How about we all chill out and check out these airshow pics

[xpensive]

My grandfather, as a volonteer in the Waffen SS, flew JU87's bombing Rotterdam to rubbles in 1940.

He never spoke about that xperience.

[WhiteBlue]

My grand father was arrested, jailed and put out of job for being a member of the christian party. My father was a tank commander at the eastern front and had his tank blown up several times with almost fatal injuries. Valium/Librium were his constant compagnions until his death in the 1970ties. My god father was a fighter pilot who survived.

War isn't a thing that warriors usually want to happen. When I look at war machinery I feel both fascination and horror about the application of those things. The reality is that some of the most astonishing technical triumphs are in the field of war machinery. I can understand the fascination and I think I can intellectually deal with it.

[WhiteBlue]

I always like the Russian bear. Its one of the fastest if not the fastest prop plane

When you look at the design of the air frame you see a lot of comunalities with the B52.



Going Prop at that time was just a bit more energy efficient but with a huge penalty regarding performance. The Bears were long range ocean reconnessance and bombing platforms I understand. They must have been designed for strategic use initially and got re assigned when technology changed.

[xpensive]

From what I have learned, the Panzer VI (Tiger) was engineered by Porsche, while the Wehrmacht's uniform was designed by none less than Hugo Boss?

[WhiteBlue]

Hugo Boss was a uniform supplier, that is true. I think it was not general Wehrmacht supply but SA and SS.

Porsche designed a prototype of Tiger which wasn't selected for production. The Herschel/Krupp prototype was selected from that competition. Tiger was never a mainstay due to excessive weight to power and consumption. WWII Germany always lacked engine power and Tiger was no exception. Only after the war tank design took really off. The Krauss Maffei designed Leopard 1 and II were world class vehicles in every regard. With the MTU diesel engine and the huge Rheinmetal gun they were bought and copied by many nations. The M1A1 gun is a license or rip off of the Leopard gun.

Edit for typo

[xpensive]

But that 88 mm thing was enough to scare the living daylights out of anyone unfortunate to be in a Sherman.

Legend has it that Michael Wittman one morning took out sixteen allied armoured vehicles without even moving.

[RacingManiac]

Hugo Boss was a uniform supplier, that is true. I think it was not general Wehrmacht supply but SA and SS.

Porsche designed a prototype of Tiger which wasn't selected for production. The Herschel/Krupp prototype was selected from that competition. Tiger was never a mainstay due to excessive weight to power and consumption. WWII Germany always lacked engine power and Tiger was no exception. Only after the war tank design took really off. The Krauss Maffei designed Leopard 1 and II were world class vehicles in every regard. With the MTU diesel engine and the huge Rheinmetal gun they were baught and copied by many nations. The M1A1 gun is a license or rip off of the Leopard gun.

Or it might atually be made by Germany.....US military has lots of supplier outside of US...

[Giblet]

The Soviets were famous for their completely original, uncopied designs.

The Tu-144 Copycorde.

[xpensive]

Just like most of their WWII aircraft were improved copies of captured Messerschmit and Heinkel things.

And that way the US got a satellite programme, without Werner v Braun from Travemunde, it would never have happened.

[flynfrog]

My grand father was arrested, jailed and put out of job for being a member of the christian party. My father was a tank commander at the eastern front and had his tank blown up several times with almost fatal injuries. Valium/Librium were his constant compagnions until his death in the 1970ties. My god father was a fighter pilot who survived.

War isn't a thing that warriors usually want to happen. When I look at war machinery I feel both fascination and horror about the application of those things. The reality is that some of the most astonishing technical triumphs are in the field of war machinery. I can understand the fascination and I think I can intellectually deal with it.

Si vis pacem, para bellum "If you wish for peace, prepare for war"

I agree war is a terrible thing yet seemingly unavoidable. The technology that comes out of in the end does more good than the bad. I think part of the problem now is we see war as something that happens on TV back in the time of the World Wars it was very real now it is something you can change the channel away from.



The B52 and the Bear were both built for the same purpose so it would make sense that they were similar and copied from one another. I think we are still using the B52 to this day.

[RacingManiac]

B52 was such an interesting plane....the plane was obviously designed as a high flying bomb delivery platform(hence the name Stratofortress0, but after Russian's high altitude SAM they have to train all the B52 pilot to fly low altitude terrain-hugging bombing run....on a beast of an airplane like that....I think I'd --- my pants if a B52 fly over my head at sub 1000ft....

It's not til recently I think with the advent of JDAM and other fire and forget weapon that they went back to the more traditional role...