The official AHF Allied & Neutral Air Forces quiz

[Ironmachine]

Thai Corsair V93S, impressed in Vichy France Air Force in French Indochina?

[iffig]

Well done Ironmachine! And the Emperor was, of course, Bảo Đại.
Over to the Land of Eurofootball cup winners .....

[Ironmachine]

Thanks, iffig.
Now the usual question, identify this bird:

Pajarito.jpg

[Dreeze]

Cornelius XFG-1 fuel transport glider of the U.S.A.A.F.

[Dreeze]

And the Emperor was, of course, Bảo Đại..

Wow! I guess you must be French to have even heard of that guy. I thought the Vietnamese empire had perished sometime in the 18th century and certainly didn't expect it to still exist alongside the French occupation..

[Ironmachine]

Cornelius XFG-1 fuel transport glider of the U.S.A.A.F.

Yes, that's it. A rather unusual project.
Over to you.
Regards.

[Dreeze]

Thank you, an unusual project indeed. If I remember correctly it could be towed behind a long distance bomber with or without a pilot.

With a pilot in the glider the bomber could remain airborne over friendly territory for extended periods of time, only detaching the glider when it's tanks were empty. The pilot would then fly the glider to a nearby airfield.

Without a pilot the glider was just discarded when empty, greatly increasing the range of the bomber.

[Dreeze]

Well, here we go again:



Please name this prototype...

[iffig]

According to that source, we have actually two prototypes : the upper photo may depict the De Schelde S 20 a and the lower the De Schelde S 20 c .....

http://flickeflu.com/set/72157627084103847#wrapper

[Dreeze]

Well done, iffig.. that was quick. There only ever was one prototype of the Schelde S-20. It was designed as a trainer and liaison aircraft, but it's main purpose was to gain design experience with the twin boom pusher configuration and as a proof-of-concept for a follow-up fighter design for the Dutch military, the Schelde S-21. Drawings of that follow-up design can also be found on the website you referred to. I guess the a, b and c designations on that website are just to distinguish between the Photographs..

Unbekwown to the Schelde designers, Fokker was working on a similar fighter project, the D-XXIII, which used a two-engined push-pull configuration. Although the designs look similar, the reason for the unusual design layouts were different: De Schelde just wanted an unobstructed forward view, so it could fit some quite heavy armament in the nose of the aircraft without bothering with the arc of the propellor, just like Fokker had done earlier with the G-I. Fokker tried to mount two engines on the centerline of the aircraft to reduce drag and torque.

Both designs had a serious flaw though, in that it was nearly impossible to bail out of the aircraft without being hit by the rear propellor. Fokker was experimenting with an ejector seat to deal with this issue, just like Saab did in 1943 with the Saab-21. The Dornier 335 Pfeil later had a similar issue which was dealt with by using explosive charges to eject the rear propellor, but that was not an option with a twin boom design as the still rotating propellor would have crashed into the tail, sending debris off in all directions and quickly deteriorating the flying characteristics of the allready out-of-control aircraft.

The Schelde S-21 would have had another setback as a fighter in that it offered no forward protection to the pilot at all. It's not a nice thought chasing a bomber knowing that all that's between you and the tail gunner is the glas of the cockpit.

In the summer of 1940, the S-21 design caused a bit of a scare in England as it was mistakenly attributed to Focke-Wulf and expected to soon be in all-out production:

http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=8134

Back to France

[iffig]

Thank you Dreeze. And a convincing explanation of the a, b and c "designations" too!
New post: a well known place and a well known plane, but from an unusual angle

[Dreeze]

A Fairey Barracuda of the Royal Navy at Gibraltar?

[iffig]

That was quick too!
Next question your's ......

[Dreeze]

Well, the picture provided enough hints:

-The maintanance crew clearly wear navy uniforms (most likely British or commonwealth, or perhaps Russian).
-The high wing suggests a low altitude attack role (i.e. torpedo bomber).
-The distinctive inclination of the aircrafts body to lead the exhaust fumes under the wing.
-Four blade propellor, place and shape of the cockpit, etc..

And once you find out it's the Barracuda it's not so hard to guess that Royal Navy + Rock = Gibraltar.

The only thing that had me puzzled for a while were the three round cans under the nose which I first thought were munition drums. Since most versions of the Barracuda had no forward firing guns, and the last version only one (and not firing through the propellor, I guess), I wondered if I was mistaken after all. Then I realised those three cans were the radiators....

Here is the next puzzle, type and users please:

[iffig]

Nice piece of deduction this Barracuda identification ....
Your new pic shows an Argentina's Naval Aviacion De-21.
Was it really still in use during WW II?