Spinners

Epic!

"The Harmonious Dragmaster"

Curtiss P-42D Twin Warhawk - No.15 'Shark' Squadron, Royal Dhimari Air Force, 1943 In response to USAAC Materiel Division Circular Proposal 39-775 issued in 1939 for a high altitude interceptor, Curtiss submitted a twin-engined version of their P-40 Warhawk powered by two V-12 Allison V-1710-39 engines. Whilst their proposal finished a disapointing third behind the Grumman G-45 XP-50 and the winning Lockheed Model 522 XP-49, Curtiss revised their Twin Warhawk to incorporate two Packard (Rolls-Royce) V-1650-1 Merlin engines each developing 1300 h.p. and turning their own 3-bladed Curtiss electric constant-speed propellers with LH and RH rotation to remove the expected heavy swing on take-off. Redesignated as the Curtiss P-42 (replacing the earlier single-engined XP-42 derived from the P-36) the Twin Warhawk featured a powerful nose armament consisting of six 0.5 inch M2 Browning machine guns with 500 rounds per gun and two 20mm Hispano M2(C) cannon with 150 rounds per gun making it the most heavily armed fighter aircraft of it's era especially as the close grouping of the weapons meant that there were no convergence problems when compared with wing-mounted guns. With the ability to carry up to 2,000lb in external stores Curtiss pitched their new design as a multi-role fighter with primary missions of interceptor fighter and fighter-bomber. With an increasingly hostile Japan continuing its war against China during 1940 (and also signing the Tripartite Pact in 1940 with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy) the Roosevelt administration slowly moved from being a neutral power to one preparing for war and Curtiss gained further contracts for it's P-40 Warhawk and also an unexpected contract for 300 of the new P-42 Twin Warhawk for the USAAC. This was soon followed by an order for 200 P-42's from the UK Government in late 1940 for use by the RAF in the Western Desert but immediately after Pearl Harbour all 200 aircarft were requisitioned by the USAAC and redesignated as P-42D's. The first YP-42 prototype first flew on October 11th 1940 and proved to be relatively easy to fly at all speeds with stable handling characteristics although test pilots were very critical of the visibilty over the nose and the engine nacelles. In addition, they considered that the high wing loading made it more suited to ground attack than to air combat. Testing progressed well during 1941 and by the end of the year production P-42B's were rolling off the Curtiss-Wright production line at Buffalo, New York and entering service in May 1942 with the 14th Pursuit Group in San Diego to provide West Coast defence. However, most P-42B's went to the 12th Air Force in North Africa as part of the force being built up for Operation Torch. Initially based in Algeria the P-42B's were first involved in North African combat operations during November 1942 shooting down several Italian twin-engined bombers plus two German Me-323 Gigant transports. But it was in the ground attack role that the P-42's of the 12th Air Force excelled in North Africa flying ground attack missions against gun emplacements, troops, supply dumps and tanks. In early 1943 the Royal Dhimari Air Force received 30 P-42D's directly from US stocks and these were used by No.15 Squadron to good effect during the Maqazad counter-offensive in the Spring of 1943. Skin Credit: Charles

Brewster Buffalo Mk.I - No.14 'Buffalo' Squadron, Royal Dhimari Air Force, 1942 Skin Credit: Charles

VPAF SM-12PM 'Firefly-B'

Tubby or not Tubby, fat is the question

Focke-Wulf Fw-190A3 - 1st Fighter Regiment, Parani Army Air Force, 1944 Skin Credit: Torno

Se ve fantastico. Bien hecho Torno!

Daytime Duo

You could try allocating the space bar to a task rarely required, e.g. fire secondary guns.

Twilight Twins

Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat - No.4 squadron, Royal Dhimari Air Force, 1943 With USN and USMC fighter squadrons replacing their Grumman F4F-3's with F4F-4's during 1942 the Royal Dhimari Air Force became the grateful recipients of surplus F4F-3's in early 1943 and used them to good effect in the fighter sweeps over the Valley of Kerman. When six gun F4F-4's later became available in 1944, Dhimari pilots were quick to express a preference for the slightly faster and considerably lighter earlier F4F-3 model despite it only having four guns. Skin Credit: Charles

Al Fresco

Bristol Buzzard T.1

Two weeks...

View File [Fictional] Fiat G.55 Centauro for Strike Fighters 2 Fiat G.55 Centauro for STRIKE FIGHTERS 2 This is a simple mod of Veltro2K's Fiat G.55 Centauro to create a fictional Fiat G.55 Centauro in service with the Turkish Air Force in the 1944-1949 timeline. Also included is a Parani Army Air Force skin (in fact, this mod is set up as a Parani aircraft). INSTRUCTIONS 1. From the AIRCRAFT folder drag and drop the Centauro folder into your Aircraft folder. 2. From the DECALS folder drag and drop the Centauro folder into your Decals folder. 3. From the SOUNDS folder drag and drop the Bf109G folder into your Sounds folder. 4. From the WEAPONS folder drag and drop all three folders into your Weapons folder. That's it, although you might want to use the WW2 pilot of your choice. Please note that the 3D model has a tiny bit of 'decal bleed' on the port side of the nose. CREDITS As always, thanks to Third Wire for a great little game/sim. Thanks to Veltro2K for making the G.55 Centauro 3D model. Thanks to Charles for the original skins and also for the flight model. Thanks to Kesselbrut and Capun for the cockpit. And, finally, thanks to everyone in the wider Third Wire community. Regards Spinners Version 1 - 24/10/2020 Submitter Spinners Submitted 10/24/2020 Category What If Hangar  

Fiat G.55 Centauro - 5th Air Regiment, Turkish Air Force, 1945 When the governments of Germany and Turkey signed a non-aggression pact on June 18th, 1941 the main benefits to Germany was to keep Turkey friendly with the Axis powers and to also gain immediate access to Turkish chromite and iron ore. In return, Turkey would receive aircraft, anti-aircraft guns, tanks and spare parts. For the Turkish Air Force this would mean the receipt of 60 brand new Focke-Wulf Fw-190A-3 aircraft shipped via rail as disassembled aircraft plus the equivalent of another 12 aircraft shipped as spare parts. The initial two batches of 30 aircraft were safely delivered to the new railway station located close to Yeşilköy Airfield near Istanbul and were assembled during the Spring of 1943 with initial deliveries being made to the 5th Fighter Regiment based at Bursa in June 1943. During the Autumn of 1943 the Turkish Air Force began to chase up the late delivery of the remaining 12 Fw-190A-3's and were disappointed to learn that, at Adolf Hitler's instruction, they were being witheld as Turkey had agreed to supply Chromite to the United States and United Kingdom who had jointly embarked upon a strategy of "preclusive buying" of Turkish chromite even though they did not actually need it. The Turkish Prime Minister, Şükrü Saracoğlu, intervened and whilst Hitler would not budge on the missing Fw-190's he agreed to send "other fighter aircraft from the Italian front" before the end of 1943. Turkish Air Force officials thought that this would mean Messerschmitt Bf-109G's but were disappointed to discover that the crated aircraft received at Yeşilköy from Italy in December 1943 were 12 Fiat G.55 Centauro aircraft recently requisitioned by the Luftwaffe but rejected by them. A technical team from the recently formed Turkish Aviation Association arrived from Ankara during early 1944 to assemble the G.55's and flight-testing was carried out by Sabiha Gökçen the famous Turkish female aviator. During April 1944, the unwanted G.55's were sent to the 4th Air Regiment based at Merzifon where they remained in service until late February 1945. Skin Credit: Charles

Yes. Let me make a few more numbers for it (I only made four) and I'll release it.

A Parani Army Air Force Fiat G.55 'Centauro' flies over the Mazadran Oil Fields during late 1943