Published:
9:30 AM May 1, 2021
Sally B, the only B-17 Flying Fortress in Europe, is the biggest aircraft on display at the Old Buckenham Airshow
- Credit: John Allan
Eyes will once again turn to the skies this summer, as the Old Buckenham Airshow gets ready to make up for lost time with a fantastic line-up of Second World War displays.
Organisers of the Old Buckenham Airshow are always looking for new and exciting displays to wow the crowds, and this year’s event on July 30 and August 1 will be no exception thanks to the menacing form of a warbird with a difference - a Messerschmitt.
Supermarine Spitfire MH603 is progressing quite quickly towards her first flight, as John Parker explains in his latest update on the aircraft s restoration at Vintage Fighter Restorations in Scone, New South Wales, Australia. (photo by John Parker)
Our good friend John Parker from WarbirdsOnline in Australia recently made another visit to Vintage Fighter Restorations (VFR) in Scone, New South Wales to check out progress with the restoration of Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IX MH603. We have covered several of Parker’s previous reports HERE, which you can check out for the aircraft’s history, and will let John’s words pick up the latest news as follows…
It was a case of too little, too late.
Here s What You Need to Know: Hitler tried to make Germany the most technologically advanced combatant nation during World War II, but his wonder weapons failed to win the war.
Imagine that you are an Allied soldier in the ETO. You are in your foxhole on the front line, looking and listening for any sign that the Germans are about to attack your position.
Then you see it a small, funny-looking tracked vehicle heading your way. It looks like a toy a miniature tank without a turret or a gun. “What the hell is this?” you ask yourself. You call out to your buddy in the foxhole next to you and direct his attention to this little interloper. You might even smile and laugh a little at the contraption. But the next minute your laughter is cut short when it explodes, killing you.
The Most Complex and Powerful Engine of the Postwar Era
Called the Napier Nomad two-stroke H-24 diesel, we want one for an engine swap.
The Napier E124 Two-Stroke H-24 Diesel airplane engine was designed in the ‘30s.
The dual horizontally opposed engine displaced 75 liters and had 24 cylinders and a gas turbine.
It was superseded by the Nomad 1, which made half the horsepower of the H-24, with half the displacement: 3,000 hp from 12 cylinders.
There have been some wacky engine designs in the 125 or so years of “modern” internal combustion: rotaries, sleeve valves, various variable-compression engines, all of which made perfect sense to their designers at the time. Even among all those, however, you would be hard-pressed to find something more magnificently complex than the Napier E124 Two-Stroke H-24 Diesel airplane engine.
Engine fitters at Pocklington prepare to fit a brand new Rolls-Royce Merlin XX to a waiting Halifax, JulyAugust 1942.
The Rolls-Royce Merlin engine was arguably the most important engine of WW2. It had an ability to produce war-winning designs of almost anything it powered, including two of the most famous and beloved aircraft from the war; the P-51 Mustang and Spitfire. Not only this, but it was also used in tanks as the Meteor, which, for the first time, provided the British with a tank engine capable of delivering large amounts of power reliably.
Work started on what would become the Merlin in the early 1930s, after Rolls-Royce realised their successful 21 L 700 hp Kestrel V12 wouldn’t always be enough. Their next design, named the PV-12, would have a 27 L displacement and produce 1,100 hp. It was first fired up in 1933, and would first fly in a Hawker Hart in 1935. At the same time, the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane had been designed to accommodate the PV-12, and