare earth metals mining and production - and the production of batteries with the current factory numbers, has no hope of meeting the massive demand, if everyone decides they need an EV.

There may be a technological breakthrough in batteries, somewhere, of course - some researcher could possibly produce a battery that is much more energy-intensive, or which only requires simple constituents to manufacture.

But the bottom line is, it's not only battery technology that needs to come up to speed, electric motor development still has a way to go, to increase the electric motors efficiency.

And at the end of the day, electric motors still need magnets, and hi-tech magnets still need rare earth elements.

My gut feeling is, that we will still be relying on hybrids for a couple of decades yet, until EV's start to actually become competitive.

Facthunter, your idea of variable vents/nozzles is workable, I understand the F-35 utilises the concept. However, it would appear to require a lot more power (thrust) than what simple electric-motor-driven ducted fans can produce.

[/url]https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/59848/how-does-the-f-35b-not-flip-over-during-transition

Of course the Elephant suffocated in the cargo pod - the cargo loader should have known, he was supposed to go in the Trunk.

Bruce, there is a range of Speco fuel pressure gauges, but they all read 0-15psi. I have never personally come across a fuel pressure gauge that only reads 0-5psi.

The full range of Speco gauges is in the catalogue link below.

[/url]http://www.speco.com.au/Downloads/SpecoGaugeCatalogue2005b.pdf

What is it about 79 year old male pilots and trees?? Do you have to get to 79, before you can land in trees successfully??

In early September 2017 a twelve-second video clip capturing a 79-year-old Connecticut pilot's incredibly lucky crash was widely disseminated on the internet.

People talked about a lot of things, but notably missing was discussion of what happened in the first place.

How did this guy end up flying into a tree - in a parking lot? And what happened afterwards?

Here is the rest of the story, along with the rest of the video footage, presented together with a collection of accident scene photographs.

Unfortunately, the "story behind the story" isn't nearly as thrilling: This incredible footage only exists because the pilot improperly executed a go-around, after bouncing the pictured Cessna 172P Skyhawk on landing.

The NTSB's accident narrative is incredibly short: "The pilot reported that during touchdown the airplane bounced, and he chose to go-around. He applied full power, set the carburetor heat to cold, and began incrementally retracting the flaps. The airplane drifted left of the runway centerline, towards a parking lot, but was not gaining altitude. The pilot started looking for a spot to execute a forced landing when the airplane impacted a tree and collided with the ground.

The pilot reported no pre-accident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause of this accident to be the pilot's failure to properly execute the go-around, which resulted in the airplane failing to maintain a climb, which resulted in collision with a tree."

One other item of note, as the events described can be clearly seen in this footage: The accident pilot stated that after crashing, "Several individuals appeared within seconds. They lifted the wing and forced the door open. When I exited the plane, I noticed gasoline dripping from the wing." Did I mention that this guy was lucky?

So, how do you get an "electric jet"?? I was under the impression lift or propulsion either came from electric motors driving props or ducted fans, or from jet engines that burn fuel compressed between turbines and compressors.

But an "electric jet" has to be a total misdescription, unless it actually has a jet engine power principle, in the design?

From what I can see of the design, it simply utilises electric motors driving ducted fans. It's a bit of a misnomer to call this design an "electric jet".

Just looking at the design I can immediately see some major design weakness in the hinged arrangement for the motors - a-la F-111 swing-wing boxes - and we all know how bad the calculations were, there.

Currently having an argument about the new Hybrid RAV4's towing ability on another forum. The spec sheet claims 480kg towing ability for the 2WD Hybrid, and 750kg unbraked trailer and 1500kg braked trailer for the AWD.

But another forum user stated the Hybrid is not capable of towing anything, and the Toyota salesman stated outright to him, that it was a waste of time trying to tow anything with the Hybrid, as it wasn't capable enough.

As a result, the forum user purchased a conventional drive RAV4, because he has a need to do some towing. He also stated that Toyota will not supply a towbar for the Hybrid, a claim that I find, a little far-fetched.

I suspect the salesman was trying to steer him away from the RAV4 Hybrid, because demand for the Hybrid has far exceeded Toyota projections.

The factory calculated sales of the Hybrid were going to be 40% of the model range, but it's actually at around 65% on order from the range, and Toyota are stunned by the Hybrid demand, and are having to rejig production levels on the models.

Seem to recall one of the Red Bull flyers did the same aeroplane-submarine stunt, during the Perth display, in 2010? But despite hitting the Swan River wings-level and tail-first, he didn't manage to keep it flying!

[/url]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1266263/Brazilian-pilot-miraculous-escape-plane-crashes-river-Red-Bull-air-race.html

Some of the film footage appears to be post-WW1 civilian use footage, inserted into WW1 footage - as evidenced by the number of civilians climbing aboard, and the footage showing a handbasin for passengers.

I would have liked to have found some footage showing the engine starting procedure for the WW1 RR Eagle engine.

It must have been some kind of remote tool or extended starting arrangement, because I can see no way anyone could pull directly on the props at the height they are mounted at.

I have also been quite surprised at the number and variety of large bombers built during WW1.

We tend to to think of aviation in WW1 being largely dogfights between Sopwiths and Fokkers - but large bombers became prominent in air warfare, particularly in 1917 and 1918.

The Germans had larger bombers than the Handley Page - in the form of the Freidrichshafen and the Gotha - and the Italians had larger bombers again! - in the Caudron and the Caproni models.

But the Italian models appear to have been too late in development to have played any major part in the War.

[/url]https://www.historyhit.com/18-key-bomber-aircraft-from-world-war-one/

G'day all! - I was rather fascinated when I accidentally came across this great little photo of a Handley-Page O/400 being towed by a tiny little Clayton crawler tractor in 1918.

(Credit - U.K. National Archives - "Series: British Photographs of World War I, 1914 - 1918" at catalog.archives.org)

I reflected on the fact that in 1918, both of these machines would have engendered awe in all who watched them perform.

The crawler tractor was a complete novelty in 1918, when horses still ruled for power and pulling, and in a period when even wheeltractors were very primitive.

The Handley Page O/400 was also a totally-awe-inspiring piece of work, a monster in the era, and an exceptional pioneer as regards large aircraft - let alone large military aircraft. It was the largest aircraft ever built in WW1.

It was also some feat to design an aircraft of this size, in that era, with folding wings. To add to the awe, it was capable of carrying 2000lbs of bombs (8 x 250-pounders) - nearly a tonne, a staggering weight to lift into the air in 1916, when it was first put into service.

What is even more amazing is the work done by some very brave people, to solve a major design problem in the Handley Page, whereby the tail developed severe oscillations in flight, threatening to destroy the aircraft.

Kudos has to go to Frederick Lanchester from the National Physics Laboratory, who was called in to try and solve the intractable tail-wagging problem.

It was initially thought that resonance in the fuselage was the problem, but Lanchester proved otherwise by risking his neck as an observer to witness the problem first-hand at 80mph.

Lanchester observed that the tail was twisting by 15° to either side in flight, and deduced that the cause was asymmetric movement of the right and left halves of the elevators, which were not rigidly linked, but connected by long control cables.

He recommended that the halves of the elevators be connected, the elevator balances removed, and further bracing added between the lower longerons and the lower tailplane spar, measures which were wholly successful in eliminating the problem.

Rolls Royce provided the power plants for the Type O, in the form of the first V12 aircraft engine they had ever built. The engine was built to a military order.

The engine was based on the 6 cyl Rolls Royce Silver Ghost car engine, simply by marrying two sixes together on a common crankshaft, lengthening the stroke, and increasing the engine RPM.

The engine initially produced 225HP, but was later uprated to 360HP, with further increased RPM. A total of 4681 of these RR Eagle engines were built, with production only ceasing in 1928.

The even more amazing thing about the Type O is that 657 Type O/400's were built, and they flew for many years after WW1, still performing as transport and VIP aircraft up until the late 1920's.

[/url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handley_Page_Type_O

https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=454

Despite not a single one of these aircraft surviving anywhere, some film footage of them has actually survived (complete with WW1-style stirring music!)

Hello, edsbar - You're supposed to tell us a little about yourself as a newcomer to the forum. Welcome, anyway!

I'll back Skippy on the Speco gauges, they're good, I've used them for many years on ground equipment applications.

Great to see two young blokes with keenness, initiative, and a willingness to do work as lowly as cleaning to earn some $$$'s.

It's also great to see young blokes who can spell properly, write a well-constructed, grammatically-correct post, and also produce a good flyer for their advertising, I wish you well, fellas, you're made of the right stuff.