posted 01-19- 10:19 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Razer:
my email as been down for the last few days. That plane is pachys not mine.

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The B-26 is yours though, right? If so, I would like to mail you the read-me for it. I'll do the Arado today, and what was that other one, the A-20?

posted 01-19- 12:13 PM               

flynn, just post a msg here.

posted 01-19- 01:34 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Razer:
yes M, the 20 and 26 are mine.

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Ok, put this in the descName:

"Ar 196A-3"

It is an A-3 right? Or are you doing the A-5?

Put this in the descText:

"In 1933 the German Navy looked for a standardized shipboard reconnaissance aircraft. After a brief selection period the RLM (in charge of all airplane production) decided on the He 60 biplane. This was yet another development of a common Heinkel biplane airframe that appeared as a number of floatplanes, and even the He 51 fighter. Deliveries started in a matter of months.

By 1935 it was clear that the performance of the He 60 was lacking, and the RLM asked Heinkel to design its replacement. The result was the He 114. Depending on how you looked at it you could call it a radical sesquiplane, or a parasol monoplane with stubby supports where a lower wing would have been. Any way you looked at it, it was ugly. The first prototype was powered by the DB 600, but production versions used the BMW 132 radial instead.

The plane proved to have only slightly better performance than the He 60, and its sea-handling was atrocious. Rushed modifications resulted in a series of nine prototypes in an attempt to solve some of the problems, but they didn't help much. The Navy eventually gave up, and the planes were later sold off to Rumania, Spain and Sweden.

In October 1936 the RLM asked for a He 114 replacement. The only stipulations were that they would use the BMW 132 engine, and that they wanted prototypes in both twin-float and single-float configurations. Designs were received from Dornier, Gotha, Arado and Focke Wulf - Heinkel sat it out, thinking that the 114 could still be made to work.

With the exception of the Arado design, they were all conventional biplanes. That gave the Arado better performance than any of the other planes, and the RLM ordered four prototypes. However they were also rather conservative, so they also ordered two of the Fw 62 design as a backup. It quickly became clear that the Arado would work fine, and the Fw 62 was built only as the V-1 and V-2 prototypes.

The Ar 169 prototypes were all delivered in summer of 1937, V-1 (which flew in May) and V-2 with twin-floats as A models, and V-3 and V-4 on a single float as B models. Both versions demonstrated excellent water handling, and there seemed to be little to decide one over the other. Since there was a possibility of the smaller outrigger floats on the B models 'digging in', the twin-float A model was ordered into production. A single additional prototype, V-5, was produced in November 1938 to test final changes.

Ten A-0's were delivered in November and December 1938, with a single MG 15 in the rear seat for defense. Five similarly-equipped B-0's were also delivered to land-based squadrons. This was followed by twenty A-1 production models starting in June 1939, enough to equip the surface fleet.

Starting in November production switched to the heavier 'land based' A-2 model. It added shackles for two 50kg bombs, two 20mm MG-FF cannons in the wings, and a 7.92mm MG 17 in the cowling. The A-4 replaced it in December 1940, strengthening the airframe, adding another radio, and switching props to a VDM model. The apparently mis-numbered A-3 replaced that, with additional strengthening of the airframe. The final production version was the A-5 from 1943, which changed radios, cockpit instruments, and switched the rear gun to the much-improved MG 81Z. 541 Ar 196's of all versions (526 production models) were built before production ended in August 1944, about 100 of these from SNCA and Fokker plants.

posted 01-19- 01:40 PM               

B-26B 'Marauder'

Shortly after completing the contest for their 'standard' light bomber, the Air Corps issued Proposal No. 39-640 in March 1939, describing its larger counterpart. The requirements were a bombload of 3000lbs to be carried to a range of 2000 miles, at a top speed of over 300mph and at a service ceiling over 20,000ft. The crew was to be five and armament was four 30cal machine guns. The planes were to be powered by two large engines, either the Pratt & Whitney R-2800, the Wright R-2600, or the Wright R-3350.

Designs were received from Martin, Douglas, Stearman, and North American. All of these were re-workings of designs submitted for earlier 38-385 contest, which had been won by the Douglas DB-7 (the A-20). Two of the designs were considered to be worthy of development; North American's NA-69, largely unchanged from the earlier NA-40 proposal but mounting larger engines, and Martin's Model 179, a more heavily modified version of their earlier Model 139.

Since the Army wanted a high maximum speed, but hadn't specified a landing speed, the Martin team selected a very small 65ft wing for low drag. This resulted in a wing loading of more than 50lbs/ft^2, which was very high for that era. The wing was shoulder-mounted to leave the central fuselage free for bombs, and the fuselage itself was circular. The engines were a pair of 1850hp R-2800's, which were the most powerful engines available at the time. Two-speed superchargers were installed for medium altitude use, and the design used exhaust collectors to drive ejectors for added thrust.

There were two bomb-bays, fore and aft, covered by split doors. Two 2,000lb bombs could be carried alone in the forward bay, but up to 4,800lbs could be carried by putting smaller bombs in both bays. Defensive armament was a 30cal gun in the nose, another in a belly tunnel, a 50cal in the tail, and finally two 50cal guns in a dorsal turret just ahead of the tail. This was the first power-operated turret to be fitted to an American bomber.

The design was completed in June 1939, and the first orders were placed for 201 planes as the B-26 in September. Only a week later another order was placed for the B-26A, which would include armor and self-sealing tanks.

The first B-26 was a production model (there were no prototypes) flew on November 25th, 1940. It flew well and required only very minor changes. All 201 B-26's were delivered by October, when they garnered the name Marauder.

Production then switched to the B-26A. This included the armor and self-sealing tanks, but also added a ferry tank in the rear bomb-bay, and allowed a 22" torpedo to be carried under the fuselage. Many of the existing B-26's were later modified into A models as well.

In May production switched to the B-26B model, which changed the tail to include twin 50's with 800 rounds each. Improvements in the engines allowed for higher weights, and the plane could carry up to 5,200lbs for short hops - if it could be loaded. This would require carrying two 1,600lb bombs in the forward bay, and a 2,000lb 22" torpedo under the fuselage, but it seems this was rarely used.

The short wing with its high loading made for landing speeds of about 130mph, much higher than other planes. All of the early production runs were delivered to experienced squadrons, and no one noticed any problems. But later deliveries were sent to new squadrons, and when new pilots started training on the plane there was a rash of training accidents and crashes. The plane quickly garnered a very bad reputation - civilian ferry pilots refused to fly it, and military pilots tried to get transferred out of B-26 groups.

Production was almost cancelled several times. Martin quickly started working on a number of modifications to slow the landing, including a longer 71ft wing, which also required a taller rudder. But a series of investigations, including one led by Doolittle, concluded that there was nothing wrong with the plane. Training was changed and the problem eventually disappeared.