Comments by "vk2ig" (@vk2ig) on "The Great Glider Grab - Salvaging Operation Market Garden Gliders 1944" video.

  1.  @535tony  The original Shermans weren't so easy to bail out of if you were the loader. There wasn't a loader's hatch - this was added later. The only way the loader could get out was to reverse the process of getting in: raise the gun as high as it would go, climb over the breech, and then exit via the commander's hatch. If the gun couldn't be raised (e.g. after a hit if the trunnion or elevation gear was distorted), or if the commander couldn't move (incapacitated or hatch was jammed) then that was it for the loader. :(
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  2. One of the guys Robert Mason flew with in Vietnam - as recounted in his book Chickenhawk - was in flight school in the US during WW2 when one day his whole class was shipped out to glider school. There they were ... flying powered trainers one day, and the next day practicing in gliders. The guy flew a glider onto a battle field in the Pacific, and then went on to fly fighters in Korea and helicopters in Vietnam.
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  3.  @abrahamlevi3556  Rommel's Asparagus, the Belgians called it.
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  4.  @josephpadula2283  Which totally stacks up given what went on near that town a few decades ago.
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  5. It seems like everyone back then knew how much work went into producing something, therefore considered everything more valuable than people do now. It's why a lot of stuff was built to be repaired, and was repaired. Nowadays, repairing something seems to be the furtherest thing from anyone's mind.
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  6.  @Joesolo13  Yes, my point was that in the earlier Shermans which didn't have a loader's hatch, there was a problem with the loader escaping from the tank. That was the only point I made.
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  7. It is if you consider what went on near there a few decades ago.
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  8. Same. I just finished watching and commenting on a Mark Felton video and then another one turns up in my feed!!!!
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  9.  @bigbaddms  A friend of mine's father, who was a wireless operator in the war (but not in the European theatre) told me that the radios weren't even fitted with the correct crystals so the various units supposed to link up couldn't even talk to each other. If that's the case, then that would be up there with the USN BuOrd's torpedoes ...
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  10. That's why the towline is like bungy cord - designed to convert some of the tow plane's kinetic energy into potential energy which in turn then imparts kinetic energy to the glider. Otherwise, the impulse force when the towline tensioned up would likely destroy one or more of the following: the towline attachment point on the tow plane, the towline itself, or the towline attachment point on the glider.
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  11. And some whacko things went on near Waco a few decades ago, too.
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  12.  @endutubecensorship  I was at a course where one of the lecturers had worked at the Skunk Works. What he could tell us was fascinating, but what he hinted at and couldn't tell us more about was even more intriguing. The funniest part was when he told how his wife thought he worked at the Lockheed facility at a nearby airport, because that's where he went every workday morning and came home from in the evening. When he got to the airport of a morning, he and his colleagues boarded a passenger jet owned by Lockheed that flew them to where they really worked.
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  13. No, I don't. But both of my dogs do.
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  14. Or what went on near Waco a few decades ago.
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  15.  @alexmarshall4331  Especially after the goings-on in that area a few decades ago.
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  16. It has an interesting impact on the logistic tail, and it's a real balancing act between transport and cost. On one hand, replacement items must be transported to the AO, and failed items transported from the AO for repair, as there are no forward repair bases containing sufficiently skilled, uniformed personnel. On the other hand, if the military was able to fix its own kit like it used to, then one would need a field workshop and all spare parts plus skilled personnel transported to the AO or a forward repair base not far from the AO. Regardless, I can see some manufacturers definitely profiting by locking down the software and repair activities. And it looks good for any high-level commanders and a Defence Minister / Secretary for Defence who are under pressure to downsize the services if they can say "We 'market tested' (that's the current euphemism) that function, and found it's best performed by industry as it releases uniformed personnel for front line duty and also reduces the training burden." Win-win ...
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  17. That's why they used a bungee cord to convert some of the tow plane's kinetic energy to potential energy without pulling it out of the sky. Then that (stored) potential energy would assist with launching the glider. Physics works ...
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  18. I guess that's what happens when you let otters plan and manage a major offensive campaign. As the old saying goes, if you pay peanuts then you'll get monkeys.
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  19. We did that in commercial aviation in the 80's, too - go on the test flight after a major overhaul. :)
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  20. I remember hearing that one of the war loans (from Canada?) was repaid in the mid-90s.
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  21.  @memofromessex  There have been recent examples of putting a flag (in the West) or a religious book (in the ME) in people's hands to get them to fight. And it especially helps if the real reason for the conflict is dressed up or disguised.
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  22. Some wacko things happened near Waco a few decades ago. :)
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  23.  @nightjarflying  And I would love to know what this "Iron Dome" was in WW2 that the OP rattled on about.
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