303sqn

Some years ago this letter appeared in SAM. Dear Neil, Whilst I enjoyed your article on converting Ocidental's Spitfire IX kit using the new RonsResin re-shaped nose,and propeller, etc (SAM Vol 22/7), the supplementary information you included on French 'ace' Pierre Clostermann is, I am afraid, totally inaccurate! Firstly, the English translation of his book, 'Le Grande Cirque', is called 'The Big Show' not 'The Big Circus', more importantly, its author would be most surprised to learn that he died in a motoring accident in the 1950s! In fact, as recently as June 1996, Clostermann was living in St Genis des Fontaines, Montesquieu, France. Only two years previously, he had added further controversy to his reputation when he was seen (by no less a personage than AVM 'Johnnie' Johnson), wearing the ribbon of the DSO at the D-Day commemorative ceremonies at Bayeux, in northern France, despite the fact that he'd never been awarded the medal! And at the start of the Falklands Campaign in 1981, he wrote, in an Argentinian newspaper, something of a eulogy to the prowess of the nation's fighter pilots, much to the disgust of his old RAF comrades, who reasoned that his marriage to an Argentinian beauty had perhaps coloured his thinking! Historians continue to scrutinize Clostermann's air combat claims, and recent research suggests a total of 11 destroyed; 3 probables; I damaged. He seems to have had an unfortunate penchant for claiming aircraft downed by others in his unit if he was merely present at the time, and did not actually fire his guns! His greatly exaggerated claims have brought him no respect from the cognoscenti; none of his Free French comrades support his claims, even though they are less openly critical of him than his non-Gallic counterparts. Of course none of this detracts from Clostermann s obvious bravery and competence as a fighter pilot of course, and I too was a huge fan of his book. Incidentally, I learned much of the foregoing when in correspondence with other well known WW2 fighter pilots as part of the research I was undertaking for a book on the subject, and it was sobering to learn that much of what's written in its pages may probably be not wholly true. Adam G Holden Brighton East Sussex This prompted the following response. Putting the Record Strait Dear Neil I was a little disgusted by Adam Holden's letter, which you published in SAM vol 22/3 May 2000. On principle I do not usually answer letters of this sort, but in view of my Tempest friends from No 3 Squadron, I feel I owe them answer. First the Falklands War. I never wrote to an Argentinean newspaper, but sent a letter to a group of Argentinean pilots who were pupils of my son, (then an Armée de l'Air Mirage pilot), at the Mirage Academy in Dijon. I knew them and they even came to my house when they were on leave. When I read the insults printed in the UK tabloid newspaper, 'the SUN', (greasers, tango dancers, etc.) I wanted to tell these 'underdogs' that some people admired their courage. It is an admitted fact these days by all – (including the US Air Force and RAF) – that “the courage of your enemies honours you”, and it should not be forgotten. Also, being an MP, with political responsibilities I am entitles to my opinions. They had nothing to do with my long-standing friendship and love for the RAF. Secondly, I was never married to an 'Argentinean beauty'. I have been married for 53 years to a French girl. As to my claims, they never changed. They were painted on my Tempest, (see accompanying photo), and substantiated by the following citations and letters. My two DFC citations by AIR Marshal Slessor and 83 Group Sir Harry Broadhurst, are enough for me. “DFC 26/8/44 …..... This officer has displayed outstanding courage and devotion to duty throughout his operational career in the course which he has destroyed at least 11 enemy aircraft and damaged other military objectives”. “Bar 28/5/45..... Since being awarded the DFC this officer has participated in 70 new operational missions during which he has destroyed a further 12 enemy aircraft. Throughout, Lieutenant Clostermann has displayed outstanding courage and ability, and has proved to be a source of inspiration to all”. 23 black crosses and 23 confirmed by my DFC citations. I never personally asked for anything else. There were I suppose two problems; ONE, I have been in so many squadrons, Nos 341, 602, 486, 274, 56, and 3, that the forms 540 and 541 'Logs of Claims' were quite spread out. TWO, the French Air Force – as well as the US 8th Fighter Command, considered 'probables' and destroyed 'on the ground' as victories. This may explain some of the ridiculously inflated claims we found in the press, about me and many American pilots. I tried to rectify often, but to no avail! Finally the statement about the DSO. I am a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur, which, as a French national, takes precedence over my DFC, and therefore, is worn 'infront' of it. It is red with a blue tinge – as is the DSO …... Pierre Clostermann Montesquiei des Albères France

THE USE Of WOOD FOR AIRCRAFT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM Report of the forest Products Mission June 1944 Three types of propellers made from compressed wood are now in production in the United Kingdom and several other types are in various stages of development. Fixed-pitch, wood propellers of conventional type are in extensive use on various training airplanes. Weybridge Blade This blade, which is made by the Airscrew Company, Ltd., is carved from a blank glued from boards of Douglas-fir scarf joined, at the root end, to "Jicwood” or to similar “compreg" supplied by firms in the United States. Jicwood, supplied by the firm, Jicwood, Ltd., associated with the Airscrew Company is prepared by coating Canadian birch veneers with about 4 percent by weight of a spirit-soluble phenolic resin, drying, and then consolidating the pack under heat and pressure. The resin content and the conditions of pressing are such that Jicwood is not stabilized appreciably either by the resin or by the action of heat and moisture. The blank is rough-carved by machine, and then finish-carved and balanced by hand. Due principally to the time required for conditioning at various stages of manufacture, the elapsed time for a blade in production is from 7 to 12 weeks. In one type of finishing, the blade is covered with hessian cloth cemented in place. A brass leading-edge strip is sweated to brass gauze and hammered, screwed, and riveted in place. A thick sheet of either cellulose nitrate or cellulose acetate is cemented on and the whole blade is placed in a rubber bag and put in an autoclave. In the autoclave treatment the coating is said to penetrate the Douglas-fir blade to a depth of about 1/8 inch. In the second type of finishing the blade is liberally spread with a thick lacquer and a sheet of cellulose ester is rolled into place on each face, forming laps at the leading and trailing edges. After the coating has shrunk, the laps are carefully sanded. Final balancing is done,by local scraping, and, if necessary, balancing paint is used locally. These blades are repaired by splicing a new piece to the undamaged portion. Although repair of a damaged root is never attempted, the entire Douglas-fir portion of the blade may be replaced, the new scarfs nearly coinciding with the old. If the coating is not too badly injured, it is repaired locally. Hydulignum Blade The Hydulignum blade is manufactured by Hordern Richmond Aircraft, Ltd. One thirty-sixth-inch birch veneer is coated with approximately 20 percent of Formvar (polyvinyl formal) by weight. After the solvent (trichlorethylene and alcohol) has been driven off, the veneer is pressed into panels of specific gravity 0.95 at an elevated temperature and then cooled in the press. Two corners of the board are trimmed off and that end is then further compressed sidewise to a specific gravity of 1.3. The final board thus has a high-density double-compressed root, a transition zone, and a medium-density blade and tip. After rough patterning, several boards are assembled into a blank with a cold-setting urea-formaldehyde glue and the blank is carved in the same way as the Weybridge blade. After several coats of primer containing chlorinated rubber, and of Formvar varnish have been applied, a brass leading-edge strip is riveted and screwed in place. About 14 additional coats of Formvar complete the blade. A particular advantage claimed for the Hydulignum propeller is that the equalized shear strength in the root, in the two planes parallel and perpendicular to the glue surfaces, permits the use of smaller diameter hub fittings. Practical considerations requiring the use of a standard hub for all-wood blades, however, has precluded the use of a smaller hub for the Hydulignum blade. Jablo Blade This type of blade is manufactured by F. Hills and Sons, Ltd., and Jablo Propellers, Ltd. Veneers 0.6 mm. (1/42 inch) thick and of varying length are interleaved with phenolic-resin film glue and assembled in such a way as to give boards of 69 plies at the root and 48 at the tip. The assembly is pressed to a uniform thickness at a gradually increasing temperature reaching a maximum of about 280° F. The boards are roughly profiled, then assembled with casein glue. Carving is done by machine, followed by manual final carving. A stocking of phosphor-bronze gauze is stretched over the blade and soldered along the trailing edge. After application of a brass or steel leading-edge strip, many coats of phenol-formaldehyde enamel are brushed on and baked so as to build up the surface flush with the metallic sheathing. After a final balancing, the blade is given a coat of grey primer and one of cellulose-acetate lacquer. (Since the return of the Mission, it has been learned that the type of finish described for the Jablo blade is no longer employed and has been replaced by a finish similar to that of the Hydulignum blade. This leaves two types of propeller finishes in use; namely, (1) cellulose acetate or cellulose nitrate (cellulose esters), and (2) "Cristofin," as developed by Hydulignum.) Experimental Blades F. Hills and Sons, Ltd., have three new types of propeller blades in development: the Norton, the Trafford, and the King. The Norton blade is made from boards each of which has approximately the same density throughout its length. The blank is glued up with four outer boards of specific gravity 1.3, and three inner boards of specific gravity 1.1. The Trafford blade has a root consisting of alternate boards of specific gravity 1.3 and 0.9 scarfed to a blade of natural spruce to which are also glued densified birch leading and trailing edges of specific gravity 0.9. Both these types were designed to minimize the strain on the press Caused by eccentric loading. In addition, the Trafford is expected to be lighter and stiffer than the Jablo. The King blade is a molded, uniform-density, hollow blade. Birch veneers mm. (1/8.5 inch) are tailored to a calculated shape, rolled into long tubes, impregnated with a phenol-formaldehyde resin, and dried. A large number of these tubes are loaded side by side into a steel die having a solid steel core. Heat and pressure flatten the tubes and consolidate the into a blade Of specific gravity 1.3 with a maximum wall thickness of about 3/4 to 1 inch. The core is removed after the pressing. If successful, this type of blade will have equal shear strengths in two directions, will save veneer and resin, and will be adaptable to the Hamilton standard hub. F. Hills and. Sons, Ltd., is also considering the use of Zebwood, a veneer-plastic composite for propellers. Molded Components, Ltd., have molded experimental blades of impregnated veneers pretailored to shape. Each of the two faces of the blade consists of nine continuous plies, a feature that avoids excessive exposure of end grain and glue lines and provides a skin running the full length of the blade. None of the wood blades now in production can be fitted satisfactorily to the Hamilton Standard hub, which requires a hollow root. They are all used with the Rotol hub of British manufacture. A threaded conical ferrule is used on all wood blades and is cemented in place with "Semtex," a mixture of Portland cement and rubber latex. Considerable interest has been shown in the new lag-screw retention developed at Wright Field. Although Jablo and Weybridge blades are balanced against masters, Hydulignum blades are still furnished only in matched sets and are not interchangeable.

So an enemy pilot cannot use them to centre his aim and from a distance it make the aircraft look like it is banking (turning).

Techmod

Modification 914, dated February 23, 1943, included the instruction to introduce Spitflre Mk.XIl type rudder. This enlarged rudder had been developed specifically for the first Griffon-engined variant, to counter the enormous torque of the new powerplant. Even though Modification 914 was applicable to Spitfire VII, VIII, and IX variants, the modified rudder would not be seen on operational Mk.lXs until mid-1944. On the other hand, it was fitted as standard to mostproduction Mk.VIIs and VIIIs.

The description of ‘Kemick’ (is it a word play on chemical?) and ‘American Chemical Paint Co’ suggests it is a chemical treatment rather than a paint in the conventional meaning. Bubbling and white deposits makes me suspect that phosphoric acid is involved. Cannot find a patent for anything called Kemick but there is a patent for a method of making propeller blades that mentions it as being used as a coating for the blades. They are first cleaned with a substance called Deoxidine. And whatda you know, Deoxidine is also from the ACPCo stable. So looking there we find - “James Harvey Gravell was an engineer, innovator, and philanthropist born in Philadelphia in 1880. While employed by Hale-Kilburn Metal Company, Gravell helped develop a chemical treatment for preventing rust and peeling on painted metal. He purchased the patent for the “Deoxidine,” and started his own company, the American Chemical Paint Company, in 1914. After operating in a rented space in Philadelphia, Gravell opened a chemical manufacturing and research facility in Ambler. The company was extremely successful, and Gravell became a rich man. He donated money to a number of worthy causes, including giving his employees the best Christmas ever.” Gravell is the key, he has patents for all sorts of things, among them one for improvements in metal pickling. From this patent we learn that Dioxidine is a mixture of alcohol and phosphoric acid and the process is to treat the pickled metal with a solution of sodium silicate which converts metal oxides to insoluble silicates which form a protective coating resistant to corrosion. This is probably not Kemick but looks to me that Kemick is a development of this process and that involves phosphoric acid and sodium silicate to form stable and resilient protective coating on ferrous metals. US2081645A - Method of producing propeller blades: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/a7/7d/f2/1589c962746f8d/US2081645.pdf US1555798A - Metal pickling https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/a0/06/56/be11df53362a51/US1555798.pdf

There were two exhaust paints available. The first was red lead based used to disguise the glow of the exhausts at night. Found on aircraft such as Wellingtons. The second was white used to camouflage the collectors on Coastal Command aircraft that were painted white. RR exhausts were made from Inconel, an alloy of nickel and chromium. The problem with steel is that it distorts at high temperature. Nickel retains its strength at high temperature. Chromium gives it resistance to corrosion. The natural colour is light brassy similar to £1 coins. It quickly forms a thick, protective, oxide layer and takes on a brown colour like Dark Earth. There is a thread on the Key Publishing forum on inconel exhausts. Since it was revamped everything saved in my ‘favourites’ results in the good old 404 page not found. However I have managed to find it. https://www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/143045-historic-aviation-metallurgy-exhausts If you page through at about the 7th post there is a RR document on exhausts. You are unlikely to be able to read it on screen now. You will have to right-click and save image so you can look at it in your favourite photo-viewer.

In 1933 DTD 230 was issued , requiring 87 octane and permitting the use of TEL up to 4 ml/Imperial gallon for the first time.

That's people making asumptions and stating them as facts. There are a number of photographs in Gifts of War of MK IIs with dH props taken at CBAF before they were delivered.

At the end of WWII the US developed 115/145 grade gasoline to provide extra power on take-off from the big multi-banked radial engines. It became available about VE-Day. It continued after the war but the military were virtually the only customer. When they stopped using the refineries stop manufacture. There were only some ageing freighters and warbird owners that wanted it. Postwar 100/130 grade differed somewhat from that of WWII. No aniline for a start. Refineries would add lead until it passed the lean mixture requirement at which point the the rich mixture rating would usually be well above the the required 130. Typically they would be around 100/137. For 100LL most refiners add the allowed amount of lead and then add toluene to meet the 130 rich mixture rating. Typically 100LL will be about 104/130. When the market moved from 100/130 to 100LL there was a significant increase in knocking complaints.

Have you posted the wrong photos? That's a Mustang I and it does not have Malcolm Hood. 133 Squadron was not a Polish squadron. Perhaps you mean 133 (Polish) Wing.

British gasoline used the same lead containing additive as the US, and everybody else for the matter, tetraleadethyl, commonly called TEL. It was the only lead additive allowed. By law the maximum allowable concentration of lead in any fuel, for commercial purposes, was 3.6 cc per imperial gallon. For governmental and/or military purposes the concentration was allowed to be increased to 7.cc per imperial gallon. When first introduced it was in an extremely cavalier fashion. The original intention was that it would be added at the point of sale when filling up with petrol. Salesmen would dip rag in it and wave it in front of the air intake of a knocking engine and the knocking would cease instantaneously. (TEL provides full knock resistance with only one part in 1,360). Not a good idea as lead is extremely poisonous especially in organic form when it is easily absorbed through the skin, inhalation or mouth. It soon resulted in a scandal that some have called the ‘Three mile Island’ of its day. Most authorities believed that when TEL was dispersed in the atmosphere, it would pose no health hazard. Workers, however, including drivers, manufacturing employees, and garage attendant faced a more concentrated dose, which raised some concern among public health experts. Workers at the production plants reported stomach complaints This followed by the usual denials that TEL was harmful and Thomas Midgley toured the plants washing his hands in bowls of the stuff and advising the workers to line the stomachs with plenty of milk. In February 1923 Mr Midgley would spend the month in Florida receiving treatment for lead poisoning. Delco’s laboratory researchers had developed health problems. Hochwalt recollected, “We all had lead poisoning.… You could see the lines of lead in the bones (in X-rays), but it disappeared. I used to get nauseated over food.…” Hochwalt used his six-week honeymoon to recover. During 1923 and 1924 Kettering and GM hired medical consultants to evaluate TEL. They reported no insurmountable problems, and the company went ahead with its expansion. Then the brown stuff hit the fan. On October 22, 1924, workers at Standard Oil’s TEL plant at Bayway, New Jersey, started falling ill. By October 31, five had died, and at least 35 others were hospitalized. A report summarized the symptoms: “The patient becomes violently maniacal, shouting, leaping from the bed, smashing furniture and acting as if in delirium tremens; morphine only accentuates the symptoms. In two fatal cases, the body temperature rose to 110 degrees just before death occurred.” It made made the front page of The New York Times . Not long afterwards six men died at a DuPont run TEL plant in Deepwater, New Jersey, that used a supposedly safer process. Workers called the Deepwater plant the House of Butterflies, for the hallucinations induced by TEL. About the same time,one researcher died and four were hospitalized after breathing concentrated TEL vapours at a Standard Oil laboratory in Elizabeth, New Jersey. In April 1925, in reaction to the workers’ deaths Kettering was removed as president of Ethyl Co. Early the next month the company suspended sales of TEL until its safety could be established. A few weeks later U.S. Surgeon General H. S. Cumming convened a conference on its hazards. Kettering testified that the additive was essential to stretching fuel supplies. Midgley called his creation “not so much a dangerous poison as it is a treacherous one.” It was unsafe, he said, only when improperly handled, a circumstance that was already being remedied. Frank Howard of Standard Oil called TEL a “gift of God,” which prompted the labour leader Grace Burnham to reply that it had been no gift of God for the workers. Cumming appointed a committee of prominent physicists, chemists, health experts, andothers to investigate. In January 1926 the committee reported mild health effects from the useof lead, but nothing drastic enough to justify a ban. TEL was dangerous only in concentrated form, the report said, not when diluted in gasoline. If mixing was performed at distribution centres instead of at the point of purchase, and if extra precautions were taken to protect the health of workers, there would be no cause for concern. Filling-station owners scrapped their Ethylizers and installed separate pumps, and in May 1926 Ethyl gas went back on sale. A few critics remained, most prominently Alice Hamilton of Harvard, a founder of the field of public health. She called TEL “a probable risk to garage workers and a possible risk to the public.” Most people, however, accepted the committee’s findings. Increased ventilation and other plant improvements reduced the workplace hazard to a level considered acceptable by 1920s standards. There are many organometallic compounds which exhibit antiknock value, however, lack of one or more of the essential qualities of solubility, volatility, stability, and low cost has so far ruled out all but two, the lead alkyls and iron carbonyl. The latter was used in Germany in the 1930s but the deposits of iron oxide resulted in a great increase in engine wear. Methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (MMT), was used, post war, in the USA as supplement to leaded gasoline until banned by the EPA from 27 Oct 1978, but was approved for use in Canada and Australia. In the 1990s EPA ban was overturned, and MMT can be used up to 0.031gMn/US Gal in all states except California (where it remains banned ). This leaves only the lead alkyls, of which there are many, varying in intrinsic antiknock effectiveness, volatility, stability, and cost. The original selection of tetraethyllead from this group was due to it having about the maximum antiknock effectiveness of the group; it possesses good stability; its volatility is a happy compromise between the high value desirable for use in the fuel and the low value desirable for safety in manufacturing and handling; its cost is also about the minimum. Tetraethyllead is entirely stable at ordinary temperatures in the absence of light or oxygen. At one time there were some problems involving instability in gasoline, but small amounts of the usual antioxidants, plus the practically complete removal of bismuth in the manufacture of the tetraethyllead itself, practically eliminated the formation of solid deposits in gasoline in storage. The low volatility of tetraethyllead (2 mm. of mercury at 50° C ) , while a great advantage in reducing manufacturing and handling hazards, may result in some maldistribution relative to fuel in individual cylinders of multicylinder engines. Research indicated that this was a most complicated problem, but in general the practical effects were not serious. The use of mixed lead alkyls of higher volatility than tetraethyllead would fail to provide a practical solution, as their intrinsic antiknock value is lower than that of tetraethyllead and their manufacturing higher. The effectiveness of tetraethyllead as an antiknock is markedly reduced by one of the normal constituents of gasoline - sulphur. The different types of sulphur compounds show varying degrees of tetraethyllead destruction, but all have a deleterious effect, and as much as two thirds of the effectiveness of tetraethyllead maybe lost in a gasoline high in sulphur. Tetraethyllead when burned alone with gasoline in the engine leaves lead deposits in the engine. Lead has a very high boiling point, much higher than the combustion temperatures in an engine. As a result the deposits cannot vaporise and be expelled in the exhaust gases. This was early recognized, and numerous agents were designed to eliminate the deposits or otherwise minimize. Organic bromides and chlorides were found to be the most effective scavenging agents, and nothing better has been discovered. Later research has shown that the proper kinds and proportions of these halides vary with the nature of the engines and the conditions of operation. The actual mixtures now used are designed to give over-all optimum results for the use to which they are to be put; thus, aircraft and automotive engines require different mixtures. The first scavenger used was dibromoethane. Post war dichloroethane was added, partly for reasons of cost but it was also found the there was synergic effect, i.e., when used together they are more effective than when used on their own. They react with the lead to form Lead dibromide (or chloride) which has a much lower boiling point close to the temperatures in the engine and so vaporise and is expelled with the exhaust gases. TEL and dibromoethane are added to gasoline as ethyl fluid, a mixture of the two. Ethyl fluid is rated/described in Theories, 1 Theory containing, theoretically, the exact amount of bromine to neutralise all the lead. The fluid is dyed blue. Composition of Ethyl Fluid 1-T TEL 61.42% Dibromoethane 35.68% Kerosene and impurities 2.65% Dye 0.25% Nothing is perfect, and dibromoethane form corrosive combustion products when it combusts, chiefly hydrobromic acid. Originally the insulating material in spark plugs was the mineral mica. The acid attacked the mica and so new insulating materials had to be found that were impervious to the combustion products. The Germans had a special lead free running out fuel that they ran through an engine before it was put into storage. Nor is it 100% effective. There were lead fouling problems with high-leaded 100 Octane aviation gasolines used during WWII. Spark plug lifetime with US 100/130 grade was about 25 hours, about five missions. When British 100/150 grade was introduced, within a month there were reports of it causing plug fouling. They tried to cure this by using 1.5 T ethyl fluid. The resulting fuel became known as PEP. It worked, but before long surplus bromine was causing damage to the engine valves. So they went back to using 1T ethyl fluid. During WWII the US experimented with TCP. That’s tricresyl phosphate, not the TCP you buy from Boots, that’s a different TCP. Whereas spark knock appears as a gas-phase spontaneous ignition near the end of the combustion process, and thus at a high pressure level, pre-ignition is a forced ignition at low pressure, and is also dependent on the combustion temperature of the previous charges that caused the deposits to glow. Consequently, fuels do not necessarily exhibit comparable resistance to these two phenomena. (If you think that knocking is pre-ignition, it is not. What engineers and petrochemists call spark induced knock or detonation happens after ignition by the spark - hence spark-induced. You can learn all about knock and pre-ignition from this article, found here: http://www.contactmagazine.com/Issue54/EngineBasics.html The author designs engines for GM so knows what he is talking about.) Although isoparaffins resist pre-ignition as well as spark knock, the hot burning aromatics do not. The problem can be solved largely by restricting the extent of deposition, and also by raising the glow temperature of those deposits that do eventually accumulate. This can achieved by the use of a phosphorus additive. As a useful side effect, the phosphorus compounds increase the electrical resistivity of the deposits , which restricts misfire due to electrical leakage from the sparking plug electrodes, and consequent fouling of the cold plug. Boron has also been investigated as a scavenger. By 1930, the U.S. issued an aviation gasoline specification, including octane rating and requiring the use of TEL, and the first British specification for avgas was issued as DTD 134. This limited cracked spirits to a trace only, and stipulated that the anti-knock value be equal to a 50/50 mixture of benzene and hexane in a standard single-cylinder engine at 900 rev/min (equivalent to an octane number of 74). Benzole was limited to 20 per cent by volume because higher percentages caused freezing in carburettor jets. In 1933 this specification was replaced by DTD 224, which raised the octane level to 77. In the same year DTD 230 was issued , requiring 87 octane and permitting the use of TEL up to 4 ml/Imperial gallon for the first time. In 1937 , the U.K. Air Ministry issued its first provisional specification for 100 octane fuel. In 1938 a new test method, the rich-mixture rating, was introduced and this, as well as a lean-mixture rating, was incorporated in U.K. specifications for 100 octane fuel. It had been noted that fuels of the same lean-mixture rating behaved differently when tested under supercharged or rich-mixture conditions, and the sensitive fuels giving higher maximum power under rich conditions were preferred . The 100 octane fuel had to meet the performance of isooctane plus 1 ml TEL/U.S. gal when tested in a supercharged CFR engine under rich-mixture conditions. This isooctane plus TEL comparison became the basis of the Performance Number scale, the rating scale used above 100 octane. In 1942, the rich-mixture rating was also specified by the U.S. Army, and the grade became known as 100/125. The rich-mixture rating was then upgraded to isooctane plus 1.25 ml TEL/U.S. gal, and the grade became 100/130. The figure of 130 was based on the Performance Number (PN) scale, where a PN of 100 matches pure isooctane in a supercharged engine, and a PN of 130 would permit 130 per cent of the power available from isooctane alone at the mixture strength for maximum power with isooctane. The Rolls-Royce engines of the Schneider Trophy competitors ran on exotic fuels formulated by Rod Banks of the Ethyl Export Corp. To begin with he added benzole and TEL to aviation fuel. It was this mixture that the S6 used to win in 1929. To raise the power for the 1931 attempt 10% methanol was added allowing RR to increase the rev and supercharger boost. For the absolute speed record a mixture of 60% methanol, 30% benzole, and 10% acetone with 4.2 cc of TEL per gallon. More paint stripper than fuel, it dissolved paint and tank sealing compounds and caused leading of the spark plugs. Fine for use for short periods in a racer but totally unsuitable for everyday civil or military use. The 100 Octane fuels use during WWII were required to consist entirely of hydrocarbons with a a few permitted additives. That means no oxygenates, e.g., methanol, ethanol, no ketones, e.g., acetone, no ethers. Aromatics were limited to a maximum of 20%. The principal hydrocarbons included in 100-octane gasoline were isopentane, isohexanes, isooctanes and the aromatics, toluene, xylene and cumene. US 100/130 grade contained 2.5% aniline as an anti-knock additive as did British 100/150 grade.

Hu 77 - Mr Color C14, Tamiya XF-17, Hu 113 - Mr Color no match, Tamiya no match, Hu 92 - Mr Color C52, Tamiya XF-65.

With the yellow leading edges on the wings of the DFS.

Three reconnaissance Spitfire Mk V of the TuAF served with the HQ Liaison and PR-detachment "Yuksek Irtifa Foto Kesif Kiasi" [High Altitude Photo Recce Unit] from 1945 to 1948, these being Spitfire MK Vb/c trops with special equipment; they became TuAF serial numbers 5801-5803. 5801 - AB345 F.Vb trop Merlin 45. Selected for Turkey 5.9.44. 5802 - JK190 F.Vc trop Merlin 46. Arrived Turkey 22.2.45. 5803 - JL240 F.Vc trop Merlin 50. Arrived Turkey 22.2.45. From Spitfire International.

That is correct. In most case it would be the mixture being too rich. These days with fuel injection and engine management systems you will get an amber light on your dash board.

No it's not. There are three oxides of Lead, Lead(II) Oxide - colour red or yellow, Lead (IV) Oxide or Lead dioxide - colour black, Lead (II,IV) Oxide contains Pb(II) and Pb(IV) in the ratio 2:1, colour red. It's Tetra Ethyl Lead, commonly called tel. -ene means there is a C=C bond, there are no C=C bonds in tel. Tel burns to form lead. (CH3CH2)4Pb + 13 O2 → 8 CO2 + 10 H2O + Pb The lead can then be oxided to fom lead(II) oxide but any oxide formed will be quickly reduced by the hydrocarbons in the fuel to matallic lead. Reduction of metal oxides by the reducing agents hydrogen, carbon, and carbon monoxide is 'O' Level chemistry. The substance is Lead(II) Bromide. Too busy at the momrnt to explain. I'll be in the next few days to do so.

If they they don't sign up enough punters they will cancel it. If people drop out to the point when it no longer profitable for them they will cancel it.

It's being advertised on TV. 120 issues , I make that £1190.80.

High Speed Silver was a colloquial name for a new finish for use on external metal surfaces of high speed aircraft. Post war it became apparent that the existing Aluminium finish was not resilient enough for use on high speed jets. One example cited was a Meteor that was subjected to bad weather on its delivery flight and on arrival needed repairs to its finish that required two skilled finishers three days to effect. As a result, in 1949, a new finish to specification DTD 772 was introduced. The scheme was a composite cellulose/synthetic which was classified as cellulose finish as its final finishing coats had a cellulose base. The system consisted of a pigmented synthetic resin primer for direct application to metal; a pigmented nitrocellulose or synthetic filler suitable for application over the primer; a glossy nitrocellulose or synthetic resin finish suitable for application over the primer by itself or both primer and filler; and two polishes, one an abrasive cutting compound, the other a liquid polish, both free from wax. The finish was supplied by Docker Brothers. The colour was identical to the earlier Aluminium finish but much more glossy.

Post war international agreements required items of safety equipment to be coloured red.

British colours. At the factory it was painted in the Temperate Land Scheme. It appears to have been assembled from components from different aircraft as it has the B pattern on the fuselage but A pattern on the wings. When repainted in the Day Fighter Scheme the patterns were adjusted to match.

Air Enthusiast 95 - Spitfire Five to Nine.

Yes. It was invented by Richard Drew at 3M in 1925.

Cock o' the North was the nickname of Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon who raised the 92nd Foot Regiment that became the Gordon Highlanders. It is also the tiltle of a bagpipe tune/military march that the Gordon Highlanders adopted as their regimental march. There is a song that uses the tune but it is not a polite one. Auntie Mary had a canary Up the leg of her drawers; It whistled for hours among the flowers And won the Victoria Cross Aunty Judy's budgy went broody August Bank Holiday It laid her an egg the size of her head And frightened the cockerells away There are much more obscene versions.