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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1619.PDF
FLIGHT, 11 December 1953 773 157 (Right) New fighter fashion: the Me 110 (1938). 158 (Below) The "helicopterish" Fieseier Storch (1938). 159 (Lower right) The pressurized Boeing Strato- liner, 1939. A new fashion in two-seater fighters, and one which was to persist longer than the turret formula exemplified by the Defiant, was set by the Messerschmitt Me 110, an early low-powered, Jumo-engined version of which is seen at 157. With the more powerful Daimler-Benz engines, the "110" was widely used in the Battle of Britain, and served in subsequent campaigns as a day fighter, fighter/bomber, reconnaissance machine and night fighter. Towards the war's end very heavy armament was being installed to combat the massed formations of American daylight bombers. One scheme embodied two 30 mm, two 20 mm and two 7.9 mm guns. Less fearsome, though a valuable second-line weapon, was the Fieseier Storch (158), used for liaison, communication and spot ting by the German Air Force—and much prized by Allied officers who were fortunate enough to "win" a captured example. PartlV The Hitler War (1939-1945) 1939 Before the deluge, we may consider a notable aircraft of peaceful intent and one which we suggest was the first truly modern airliner. This suggestion we base on the fact that it incorporated every essential feature of the inter-continental piston-engined airliner as we know it today, i.e., all-metal con struction, supercharged engines, and pressurized cabin. The machine in question is the Boeing Stratoliner (159), eight of which were delivered to commercial operators and were taken up during the war by the U.S. Army Air Force. Just as the YB-15 bomber, illustrated on the opposite page, was closely related to the Boeing 314 Clipper flying-boat (which also rendered excellent war service) so was the Stratoliner akin to the B-17 Fortress. The first purely military machine to be developed by the Lock heed Aircraft Corporation was the P-38 Lightning single-seat fighter (160). Among its numerous variants was a two-seater which carried a bomb aimer and led large formations of Lightning fighter/bombers, each carrying over 3,000 lb of bombs. Some models were equipped for reconnaissance. It was on the Lightning that the phenomenon of compressibility was first experienced in a marked degree. The most famous night fighter of the late war (and almost 161 The world's first turbojet aircraft was the He f78 of 1939. 162 (Right, above) The pugnacious Bristol Beaufighter of 1939. 163 (Below) In the 0/400 tradition—the hiandley Page Halifax of 1939. 164 (Right) The first Liberator (Consolidated XB-24 of 1939). equally famous as a torpedo fighter) was the Bristol Beaufighter (162), developed in a few months from the Beaufort torpedo bomber. It was on the "Beau" that A.I. radar was first intro duced on a large scale as standard equipment. The picture at 161 is small in size and indifferent in quality, yet it shows a very significant aeroplane indeed. It is the Heinkel He 178, which, on August 27th, 1939, made the first flight by a turbojet-propelled aircraft. The power unit, an HeS3B, was mounted behind the pilot and fed from a nose intake. We may record here also that an He 112 fighter had earlier become the first aircraft to fly successfully on rocket power alone. The two four-engined bombers at 163 and 164 are the Handley Page Halifax and Consolidated XB-24 (Liberator prototype)— both of them war-winners in the first degree. Though the Liberator was principally used as a bomber, it also served with our own Coastal Command as a long-range ocean-patrol aircraft. Many machines of the type were also adapted for transport, and some of Mr. Churchill's most famous war-time journeys were made in the "Lib." A development is still in service with the U.S. Navy. 160 The first of thousands—prototype Lockheed Lightning (1939)
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