Aircraft Trivia Quiz

Anybody?

 Hmmm...

...detecting gun shyness! The questions are DANG hard to create. We've got a smart crowd that knows how to use Google too. #@*!&* !!!

Hey Trexx, glad you liked it.

I would really like to build one of these monsters, but I have no idea how to fit 33 rocket tubes in one bombay. If I found even one picture, I'd do it in a heartbeat though. Too cool!

Anyways, I'm not really sure how this works now. My question was answered, but it was a group effort. Who wants to/should go first?

cardshark_14 wrote:

Brews wrote: I guessed you were talking about the 75mm .. still can't think of the plane - He 177 has been ruled out, hasn't it?  bondoman wrote:  cardshark_14 wrote:  Lucien Harpress wrote: It wasn't the Hs 129 fitted with downward-firing recoilless mortar-type weapon thingys (a technical term, of course) which were triggered to fire automatically when the plane passed over something metal, was it? 'cause I'm pretty much just stabbin' in the dark, here.  Mike, you've got the right twin engined ground attack aircraft, and the right weapon just used in a different way. You're this close! It would be pretty good at destroying other aircraft, wouldn't it? Well, if it was automatically triggered to fire up  at other metal objects, pity the wingman!! I'm gonna give it to y'all, as you've gotten everything, it just never got put together...I guess it was just a bad question... Sorry folks. There were 5 He 177A-5s that had their bombays modified to carry 33 rocket tubes that fired upwards at a 60 degree angle! They were delivered and flown by Erprobungskommando 25 as He 177A-5 Zerstorers, though it is unknown if any saw combat. Now, does anyone have a picture or drawing of one of these bad boys?

 OH, poop!

Too late...

IT was a teriffic question, friend. It's good to excersise diligence and the noggin' !

Brews wrote:

I guessed you were talking about the 75mm .. still can't think of the plane - He 177 has been ruled out, hasn't it?

bondoman wrote:

cardshark_14 wrote:  Lucien Harpress wrote: It wasn't the Hs 129 fitted with downward-firing recoilless mortar-type weapon thingys (a technical term, of course) which were triggered to fire automatically when the plane passed over something metal, was it? 'cause I'm pretty much just stabbin' in the dark, here.  Mike, you've got the right twin engined ground attack aircraft, and the right weapon just used in a different way. You're this close! It would be pretty good at destroying other aircraft, wouldn't it? Well, if it was automatically triggered to fire up  at other metal objects, pity the wingman!!

I'm gonna give it to y'all, as you've gotten everything, it just never got put together...I guess it was just a bad question... Sorry folks.

There were 5 He 177A-5s that had their bombays modified to carry 33 rocket tubes that fired upwards at a 60 degree angle! They were delivered and flown by Erprobungskommando 25 as He 177A-5 Zerstorers, though it is unknown if any saw combat.

Now, does anyone have a picture or drawing of one of these bad boys?

Lucien Harpress wrote:

Well, the Me 163 used a similar setup for an upward-firing role.  But, again, the Komet wasn't multi-engined... It was also fitted to a nubmer of Fw 190 airframes.  Same engine problem, though... I get the feeling I'm flying in circles around the correct answer here. Depending on how small a caliber you are accepting any Schräge Musik aircraft- Do 217, He 219, Ju 388, Ju 88, Me 262, and/or Bf 110- would fit the bill.

This is HEAVY caliber! Mere bullets are nothing compared to this! 

The Me-410 A-1/U2 had the 50mm cannon for breaking up bomber formations. But the aircraft was originally developed as a Schnellbomber and heavyfighter. Maybe if you consider the Schnellbomber as ground attack it would fit in.

Mike T.

bondoman wrote:

cardshark_14 wrote:  Lucien Harpress wrote: It wasn't the Hs 129 fitted with downward-firing recoilless mortar-type weapon thingys (a technical term, of course) which were triggered to fire automatically when the plane passed over something metal, was it? 'cause I'm pretty much just stabbin' in the dark, here.  Mike, you've got the right twin engined ground attack aircraft, and the right weapon just used in a different way. You're this close! It would be pretty good at destroying other aircraft, wouldn't it? Well, if it was automatically triggered to fire up  at other metal objects, pity the wingman!!

Bondo...you're so close! You've got the attack, now what multi-engine aircraft mounted something like that? 

Well, the Me 163 used a similar setup for an upward-firing role.  But, again, the Komet wasn't multi-engined...

It was also fitted to a nubmer of Fw 190 airframes.  Same engine problem, though... I get the feeling I'm flying in circles around the correct answer here.

Depending on how small a caliber you are accepting any Schräge Musik aircraft- Do 217, He 219, Ju 388, Ju 88, Me 262, and/or Bf 110- would fit the bill.

cardshark_14 wrote:

Lucien Harpress wrote: It wasn't the Hs 129 fitted with downward-firing recoilless mortar-type weapon thingys (a technical term, of course) which were triggered to fire automatically when the plane passed over something metal, was it? 'cause I'm pretty much just stabbin' in the dark, here.  Mike, you've got the right twin engined ground attack aircraft, and the right weapon just used in a different way. You're this close! It would be pretty good at destroying other aircraft, wouldn't it?

Lucien Harpress wrote:

It wasn't the Hs 129 fitted with downward-firing recoilless mortar-type weapon thingys (a technical term, of course) which were triggered to fire automatically when the plane passed over something metal, was it? 'cause I'm pretty much just stabbin' in the dark, here.

Mike, you've got the right twin engined ground attack aircraft, and the right weapon just used in a different way. You're this close! It would be pretty good at destroying other aircraft, wouldn't it?

It wasn't the Hs 129 fitted with downward-firing recoilless mortar-type weapon thingys (a technical term, of course) which were triggered to fire automatically when the plane passed over something metal, was it?

'cause I'm pretty much just stabbin' in the dark, here. 

Bah!  I am no good at making these easy.

Hint Time: Take a look at Henschel's ground attack weapons. 

Was a bomber attack variant of the Fw-200 proposed?

I know the Germans experimented with  downward firing weapons on the Ju-88 for ground attack, but abandoned the idea because it wasn't that accurate and there was too much risk to damaging your own plane.  It was sort of a downward firing Shrage Musik.

  Bill

No, but that would have won the prize a few questions ago.

Hint: The aircraft in question had a high powered sort of schrage musik. 

Was it the Savoia Marchetti SM 91/92, designed in Italy but not flown before the capitulation? The design was tested by the Luftwaffe, however and showed promise, but was shelved in preference of German types.

It was designed as an interceptor and armed with a gun pack containing 3 MG151 cannons and could carry a 1000kg bomb. 

trexx wrote:

...By the way, the Tu-4 has a nickname, "Concordski"

 I think you are confusing it with the Tu-144. I'm sure that was the one known as Concordski.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-144

cardshark_14 wrote:

trexx wrote:   ...The Germans had a major gun put on the "Grief" (He-177) but it wasn't for intercepting aerial targets...   I'm thinking about a crazy plan the Germans envisioned to drop bombs onto bombers while the targets were in flight... I vaguely remember reading something about it...   I think they were going to use a captured B-17.  ...By the way, the Tu-4 has a nickname, "Concordski" Trexx, my friend, you are SO close...

Oh geeze...

MY DANG JOB, is interfering with my Aircraft quiz! Otherwise I'd be all over finding this out!

trexx wrote:

...The Germans had a major gun put on the "Grief" (He-177) but it wasn't for intercepting aerial targets...   I'm thinking about a crazy plan the Germans envisioned to drop bombs onto bombers while the targets were in flight... I vaguely remember reading something about it...   I think they were going to use a captured B-17.  ...By the way, the Tu-4 has a nickname, "Concordski"

Trexx, my friend, you are SO close... 

Ok... OK   It's the "ground attack" clue that's pertinent...   The Japanese messed around with big twin-motored interceptors sporting a very big cannon to shoot at Superforts with... but it wasn't derived from a ground attack anything. And I don't think they upped the ante with a quad motored airplane

  ...The Germans had a major gun put on the "Grief" (He-177) but it wasn't for intercepting aerial targets...   I'm thinking about a crazy plan the Germans envisioned to drop bombs onto bombers while the targets were in flight... I vaguely remember reading something about it...   I think they were going to use a captured B-17.

...By the way, the Tu-4 has a nickname, "Concordski"

I suspect you're looking for the Sukhoi T-4.  Looks like a small Valkyrie and was designed by the Soviets to counter the threat.  Four engines also could be used as high speed recon but was primarily designed as an interceptor.

Here's a pic.

trexx wrote:

It also was one of the few biplanes ever made that had folding wings.

Hmmm. Offhand, I can think of Handley Page O/100 from 1916, Fairey Swordfish and Albacore ... and I'm pretty sure that the Hawker Nimrod had hinged wings, too, Fairey Sea Fox, Supermarine Seagull / Walrus, Fairey Flycatcher ... and that's not thinking about US naval types!