The Koolhoven F.K.58; A Dutch Fighter Used by Poles Fighting for the French (O.O)
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- Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
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Built in an extremely short timeline to a French requirement for fighter aircraft, the F.K.58 never really had a chance to show what it could do.
![The British Bomber That Looked Utterly Ridiculous | Handley Page Heyford [Aircraft Overview #91]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/A4tr_INSnjk/mqdefault.jpg)
Schatzki was an incredible bloke, how fortunate he escaped the Nazis twice.🇦🇺
From 1924 Schatzki worked at Junkers. From 1927 till 1933 he worked for the Lufhansa, first as a pilot and test-pilot, later he was the technical director. When in 1933 within Lufthansa anti-Jewish sentiments developed he decided to flee to Switzerland where he worked for Swissair. Later he then moved to the Netherlands where he started to work for Fokker, being responsible for the D XXI and the G1. After that he moved to Koolhoven, where he designed the F.K. 58. When the Germans invaded the Netherlands and bombed/destroyed the Koolhoven factory he worked then for some time for the local Dutch tobacco industry. Carl August Freiherr von Gablenz, then the director of Lufthansa, warned Schatzki for the dangers waiting ahead for the Jews living in occupied territories. Schatzki then again fleed. Via France and Spain he then finally arrived in the USA where he started to work for Republic.
The need for Jews to “escape” has one thing in common.
The P-47 was literally a flying tank that wreaked havoc on the Germans both in the air and on the ground. Schatzki was forced to flee Germany due to the Nazi's blind hatred, but got the ultimate revenge against them by assisting in the advancement & development of one of the most formidable fighter bombers of the war. A nice ending to an interesting story.
You got that description right. The Thunderbolt was a mini flying fortress, and while it wasn't as fast as some other enemy fighters and didn't have the turning ability or climb rate that they possessed, they were heavily armored, quite fast, and could take a lot of punishment while blowing stuff up real good. One of the finest fighter-bombers ever developed during WWII.
@@jessfrankel5212 You're wrong regarding the speed of the P-47. It wasn't "quick" meaning it wasn't agile. But it was indeed very fast.
@@Birdy890 I believe i said that in my initial post.
@@jessfrankel5212 There was only one enemy fighter that had a higher top speed, which was the Me-262, So I'm not sure which enemy fighter you're talking about it not being as fast as. At altitude the P-47 had everything beat, because it was designed to do high-altitude work.
I can't even recall hearing about this fighter and I've been a pretty avid reader about WW1 and WW2 aircraft design thanks again for the video
I knew about this plane but then, I'm Dutch . . . it's another Dutch example of "what might have been".
From drawings to prototype in two in a half months, that's what you call focus on the job at hand. Excellent video!
Very glad to have found this channel.
He does have some interesting stuff doesn't he?
Done it again sir, ain’t you. I had never heard of this aircraft! Great stuff 👍
Well Ed . Yet another one out of the bag ! You can see the plane lacked development and was frustrated by lack of supplies. Luckily he had much better luck than the aircraft. Thanks Ed.
😉
It reminds me of the Republic P43. Now I know why.
The Lancer?
Koolhoven was certainly not an obscure aircraft producer. In WW1 working for the British, he designed for Armstrong Whitwortht the F.K. 3 scout. Of the F.K. 8 1701 were built. In 1917 Koolhoven went to the British Aerial Transport Company (B.A.T.), as chief designer. An important design there was the BAT F.K.26, the worlds first pasenger aircraft designed as such. All in all he designed more than 60 airplanes during his life, of which more than 3.000 were built. At the outbreak of WW2 he for sure was as big as the more well-known Fokker.
F.K. standing for his own name: Frits Koolhoven
Damn, exactly when I was considering building the model kit of this plane
Great stuff here. Never heard of this particular aircraft. This could've been a real blaster with further development.
Not with those 7mm guns.
Love these little known accounts. So much seems to have nearly been forgotten .
When Schatzki was Technical Director of the Lufthansa, he constructed the 3 engined version of the former one engined JU 52.
I completely forgot about that and had to look it up. Erhard Milch was also technical director of Lufthansa. Both, he and Schatzki insisted on the 3 engined version of the Ju-52, which at this point was already on Junkers drawing boards but was to be discarded. Schatzki first worked for Junkers and then was a test pilot for Lufthansa before he became technical director.
Milch had connections to the Reichswehr (the Lufthansa was a para-military training ground for pilots and ground crews) and most if not all new aircraft had to be considered for military use as well. This is were the demand for 3 engines initially came from. Milch later became secretary of the state for the ministry of aviation and "Generalinspekteur" of the Luftwaffe as fieldmarshall.
Schatzki was fired by Lufthansa because he was jewish and went to Fokker and later Koolhoven.
On friendly advice of the Lufthansa CEO, an old friend from his days with the company, he fled Europe in 1941.
I have to say that aircaft designers saw the world these days. Schatzki worked for Junkers, Lufthansa, Fokker, Koolhoven, Republic, the Israeli Air Force and El Al.
@@ottovonbismarck2443 Interestingly, Erhard Milch was half-Jewish, but his boss Göring fixed that. It didn't make Milch's disposition towards the Jews any warmer, however.
Ha! On viewing the first few images, my first thought was "that looks vaguely like a Thunderbolt". Now I know why!
My father and grandfather used to work for this company.
Another great video. Thanks for filling in the holes in my knowledge about Shatski. I never knew he was THAT prolific. Since you seem to be on a Dutch roll: The Fokker DR-23 may also be a nice subject. A sad Coda is that Frits Koolhoven was after the war marked as a nazi-colaborator on rather dubious grounds, in spite of (later) testimonies that he had actually helped some jews. He died desillusioned and poor. Certainly an undeserved ending.
Sounds like a early case of Commie cancel culture!
@@chitlika Well he was an entrepeneur for sure and hardly a commie because of that but in such troubled times witchhunts always surface. It could however be that he flirted a bit with the nazi's becuase he hoped to rebuild his factory, which had been bombed by those versy same guys at the beginning of the war. Many will have thought they woudl stay. Maybe he flirted a bit too openly for that reason or out of sheer desperation but I do not know about any proof of direct colaboration. There is actually a very nice dutch documentary about Koolhoven which also openly discusees these aspects.
@@chitlika Only brainless imbecile or a neonazi thinks prosecution of nazis after WW2 was "cOmMie CaNcEL cULtUrE". Fuck off to der sturmer or whatever fascist den you crawled out of, here normal people talk...
So, one of the very few aircraft not in Capt Eric"Winkle" Brown RNs log book then.....
One of very few indeed!
Good work. Enjoying your focus on lesser known types.
Again a great well informed video on an unknoen aircraft by many.
The Dutch defence minister wanted to buy this aircraft but the army air arm was vehemtly opposed.
They wanted 18 Hurricanes asap.
The further competoters where the Fokker D23 copy of the firm offer by Fokker to build 18 or 36 on 20 March 1938 with first plane 1 july 1939 and 6 weeks after accepting the first plane 1 plane a week......
Only when Fokker had concentrated far more on the D23 and thus put more speed in the project development would some have been ready by may 1940.
Yet it remained a high risk venture.
The D23 was also shown as a mock up in Paris and flown as a technology demonstrater of the tandem configuration.
The never flown Schelde S21 was an other contender.
Yet (correctly so, I think) the army air arm wanted Spitfires and got the aircraft you also made a great video on the Demon.
Alas that minister then had the money and even parlentary backing to have had 36 or more Spitfires that where offered.
Politicians......
The other contender
Typical dutch problem , when every thing is aligning to large military expansions , a world war and embargos shut it down .
1940 3 battle cruisers would have been layed down .the first in july 1940. 3 older Q-R class british battleships where to be purschased as plan of 1939-1940. The money was there the will was there , unfrotunatly the time to do anything was gone.
The angle of the cover photo for this video makes them look very “Oscar-like"
I’ve never heard of this fighter before, but while watching the video I did think it looked a bit like a P-47 from certain angles (mainly the front but also while in flight) so was pleased to hear Erich Schatzki is the connection between the two!
Excellent info Sir...really enjoy the obscure aircraft you highlight...looking forward to Slovakian, Czech, Rumanian, Hungarian, and Japanese obscure aircraft as well
Cheers
Recently found this channel,and enjoying the obscure aircraft reviews.
Any chance of reviewing the IAR 80/81,or the Yugoslav IK 3??
Its actualy pretty funny everytime, i search for videos of dutch craftsmanship i end up at your channel.😂
Thanks for the nice video on this dutch aircraft, but why on earth do you put at 1:24 a picture of a Swiss soldier at the Swiss border to Germany in this context? Keep up with your good work!
Ahhh! Silly mistake! Apologies.
Hermann - You really should not have pointed this out! It has nothing to do with information about this aircraft.
I just found your channel... Several not common planes of the second world war that I don't see on other channels ... so I can recommend some similar planes "IAR 80 and 81", "Heinkel He 112", "MiG-1 and MiG-3" and "n1k George"
I knew the name Koolhoven, but that's it. Thanks for the info
The Koolhoven is the koolest airplane I never heard of!
Only the Dutch pronunciation of "kool" is more like coal then like cool.
Legend says, Kool and the Gang were the factory's music band!
@@mattbite They also served Kool Aid during lunch.
Love your show up here in central British Columbia, sir!! 🇨🇦🇨🇦
Had only seen, not read about this. Good vid!
Labour disputes with an aggressive neighbour prepping for war.....it figures
Not uncommon unfortunately. In Britain during the 2ndWW, dockers and ship builders often went on strike for more money, even though they were always paid much more than the services or Merchant Navy. The RN despised them, according to Nick Monsarrat and others I have read.
This is the best thing I ever saw.
I had never heard of this fighter or the company before but what an interesting story and History
That was a photo of a German solider and a Swiss soldier. at 1:24 .
I was wondering about that
Very informative!
Very interesting. Good job.
Wow, I've heard of the air plane but didn't know all of the history. Great video.
Neat footnote.
I immediately saw the similarity to the seversky fighter ... so this is the Thunderbolts Great Grandpappy. Did this guy have a hand in the F105 Thunderchief?
2:00: Erich Schatzki is an interesting figure. He was born in West-Germany in Janary 1898 and studied engineering in the early 1920ies. Lateron he worked for Junkers and became technical director of Luft Hansa in 1929. In 1934 he was forced to leave Germany with his family, because he was jewish. Due to his great technical knowledge he soon found a job at Fokker in the Netherlands. He designed the Fokker D XXI. Lateron he changed over to Koolhoven. After the German occupation of the Netherlands he could no longer work as an aircraft designer. When he was warned by Carl-August von Gablenz, the director of Lufthansa, that he and his family might be arrested and transported to a concentration camp, he fled in 1941 over France and Spain to the United States. There he worked in the design team of the P-47. After the war he laboured some time for the Israeli Airforce and the airline ELAL. He died in 1991 at Palo Alto.
Thank you. I know the name Koolhoven but didn't know about this plan.
Ah! 1936 thinking - 4 x pop-guns should be enough ..
Ya hear the stories of early model Spits and Hurricanes raking Luftwaffe bombers with .303s during the BOB?
Pissed those Brit pilots off. Having to make multiple passes for a kill. Or even damage.
@@fredweller1086 The 303 was adequate for shooting down both German fighters and bombers and was a readily available universal munition source. This falls in line with manufacturing logistics of the war and from my understanding RAF pilots were very happy with the fighting performance of both Spitfires and Hurricanes, which were used for different objectives. The Spitfire was more than capable of dealing with German fighters whilst the Hurricanes took on the bombers. The German losses were quite significant...
@@JamesAlexander14 No one should settle for "adequate" when their life is on the line.
No doubt, the Spits and Hurricanes were successful, but this was DISPITE their handicap in armaments. We cannot prove how much more successful they would have been with adequate firepower. But there is is abundant and verified anecdotal evidence by RAF pilots bemoaning the fact the could rarely kill a German target in one pass.
The Hispano Suiza 20mm was available as early as the mid 1930's. It was negligent and lazy not arming RAF planes properly.
Those "German losses" came at a very significant cost to Britain. A cost that could easily have been reduced.
In 1940, EVERY major power had armament larger than .30 caliber on their front-line aircraft (with the exception of the Italians). Why? Christ, even the Ruskies were sporting a 15mm in their early MiGs. Pilot armor, self-sealing fuel tanks. The RAF was going into battle in 1940 with 1930 armament.
And that after fokker showed off their G1 fighter with 9 guns 8 in the front 1 in its tail.
@@JamesAlexander14 Careful Fred! Don't tread on sensitive British areas. In their view, the .303 was adequate for plains game and Bf-109s. Don't have to change calibres, you know. Sorry, I'm a crude American who considers 6 x 50 cal as barely enough in a Thunderbolt.
Very nice you make some Dutch aircraft that are quite household types among the Dutch enthousiasts a bit more known. May I suggest the Fokker T5, T4A and T8W as future candidates?
LOL many, many planes out there :)
@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters Don't forget the Fokker DXXIII 😉.
Just LOVE the planes you've covered! Recently discovered your channel and I'm not disappointed, thank you!
More than welcome
Your stuff is fabulous
Once the Bristol Centaurus actually got into production, it wasn't that bad of an engine. The slow development of the sleeve valve radial insured it didn't see it's peak until the advent of the Hawker Sea Fury. Even then development could have resulted in a more reliable engine.
I tried for years, while living in Southern California, to acquire a Bristol Centaurus (from a Sea Fury) that was being used as a citrus orchard fan. The farmer refused my offers, claiming "that engine is one of my smoothest, most reliable units".
I assume this was because he never ran it near anything like the loads that would have been imposed upon it , mounted in any aircraft, let alone the Sea Fury.
From the outside it reminds me of a Zero front end and Hurricane rear end. The fighter I like that was good at first, but was not up to scratch when war came was the Polikarpov I-16, plus the I-15. Huge numbers built, so not the type you cover, but they are definitely quirky and interesting engineering.
Stay out of trouble? I manage most of time these days. Thatcher's Britain and being MUFC growing up in a town of mostly Liverpool supporters was different though (Milton Keynes). Banned from football most of the time, because I got into so much trouble, e.g., not allowed to play street football or even watch MOTD etc. Fighting was our favourite form of street entertainment back then. Not saying good, nor bad. It just was. UA-cam can be wild, but no actual blood gets spilled. Over 12 years at sea sorted me out. Rebel into a rules guy and I even went and got an education. Boring, which is why I sometimes still managed to get in trouble (In port, but I am retired due to spinal injury now. NZ).
The F.K.58 did have an odd look about it in the flying footage that caught me as looking a bit Thunderbolt.
Looks like a longer version of the Brewster Buffalo to me.
It was a further development on the ideas that he had on the Fokker D21. and that aircraft was quite capable and had some significan succes. if you extrapolate the fokker d21 succes wih improvements like retractable landing gear more powerfull engines . Given time and same development it could have been a verry good fighter .
Germans used these when captured.
The Germans did air trails and used some for evaluation and training. So not all were scrap right away
Good video, keep up the good work :)
During WW-I, while fellow-Dutchman Anthony Fokker was creating aircraft for the Germans, Frederick Koolhoven was creating aircraft for the British. During WW-I Koolhoven worked as an aircraft designer for Armstrong-Whitworth Ltd. If you look up the aircraft made by Armstrong-Whitworth during WW-I, you will note that most of them were designated "F.K"., indicating that they were designed by Frederick Koolhoven.
Indeed :D
ua-cam.com/video/rydFwKPS3xs/v-deo.html
A very right looking little plane - and completely unheard of!
Well done sir, hats off 🎩🎩
Do not recall this one. Interesting.
I very much enjoy these little gems from the past. You have to wonder what would have been achieved if the original idea of war not starting until 1944/45.
Very cool footnote!
Not really unknown, especially in the Netherlands. The FK-41 was a tourist plane designed there but built mostly overseas. The FK-51 was a widely used trainer in the DAF. The FK-52 was a fine plane but only six were bought.
DAF is an old Dutch car brand. KLu is the abbriviation of the Dutch Airforce
Koolhoven actually had already produced a number of observation and light attack aircraft for the Dutch LVA in the 1920s and early 1930s.
These were of course heavily dated by May 1940 but were nevertheless used in attempts to support Dutch ground forces against the German onslaught, during which most were shot down.
Gutes Video,danke!
Superb video
The pitot tube... look closely for its apparent unusual location. It appears to be mounted on the trailing edge of the right wing. 2:00, 2:54, 3:23, 3:36 and 6:09 marks..
cool!
Good video! Very informing. A small detail can be improved. There is a photo of a German soldier standing at a border post while the narrative is about the Dutch being neutral and tehrefore reluctant to deliver aircraft to the warring parties. The soldier at the other side of the border is however not Dutch, but Swiss. Just a small detail, there are photo's available of Dutch and German border guards chatting to each other before the Germans invaded The Netherlands.
schatzi designed/built a fighter in 2.5 months. JSF started in 1993. IOC not completed after 30 years and 2 Trillion spent.
Koolhoven was an interesting aircraft builder. even converting a passenger /cargo aircraft to bomber. it usualy build weird aircraft some futuristic others weird designs.
The aircraft that is interesting to review is the Koolhoven FK 55 . and you will see what i mean.
at 1: 24, it's the german occupied french-swiss border: the guy ont the right is a swiss soldier and on the building is writen "Café Fédéral", nothing to do with Poland, or netherland either... ;) otherwise a really good story, keep-on!
I was just about to make the same remark. The soldiers on the right are obviously swiss. Btw: do you know where that picture had been taken exactly? Was it at Les Verrrieres? How do you know it's the Franco-Swiss border and not Germany-Switzerland?
@@JosipRadnik1 That's because the french-speaking area of Switzerland doesn't have border with Germany (only France and Italy) and would it be at the german speaking area the inscription would rather mention "Bundes Cafe" Plus it's known that the owner of the café in Les Verrières did shoot many pictures at that time, even one of Himmler and his aides laughing and looking sarcastically at the swiss. even if for this exactpicture I don't know who did the shooting.
@@yannfleurylaurent6827 There are Places called "Cafe Federal" in the german speaking part too (most notably the one at Berne), but you're right, they're more prominent in the french speaking part.
... so you confirm it was Les Verrrieres? I somehow rememberred seeing an old picture with a "Cafe Federal" somewhere near a border crossing while I was researching old pictures of places with border crossing railway lines. At first I thought it was the Border crossing between Boncourt and Delle but the Café there was called "Café de la Frontière" :-)
@@JosipRadnik1 You have the point for Bern ;) but I'm sure it's Les Verrières because that's part of a pictures batch taken by a German photograph (Ullstein) on the French side and the café owner on the Swiss side. www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/campaign-in-the-west-1940-german-occupation-of-france-news-photo/542406297?language=fr.. and the building still there and almost look the same. Plus 1-2 books about les Verrières at that period with those pics.
Great video, but I have one thing to correct. The image at 1:23 shows a German soldier posing next to a Swiss soldier - not a Dutch soldier.
They are amazingly attractive aircraft.
Frits Koolhoven had his factory in Rotterdam near "Waalhaven" airfield. It was destroyed in mei 1940 during the German invasion.
It is crazy to find on that spot in todays industrial area a streetname "Anthony Fokkerweg" instead of "Frits Koolhovenweg". 🤷🏼♂️
Thanks for the dutch contribution, didnt knew this plane. I did some fast checks. Frits Koolhoven was an ambivalent man: he offered his services to the Germans after capitulation, but they showed no interest. Also, he joined the dutch national-socialitist party for opportunitistic reasons. However, he saved an american pilot from captivity, giving him to the resistance movement. After the war , he faced persecution, but found innocent. His troublesome career is described as : just not.
I only wonder why the Germans bombed the factories, considering their conviction to conquer the Netherlands in a few days? Maybe they considered the risks of escaping planes, shipped or flown abroad more important then the spoils of war? Arbitrary decision anyway.
"I only wonder why the Germans bombed the factories" Probably something to properly investigate, but I suspect it will be, as these things usually are, a result of a political dispute between military planners. Records rarely reflect such things well, personal diaries can be better, but few are ever written, and yet fewer ever found.
@@ohgosh5892 its a facinating subject for some historicans. We see different factors that seem to influence.
We still have the transmission of the ww1 doctrines toward modernized mobile warfare and combined arms tactics . Still, a lot of officers and generals had the ideas of the old school.
On the other hand, we the revolution of air cover in close combat and bombing campaigns. The Blitzkrieg as term was not really a doctrine, more a hype caused by the rapid german success. But several tactical innovation were used indeed.
But spoils of war are a typical german approach. They used a lot of conquered military equipment like weapons and tanks. Everything they could use, they would find a way to use.
Bombing of industrial targets is an arbitary consideration in the western offensive. Many expected the Netherlands to fall in 2 days - and 5 days also doesnt justify taking out industrial targets.
Not to mention: in some aspects, the Germans didnt expect to beat France in such stunning way, many feared a stalemate or a very tough battle. But crushing France, it would have influenced their doctrines as well.
Versus the U.K, industrial bombing remained a plausible and logic consideration. Most germans expected a campaign of months to come. But on the continent, quick invasions removed the consideration of crippling enemy military industrial capacity.
About Russia, people talk about the lack of a strategic bomber. They forgot two factors in this vision.
First, allied bombing campaigns versus Germany were messy and did not caused the collapse of German morale or industry. Strategic bombing proved a difficult concept to master.
Second, many vital strategic Russian factories were in reach of the Luftwaffe and they had the means of strategic bombing campaign.
Finally, during the German invasion of Russia, strategic bombing was considered. However it proved in contradiction with other interest and visions.
First, the bombers were used to support the ground forces. Secondly, why destroy factories that could be taken intact by advancing ground units?
The Russian scorched earth tactic made the spoils of war limited. However, many Germans expected victory before the winter of 1941-1942 anway. So bombing of industrial targets seemed pointless with the fast pace of conquests.
In the spring of 1942, Germany wanted to take the Caucasus and its oil, also a very strategic consideration due to lack of fuel and denying the Russians its resources. So the Luftwaffe was focused to this operation and to bomb Stalingrad.
So we come to the summer of 1943 and the lost battle of Kursk, the last chance for a military victory on regular warfare.
Still Germany had some options to bomb industrial targets. But it would have not made great difference in the end. Besides, the remaining Luftwaffe was on the defense, to back the stress ground forces.
This is an elaborate example of the choice to destroy hostile industrial targets or the possbility to conquer them intact, and what the use would be on the long term war efforts. Also depending on the expectations of the length of the war.
@@cz1589 "This is an elaborate example of the choice to destroy hostile industrial targets or the possbility to conquer them intact," I have no disagreement with your analysis, but I was making a rather different point: Internal politics in large organisations, including military and governments, is so incredibly complex, that the idea of a single goal, or even general strategic planning, towards a single end, may be somewhat fanciful.
In reality, personal ambition, differences of opinion on doctrine and approach, and even personality clashes, can easily have greater influence on momentary, and long-term direction, than intelligence-based planning by consensus.
If this seems unlikely, then I'd point you to Brexit as a prime example of a group of ambitious politicians, willing to destroy their own country, in order to secure power. Boris Johnson would like to see himself as Churchill, however, he has far more in common with Adolf Hitler than Churchill. There is no action taken by the current government which can be shown to be in the UK's interests, but they keep going, nevertheless.
@@ohgosh5892"personal ambition, differences of opinion on doctrine" I concur with your consideration. A very human part of the process is a very crucial part. General common sense is rare.
@@cz1589 "common sense is" always superseded by personal ambition :-)
Great!
I don't know... I see a Brewster Buffalo in the design, there somewhere.
A tad better perhaps, but same class of performance. Export grade.
Roll over Koolhoven !
Wings skinned in Bakelite?...plastic? Never heard of this plane, not bad looking though. The canopy looks like that of a Hellcat.
I thought that I heard him wrong and had to go back. Yup, Bakelite!!! Simply astonishing.
Most of these stories reveal that the weakest link of most of these aircraft was the engines of the time.
Part of the labor problems that the French had was caused by Molotov/Ribbentrop treaty. Communist unionists caused problems in the factories and later turned in French Resistance soldiers. This was the cause of much animosity between the two groups till the end of the war.
that is quite kool
Looks incredibly similar to the Swedish FVSS J-22 fighter, which wasn't rolled out until 1940.....hmmm...
War is on the horizon, so the French go on strike... The Dutch get a plane off the drawing board and into the air in two and a half months. The duration of an average French lunch... Yet another plane that managed to fly under my radar. Many thanks, sir.
Im verry sad that during the time the 2ww began holland didn t had enough fighter...
If someone had held a gun 2 my head & sed 'choose yer machine' 4 late WW2 Europe, it would have been the P-47 Jug.
Just wanted to say I enjoyed your book. Don't eat any unripe pistachios!
Lol thanks. Yes, a lesson I learnt the hard way 😁
Please use Babble to get a modicum of feel for languages other than English.
The wings were skinned with bakelite? How would they have repaired bullet holes & such in that?
Excellent question. And to be sure, all of them in storage would have cracked and crumbled by 1990.
cool plane
Fun. New info
looks a little like a Wildcat that was stretched with an Me109 tail!
It's my understanding that French aircraft production policy in the 1930s was truely bizarre. Airframes would leave the factory in fly able condition minus armament and radios. They would then be flown to one location to have the armament fitted and then flown to another to have their radios installed. All meant to keep politicians happy I suppose.
That sounds like the very essence of a reasoned and sensible policy compared to the astounding waste, duplication, bureaucracy and ineptitude of the multi-national Tornado, and now the Tempest, programmes and in-service policies. All to please various politicians. Things don't change....
I've never heard the Bristol Taurus described as "garbage" before, nor have I heard about any failing peculiar to that engine. Can you shed any light on the matter? Thank you.
It's a sleeve valve. Which means if you want it to work everything needs to be machined to ridiculous specs, of the right alloys, with the right fuel, on the right oil, when the moon is in the right quarter and your ground crew have sacrificed their souls to Satan and the average ambient temperature is over 20c. If all those things aren't exactly right it will find a way to break down, blow up or if the weather is too cold and the motor is cold soaked - smash itself to smithereens on start up.
Because tolerances in sleeve valves have to be so tight it's hard to get it right - it's perfect when the engine is nice and hot, but locked up tighter than a ducks butt when cold or vice versa - nice and free cold but too loose when hot.
The advantages were you could run higher boost because no hot valves to deal with, and instead of deteriorating with age these improve, but on the other hand, high complexity and often sheer bloody mindedness.
@@rosiehawtrey I had thought that the simplicity of having fewer moving parts would eliminate difficulties and offer greater reliability, but apparently that's not the case. Small wonder then that the Centaurus had so many teething troubles, and practically nobody but Bristols bothered with sleeve valves. Thanks for the info, even the tongue-in-cheek bits.
3 points -
1 - You did it again. Another aircraft I have never even heard of before.
2 - the French - pre-WW2, militarily - were absolutely pathetic. Another example was that their main fighter in 1939 was one that a tiny, Dutch company (in less then 100 days) came up with a design noticeably better.
3- I am not Jewish. But I always get a kick out of Jews who flew that disgusting Nazi government...coming back to bite the ass of the Nazis later in the war.
Thanks for the video.
In fact, French militry of 1940 was not worse or better than others. They just have a bad luck. Look at British or US performance in 1942 in Pacific area. Was it better? No, they just have where to retreat.
@@tomfu6210 Sorry...have to disagree.
Their air force in 1939 was a complete mess.
Most of their bombers were ridiculously obsolete - with only one (the Potez 630) even having a top speed over 250 m.p.h.. And their main fighter - the M.S. 406 - had a top speed of only 304 m.p.h..
Whereas the British had numerous, decent bombers and both of their top fighters were much faster than the M.S. 406.
And their army was Maginot Line obsessed.
As for the Brits and US in 1942? Both had lousy, 2'nd rate aircraft in their colonies to start the Pacific War.
If the Brits could have equipped all their Far East fighter Squadron's with Spitfire V's AND once they learned not to dogfight with the Zero...they probably would have kept air superiority over the battlefield.
@@McRocket I think Spitfire II's would have done nicely against Zeroes. Hurricanes performed pretty well against them. As did the Dutch Brewsters (but not the British ones).
To be honest most armies thought the next war would be like ww1, even in Germany (see Schwerer Gustav) but there were a few german hotshot generals that pioneered new type of combined arms warfare which was succesful and caught the French and other armies by surprise and they had no effective answer to it. It's not like the French didn't invest in their defense (see Maginot Line). Also in ww1 they thought the war would be like those before (Napoleonic era) which also resulted in mass casualties.
@@McRocket France was 1/3 weaker nation compared to Germany. Problem of French defence was Britain. Britain forced France to abandon it's allies in Central and Eastern Europe (Czechoslovakia, Romania, USSR, Yugoslavia), supported "neutrality" of Belgium and provided nothing in change. BEF in 1940 was complete farce, RAF was only able to defend Britain itself (with huge contribution of French campaign loses on German side). France should have been more assertive in 1930s towards British policy of building Germany as counterbalance to USSR.
It looks like a Bloch MB 52, or is that just my imagination?
Is "Desert Sniper" available on Kindle in the US?
I dont think so, it never got a US publisher. I think it is available on Audio book only 😒
@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters Thank you!
Huh! I heard of this aircraft and saw some drawings of it, but it's actually pretty good looking in the flesh!
Thought it looked a bit like the P 47 on a diet
I'd rather say the P-47 is an F.K.58 on steroids.
Leave it to the French to deal with the impending prospect of war... with "labour disputes"... c'est la vie...
Well, a side benefit of this was that the French gene pool was invigorated during the occupation.
Wings skinned in bakelite? I've never heard of a WW2 aircraft with plastic skin.
Coolheaven planes 😎
Who is Hoven and why is he Kool.
But did it offer a shmoke and a pancake?
Ahh yes. The French and Labour disputes go together so well. xD