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F-ZeroOne

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  1. F-ZeroOne
    Someone once said of the Thunderbolt that "the only thing it could do well is dive!" (while the RAF said it was so big you could evade enemy fire by running around the cockpit...!). However, the Thunderbolt had power, which at high altitude is very important; the Luftwaffe found that at altitude the Jug could be quite agile. It also had a reputation for being very, very tough. The Zero was always dangerous in a dogfight situation; it had many disadvantages against later US aircraft but that doesn't mean a P-51 would have an automatic win (the "Hayabusa" or "Oscar", the Japanese Army fighter, was also obselete by mid-war but was so incredibly agile that a lone one could still be dangerous if well flown; four P-38s once tried to engage a single Oscar and basically went home "talking to themselves", as one pilot described it). David makes a very good point about aircraft variants - a Spitfire Mk. XIV was a very different beast to the Spitfire Mk. I. The early P-51s (A-36s, IIRC?), for example, were fast low down but sucked at altitude due to the Allison engine; it was only when the Merlin was installed that they became the truly great fighter of late war.
  2. F-ZeroOne
    Okay, we've heard a lot about the fighter jocks. They make the headlines. Who makes the history, though? The bomber crews. A few that I know: Guy Gibson, VC, goes almost without saying. He completed 174 missions over Germany (although 99 were actually as a night-fighter pilot in Beaufighters) and his leadership of the specially formed 617 Squadron is practically as much a part of British folklore as King Arthur and his knights. Slightly less well known was Leonard Chesire - also VC - who must have been one of the most experienced bomber pilots in any of the combatants air forces by the end of the war; he flew 100 operations and his 101st was as the British observer at the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. He followed Guy Gibson as leader of 617 Squadron, and developed a technique of dive-bombing V-1 launching sites - in a Lancaster bomber. Finally in my brief selection, Donald Bennett, who led RAF Bomber Commmands Pathfinder Force. Before the war, he developed an expertise in long-range flying, and was one of only a handful of pilots at that time to hold a masters air navigation licence - at a time when aerial navigation often meant dropping down to read the signs at a nearby railway station! During the war, and before his assignment to the Pathfinders, Bennett was shot down during a raid on the Tirpitz and walked back to freedom through Sweden! Needless to say, he had extensive experience of bombing operations and knew navigation backwards and forwards - in short, not someone you accused of not knowing what he was talking about!
  3. F-ZeroOne
    A personal favourite of mine is a chap called Adrian Warburton. Some of you may recall news stories about a missing British "ace" whose remains were only recently recovered in Germany a couple years back. Further information can be found in the books "Warburtons War" by Tony Spooner and "Fortress Malta" by James Holland. 391584[/snapback] Sounds VERY interesting! What did he fly? 391607[/snapback] The short answer is "almost everything". He started with Martin Marylands - typically of Warburton, he wrecked one on take-off - but went on to fly recon Spitfires and Lightnings (he particularly liked the Lightning, as its contra-rotating props largely eliminated the torque that caused him so much trouble on take-off. On one occasion when an engine failed, he was catapaulted from the crashing aeroplane. When a ground crew arrived to clear up the mess, they asked where the pilot was. A bystander had to point up at the sky, where Warburton had already walked away from the incident and found another Lightning to use!). I believe he also flew the Mosquito on a number of occasions.
  4. F-ZeroOne
    I had the opportunity to view a store display VF-0 in Tokyo a few days ago. If its put together as well as it looks, I think you guys are all going to be really happy with it.
  5. F-ZeroOne
    A personal favourite of mine is a chap called Adrian Warburton. Some of you may recall news stories about a missing British "ace" whose remains were only recently recovered in Germany a couple years back. A little background is needed - when I was growing up, it was still possible to buy very un-politically correct war comics in England. One of my favourite stories was about one "Sgt. Fury" of the RAF, a blond, blue-eyed mystery airman who would turn up from nowhere, take-off, perform some impossible air mission against all odds, and disappear as mysteriously as he appeared. Adrian Warburton was as close to being a real life "Sgt. Fury" as it was about as possible to get in actual combat operations. He flew most of his career in the Mediterranean, as a recon pilot for the RAF. He was most famously involved with the island of Malta. Aircraft he flew were responsible for at least nine kills, which may not make him a great fighter ace, but his primary role was photo-missions - and some have claimed that Warburton may just have been the greatest recon pilot of all time. He was known for being seemingly utterly fearless and for always, always getting his pictures. He once famously flew back to a fully alerted enemy harbour after overflying it once, just so that his crew could settle an argument over how many battleships they'd seen docked there. One odd aspect of Warburtons career is that, although his skill in the air was often praised (he earned a DSO, DFC, and unsusually, a US DFC plus the eventual rank of Wing Commander), he never learned to take-off properly, and most accounts describe his take-off runs with a mixture of awe and terror. Warburton disappeared over Germany in April 1944. He was 26 years old. His remains were not discovered for about 50 years, and it was typical of "Warbys" reputation that there was much speculation during that time that he somehow returned to Malta and lived the rest of his days in secret there. Sadly, this turned out not to be the case, but if you know of Warburtons exploits its easy to understand why many people could believe it. Further information can be found in the books "Warburtons War" by Tony Spooner and "Fortress Malta" by James Holland.
  6. F-ZeroOne
    Knocked down five Germans in one mission. 391247[/snapback] I think his final score was seventeen, although there were a couple "unofficial ones" - shortly after being allowed to fly again after escaping from occupied Europe, he shot down a German plane and got into trouble for it - because he wasn't officially supposed to be flying combat missions again at the time! The kill was added to another pilots record IIRC.
  7. F-ZeroOne
    I wouldn't be conivnced hes black myself, although if the show was American I might suggest his skin tone is darker to add diversity to the cast (what, 190-odd fluffy monsters isn't enough variety for ya?! ), but it should be noted that Japanese people can vary in skin tone just as even us pasty-pale Europeans can, so personally speaking, no...
  8. F-ZeroOne
    I can't help but feel theres a fan-story in the making there... Its confirmed, by the way - April 15th, 19:00 GMT. Guess whos back, back again...
  9. F-ZeroOne
    "You've got the TOUCH! You've got the POW-AH!"
  10. F-ZeroOne
    Its possible, but I suspect we'd have heard something definite by now. The combined power of the British tabloid press and the Doctor Who fan network would put the CIA to shame! Also, I suspect its too "obvious" for the current production team - I suspect if The Master does return, it will be in a way we don't suspect...
  11. F-ZeroOne
    Just a heads-up, its looking resonably definite that the new, David Tennant, Doctor Who series will start airing in the UK on April 15th, which coincides with the Easter holiday here.
  12. F-ZeroOne
    Heh. Its an enemy fighter carrier from the show, I've always loved the wasp-like design. Also, the name "F-ZeroOne" is in fact taken from the series. "Star Fleet" is almost the lost Go Nagai series - his design studio worked on the character designs. The series is unfortunately pretty hard to find - the UK only had a couple of compilation videos released; the US got the complete series on VHS but edited. There was a Japanese DVD (and LaserDisc) release but thats also quite hard to track down, and obviously unsubtitled. I understand some anime conventions in the US have shown the series from time to time. There is also a Macross link, too! The legednary Takatoku toys, makers of the 1/55 "Chunky Monkey" Valkyrie, actually produced some toys for the series. I have a couple and they are really good; the DX "Big Dai-X" toy in particular is interesting because it transforms into a kind of "rocket turtle" mode - something it never did in the show! Believe it or not, the music we got for the Western version was probably the better deal - the Japanese music is... er... interesting in comparison. A common misconception is that Brian May did the music for the TV series. This is not true, he did however, release an album of music inspired by and covering the theme music - as you're seen! SpacePirateNeko - the series you'll thinking of is called "Born Free" (not to be confused with the more famous film about lions!). It was an attempt to blend anime characters with stop-motion model dinosaurs.
  13. F-ZeroOne
    http://www.sfxb.co.uk/ For all your Star Fleet/X-Bomber/Bomber X information needs. This has been a public information announcement from those who grew up watching TV in 80s Britain.
  14. F-ZeroOne
    Good grief, just what do you have to do to stop Chuck Yeager getting in an aeroplane?! The Germans couldn't stop him, the Air Force couldn't stop him, and neither can age! First time I've seen an image which really shows just how big the B-2 really is - I'd read that its odd shape makes it look smaller than it really is, but thats the first time I've seen it. As for that F-117 scheme - is that to give the bad guys a chance of actually spotting one for once...?
  15. F-ZeroOne
    Well, Russell T. Davies - lead writer/producer - on the 05/06 series is pretty much God of TV writers in the UK at the moment; several of the other writers are well known - Paul Cornell has, I believe, done several Dr. Who books, and a number of other writers represent the cream of UK comedy writing talent. Also lined up for the third series is the well known UK actor/author/writer Stephen Fry, possibly the smartest man on the planet... Dr. Who also had Douglas Adams on the script-writing roster at one time, and he was responsible for "City of Death", sometimes said to be the best Who story ever written.
  16. F-ZeroOne
    A couple problems with current VTOL aircraft is ground erosion and over-heating. A gerwalk VF would almost certainly have a problem with ground erosion. The Harrier jump-jet can only hover for at most a couple of minutes because the engine gets very hot while its doing that - in fact, Harriers carry a supply of water with which to cool the engine down.
  17. F-ZeroOne
    Can't help with all of it, but deltas are traditionally known for being able to pitch up very quickly and lose rapid amounts of airspeed in one big hurry - Mirage IIIs are the classic example. As for acceleration, well... Rolls-Royce have always been fond of quick engines...
  18. F-ZeroOne
    As far as I know, the guns connected - they tried to leave it out but it upset the balance of the aircraft if they did. The Soviets did have their reasons - my understanding is that a MiG-25 could wreck its engines going up to Mach 3.2. Impossible to intercept Yankee Capitalist Inavder of Motherland when all the MiGs are sitting on the ramp having their engines swapped...
  19. F-ZeroOne
    By "rut", do you mean the hiatus the show was on until the 2005 series? Also, thanks for the above comments - its does me good to hear "our" Doctor compared to those high quality shows! Its interesting to get a new perspective on what is, to many UK people of my generation, a national treasure.
  20. F-ZeroOne
    It was a very close-run thing, according to newspaper accounts. For some time it seemed that the rights were not going to be released, and one of the main tabloid papers here ran a "Save Our Daleks" campaign (can you imagine that? The Daleks need saving!). I guess someone decided a) Doctor Who and the Daleks are almost the same property (Daleks having appeared as early as the second Doctor Who TV story, back in the 60s) and b) as you say, one massive pile of cash.
  21. F-ZeroOne
    Joe Stalin regularly appears on cans of Boss coffee in Japan.
  22. F-ZeroOne
    Because everyone else seems to exude more common sense on the issue than the British (no offense to any UK members here), but they'll likely go with the gun. I still cannot, for the life of me, figure out why the British don't want the gun on theirs. 381888[/snapback] I thought I'd mentioned this; its one of those governement cost-saving decisions that makes no sense whatsoever, and compared to the overall cost of the Typhoon programme, is practically small change. And, as I pointed out, RAF Typhoons will have the gun, they just won't be supplied with ammunition or training. Guess its back to chucking bundles of toilet paper out the cockpit...
  23. F-ZeroOne
    I am mostly familiar with the TV incarnation of Who so I can't provide a complete answer, but I seem to recall that a) reading recently in a UK SF magazine that Ace is now dead (killed in a novelisation; how "canon" this is I don't know) and b) I believe the long running Doctor Who magazine covered the fate of the 8th Doctor and the Time War, although I don't know again if this is official and if the magazine Time War is the same as the TV series version. Noriko, have you tried this website? It can probably answer a great many Who-related questions: http://www.gallifreyone.com/
  24. F-ZeroOne
    I beilieve that the RAF has declared IOC and are wroking up squadrons right now. I think I even have a hazy memory of them declaring one squadron ready for combat even. 380467[/snapback] Yes, I can't remember the squadron, but it's one of them stationed at RAF Coningsby. It's not just IOCed, but combat-ready. 380514[/snapback] Just pray that we never have to defend the UK with cannon - the Typhoons are (so the story goes) fitted but the pilots aren't going to be trained nor even ammunition supplied. This is in long keeping with the UK tradition of applying Monty Python script-writing to defence spending... (incidentally, if you are an international terrorist and are thinking of, I don't know, stealing a big aircraft and heading our way to do some mischief, please note that this means there won't be any warning shots. The first and last notice you'll get is an ASRAAM up your tailpipe. Don't say I didn't warn you... )
  25. F-ZeroOne
    No anime that I'm aware of, but a full colour manga adapation of the movie by Kia Asamiya was made and even released in English by Viz many, many suns ago. An Armoured Personnel Carrier called "Gunhed" also has a cameo in William Gibsons novel "Virtual Light".
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