the Windy Sock...newsletter of the Alamo Escadrille, FAC

LITTLE-KNOWN AIRCRAFT OF WORLD WAR II

Probably two of the least known and most highly secret airplanes to come out of WW II were BQ-7s and BQ-8s. This in spite of the fact that they were both modifications of the best- known aircraft of all times. The U.S. Army Air Forces, throughout the course of the war, had been attempting to come up with a guided missile (or "flying bomb") using converted conventional airplanes. The BQ-7s were converted B-17s modified in England to serve in this capacity. The procedure was for a crew of two to make the take-off and then bail out, with a primitive forward-looking television camera in the nose being sufficient to enable an operator in a separate aircraft to guide the machine to its target. (Records show television to have been invented in the 1930s and maximum transmission range was eleven miles during the BQ era.)

Modifications to the airplanes included conversion of the flight deck to an open-cockpit configuration in order to facilitate the bail-out procedure, plus removal of all gun turrets and packing the fuselage with 20,000 lbs. of Torpex explosives. It might be noted that normal bail-out exits were not accessible due to the fuselage being filled with the explosive material. Normal bomb load was 5,000 to 8,000 lbs. When carrying enough fuel for normal long-range missions, but could be increased to 17,000 lbs. With minimum fuel aboard. Further reduction (removal of gun turrets, etc.) made possible the 20,000 lbs. Capacity. Records show that a total of 25 B-17Fs and B-17Gs were modified in this manner. Two Navy B-24s (PB4Y-1) were converted and designated as BQ-8s. Like the B-17s, they were stripped down and packed with explosives. They had a somewhat better payload than the B-17s and were able to carry a 25,000-lb. load.

Targets for both versions were reserved for high-priority objectives that were heavily defended and very "hardened." These included German V-1, V-2, and V-3 missile sites that were protected by many feet of reinforced concrete. At least eight BQ-7s were expended in missions, as were both of the BQ-8s. The pilot on the first mission was Lt. Joseph Kennedy, the older brother of John F. Kennedy. Apparently, when Kennedy set the fuses prior to abandoning the BQ-8, they misfired and the load of explosives detonated in midair. The was the first of the violent deaths that would plague the Kennedy family for half a century.

(Reference source: Secret Weapons of World War II: Techno-military Breakthroughs that Changed History. Taken from previously-secret U.S. Government files.)

BUILD YOUR OWN CUTTER

SCOTCH ON THE RAF (Continued from March)

(This continues the series on Joe Fergusson's RAF service in World War II....Editor)

Come daylight we had to get the wreck off the field and took it into one of our hangars. Within a few days there arrived a large, beautifully equipped mobile workshop from southwest England's Bristol Aircraft Company with a squad of workmen. They jacked up the Blenheim in a corner of the hangar and got to work on stripping off all the damaged panels. They took that plane apart and replaced all the damaged parts over the course of about a fortnight. It says a lot about how desperate we were for aircraft at this stage of the war. Later on it would simply have been scrapped and forgotten. Came the day when the Blenheim was back in pristine condition, ready for test flying and then rejoining its squadron. Would you believe it: that night three Heinkels came over from Stavanger and blew the Blenheim, its mobile workshop vehicle and our hangar to hell and gone. Now that was not just luck on the Germans' part. They knew better than we did when that plane was ready to be destroyed again. Spies were everywhere.

Of course at this time of the war we got regular visits from across the North Sea from our friendly Nazis in Norway, and we had quite a few scrapes dodging their bombs. In between the excitement, we were doing our best to train pilots all the time. Montrose airfield was situated with its layout parallel to the North Sea coast with a row of sand dunes 50 feet high in places between us and the sea. Of course as Montrose had been an airfield since 1914 and the first world war in such a position far from enemy danger, it had not been built with air raids in mind. Come World War II, we were the first bit of land between Scotland and southern Norway with its Nazi hordes. Believe me, they never let us forget it! They would come in low over the sea, and we never saw them until they had to climb to clear the sand dunes along our coastal side. A few of them got the surprise of their lives when our gunners got a chance at them. We damaged a Ju88 one afternoon, riddling it along its belly until it staggered about two miles up the coast and crashed into the mouth of the North Esk River, killing all on board. We formed a salvage party as any info we could find on the wreck was valuable to us but I, for one , was not prepared for what we did find on that Ju88. First of all, one of the dead crewmen was in black Gestapo uniform. Now we had heard from other sources that the jerry kites sometimes carried these Gestapo merchants to ensure the crews were doing what was expected of them, but this was the first proof we had. Next and most surprising were the tyres on the undercarriage. They were best-make Dunlaps and further, all the hydraulics including oleo legs were best brand Lockheed gear. Now that was really going too far, bombing us with U.S.-patented gear! The dead crewmen are buried in Sleepy Hillock Cemetery, just about a mile from Montrose air base , where there is quite a large German section. That too was the first occasion when I had to pick up dead Germans. I had served an apprenticeship with a local joinery firm before the war, and part of that business was as an undertaker, so I was used to stiffs, and so I usually got detailed to pick up any stiffs including some of our own guys who were killed in crashes. Sometimes there was not enough left for a funeral so a few were buried where they fell, and the coffin was loaded with sand for effect at the funeral service later.

In the course of time we had to train our rookie pilots in night flying. As Montrose was a grass airfield without runways, it fell to an officer who was Duty Pilot that day to lay out the runway prior to darkness with Goose Neck flares. They were like large watering cans with a big round wick stuffed down the snout and filled with paraffin (kerosene to you Yanks). We ground crews had our dinner in the cookhouse, and then after dark we would go to the field and light up the flares delineating the runways for night flying. At the end of the runway we had a vertical lighthouse, a powerful gadget known as a Chance light, which was used to illuminate the end of the runway. All went well until possibly we got warning of a German intruder coming in over the sea. Then we had to hastily go down both sides of the runway snuffing out the Gooseneck flares so that any aircraft that was airborne at the time had to beetle off inland till the alert was over and we could light up again to let them get down. All good fun.. And there was the time when one of the pilots who was detailed to set out the night-flying runway oriented it straight towards a blister hangar on the shore edge of the airfield. The first machine to take off that night went smack into the hangar and killed both crewmen aboard. More about this next month.

The commonly available tubing can't provide a wobble-free fit for it. You can buy 1/16" x..006" wall thickness brass tubing from Tower Hobbies, according to Bill Piatek, as part number LXWF37 - if you are willing to pay $7.59 plus shipping for two 12" pieces of it. The alternative for us cheap-o's comes from Steve Riley." (This) is something I have been doing for years. I put the wire in a piece of larger tubing and pinch the tubing in a few places at each end with a pair of spring-making pliers." The pliers, in case you haven't guessed, is simply the usual long-nose tool with jaws that have circular cross-sections. And while we're on the subject, we published a tip from Orv Olm several years ago that involved wrapping a piece of beverage can metal around the wire and forming it to that diameter. A bit tricky process but a little practice does an acceptable job of taking the wobble out of the prop shaft. Thanks to all three tipsters!

The day of the flying wing is already here with the Stealth fighter and B-2, and it is not far off in the commercial field. These pictures show what is referred to as the Boeing 797 in some circles and pure baloney in others in the arena of the Internet. The design is allegedly on the Boeing design boards; it has a wingspan of 265 feet (the 747 measures 211 feet) and will carry 1,000 passengers. It is supposed to put the Airbus A380, which carries 555, in the shade. The lift/drag ratio is supposed to be 50% better, weigh 25% less, and be 30% more fuel efficient than its competitor. The skeptics say this is all a fairy tale, that Boeing has no such plane in mind. Besides, they say, pressurizing such a passenger cabin would be a nightmare; only a circular or oval cross-section can be pressurized efficiently. And equally serious is the placement of the engines. Presumably because they would be in the shadow of the wing at certain angles of attack, the engines would be starved for air and would conk out. Type "flying wing" into Google and enjoy the fun. It's hard to separate the truth from the fiction but there must be some fire underneath all the smoke. Al Backstrom is vindicated, and Jack Northrop should rest peacefully as the flying wing moves into the future. But how does one get a window seat?

Taken from May 1947 Model Airplane News, this simple folding prop can be useful even to scale modelers and even if banned by FAC rules. Scale models are usually poor gliders. Although fantastic flight times are recorded regularly and often, they are due mainly to the model being in the right place at the right time, in the bosom of a thermal. Sometimes the glide pattern is so bad it defies the usual trimming techniques. This is where a folding prop can be a help. If the glide problem disappears as the result of using it, the solution might be a need to improve the free-wheeling action or reduce the size of the prop. But with or without a solution, if she flies OK with the prop folded, let's sit back and enjoy the sight and forget the kanone. Of course, a better fix for a scale model would be a feathering prop. As of now, a simple feathering prop has not made an appearance for outdoors scale flying.

All we saw on the Internet was something about the "Third Annual Harfang Winter Challenge," a group of guys launching in the snow and seemingly having a great time. Investigating further, Ronnie Gosselin came through with the full poop:

"Thanks for your e-mail. I work hard to promote free flight scale and use the Internet as a tool. Harfang means ‘snow owl' in French (do not pronounce the ‘g' at the end). We are French-speaking and are based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. We meet every Friday night from 5 pm to about 3 am...and try to fly when we can....On the Sunday of the competition there was NO wind and we were walking on six inches of compacted snow. At lunch we had just long-sleeve shirt. It was great!."

About their weekly meeting: "Pizza is the usual food served at supper and is always free for out-of-towners! We meet at my shop we use for work....around 3 pm some guys show up and we talk airplane , next project, show and tell of what we did during the week, etc....After midnight is the same as before midnight; we sit down and build together. Some leave at 11 or 12 but Luc and I usually stay until 2 or 3 am.....I am an amateur airplane historian so I supply the gang with the info I have. We seem to like to do airplanes that are less well known and because of our French origin we build lots of French airplanes. We also like to do our own plans even if we are not experienced a lot, but we have fun." Ron says there are four members who come regularly , including himself, and they do go to Geneseo at times. "There are about eight other guys that come irregularly (including my daughter Molly that has built a Dime Cessna AW and is now building a 30-inch scale Morane Saulnier 500 Cricket). Molly also came twice to Geneseo with me and is scheduled to come again this summer. Molly is also our main photographer (please credit her with the pictures)."

In regard to their "Winter Challenge," Ron says: "The main competition is Dime Scale because the weather is usually rough and the temperature is usually 10 to 20 below freezing point. We had to wind at about half power or else the rubber would snap because of the cold!"

LITTLE-KNOWN AIRCRAFT OF WORLD WAR II Probably two of the least known and most highly secret airplanes to come out of WW II were BQ-7s and BQ-8s. This in spite of the fact that they were both modifications of the best- known aircraft of all times. The U.S. Army Air Forces, throughout the course of the war, had been attempting to come up with a guided missile (or "flying bomb") using converted conventional airplanes. The BQ-7s were converted B-17s modified in England to serve in this capacity. The procedure was for a crew of two to make the take-off and then bail out, with a primitive forward-looking television camera in the nose being sufficient to enable an operator in a separate aircraft to guide the machine to its target. (Records show television to have been invented in the 1930s and maximum transmission range was eleven miles during the BQ era.) Modifications to the airplanes included conversion of the flight deck to an open-cockpit configuration in order to facilitate the bail-out procedure, plus removal of all gun turrets and packing the fuselage with 20,000 lbs. of Torpex explosives. It might be noted that normal bail-out exits were not accessible due to the fuselage being filled with the explosive material. Normal bomb load was 5,000 to 8,000 lbs. When carrying enough fuel for normal long-range missions, but could be increased to 17,000 lbs. With minimum fuel aboard. Further reduction (removal of gun turrets, etc.) made possible the 20,000 lbs. Capacity. Records show that a total of 25 B-17Fs and B-17Gs were modified in this manner. Two Navy B-24s (PB4Y-1) were converted and designated as BQ-8s. Like the B-17s, they were stripped down and packed with explosives. They had a somewhat better payload than the B-17s and were able to carry a 25,000-lb. load. Targets for both versions were reserved for high-priority objectives that were heavily defended and very "hardened." These included German V-1, V-2, and V-3 missile sites that were protected by many feet of reinforced concrete. At least eight BQ-7s were expended in missions, as were both of the BQ-8s. The pilot on the first mission was Lt. Joseph Kennedy, the older brother of John F. Kennedy. Apparently, when Kennedy set the fuses prior to abandoning the BQ-8, they misfired and the load of explosives detonated in midair. The was the first of the violent deaths that would plague the Kennedy family for half a century. (Reference source: Secret Weapons of World War II: Techno-military Breakthroughs that Changed History. Taken from previously-secret U.S. Government files.) BUILD YOUR OWN CUTTER SCOTCH ON THE RAF (Continued from March) (This continues the series on Joe Fergusson's RAF service in World War II....Editor) Come daylight we had to get the wreck off the field and took it into one of our hangars. Within a few days there arrived a large, beautifully equipped mobile workshop from southwest England's Bristol Aircraft Company with a squad of workmen. They jacked up the Blenheim in a corner of the hangar and got to work on stripping off all the damaged panels. They took that plane apart and replaced all the damaged parts over the course of about a fortnight. It says a lot about how desperate we were for aircraft at this stage of the war. Later on it would simply have been scrapped and forgotten. Came the day when the Blenheim was back in pristine condition, ready for test flying and then rejoining its squadron. Would you believe it: that night three Heinkels came over from Stavanger and blew the Blenheim, its mobile workshop vehicle and our hangar to hell and gone. Now that was not just luck on the Germans' part. They knew better than we did when that plane was ready to be destroyed again. Spies were everywhere. Of course at this time of the war we got regular visits from across the North Sea from our friendly Nazis in Norway, and we had quite a few scrapes dodging their bombs. In between the excitement, we were doing our best to train pilots all the time. Montrose airfield was situated with its layout parallel to the North Sea coast with a row of sand dunes 50 feet high in places between us and the sea. Of course as Montrose had been an airfield since 1914 and the first world war in such a position far from enemy danger, it had not been built with air raids in mind. Come World War II, we were the first bit of land between Scotland and southern Norway with its Nazi hordes. Believe me, they never let us forget it! They would come in low over the sea, and we never saw them until they had to climb to clear the sand dunes along our coastal side. A few of them got the surprise of their lives when our gunners got a chance at them. We damaged a Ju88 one afternoon, riddling it along its belly until it staggered about two miles up the coast and crashed into the mouth of the North Esk River, killing all on board. We formed a salvage party as any info we could find on the wreck was valuable to us but I, for one , was not prepared for what we did find on that Ju88. First of all, one of the dead crewmen was in black Gestapo uniform. Now we had heard from other sources that the jerry kites sometimes carried these Gestapo merchants to ensure the crews were doing what was expected of them, but this was the first proof we had. Next and most surprising were the tyres on the undercarriage. They were best-make Dunlaps and further, all the hydraulics including oleo legs were best brand Lockheed gear. Now that was really going too far, bombing us with U.S.-patented gear! The dead crewmen are buried in Sleepy Hillock Cemetery, just about a mile from Montrose air base , where there is quite a large German section. That too was the first occasion when I had to pick up dead Germans. I had served an apprenticeship with a local joinery firm before the war, and part of that business was as an undertaker, so I was used to stiffs, and so I usually got detailed to pick up any stiffs including some of our own guys who were killed in crashes. Sometimes there was not enough left for a funeral so a few were buried where they fell, and the coffin was loaded with sand for effect at the funeral service later. In the course of time we had to train our rookie pilots in night flying. As Montrose was a grass airfield without runways, it fell to an officer who was Duty Pilot that day to lay out the runway prior to darkness with Goose Neck flares. They were like large watering cans with a big round wick stuffed down the snout and filled with paraffin (kerosene to you Yanks). We ground crews had our dinner in the cookhouse, and then after dark we would go to the field and light up the flares delineating the runways for night flying. At the end of the runway we had a vertical lighthouse, a powerful gadget known as a Chance light, which was used to illuminate the end of the runway. All went well until possibly we got warning of a German intruder coming in over the sea. Then we had to hastily go down both sides of the runway snuffing out the Gooseneck flares so that any aircraft that was airborne at the time had to beetle off inland till the alert was over and we could light up again to let them get down. All good fun.. And there was the time when one of the pilots who was detailed to set out the night-flying runway oriented it straight towards a blister hangar on the shore edge of the airfield. The first machine to take off that night went smack into the hangar and killed both crewmen aboard. More about this next month. (More next month) .047" WIRE PROBLEM The commonly available tubing can't provide a wobble-free fit for it. You can buy 1/16" x..006" wall thickness brass tubing from Tower Hobbies, according to Bill Piatek, as part number LXWF37 - if you are willing to pay $7.59 plus shipping for two 12" pieces of it. The alternative for us cheap-o's comes from Steve Riley." (This) is something I have been doing for years. I put the wire in a piece of larger tubing and pinch the tubing in a few places at each end with a pair of spring-making pliers." The pliers, in case you haven't guessed, is simply the usual long-nose tool with jaws that have circular cross-sections. And while we're on the subject, we published a tip from Orv Olm several years ago that involved wrapping a piece of beverage can metal around the wire and forming it to that diameter. A bit tricky process but a little practice does an acceptable job of taking the wobble out of the prop shaft. Thanks to all three tipsters! WHO NEEDS A TAIL? The day of the flying wing is already here with the Stealth fighter and B-2, and it is not far off in the commercial field. These pictures show what is referred to as the Boeing 797 in some circles and pure baloney in others in the arena of the Internet. The design is allegedly on the Boeing design boards; it has a wingspan of 265 feet (the 747 measures 211 feet) and will carry 1,000 passengers. It is supposed to put the Airbus A380, which carries 555, in the shade. The lift/drag ratio is supposed to be 50% better, weigh 25% less, and be 30% more fuel efficient than its competitor. The skeptics say this is all a fairy tale, that Boeing has no such plane in mind. Besides, they say, pressurizing such a passenger cabin would be a nightmare; only a circular or oval cross-section can be pressurized efficiently. And equally serious is the placement of the engines. Presumably because they would be in the shadow of the wing at certain angles of attack, the engines would be starved for air and would conk out. Type "flying wing" into Google and enjoy the fun. It's hard to separate the truth from the fiction but there must be some fire underneath all the smoke. Al Backstrom is vindicated, and Jack Northrop should rest peacefully as the flying wing moves into the future. But how does one get a window seat? 'ALL BALSA FOLDING PROPS' By N. D. Carlson Taken from May 1947 Model Airplane News, this simple folding prop can be useful even to scale modelers and even if banned by FAC rules. Scale models are usually poor gliders. Although fantastic flight times are recorded regularly and often, they are due mainly to the model being in the right place at the right time, in the bosom of a thermal. Sometimes the glide pattern is so bad it defies the usual trimming techniques. This is where a folding prop can be a help. If the glide problem disappears as the result of using it, the solution might be a need to improve the free-wheeling action or reduce the size of the prop. But with or without a solution, if she flies OK with the prop folded, let's sit back and enjoy the sight and forget the kanone. Of course, a better fix for a scale model would be a feathering prop. As of now, a simple feathering prop has not made an appearance for outdoors scale flying. MEET HARFANG SQUADRON #71 FAC All we saw on the Internet was something about the "Third Annual Harfang Winter Challenge," a group of guys launching in the snow and seemingly having a great time. Investigating further, Ronnie Gosselin came through with the full poop: "Thanks for your e-mail. I work hard to promote free flight scale and use the Internet as a tool. Harfang means ‘snow owl' in French (do not pronounce the ‘g' at the end). We are French-speaking and are based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. We meet every Friday night from 5 pm to about 3 am...and try to fly when we can....On the Sunday of the competition there was NO wind and we were walking on six inches of compacted snow. At lunch we had just long-sleeve shirt. It was great!." About their weekly meeting: "Pizza is the usual food served at supper and is always free for out-of-towners! We meet at my shop we use for work....around 3 pm some guys show up and we talk airplane , next project, show and tell of what we did during the week, etc....After midnight is the same as before midnight; we sit down and build together. Some leave at 11 or 12 but Luc and I usually stay until 2 or 3 am.....I am an amateur airplane historian so I supply the gang with the info I have. We seem to like to do airplanes that are less well known and because of our French origin we build lots of French airplanes. We also like to do our own plans even if we are not experienced a lot, but we have fun." Ron says there are four members who come regularly , including himself, and they do go to Geneseo at times. "There are about eight other guys that come irregularly (including my daughter Molly that has built a Dime Cessna AW and is now building a 30-inch scale Morane Saulnier 500 Cricket). Molly also came twice to Geneseo with me and is scheduled to come again this summer. Molly is also our main photographer (please credit her with the pictures)." In regard to their "Winter Challenge," Ron says: "The main competition is Dime Scale because the weather is usually rough and the temperature is usually 10 to 20 below freezing point. We had to wind at about half power or else the rubber would snap because of the cold!" And Vive la France! (Or something like that!....Joe) (And Canada too!)
A Mass Launch of course, and it's probably the Flying Horde that was won by Molly Gosselin and her Cessna AW. Nice work, Molly!	Basking in the snow. Ron says it was long-sleeve weather but an FAC T-shirt was enough for him. Left to right: Luc Martin, Octavian Aldea, Steve Price, Molly Gosselin, Bernard Dion, and Ron himself making like Florida.
Luc Martin with his Delanne 20. Info on its flying characteristics would be interesting.	Ron Gosselin with his Albatross D-V. He did well in the first round of the WWI Mass Launch but "broke engine" for the second heat. Octavian Aldea won that one with his Pfalz D-III.
Molly Gosselin, photographer extraordinaire as well as future Blue Max gal, with her Cessna AW.	Ron Gosselin's Fokker XX, 45" wingspan. Light weight and twin props, a threat at any competition. We'll bet Geneseo sees this one. Very nice work, Ron!
ROCKY MOUNTAIN Contest Directors: Don DeLoach - 719-964-7117 - ddeloach@comcast.net Jerry Murphy - 719-685-3766 - JB_Murphy@msn.com http://www.freeflight.org/competition/2008Fliers/2008_RMC%27s_4-C_flier.qxd._Page_1%5B1%5D.pdf