Photo of the week
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This midweeks photo.
Two Beauforts flying low over the ocean. Believed to be No. 5 Middle East Training School, RAF Station Shallufa, Egypt.
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This weekends photo.
In 1945, plans were made for the conversion of approximately 130 USAAF B-17Gs into search and rescue aircraft. They were to be modified to carry a lifeboat under the fuselage, and were to be redesignated B-17H.
The droppable lifeboat was a self-righting, self-bailing type of boat that was equipped with full emergency provisions. It was carried underneath the belly of the aircraft and was dropped at sea by means of three parachutes. The boat extended from just aft of the chin turret fairing to the ball turret and was contoured to mold smoothly into the fuselage of the belly.
Some of the earlier B-17H conversions were intended for operations in combat areas and retained their defensive armament. Others deleted the defensive armament entirely and replaced the chin turret with a search radar. The aircraft did not become operational until the war was nearly over. Nevertheless, the B-17H was instrumental in saving the lives of several B-29 crews during the last stages of the bomber offensive against Japan.
Following the creation of the US Air Force, the aircraft designation scheme was revised in 1948. At that time, the B-17Hs were redesignated SB-17G, the S prefix indicating the primary search-and- rescue mission.
Some of these SB-17Gs were still in service at the time of the Korean War, and those planes operating in Korean waters were refitted with cheek, waist, and tail guns for defensive purposes. They were administratively assigned to the world-wide Air Rescue Service, which was a part of MATS. They provided air-sea rescue survices for the far-reaching world-wide operations of the USAF.
Below B-17H Flying Fortress s/n 44-83700
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This weekends extra.
A nice shot of B-17E s/n 41-2405 with its engines running taken on the 25th June 1942.
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This midweeks photo.
A nice closeup of a Curtiss AT-9 Jeep s/n 41-5746 taken November 26th 1941
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This weekends photo.
"Intended to meet the requirements of Specification F.7/30 calling for a four-gun day-and-night fighter, the private venture Bulldog Mk.IV prototype was, in fact, the second Bulldog Mk.IIIA converted. Finished in RAF colors with the 'Class B' marking R-7 it was flown in its new guise in the spring of 1934, it competed with the Gloster SS.37 (prototype of the Gladiator) which was eventually selected to fulfill the requirement. The Air Ministry agreed to buy the prototype for flight testing of various long-chord cowlings, with and without controllable gills, for the Mercury VIS.2 engine with Hamilton variable pitch propeller, and it became K4292 on July 26, 1934."
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This weekends extra.
Nationalist Chinese captured Tachikawa Ki-36 Ida fighters on the ground at Hangchow, China, October 1945.
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This midweeks photo.
Lockheed F-5E with "Redhawk" emblem on the nose at rest in China. 32 completed photo mission symbols painted on it and a mountain symbol for the flight over the Himalayas, the Hump, from India into China in September 1944..
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This weekends photo.
Pilots of North American A-36A Mustangs, return from a gunnery training mission (1943).
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This weekends extra.
And a nice shot of the first production North American Aviation P-51B-1-NA Mustang, 43-12093 (NAA serial number 102-24541).
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This midweeks photo.
Three armourers pushing a trolley of bombs under a Wellington.
