Howdy All,

On the coattails of a couple of other 'JEOPARDY' style threads going on at the moment, I thought I'd take a shot at giving you Aircraft buggers a chance to show your 'nickel' knowledge of Aircraft and it's related subject's.....

As before, I really feel that we ALL benefit from the sharing of this information. And what better why to do it than in a fun, friendly forum like this.

So, as usual I will start it off with an easy one........

The British Supermarine Spitfire was an enormously popular, and successful aircraft. It performed even better than the designers had planned. But.....it did have one life-threatening design fault that the pilots of these aircraft had to learn to deal with.......what was that design fault?

And for a bonus, what did they do to overcome it?

Tread.

Was it that the landing gear was very narrow,thus could cause the plane to tip over when landing?
As for the cure the only one i know is that pilots trained on the Hurricane first. But thats a modern cure as far as i know?

What was lack of fuel-injection.....????

I agree with Grumpy, the lack of fuel injection meant if negative gee was applied the engine was starved of fuel and lost power. The pilots learned that when the Bf109s pushed over into a dive they had to roll inverted and pull back on the stick to follow their intended target.

One potentailly fatal design flaw that was rectified after the prototype crashed was the seat harness attachment point. It originally passed below the radio antenna bracket behind the cockpit. When the prototype crashed and flipped onto its back the pilot was killed when the antenna was pushed into the fuselage, it pushed down onto the harness causing it to pull too tight. The pilot's neck was broken!

"....What was lack of fuel-injection.....????....."

Grumpy got it. (big surprise ).
But Martin really expanded on the answer with a bit more 'meat'.

So, you both actaully share the answer.....

O.K. Dave, Martin.......which one wants to take a turn first?

If not, I can always ask another...............now, don't force me to come up with a crummy question fellas......

Tread.

O.K..........you asked for it. Since no one's going to step up to the plate and field a new question... ...I guess I'll do it.

Here's one for both the Aircraft guys and the Warship fellas......

What was the first-ever successful shipboard takeoff of a powered aircraft?
Bonus points for you if you can name the pilot or the ship it happened on.......

And for those of you book worms who may think the question too easy.......how about this follow-up 'lightening round' question?...
What was the first-ever successful shipboard landing in a powered aricraft? Again, bonuses if you can also name either the pilot or the ship it took place on......

Tread.

And for those really feelin' yer oats.....

What was the first US destroyer-type vessel to carry an aircraft?

....{he he he.......}

Okay here goes ?
First powered take-off
What was "November 14, 1910, from the USS Birmingham, by Eugene Burton Ely (1886-1911)" ?
First powered landing
What was "January 18, 1911, on the USS Pennsylvania, by same pilot as question one."?
First destroyer-like ship to carry aircraft
What is the "USS USS Bagley (TB-24)"?

Ooooooooooooweeeeeeeee Chuck!.....u da man.

You even got Mr. Ely's middle name correct...nice one pard'

But now, as a reward for your wonderful cerebral efforts, you get to field the next trivia 'stomper'..........

We're listeninnnnnnng.

Tread.

Okay, But mine is fairly easy, i think.

What Fighter airframe was the basis for both the LaGG-3 and the KI-61 Hien ? Give Country of origin and Original fighter's designation.

PS - Gordon the Internet makes everything too easy. :-)

Lagg-3 was an improvement of Lagg-1 (Russian).

Ki-61 Hien "Tony" has an HA-40 inline engine, a license built DB601A engine. Many have claimed that this aircraft was based on the Me-109E (Germany). It was first thought as a copy of MC-202 (Italy). Hence the code name "Tony". Japan obtained an He-112B and Me-109E (Germany) for evaluation. The Ki-61 was an improved version of Ki-60.

Defcon1 - Yes they both had earlier models but the airframe design was a continuation of the aircraft in question. Powerplant upgrades were the major changes. Both the Lagg and Hien trace their lineage back to the same airframe, which Russia and Japan purchased all the prototypes of. The only existing "original" I was able to locate is in a Russian Museum, though there are a few "copies" out there today.

Sorry neither the Me-109 or the He-112, try again.

It's the Heinkel HE-100 is it?

Defcon1 - BINGO, your turn. Even though the Luftwaffe never adopted it , they approved the export of the design to both Russia and Japan. Poor little thing never fired a shot in anger. :-)

Very easy WW2 Question. How many propeller blades has the Bf-109 Dora has?

Drei?

109 'Dora' ?

Ein, zwei, drei?...Zwei!

Yes, Dora.

Bf-109D is in Dora....like Fw-190D, Ju-87D, Bf-110D....

Dora is a German phonetic like A = Alpha, B = Bravo, C=Charlie...

German phonetic
A= Anton
B= Bertha
C= (I don't remember this one)
D=Dora
E=Emil
F=Friedrich
G=Gustav.

I've seen C stand for Clara... I don't if that's right though...

All the best

Rowan

Sorry, just clarifing since the 190 is more commonly known as a 'Dora'

No worries, Chuck. I understand. Many people refers to Emil, Friedrich and Gustav for Bf-109 only.

LOL! Amid the flurry of Claras and Doras...a 2-blade prop for the Dora?

All the best

Rowan

Correct. Your turn Rowan. Make another question.

DOHH! Back in a minute!

Back again

OK - "Chuck" Yeager broke the sound barrier in October 1947, but the Soviets claimed to have exceeded the speed of sound in May of the same year. If their claim was true... what German WW2 design were they probably flying?