No, it wasn't the model in the 1968 film Where Eagles Dare, but it was built by the Germans during WW2. Had this model been mass produced as planned, it could have been a "game changer". The allies were on top of their game to destroy the factory that was to produce 400 of these machines per month.
I fear and loathe manned rotorcraft on an instinctive level. When the first V22 Ospreys were eating themselves and their crews alive, I was convinced that the mechanical demons were agents of the devil sent to destroy US Marines. Of course they won that fight and the V22s bloody well behave themselves today.
Now I hear they’re experimenting with “compound helicopters”... they look like gyros but the main rotor is powered too. I get headaches just looking at the forces required to make that monster fly...
German engineers had a routine habit of producing some of the best equipment in the world at the time. I'm still convinced that Hitler was one of our best allies, in how he ignored his generals and mis-used most of the technology available to him. Had he listened to advice even half of the time, Europe (and possibly Russia) would be speaking German right now.
I agree Allen and had Hitler been assassinated in early '42 there would probably be statues of him from the English Channel to the Urals and from Norway to North Africa.
@Glen - before the Osprey arrived the CH-53 was the heavy troop lift & was nicknamed "the whistling shitcan of death" because they kept falling out of the sky. Not only did the Osprey look cool, but it looked like it had the potential to be safer than the 53.
I fear and loathe manned rotorcraft on an instinctive level. When the first V22 Ospreys were eating themselves and their crews alive, I was convinced that the mechanical demons were agents of the devil sent to destroy US Marines. Of course they won that fight and the V22s bloody well behave themselves today.
ReplyDeleteNow I hear they’re experimenting with “compound helicopters”... they look like gyros but the main rotor is powered too. I get headaches just looking at the forces required to make that monster fly...
German engineers had a routine habit of producing some of the best equipment in the world at the time. I'm still convinced that Hitler was one of our best allies, in how he ignored his generals and mis-used most of the technology available to him. Had he listened to advice even half of the time, Europe (and possibly Russia) would be speaking German right now.
ReplyDeleteI agree Allen and had Hitler been assassinated in early '42 there would probably be statues of him from the English Channel to the Urals and from Norway to North Africa.
ReplyDelete@Glen - before the Osprey arrived the CH-53 was the heavy troop lift & was nicknamed "the whistling shitcan of death" because they kept falling out of the sky. Not only did the Osprey look cool, but it looked like it had the potential to be safer than the 53.
ReplyDeleteI'd fly it....
ReplyDelete