Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Wishlist => Topic started by: ttflier on November 06, 2010, 09:22:14 AM
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Not sure if this was standard or even confirmed, but it would sure be cool:
"The Stuka pilots who still had bombs aboard jettisoned them as soon as the shooting started.
Several of my pilots also reported later that a number of the Stukas jettisoned their fixed main
landing gear as well."
This account was reported by Major William Leverette as he piloted his flight of P-38's in support of a fleet group in October of 1943.
ttflier
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To my knowledge, the only Ju-87 that could jettison it's gear (by explosive charges) was the Ju-87C, which was meant to be carried by the Graf Zeppelin.
(http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/2108/ju87cack0.jpg)
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I read about that same incident in Aces against Germany by Eric Hammel.
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What's the wish Brother? Auto-Jettison?
Why?
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A little public domain info:
[4] JU-87C
* A carrier-capable variant of the Stuka, the "Ju-87C", was planned for the aircraft carrier GRAF ZEPPELIN. The Ju-87C featured:
* A catapult attachment.
* Arresting hook.
* Manually folding outer wing panels that hinged back along the fuselage.
* Flotation gear built into the airframe.
* A rubber life raft.
* Full cockpit heating.
* Jettisonable main landing gear.
The jettisonable landing gear was a puzzling feature. It clearly made ditching at sea easier, since the fixed landing gear would pitch the aircraft nose-over, and it apparently was also intended to help the crew escape if their Stuka was jumped by enemy fighters, allowing them to get away alive even if they had to splash or belly-in their aircraft. However, Germany never completed any aircraft carriers, and though some preproduction "Ju-87C-0" machines were manufactured beginning in the summer of 1939, the production "Ju-87C-1" variant was never built. It would have featured automatic wing folding.
Some of the Ju-87C-0s saw action in Poland. One had to drop its main landing gear, and German propaganda played up pictures of the machine to suggest that they had been shot off, with the Stuka proving so tough it made it back home anyway.
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Found a good link, scroll down to Chapter 3, page 117. Seven Stukas by Bill Leverette,
Gives the whole story from the book.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Fpv23u8dlyQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=aces+against+germany&source=bl&ots=kaBOa-T5D6&sig=niile6PWzx1mQGd-CyD6iBQYDEs&hl=en&ei=ROPWTLTfJ8L88Abq3tjqCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false (http://books.google.com/books?id=Fpv23u8dlyQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=aces+against+germany&source=bl&ots=kaBOa-T5D6&sig=niile6PWzx1mQGd-CyD6iBQYDEs&hl=en&ei=ROPWTLTfJ8L88Abq3tjqCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false)
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the real question is, what are you doing in a Stucka. . . now if they added th big anti-tank guns. . .then I am all ears.
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:lol
the real question is, what are you doing in a Stucka. . . now if they added th big anti-tank guns. . .then I am all ears.