Some how this post got lost so I'm re-typing it for this edition of WoWES, a Tuesday and Friday

series. For this episode we are going to focus on one of the most famous and recognized fighters
of the Second World War, the P51 mustang, ,more accurately its experimental versions and
derivatives. Like all great planes people have tried to change the mustang in one way or another
to fit certain rolls it was not originally designed to fulfill. Some like the previously mentioned F-
82 Twin Mustang met with moderate success; others, not so much.

The first category I'm going to cover is trying to marry the P-51 with this newfangled technology
called Jets. This new form of propulsion was simultaneously developed in several nation in the
early to late 30's. However jet engines of the time were gas guzzlers, and did not offer the thrust
needed at the time for pure jet fighters. The solution was to put varying types of jets on piston
aircraft. Many of these were bombers or transports like the P2v Neptune, or the C-123 Provider,
and the B-36 Peacemaker. So eventually the idea came around to put jets on the Mustang.
Several early versions were with pulse jets or ram jets strapped to the wings or fuselage. In the
end none of these provided enough improvement. A more radical and advanced was a design by
the North American company. It featured forward swept wings and a turbojet mounted in the
tail. Some of you Alpha testers might remember before it got replaced by the P-51H, it was the
P-51JP. It had progressed to the wind tunnel stage; however it was discovered that the forward
swept wings put too much stress in the fuselage. A problem faced by all those who have tried to
develop forward swept wing fighters; such as the X-29, and Su-47.

The next two aircraft are the Mustangs legacy. After the war many Mustangs were sold to
private individuals. To exploit this the Cavalier Aircraft Company bought the rights to the
Mustang and modified surplus Mustangs into a civilian sport aircraft that could seat two with the
first being flown in 1958. A decade later the company was contacted by the defense department
to create a export P-51 designed for ground attack. Now known as the Mustang II this aircraft
had 6 .50cal machine guns and 6 hard-points. These could handle 2000lbs of bombs and/or a full
compliment of HVAR 5in rockets. It also featured a more powerful engine a Rolls Royce Merlin
724 with 1,775 Hp. It also had wing mounted fuel tanks to extend the aircraft's range. Later
versions had a upgraded Rolls Royce V-1650-724A. Around 40 planes of all types were made.
Later in

For the 19th WoWES we go to Imperial Japan and to two aircraft with a interesting story. We
start with Japan in 1944 was losing the Pacific War with the United States and its allies like Great
Britain. B-29 bombers were bombing Japanese islands and soon would be over the
mainland(main Japanese Islands) at altitudes that put them out of reach of Japanese fighters. The
Japanese requested help from their German Allies in the form of jet and rocket technology and
design plans. Two Subs including the I-29 Matsu departed from Germany loaded with Nazi
Tech, and blueprints. One of these ships was sunk but the Matsu made it to Singapore where the
passengers, and technical information such as blueprints and photo's offloaded. This was a lucky
break for Japan since the Matsu was subsequently sunk on her way back to Japan. Now up until
this point the Japanese had been having trouble with jet technology Their Tsu-11 was a crude
thermojet, little more than a ducted fan with a afterburner. However after sending scientists to
Germany they were able to start on a Jet engine, the Ne-10, though it still lacked enough power
to be really viable(or even get a fighter off the ground). The problem was how to compress the
air as it entered the engine. This was very tricky and was only solved with the help of German
Mathematical formulas developed over many years. When the plans for the German BMW-
003(used on the He-162 volksjager) they were able to from a few photographs and one 2d cross-
section, make a Jet powerplant that was actually better than the 003.

From here the development of the new Japanese plane now know as the Kikka (orange blossom)
took off. Though similar is design to the Me-262 the Kikka has some noticeable differences.
First off it was a lot smaller. Second, it had straight wings unlike the Me-262. Though the
output of the Ne-20 was less than the BMW 004 of the 262 the Kikka was smaller and this had
similar performance, (a note, during U.S. flight testing after WWII the aircraft only got to 433
mph, though the US version was a chimera of several of the prototypes, and recent research has
shown that it would have been faster had it entered service at around 500mph.)

The Kikka first flew only 8 days before Japan Surrendered

The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is considered one of the most iconic cold war fighters of all time.
Made famous by the TOPGUN movie starring Xenu killer/messiah Tom Cruise, this plane was
very large for a fighter. The plane had swing wings to allow it to have varying wing profiles to
change the aircraft's performance capabilities. Its maximum wingspan was 64ft and could be
reduced to 38ft its length was 62ft 9in. The F-14 could achieve a top speed of mach 2.34. It's
armament consisted of 1 M61 6 barreled gattling gun, 6 AIM-54 Phoenix Missiles, and two
AIM-9 Sidewinders. Though this configuration stressed the airframe and substituting some of
the AIM-54's for AIM-7's was common. Up until now it was assumed that the first flight took
place on December 1970, but recent photos, testimonials, and a home movie have led to a new
theory. According to Laurel Scott, in 1941 while on a Senator's boat near Hawaii, the boat was
attacked by Japanese Imperial Navy fighters. According to Laurel she was saved when two
aircraft she had never seen before came to her rescue by engaging and destroying the Japanese
planes. It was only several decades later that Mrs.Scott (now Mrs.Tideman) saw pictures of the
F-14 and realized that it was the same plane. If this is true then Laurel Scott pushes the timeline
for F-14 development back 30 years! Of course nobody would buy this except that Miss
Tideman took several pictures and another on the boat shot a reel of footage of the encounter.
The US Navy refused comment from me when I contacted them about this, The Defense
Department had me chased off the Pentagon's lawn with attack dogs (f@#$ing poodles) I can
thus only believe that they know about this and are covering something up. Well that raps this
WoWES article up, now if you excuse me I'm going to go cover my tush up with some bandages
and disinfectant.
rare color photo of the attack on the boat some of the other photo's
taken that day

The BICh series were a series of airplanes designed by the BICh soviet design
bureau. Up till BICh 24 (will be next article) they were all flying wing designs. BICh1
and 2 were gliders built in the early 1920's to test a radical new airplane design
called the flying wing. The BICh 3 is recognized as the first controllable powered
flying wing in the world. It first flew in 1924. Over the next decade BICh continued
to produce flying wing designs, Several were designed with being a combat aircraft
The BICh 7A was a light bomber, it first flew in 1929 and could carry about 200kg's
of bombs. It could fly at 102mph but with great handling. It had a wingspan of 41ft
with a length of only 16ft It is unknown whether guns were ever mounted on the
plane but the prototype did have two seats, so it was probably intended to once it
reached production. It is also interesting to note that the cockpits were fully
enclosed which was rare for aircraft of the day. However the plane never entered
service due to Stalin's purges. The next viable plane that could appear in WoWP is
the BICh 17 this aircraft was designed for anti-ground operations and mounted 2
80mm recoilless rifles that were auto reloaded in flight. However the designer was
purged in 1936 and the mostly completed prototype destroyed. It would have had a
480 hp engine and retractable landing gear. The BICh 21 was a fighter/racing
design. Though it was never used as a fighter due to the German invasion of the
soviet union. It ad a 22ft wingspan with a length of 15ft 6in. Its top speed was
259mph. The BICh 21 first flew in 1940. Because of the German invasion records of
the plane and its handling are lost to history.