1930s Air Ministry surprise sanity options
- Thread starter perfectgeneral
- Start date
No what I mean is that folks look at the S.5/S.6 and then look at what ever the RAF had at the time the Hawker Fury and go "Well that's a damn sight faster than that...perhaps this monoplane could be a good idea with RAF colours on it and some machine guns in the nose..." before looking at turning it into a land fighter.
That's what the RAF wanted the Floatfire for - loitering around islands. However, it's not really an ideal aircraft for floats. They were pretty awful on landing and the salt water ate the hell out of the rear fuselage.
The experiments stopped with the mk IX, but there were plans to use a Seafire 45 on floats for tests and there's drawings of an Attacker on what appear to be lengthened Spitfire floats.
Apparently, one of the few Floatfires has been salvaged from the bottom of a lake in recent years. It had sank at it's moorings.
The experiments stopped with the mk IX, but there were plans to use a Seafire 45 on floats for tests and there's drawings of an Attacker on what appear to be lengthened Spitfire floats.
Apparently, one of the few Floatfires has been salvaged from the bottom of a lake in recent years. It had sank at it's moorings.
Heck of a story/myth/scam or whatnot. It was "discovered", and investors were sought, 2004ish. Discoverer/perpetrator committed suicide 2008.
In a fit of common sense a member of the AM reads of Frances Chichester's feats of Arial navigation in the pacific. He decides that this is the right man to sort out practical Arial navigation for the RAF and invites him to Britain in 1938/39 to become the RAF's navigation Guru. Ergo by 1940 most RAF navigators can at least find the right country if not the right city!