Aircraft Trivia Quiz

Dooooough!

Veddy interesting!

Matt, that agrees with my sources.  It would seem that you and Osher each got part of the question, so you can either fight amongst yourselves, or else the first one that says who made the propellers on the B-32 can have the honors.  Apparently something was unique for the time about the propeller blades as well.

The "author", was Saburo Sakai, who wrote Samurai, which according to the first copy I had, was co-written by Martin Caidin.  Later copies I have do not credit Caidin, was that just to get a Japanese author's book read in the 50's?  I have at least two of the Tamiya and Hasegawa 1/32 figures of him, and a third in my display case that was done by a modeler friend who I think was quite good at it.  He did two of these, and the second is with Sakai's family.  This one is metal, quite heavy.

The information I have found says there were fourteen A6M Zeros and three N1K2-J Shiden-Kai (often mistaken for Ki-44 Tojo) aircraft involved, and that photographer Sgt. Marchione was the man who died making him the last allied combat death.

I still can't find any info about an author being aboard.

Wild guesses:

Randall White

 and... Ki-27?

By the way, I've got a copy of a photograph from a private collection of a B-32 Dominator on a runway on Tinian or Siapan. It has battle damage... a rather large hole blasted into the forward fuselage...

But we still need to know the other airplane or the author.  Nice work on the turret, though. 

There is a book on the B-32, The Story of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator, Harding and Long, ISBN 0-933126-38-7, 1984.  It differs in the account of the last combat from Wikipedia, and gives no detail of the Japanese involvement.  According to it there is also a piece of an instrument panel left behind in private hands.

Just interjecting my two cents...

According to Wikipedia, the only remaining portion of a B-32 is a wing panel from a static test airframe.  It's part of a memorial near San Diego, CA.

However, a quick Googe search (yes, I am not immune to its influence) turned up this:

http://forum.armyairforces.com/Rare-B32-Dominator-Turret-Being-Restored-Looking-for-Information-m143186.aspx

(If this information is judged "correct" by Jeaton, I would be willing to let osher have the floor, as he got the original B-32 answer.  Which helped a LOT.)

OMG.  I see I went over 2,000 posts this week.  What's the prize? 

Aw, c'monn, trexx, not using Google today is about the same as trying to start your Honda moving with a buggy whip!  However, a printed reference (often known as a "book") was used to
come up with my answer to Mike's question. 

New question:

This airplane was a victim of the last battle in the air of WW II.  A noted author was involved, and so was an airplane that fought the first battles of a part of WW II.  Only one part of one of the first airplane in this question is known to remain, almost all of the production went straight from the factory to the boneyard. 

Name two out of three.  Models exist of all three parts of the question, two by a major manufacturer, and all three are in my stash.  But that won't help Mike, I have them better hidden than the section he frequents. 

Ah taint usin' no dag-burn Google!

...and no guesses fielded either! *drat*

C'mon, Jeaton. We need QUESTION.

And there you go!  A devilshly simply question which is not often seen on a typical Google search.  In fact, I haven't seen it on the internet ANYWHERE.

In any case, the floor is yours, jeaton01.

You're probably thinking of the ANT-14 'Pravda' (Truth), a five engined aircraft which was built before the ANT-16. 

The civil ANT-16 in the question was never built.

Alright, my last two clues before I call this question an offical stumper.

-Tupolev at this time was known to re-use designations.

-This is a bit of a trick question.

Unfortunately, no, it wasn't!

Alright, my first clue- this is not an obscure designation.  In fact, it's already been posted in this very thread.....

Sorry about the really long delay, guys.  I had a bunch of stuff come up and wasn't able to get to a computer until know.  I had a real doozy of a question, but becuase I made you wait so long, I'll give you a more straightforward one.

Tupolev was designing a civilian version of the ANT-16 (TB-4) bomber when he was forced to abandon it to begin designing the much larger ANT-20 Maxim Gorky.  What was the designation of this civilian ANT-16?

jeaton01 wrote:

Bill, the cowling color was assigned based on the position of the airplane in the squadron, according to Bill Larkins.  Section leaders had cowls fully painted, others had half cowls painted, top, bottom, left, right.  Section 1 plane 1 had the full cowl painted red, plane 5 was full cowl white section 2 leader, section 3 leader was plane number 9, blue: section 4 plane number 13, black:  section 5 plane 17 was green. Some guys did nothing but paint, I guess.

Yes it is the A-4 Skyhawk. Lucien you got in there first so you have the floor.

Cheers, Richie

Wow, a softball pitch right over the plate. Kapow!

Without even Googlin' for this one, it's gotta be the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk but I was too late. Dang!

Would that be the...

Douglas A-4 Skyhawk?

Have the book and saw the movie 'Reach for the sky'. Ok the next question is:

What aircraft was known as Heineman's 'Hot Rod'?

Cheers, Richie

Could you be referring to Douglas Bader and his stunt that cost him his legs and almost his life in the Bristol Bulldog?

Cheers, Richie

I broke rules and I paid a high price. Bulldog involved. Need more clues?

Bill, the cowling color was assigned based on the position of the airplane in the squadron, according to Bill Larkins.  Section leaders had cowls fully painted, others had half cowls painted, top, bottom, left, right.  Section 1 plane 1 had the full cowl painted red, plane 5 was full cowl white section 2 leader, section 3 leader was plane number 9, blue: section 4 plane number 13, black:  section 5 plane 17 was green.

Some guys did nothing but paint, I guess. 

That is correct. The tail be red, as she's in Division along with Nevada and Arizona.

Cowling color- I don't understand the system, anyone?

Hasegawa sez lower half red, "Floatplanes in action" shows this same a/c lower half blue in profile drawing.

Go figure? I like the look of the blue.