Two horses Arses

MWadwell wrote:

HamsterDesTodes wrote:quote="Weird Harold"]
AFAIK, no US highways (including Interstates) were used or planned as emergency runways. The Autobahn was designed and constructed with emergency airfields in mind, and reinforced sections of highways designated (and used in exercises) as wartime runways can be found all over Europe. But they are just sections; it isn't economically feasible to build highways entirely to the standards required of runways for jet fighters or bombers.

The Autobahn of Hitler wasnt designed to include wartime airports, airplanes had too low a range and of course nobody would ever need to fight in Germany itself, so why go to the effort? Thre were some build as an emergency measure during the later part, but that wasnt part of the original design so Eisenhower hopefully wasnt inspired by it.

A bit of trivia: Ramstein airbase is build on such an emergency airport. Today the rebuilt Autobahn leads in a large halfcircle around it.

(SNIP)

True - Also one thing to consider, is that due to the narrow width of the undercarriage, a lot of WW2 fighter aircraft (i.e. Me-109 and Spitfires) could not land or takeoff with any kind of cross wind.

For these airfraft, the best airfield was actually a large paddock.....[/quote]


Why do you think that most of the RAF fighter bases were grass fields during BoB. They had several advantages like mass take off in scrambling aircraft, tough to knock out (no concrete runways), soft landing for battle damaged aircraft


A little trivia.

What was unusual about Wing Commander Douglas Bader?

saber964 wrote:...snip...

A little trivia.

What was unusual about Wing Commander Douglas Bader?

He screwed up royally in the early '30's and they still let him fly in the war?

He was a serious golf fanatic?

Probably the luckiest man to live? I mean seriously the guy fell into more piles than seemed humanly possible and ended up smelling like a florist shop.

Have fun,
T2M

PS. I did read his biography or autobiography back a ways. Long enough ago that I can't remember which it was or the title.

Hi Thinks too much, Saber964,

The book title was Reach For the Sky, 1954.

Essentially he lost both his lower legs in a December 1931 low altitude air loop accident in an unfamiliar heavier aircraft [he was part of the then RAF demonstration team], he was expected to die but was far too ornery to die so easily, not only lived but met and married a very pretty waitress he met while supposedly still recovering, and proceeded to prove he was at least as good a pilot as before, easily re-qualifying for the RAF, but because they had no regulation covering such a situation insisted on retiring him.

He took up golf, and at one point despite the possible risk to his back, had one artificial leg shortened to improve his swing, until he no longer needed the apparent advantage of swinging uphill.

That is until WW2, when he was allowed to return and made a squadron leader of 242 [Canadian], and scored his first victories over Dunkirk and pushed the "big wing" eventually finishing with 5 squadrons at the end of the BoB, some crediting him with making a significant contribution to the September 15th victory.

It was argued then that he could pull tighter turns than regular pilots because of the loss of his lower legs, he could take more 'G's'.

Possibly accidentally shot down over France by another Spitfire, he met Adolf Galland, escaped from the hospital and proceeded to attempt escapes from every POW camp including Stalag Luft IIIB [scene of the Great Escape and met his future biographer, Paul Brickhill], as well as delight in 'goon-baiting'; eventually winding up in Colditz where he and the rest of the camp POW's were eventually freed by the US First Army April 15, 1945.

Is that close enough?

L

thinkstoomuch wrote:

saber964 wrote:...snip...

A little trivia.

What was unusual about Wing Commander Douglas Bader?

He screwed up royally in the early '30's and they still let him fly in the war?

He was a serious golf fanatic?

Probably the luckiest man to live? I mean seriously the guy fell into more piles than seemed humanly possible and ended up smelling like a florist shop.

Have fun,
T2M

PS. I did read his biography or autobiography back a ways. Long enough ago that I can't remember which it was or the title.

thinkstoomuch wrote:

saber964 wrote:...snip...

A little trivia.

What was unusual about Wing Commander Douglas Bader?

He screwed up royally in the early '30's and they still let him fly in the war?

He was a serious golf fanatic?

Probably the luckiest man to live? I mean seriously the guy fell into more piles than seemed humanly possible and ended up smelling like a florist shop.

Have fun,
T2M

PS. I did read his biography or autobiography back a ways. Long enough ago that I can't remember which it was or the title.

He screwed up in the early 1930's, losing both of his legs as a result of crashing while trying to fly some stunts. (Losing one leg just above the knee, the other just below the knee.) As a result, he got forceably retired from the RAF.

After the start of WW2, he sucessfully passed his flight certification, and was granted access back into the RAF.

He was given command of a squadron of Spitfires in 12 Group during the Battle of Britain, where he was a strong advocate of the "Big Wing" theory (and as a result, was peripherily responsible for the shameful treatment of Keith Parks after he had won the Battle of Britain).

In 1941, he was shot down and captured, and spent the rest of the war as a POW.


So, it was a screwup, followed by smelling like roses, followed by another screw up, followed by ending up with his own rose shop....


I read one of his bio's - "Reach for the Sky" by Paul Brickhill about 25 years ago....

MTT while waiting to ambush Bishop Militant Cahnyr’s scouts...

Corporal Wahlys Hahndail "Hey Zhedryk, did you know that road widths are a standard dragon's arse wide?"

Private Zhedryk Lycahn "Ha ha, oh yeah? Hey how many inquisitors does it take to change an oil lamp?"

Rob Mac F wrote::lol:

MTT while waiting to ambush Bishop Militant Cahnyr’s scouts...

Corporal Wahlys Hahndail "Hey Zhedryk, did you know that road widths are a standard dragon's arse wide?"

Private Zhedryk Lycahn "Ha ha, oh yeah? Hey how many inquisitors does it take to change an oil lamp?"

I love all the posts so far but here is a guy who gets where I was going with it.

Cheers to Rob Mac F

Yep it was Reach for the Sky. It was both a book and a movie. I still have a copy of the book. What was unusual about him was the fact that he had lost both of his legs. He also had 22 confirmed kills and more than 35 probables. He also had a talent for spotting future leaders. IIRC he nurtured the early careers of 11 Squadron Commanders, 6 Wing Commanders and 4 Group Captains.

lyonheart wrote:Hi Jeff Engel,

Size certainly matters, especially for fear mongering as you pointed out so well.

Then again, having the biggest 'the best', or the most, has always been important to the Russians, especially with their inferiority complexes, which had a lot to do with their holding on to the monsters, however obsolete they may have been by more modern insights of even Russian analysts, then finally for their bargaining value in all the various treaties.

Also retaining big honking warheads, even as ICMBs get more accurate, gives you a better chance of killing more protected / buried targets like Cheyenne Mountain (NORAD), the congressional bunker at Greenbrier, or the ICBM silos (to degrade confidence in saving them for a second strike scenario).

So there's some practical reasons to retain them even when improved accuracy renders them excessive for simple city busting.

Jonathan_S wrote:

lyonheart wrote:Hi Jeff Engel,

Size certainly matters, especially for fear mongering as you pointed out so well.

Then again, having the biggest 'the best', or the most, has always been important to the Russians, especially with their inferiority complexes, which had a lot to do with their holding on to the monsters, however obsolete they may have been by more modern insights of even Russian analysts, then finally for their bargaining value in all the various treaties.

Also retaining big honking warheads, even as ICMBs get more accurate, gives you a better chance of killing more protected / buried targets like Cheyenne Mountain (NORAD), the congressional bunker at Greenbrier, or the ICBM silos (to degrade confidence in saving them for a second strike scenario).

So there's some practical reasons to retain them even when improved accuracy renders them excessive for simple city busting.

Of course having your warhead survive impact with the ground helps too. Most nukes are designed for airburst or surface detonation, very few are designed to survive hitting granite (nukes are very sensitive to changes in internal geometry). There is a big difference in blowing a crater in a coral atoll and digging a hole in basalt or granite. That said, a 250Mt bomb (Tsar Bomba design size (test version was 50Mt)) is unhealthy to be around from a ground shock and radiation fallout perspective. (Bigger than 250Mt is irrelevant - the debris and atmosphere above exceeds escape velocity so the ground blast and crater gets no bigger because one side is vented to outer space (which is one place kinetic bombardment differs)). Many smaller bombs actually gives you more bang for the buck (and makes interception harder - BTW you realize the Russians have anti-ballistic missiles surrounding Moscow)(which is why the US and Britain went to MIRV - multiple independent reentry vehicles).