Questions tagged [aircraft]
Of or pertaining to aircraft and or man powered flight.
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Yamato class 3rd ship?
I heard there were 3 ships in the Yamato class but I can't find any information about it. Some sources say it was a transport vessel to transfer spare airplane parts and ammo and some say it was a ...
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2answers
408 views
Which Allied aircraft scored the most air-to-air kills against the Me 262 in WWII?
Backgound:
The Schwalbe (German: "Swallow") fighter version of the Messerschmitt Me 262 was the first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft, with the first test unit having been formed on 19 April,...
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0answers
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I am looking for a database of US aircraft casting numbers
I have found many US aircraft have casting numbers in their aluminum parts, bosses, tools, to identify the specific aicraft. 28 is a PBY, I believe. Is there a book or database on these, and when ...
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0answers
209 views
What did a WW2 fighter cost?
The second world war was among other things a war in resources and economy. So it got me wondering, what were the prices for fighter planes used? With some searching I count not find a satisfying ...
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1answer
193 views
Who had a private jet before Frank Sinatra?
The first jet aircraft flew in 1939. Militaries were the first customers of jets, in the 1940s.
The de Havilland Comet, making commercial passenger flights from 1952, was the first jet designed for ...
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2answers
1k views
Distinguish Mitsubishi G6M1-L2 and G4M1 aircraft in this picture
Here is a picture of Bataan 1 and Bataan 2:
Wikipedia:
Bataan 1 and Bataan 2 were two demilitarized Japanese bomber/transport aircraft that carried the first surrender delegations from Japan to Ie ...
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1answer
263 views
Is this 60's Atlanta airport security picture geniuine, and if so, what is happening here?
Following the advice I got from the user Semaphore I would like to split my original airport security question into separate parts and go into a bit more detail in regards to what I would like to know ...
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0answers
80 views
What was this security screening process in Swiss airports, circa 1970?
Following the advice I got from the user Semaphore I would like to split my original airport security question into separate parts and go into a bit more detail in regards to what I would like to know ...
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1answer
319 views
Did airports have security checks before the 1970s?
I just accidentally discovered a few pictures on the web, that seem to imply, that there were some sort of airport security checks on passengers all the way back in the 1960s. It was always my general ...
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1answer
190 views
I would like to identify the airplane in this photo
My Grandfather was an airplane owner in the early 1940s. This picture was taken between 1941-1946 from what we believe. I would like to know the make and model of aircraft so I can model it. Any ...
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1answer
276 views
Were aerial dogfights during WW2 and WW1 typically very one-sided?
I am wondering whether most dogfights ended decisively and if so, whether many relatively inexperienced pilots knew they were probably going to die or at least have to eject from their planes. Or was ...
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1answer
133 views
What kind of AA defenses did the US East Coast have around the time of Paukenschlag?
Operation Paukenschlag (drumbeat/thunderclap), which Wikipedia likes to call the Second Happy Time, occurred from 1942 January to August. During this time, German U-Boats sank a huge amount of ships ...
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3answers
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Do any historians consider superior German airpower as the most important factor in the Battle of France?
In the Battle of France, the Allies and Germans had roughly equal number of divisions and troops, and the Allies actually had more artillery and tanks. But the one area where the Germans had a clear ...
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1answer
304 views
Who invented the aeroplane? [closed]
The world knows the Wright Brothers as the inventors of the aeroplane, but there is a man in India named Shivkar Bapuji Talpade who had already invented the aeroplane before the Wright brother's first ...
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1answer
287 views
Was There Compensation For Requisitioned / Impressed Aircraft In WW2?
I've been studying and comparing commercial airliners of the 1920s and 1930s. Many of these models are listed as "impressed" when WW2 occurred. I've been trying to find out exactly what transaction ...
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3answers
853 views
How did the US fall behind in airplane technology from 1909-1917?
In December 1902 a Wright brothers built glider flew 600 feet. A
World Record
December 17, 1903 The Wright built the first successful
powered airplane and Wilbur Wright flew 852 feet (260 m) in 59
...
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1answer
116 views
What's so special about the Aerodrome?
Samuel Pierpont Langley was an American astronomer and physicist who competed early on with the Wright brothers in the race for flight. Langley being a credentialed scientist beat out the Wright ...
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2answers
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What plane would have been used to airdrop someone into occupied Europe?
I'm trying to write a story in which the main protagonist is a fictional Polish spy, who has to retrieve a 'macguffin' that's been captured from the Germans. It is set in the spring of 1943. She ...
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3answers
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Transatlantic Zeppelin trips usually took > 100 hours. How did they stock enough food, and where did they sleep?
I never fail to be bewildered with the Zeppelins. Apart from the arduous and boring journey - how did the passengers rest - I don't see pics of any rooms or beds - how did they sleep at all?
...
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2answers
1k views
Is there a difference between Douhet and Walther Wever's strategic bombing theories?
Wiki introduces Wever this way:
Walther Wever (11 November 1887 – 3 June 1936) was a pre-World War II
Luftwaffe Commander. He was an early proponent of the theory of
strategic bombing as a ...
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1answer
2k views
Which company offered this aircraft interior in the 60s?
I found this image on LinkedIn post.
This was economy class back in the 1960s. [...]
I'm not sure whether it's fake or not.
Was there a company that offered this aircraft interior in the 60s? If ...
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2answers
600 views
RAF Vulcan nuclear missions - returning to base planning
Having seen several documentaries and interviews with Vulcan crew & pilots regarding their nuclear flight plans and proposed missions, there's a reticence to discuss the post-mission plan.
It's ...
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1answer
225 views
Why does Charles Lindbergh appear to avoid England in 1927?
If you look at this (admittedly poor) map you see that Charles Lindbergh appears to skirt the English coast on his way to Paris but never go into English "airspace" (not sure such a concept existed at ...
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1answer
141 views
Identification of Seaplane Type
Nothing included on this old photograph other than it is a seaplane. Is it possible to know the manufacturer and where it was flown?
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1answer
208 views
How did the SAGE system send data to in flight assets for intercept tasks?
According to Wikipedia, the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment system could automatically update the autopilot of the F-106 and the guidance system of the CIM-10 Bomarc. Presumably this would send ...
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1answer
157 views
Which Luftwaffe units participated in the raid on Manchester on 11 March 1941?
Which Luftwaffe units participated in the raid on Manchester on 11 March 1941?
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1answer
3k views
How many suicide attack (kamikaze) pilots died and how many of them successfully hit ships during World War II?
Wikipedia cites two different accounts that give different estimates:
During World War II, about 3,860 kamikaze pilots died, and about 19% of kamikaze attacks managed to hit a ship. Zaloga, "...
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4answers
2k views
What happened to aircraft if their aircraft carrier was damaged?
Obviously if a plane takes off from a carrier but can't return because the carrier is damaged or sunk, it has to go somewhere. Or if it can't reach an airfield, its crew would need to ditch it and ...
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2answers
324 views
How far away could zeppelins drop bombs?
I am doing a little World War 1 reading for a class, and I came to this passage:
German dirigibles, or zeppelins, were able to drop bombs on targets that were 700 miles away. This was far beyond ...
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1answer
370 views
Identification of Aircraft, Weimar, Germany, May, 1945
Identification of Aircraft, Weimar, Germany, May, 1945.
ck.imgur.com/S83TI.jpg
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1answer
372 views
How much did Israel pay the Libyan Flight 114 shootdown victims?
In 1973, Israeli jets shot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114, which strayed into Sinai peninsula, then under Israeli occupation. This caused the death of 108 of 113 people on board. According to ...
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1answer
200 views
What was the first regular airline service to pass low over urban areas?
These days, living in a big city, it's a complete non-event to look up into the sky and see a plane passing overhead. It happens several times every day. Therefore it's quite amazing to thing that at ...
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1answer
93 views
Identification of type of aircraft and time period
Identification of aircraft NC31602 and year or decade of photo
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1answer
111 views
Historical airline schedules?
I am looking for historical airport schedules from the US and Canada from after WWII. For example, I would really like to see a flight schedule (or schedules) from New York from around 1948. Any ideas ...
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1answer
118 views
Place and/ or plane identification
I am trying to identify both the place and the type of plane in this photograph. My father is inthe centre middle row (William Bone), who as far as I know stayed around Leeds during the war - I ...
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2answers
259 views
Why was the arrival of the Hindenburg considered newsworthy?
Obviously, no one expected that the Hindenburg would explode during the mooring process, so it the expectation would have been that a passenger aircraft was going to arrive, the passengers would ...
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1answer
1k views
When was the first airborne combat drop?
I know that airborne troops became famous in WWII, but was that the first time they actually fought after parachuting into the combat zone?
What was the first instance in which paratroopers in an ...
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1answer
226 views
Please help identify aircarft
Can anyone help identify this aircraft. I was told it is a Northrup design. Looks pre WWII to me.
Al
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1answer
192 views
Was smoking allowed aboard hydrogen-filled zeppelins?
The question is self explanatory: Were passengers aboard rigid airships filled with hydrogen, like the Hindenburg, allowed to smoke?
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1answer
662 views
Who invented the Airplane? [closed]
When I was in first grade I was told it was the Wright brothers who invented the airplane and I still find their names on the first page of Google. But I have heard of an Indian who invented the ...
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1answer
184 views
Identification of location and type of bi-plane
Could the location be on the west coast or in Hawaii? 1920s time frame?
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1answer
1k views
Aircraft identification
I am trying to identify the aircraft in the picture here. I know it is a U.S. Army Air Corps training aircraft from World War II, and I'm guessing its an AT-6. But I can't find a comparable photo ...
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2answers
1k views
Was the communication between Spitfire and other fighters' pilots encrypted?
If machines like SIGSALLY were occupying so much space like in the picture above, were the pilots' communication encrypted or somehow obscured in order to prevent the enemy from eavesdropping on the ...
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2answers
873 views
Can you identify the plane in the picture?
Can you help identify this U.S. Air force four engine prop, numbered 2753.
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1answer
683 views
How many of Japan's 29 lost Pearl Harbor aircraft have been accounted for?
I've seen varying numbers regarding the amount of Japanese aircraft that attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, but the number of attacking planes that failed to return to Japan's carriers remains ...
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1answer
312 views
Devastating air strike over Middle Eastern country during religious holiday
I'm trying to remember a historical incident I read about but have a foggy recollection of.
As far as I recall, during a religious holiday, a neighboring country launched an air strike against ...
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2answers
767 views
Were the 1940-42 RAF bombing raids over Germany unescorted?
Considering the Spitfire's chronic lack of range, was the RAF doing unescorted bombing runs over Nazi Germany in 1940-42 or did they have another fighter that escorted their bombers?
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1answer
124 views
First eastbound transcontinental flight departed from…?
On Feb. 8th, 1912, the first eastbound US transcontinental flight landed in Jacksonville, FL. After several Google searches, I can't find anything that says where the flight departed from. So where ...
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3answers
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WW1: What would happen if an aerial bomb was dropped from too high an altitude?
I've read that by the end of World War I they had both contact and timed fuses(fuzes?), so in the case of a timed fuse (early in the war?), the bomb would just explode early, but what of the contact ...
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2answers
2k views
Amount of time an aeroplane could stay in the air during the last stages of WW1
I know for a fact that aeroplanes were used at the last stages of the first world war to capture images of the enemy trench system and supply lines. They were also used to alert the artillery how far ...
