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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1235.PDF
JUNE IITH, 1942 F LI G aircraft- 70 gall./hour, and a four-engined bomber 140 gall. /hour. At 35 gallons per hour, 3,400,000 gallons would be good for about 97,000 flying hours. If we took three hours as a fair average for a flight, the total of fuel destroyed in the tankers con verts to: — 32,000 sorties by single- engined aircraft; 16,000 sorties by twin- engined aircraft; 8,000 sorties by four-engined aircraft. Nor is that all, for had «^those tankers not been sunk they might have carried further fuel, so that their net immediate loss ought not to mask the fact that all their potential future weight in the enemy's war effort has gone, too. These figures record the reverse of any tendency to exaggerate the importance of attacks by air against enemy surface craft, especially tankers. The reports^ of enemy sinkings are giv^n in terms of gross tonnage, a term which might easily be misin terpreted, because the word ' that the maximum claim possible is being made. Shipping tonnage is registered in four categories. Gross tonnage is the sum of all the enclosed spaces in a ship measured in cubic feet and divided by 100. Net • tonnage is gross tonnage less certain spaces in the engine- room, ballast wells, and so on, which may be regarded as dead or wasted unavoidably. Carrying Capacity The deadweight tonnage (abbr. dwt.) is the carrying capacity in tons of jthe ship when loaded to load-water- line. The displap^ment tonnage is the number of tons of sea water displaced when the vessel is loaded to load- waterline. How this works out in practice can be seen from the following example from a standard reference work. It will be noted that the carrying capacity of a ship can far exceed J its gross tonnage, and yet (since the ship might at the time ' be empty) it is on the gross tonnage that the success claim is made in official communiques. The ship is the tanker Fitting an 18-inch torpedo to painted to harmonise with the gross '' gives the impression the crutch of a Beaufort. The lower half of the torpedo is underside of the machine because it is not entirely enclosed. Atheldnchess, recorded as:—Tonnage: 8,900 G., 5,200 N., 13,100 dwt. In other words, if our air striking forces claimed to have sunk a ship of 8,900 tons, that vessel might be carrying--''' 13,100 tons of fuel. It will.be clearly seen, then, that in the examples given above the assessment of 11,000 tons of fuel for 18,000 tons of shipping may be a severe under estimate ; it is not outside the bounds of possibility, in view of the urgency for fuel to the Axis forces, that the figures estimated for that three-ship tanker convoy's cargo should be multiplied by three. The obvious, implication must be that one of the ways in -which we,can settle Japan is by torpedo aircraft coverage of the S^rfnh China and associated seas. Expansion of our T/A force on a major scale would threaten the very arteries of Jap conquests, freeing our overworked surface craft (the gallant corvettes, sloops, trawlers and old destroyers) for the essential work elsewhere of defence of convoys against submarine attack. And if that implication is accepted the heir to such a policy would be air control by the Navy of the merchant shipping routes of the world. ALLIED AND AXIS TORPEDO AIRCRAFT Main Data of 18 Types Span Length. Height . Sjpan Length Height Engine Bristol Beaufort 57ft. ioin. Maximum speed About 300 m.p.h. 44ft. 2in. Engines .. Two 1,065 h.p. 14ft. 5in. Bristol Taurus or two 1,050 h.p. Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp. Range .. . . Over 1,900 miles. Fairey Albacore Landplane 50ft. oin. 39ft. loin. 14ft. 2m. 1,065 fi-P- Bristol Taurus Seaplane 50ft. oin. 42ft. 5|in. 17ft. 9in. 1,065 h.p. Bristol Taurus Span Length . . Height .. Engine .. Fairey Sword-fish Landplane 45ft. 6in. 36ft. 4m. 12ft. loin. 775 h.p. Bristol Pegasus III. M3 Seaplane 45ft. 6in. 40ft. 11 in. 14ft. 7in, 775 h.p. Bristol Pegasus III. M.3 Performance and Weights Landplane only) Maximum speed 154 m.p.h. Empty weight .. 4,1951b. Cruising speed. . 131 m.p.h. Loaded weight .. 7,7201b. Duration .. 5-7 hr. Useful load .. 1,900 lb. Service ceiling .. 19,250ft.
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