Hi all!

Is it soviet design Rowan?

Jean-Luc

Hi PolarBear

Your guess was an inspired one!

It's the Yugoslavian Fizir-Vega AF-Z amphibian - the cockpit was knicknamed "the cupboard". It was designed in 1929/30 as a sporting/touring aircraft.

Over to you for the next question.

All the best

Rowan

Thanks Rowan! The UN marking just screamed out Kingdom of Yugoslavia!! :-)

Let's stick with the odd and the ugly. Perhaps a little bit easier this time?

What's this "UFO" then??



Cheers :-)

A quick search came up with this,
Italy's Caproni Stipa, built in 1932 to test the thrust effect of a tubular fuselage. The 120 Hp. DH Gipsy III yielded a top speed of 81 Mph, and the lift effect of the tube made the landing speed 42 Mph.
Written by Paul Senior
Thanks Andy

Why that was fun for a good five minutes!!! :-)

I keep forgetting how good you guys are...

Over to you, Andy!

Ps. Who is Paul Senior, and why does he write your answers?!?

It was where i got the info from, so i thought i'd better credit him with it .
Keeping with the strange and butt ugly, name this plane thing????

ok, you are either all bored of this or i have stumped you :-) :-). So i will give you a clue, this plane was designed and built for the Canadian air force for photographic surveying.
Thanks Andy

Canadian Vickers VELOS. Thanks for the hint I needed it.

David

correct David.
A fantastic quote from the test pilot of this plane was, "It is considered that this Aircraft is most unsuitable for any operation carried out in the Royal Canadian Air Force."
Thus the plane was cancelled.

In what aircraft type did the actor Jimmy Stewart fly his last combat mission?

David

He flew a mission in a B-52 over Vietnam and afterward retired from the Air Force Reserve.

Brian

Over to you Brian.

Hello everyone, Thanks Tigercat.

On October 9th 1943 near the Island of Rhodes, a
P-38 pilot won the Distinguished Service Cross. Who won the award and how did it happen?

Brian

Hi all!

It was Maj. William L. Leverette I think! He managed to shoot down seven (!?) Ju 87 in one mission!

here is a link about the whole story:
Seven become eleven

Jean-Luc

Yes your correct Jean Luc.

He shot down 7 Stukas, even though they were dive bombers that was no small feat.
Good pilots are a blessing to any air arm.

all yours Jean-Luc

Brian

Hi all!

Brian, let's go on with an Ace question!

Capitaine Léon Richard became an ace with the Dewoitine D520 (Mal entered one for this months MOM ). He achieved this in a particular way...

My simple question is how?

Jean-Luc

Hi Jean-Luc

I don't know about "easy" - I've had to sift through a fair few websites to find any details (and not many at that...)

Apparently, Léon-Jacques Richard flew with GCIII/6 in the Vichy Air Force and scored 6 kills, with 3 shared victories. He was killed in action on 26/05/1943.

Of course, none of that answers your question! His death was long after Operation Torch, but I'll guess anyway - were the kills all Allied aircraft?

All the best

Rowan

Hi Rowan!

I didn't said "easy", I said "simple"!

A simple question can be very hard to answer!

But you guessed it! This French Ace only shot down allied aircrafts and... even worse... only British ones! Sorry to all my British friends at Armorama. It was a curious situation after 1941 with the French fighting against the allied and even against each other!

It's your turn Rowan... with an "easy" question I hope! :-)

Jean-Luc

Hi Jean-Luc

Maybe my question's "easy" - but it's not "simple" - because it's in 3 parts. That'll serve you right for speaking better English than me! :-)

Phillip Pinckney devised a daring WW2 mission:

1. What was the objective?
2. What was the codename?
3. What caused the mission to be cancelled?

All the best

Rowan

Hi there

No ideas yet? If there's nothing by lunchtime, I'll have to see if I can supply a clue or two without giving the whole thing away.

All the best

Rowan

Hi again

OK - clue No. 1. The forces required would have been:

1 x MGB (motor gunboat)
1 x folbot (collapsible canoe)
1 x commando officer
1 x pilot

All the best

Rowan

Hi Rowan,

I've been trawling the interweb trying to get the answer for this one. The best I can come up with is the plan was to steal a FW190 from a German airfield and fly it back to Britain. Captain Pinckney wanted to take Supermarine test pilot Jeffrey Quill and sneak ashore in France, then find a fighter airfield and either by stealth or using firearms get Quill aboard one of the 190s and he would then fly it to Britain.

The plan was suggested at the time when the FW190 totally outclassed the most common spitfire variant, the Vb. The 190 had gained the nickname the Butcher Bird.

The plan was not proceeded with when by great good fortune a German pilot landed his FW190 at Pembry, England thinking it was his home base. The aircraft was sent to Farnhorough where it was dismantled, examined and rebuilt to be test flown against allied fighters.

I cannot for the life of me find the codename assigned to the oeration.

Martin

The codename was Airthief.

David

Nice one Martin and David!

Between you, you were spot on! I had to keep the question a bit "cryptic", because anything I added made the whole answer show up on any web-search I tested. I think Martin definitely deserves the honour of the next question for 2 out of 3 answers.

Over to you Martin...

All the best

Rowan

Hi all!

This was a good one Rowan! Congrats to Martin and David for finding the answer... this could have been a good scenario for a movie or a comic book!

Jean-Luc