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A picture of my current imaging setup. This is what I've been using to get those Deep Space Objects lately.
Celestron C8 eight-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain optical tube assembly, Celestron CGEM equatorial mount with the new Celestron Starsense Autoguider mounted on top. Great results so far!
The white livery and work-stained appearance of ATI 767 N791AX shows up the window configuration from its passenger days. This aircraft started its working career with All Nippon Airways in Japan back in 1985. It is seen taxiing at Houston for a cargo flight to Wilmington Air Park Airport, Ohio.
Aircraft: Air Transport International (8C/ATN) Boeing 767-200BDSF N791AX.
Location: Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH/KIAH), Texas, United States of America.
The Fiat X1/9 is a two-seater mid-engined sports car designed by Bertone and manufactured by Fiat from 1972-1982 and subsequently by Bertone from 1982-1989.
With a transverse engine and gearbox in a mid-mounted, rear-wheel drive configuration, the X1/9 was noted for its excellent handling, lightweight-removable hardtop, front and rear-storage compartments — and for being designed from its conception to meet the late 60s U.S. safety regulations.
History and packaging:
The X1/9 succeeded a 1969 show concept car called the Autobianchi Runabout, with styling by Bertone under chief designer Marcello Gandini. The Runabout was powered by the engine of the Autobianchi A112.
Designed around the all-new 128 SOHC engine and gearbox (transmission) from the front wheel drive Fiat 128, the X1/9 relocated the transverse drive train and suspension assembly from the front of the 128 to the rear of the passenger cabin, directly in front of the rear axle, giving a mid-engined layout. The layout also located the fuel tank and spare wheel side by side ahead of the engine, directly behind the seats — optimizing the proportion of the car's weight falling within its wheelbase for more effective handling and also enabling cargo areas front and rear.
Fiat began marketing a right-hand drive variant in 1976.
Unlike Fiat's marketing nomenclature at the time which used a numerical system (e.g., 127, 128, 124, 131) denoting relative position in the model range, the X1/9 retained its prototype code as its marketing name. Fiat's prototype coding used X0 for engines, X1 for passenger vehicles and X2 for commercial vehicles. The X1/9 was thus the ninth passenger car developed using the nomenclature.
Concept car:
The prototype car featured a distinctive wedge shape and took many styling cues from contemporary power-boat design. Though the more extreme features of the Runabout such as the C pillar mounted headlights and the small wind-deflector windscreen were lost for the production car, many aesthetic features of the Autobianchi Runabout are readily identifiable on the X1/9. The long flat bonnet (hood) with central indentation, the large front overhang, the wedge shape with prominent C pillar roll-over hoop and the car-length indented plimsoll-line all made the successful transition to the X1/9, giving it a highly distinctive appearance.
Once developed for production, the two-seater featured sharp-edged styling with a wedge shape, pop-up headlights and a removable hard top roof panel (targa top). The removable hardtop stores in the front luggage compartment, below the front hood, only slightly reducing the space available for cargo. An aftermarket company offered a top made of lightweight clear-smoked polycarbonate.
[Text taken from Wikipedia]
This Lego miniland-scale X1/9 Targa sportscar has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 84th Build Challenge, our 7th Birthday, - to the theme, - "LUGNuts Turns 7…or 49 in Dog Years", - where all previous build challenges are available to build to, in this case Challenge number 9, "Show Your Age", - where the models presented should be built from the year of birth of the builder. For me, this is 1972.
Imagining my ideal printshop and bindery. It would double as a living history museum, focusing on tramp printers, early typecasting methods and letterpress folklore (jeffing, lice, Ralph etc.).
One day...
There is an old tradition of drinking among typographic workers.
Naturally, my ideal printshop / museum could not possibly overlook that important spirituous aspect.
With a flip of wrist, the shop would transform into an ideal place to entertain friends and fellow printers!
INSTRUCTIONS AVAILABLE FOR P558 SUPERDUTY - MULTIPLE CONFIGURATIONS
On September 24, 2015, Ford unveiled the 2017 Ford Super Duty line at the 2015 State Fair of Texas. he frame is made from 95% high strength steel and the body (like the contemporary F-150) is made from 6000 series aluminum alloy. For the first time since 1999, both the Super Duty and F-150 lines are constructed using the same cab.
For 2017 production, the Super Duty line shares its powertrain lineup with its 2016 predecessor: a 6.2L gasoline V8, 6.8L V10 (F-450 and above), with a 6.7L diesel V8 available in all versions. The 6.2L gasoline V8 engine remains at 385 hp but torque rises from 405 lb-ft to 430 lb-ft. Additionally, the gasoline V8 produces its max torque at over 700 rpm less than the previous 405 lb-ft engine. The 6.7L diesel engine also remains at the same 440 hp (323 kW) but torque increases from 860 lb-ft upwards to 925 lb-ft.
The 2020 Super Duty debuted at the 2019 Chicago Auto Show. It features a revised grille and tailgate design, new wheel options, and higher-quality interior materials for the Limited trim. A new 7.3-liter gasoline engine is available. Nicknamed "Godzilla", it makes 430 horsepower and 475 lb-ft of torque.
Cab configurations continue to be 2-Door Regular Cab, 4-Door Super Cab, and 4-Door Super Crew Cab, with Short Box (6' 9") and Long Box (8') bed lengths. The truck will be available in F-250, F-350, and F-450 pickup truck models, and F-350, F-450, and F-550 chassis cab models. All will be available in both 4X2 and 4X4 configurations. The F-350 will be the only model available in either Single Rear Wheel (SRW) or Dual Rear Wheel (DRW) configurations, the F-450 and F-550 will only be available in a Dual Rear Wheel (DRW) configuration, and the F-250 will only be available in a Single Rear Wheel configuration.
S71-00163 (1970) --- View of Skylab Saturn IB Launch Configuration Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Photo credit: NASA
Food Express's Kenworth T680 Day Cabs, in a 6x2 configuration, use the PACCAR MX-11 engine spec’d at 430 hp with 1,550 lb-ft of torque and driven through an Eaton Fuller Advantage(TM) 10-speed automated transmission. Photo courtesy of Brady Gillman.
former 817...
Bus No: 2208
Year released: 1997
Capacity: 49; 2x2 seating configuration
Route: Manaoag/San Fabian-Cubao via Urdaneta/Carmen/Paniqui/Tarlac/Capas/SCTEX-Concepcion/Dau
Body: Five Star Bus Body (rebodied)
Previous Body: 1997 SR-Flxtar AC Series
Chassis: Nissan Diesel RB46S
Engine: Nissan Diesel PE6T
Fare: Airconditioned
Transmission System: M/T
Plate No.: AVR-263(Region III-Central Luzon)
Taken on: May 25, 2012
Location: McArthur Highway, Brgy. San Miguel, Tarlac City, Tarlac
My new North American diesel engine in the Canadian Nation Railway scheme is the first Lego loco I have built since my childhood days and was strongly inspired by the EMD-GP 7, 9 and 20 diesel engines and other similar types that came in full high hood configuration, but I went on to building the model rather freely, leaving out things I didn’t want and not sticking to any particular real model.
Being 9+ studs wide, it’s quite a beast and fits very well to the “large city minifigure scale” preferred by ER0L and me. It drives on two 9V train motors from the 90s. The lighting is realized with materials from that time as well, energized by a separate battery box in the shorter section of the hood and thus illuminating the two fronts and cabin of the engine independently from the transformer. That way, the light can be on even when the model stands still.
I went for moving pilots, even though they don’t exist on such models in reality. This was mostly due to the prolonged bionicle trucks I wanted to use here, which would otherwise have made the stairs stand out too far from the trucks in curves and switches.
I have nearly finished building the first of several tank cars for it, so consider these pics an “opener” for more train equipment to come from me.
General Motors Motorama Concept Car
The Biscayne was created to help publicize the introduction of the small block Chevrolet V-8 engine.
From a product line standpoint, the Biscayne was also a chance to show the public something smaller than the full size cars of the era. And in fact, though the Biscayne is a conventional front-engine rear-drive configuration, the overall impression of the car in person is much like the rear-engine Corvair that would be in showrooms in 1960. The two are very similar in overall dimensions, though slightly different in front to rear proportions due to the different mechanical configuration.
And for a 1955 design from Detroit, the Biscayne is a very restrained and clean look, several years ahead of its time, already going in the opposite direction from the familiar extravagantly finned and chromed-over designs that usually identify the 1950s.
Several styling cues on the Biscayne would also appear on later cars. Most often cited are the two pairs of inset round taillights (1961 and later Corvette, 1960 Corvair), the thin rear split bumpers wrapping the corners (also the 1960s Corvettes), front fenders (1963-64 Buick Riviera, and some see Cadillac, too).
The Biscayne is a true pillarless four-door, with suicide doors that latch into the sill. It's an elegant look, but not a design feature destined for production unfortunately.
The car is driveable, though it's really a show car and not a street car. Some of the dashboard features and controls are just there to look the part on the auto show turntable and are not actually functional.
The car was scrapped by GM in the 1950s and for 30 years was presumed gone forever. GM had a policy that a senior executive was to witness the scrapping of show cars and sign the paperwork to confirm the act had been done. The Biscayne was sent to the junkyard two days before Christmas. The assigned executive, likely not happy at being called away from his vacation, watched them cut the car in half, signed off, and left. The junkyard then hid the parts in opposite areas of the lot, and kept quiet about it for the next 3 decades.
In 1988, the current owner's son tracked the car down, bought what was left, and over the next 22 years the restoration came together. The sticking point for a while was the chassis, which was an unknown after several decades. A GM employee eventually discovered a photo in their files of the bare chassis before the body was mounted, and working from that photo an expert fabricator was able to build a replica chassis, a two year project in itself. Several other unique parts hard to be created, too, including the windshield. Reportedly that took 18 tries to get right.
The completed car returned to public view again in 2010.
As I viewed it recently, even though maybe not everyone walking by immediately recognized what this was, they all seemed to enjoy it. The automotively informed, though, knew the Biscayne as a special piece of automotive history and appreciated the rare treat to see it out in the daylight.
I'd still like to learn who worked on it. It seems more to presage the Bill Mitchell era, particularly in profile and rear/rear-quarter view, with careful body creases, minimal applied ornament, and a fairly integral shape from front to rear. Same for some of the refinement in the rear pillar, a generally light greenhouse and roof, plus all the elements discussed above that would appear on GM cars as Mitchell took over styling a few years later.
The headlights and grille of the car are probably the most backdated aspects of the design. By 1960 nearly all GM cars would integrate the lights with the grilles instead of being individual elements leading the fenders or hood. It's easy to imagine upgrading the Biscayne front end to Riviera-style concealed headlights in the fenders and a simpler grille treatment across the center. As built, though, the lower grille/bumper is a direct descendant of the 1954 Pontiac Bonneville concept car.
Had the Biscayne made production as a light car with a small block V-8, it would have been a brisk kickoff to the smaller, lighter, and affordable performance cars of the 1960s. As events turned out, that really fell to the Ford Falcon to turn into the Ford Mustang, eventually prompting Chevrolet to respond with the Camaro.
(Okay, this is an oversimplified version of the Biscayne's place in the evolution of Detroit auto designs. Nothing worked quite so directly. The most obvious immediate descendant of the Biscayne was probably the 1956 Corvette Impala show car. But smaller concepts had a hard time finding traction inside GM in the 1950s, and even the production Corvette was on thin ice for a while.)
Had corporate strategy instead led to a front-engine V-8 1960 Corvair though......... look no further, this could have been it.
Album with more images:
www.flickr.com/photos/35028360@N03/sets/72157687056512256
Many great period and restoration photos and story here:
bortzautocollection.com/restoration/index.htm
Deserves to be in a museum? Ok, it is: www.petersen.org/gms-marvelous-motorama-exhibit (though I'd rather see it in sunlight)
The notable French aircraft manufacturer Société Anonyme des Establissements Nieuport was formed in 1909 and rose to prominence before World War I with a series of elegant monoplane designs. The namesakes of the company, Edouard de Niéport and his brother Charles, were both killed in flying accidents before the war. (The spelling of the company name was a slight variation of the brothers' surname.) The talented designer Gustave Delage joined the firm in 1914 and was responsible for the highly successful war-time line of sesquiplane V-strut single-seat scouts, the most famous of which were the Nieuport 11 and the Nieuport 17.
The Nieuport 28C.1 was developed in mid-1917 and was the first biplane fighter design produced by Nieuport that had relatively equal-chord upper and lower wings. In an attempt to compete with the superior performance of the Spad VII and the recently introduced Spad XIII, Nieuport explored the use of a more powerful motor than the types employed in the sesquiplane series. The availability of a more powerful, and heavier, 160-horsepower Gnôme rotary engine prompted the decision to increase the surface area of the lower wing to compensate for the greater weight of the new power plant, hence eliminating the typical Nieuport sesquiplane V-strut configuration.
In early 1918, the French Air Service rejected the new Nieuport design as a front-line fighter in favor of the sturdier, more advanced Spad XIII. However, the Nieuport 28 found a place with the newly arriving American squadrons. Having no suitable fighter design of its own, the United States adopted the Nieuport 28 as a stop-gap measure before the much-in-demand Spad XIIIs could be made available from the French. The Nieuport 28 performed creditably as the first operational pursuit aircraft in the fledgling U.S. Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force. Thus, the primary significance of the Nieuport 28 for the national aeronautical collection is that it was the first fighter aircraft to serve with an American fighter unit under American command and in support of U.S. troops. It was also first type to score an aerial victory with an American unit. On April 14, 1918, Lieutenants Alan Winslow and Douglas Campbell of the 94th Aero Squadron, both piloting a Nieuport 28, each downed an enemy aircraft in a fight that took place directly over their home airfield at Gengoult.
The Nieuport 28 made its mark in aviation history after World War I as well. Of the 297 total Nieuport 28 fighters procured by the United States from the French government during World War I, 88 were returned to the United States after the war. Twelve Nieuports, along with examples of several other European types brought back, were used by the U.S. Navy from 1919 to 1921 for shipboard launching trials. Many, often harrowing, launches were undertaken. Some of the twelve Navy Nieuport 28s were destroyed in accidents. The surviving aircraft, worn out beyond repair, were surplused after the trials. The other seventy-six Nieuport 28s that were brought back to the United States after the war were operated by the U.S. Army at various bases and airfields in the 1920s, such as McCook, Mitchel, and Bolling Fields.
The Nieuports that survived their post-war U.S. military service found their way into various private hands. Several were modified for air racing, having their wings clipped, adapting non-standard interplane struts, and other changes. A number found their way into Hollywood movies, most notably in the famous Dawn Patrol films of 1930 and 1938. Still others became privately-owned airplanes flying in various sporting and commercial capacities. The specific history of these uses remains quite sketchy.
In short, although aesthetically pleasing and by all reports delightful to fly, the Nieuport 28 type gained fame more for simply being available rather than for any inherently superior performance or design qualities. Nevertheless, in American aviation history, the Nieuport 28 holds a number of important firsts and was used in several significant ways. Because of its varied and interesting role in U.S. aviation history, this aircraft has a richly deserved place in the NASM collection.
The museum's Nieuport 28 has a complex and confusing history. It was acquired in 1986 from Cole Palen, founder and operator of the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome. He flew the aircraft regularly in his air shows from 1958 to 1972. Immediately before its transfer to NASM, the airplane was on loan from Palen to the Intrepid Sea/Air/Space Museum in New York.
Upon close inspection, it became clear that the NASM aircraft is a composite of several different Nieuport 28s. The various components had been owned by a number of different people and used in a variety of capacities over a long period of time. As a result, the pieces have been shuffled around a lot and re-built many times. A large number of parts were not original and in many cases the replacement parts were not prepared to original specification. As a result, a serious investigation of the history of the NASM airframe was undertaken to determine as near as possible the provenance of the museum's Nieuport 28.
When it was acquired a number of erroneous assumptions were passed on, probably uncorroborated stories from Cole Palen. Initially the aircraft was believed to have been a war-time product and that it flew with the U.S. Air Service in World War I. Additionally, it was purported to have been one of the twelve U.S. Navy Nieuports tested in 1919-1921, that it was used in the Hollywood epic "Dawn Patrol," and that Howard Hughes had owned it at one point. Painstaking research has demonstrated that nearly all of these assumptions were untrue.
To determine the actual history of the NASM Nieuport, the logical place to begin was with the numbers and markings on the airframe. There are five different serial numbers on the airplane. The fuselage number on the firewall is 6497. The upper wings have a manufacturing date of February 1919 with serial numbers 7103 (left panel) and 7226 (right panel). The lower left wing panel is marked as having been fabricated in November 1918 with serial number 6465. The lower right was made in October 1918 with serial number 6432.
The first obvious conclusion drawn from these data was that the NASM Nieuport 28 is essentially a postwar product. The lower wing panels were made at the very end of the war, which concluded on November 11, 1918. The fuselage serial number being higher than the lower wing numbers dates it as very late 1918 or very early 1919. The upper wings are dated 1919. Therefore, the NASM aircraft could not have been a war veteran. Further, given the late production dates, it can be concluded that the NASM aircraft must be a modified and improved postwar version of the Nieuport 28C.1, sometimes referred to as a Nieuport 28A.
A third conclusion drawn from the serial numbers was that the components are probably from at least five different aircraft. This is not necessarily so, as wing panels, tail units, fuselages, etc., were assembled from production line manufacture. Nevertheless, given that the serial numbers are so far apart, it is hard to believe that all the present components represent one original aircraft. The upper and lower wing sets could have been originally paired together as their respective numbers are relatively close together. But the 6400 series serial numbered wings and 7000 series numbered wings were unlikely to have been on the same airframe when the airplane first left the factory. Moreover, the NASM airplane, on at least one occasion, probably more, was put together from "best available components" from a collection of Nieuport 28 airframes. The most reasonable interpretation based on the evidence is that the NASM Nieuport 28 is not a documented single airframe with a continuous history. It is an amalgam of component parts of several aircraft brought together many years after their original individual manufacture.
Certain that the NASM aircraft is not a war-time Nieuport, the next step was to try to determine its provenance in post-war U.S. military service. Research at the National Archives unearthed the twelve serial numbers of the aircraft tested by the U.S. Navy. None of the five numbers on the NASM Nieuport matches any of those of the Navy airplanes, definitively dispelling the belief that the aircraft was in that group. The lack of evidence on the airframe of the exclusively Navy modifications also supports the view that NASM's is not one of the twelve Navy Nieuports.
Further research demonstrated that seventy-six other Nieuport 28s were operated by the U.S. Army at various bases and fields around the country such as McCook, Mitchel, and Bolling Fields. A reasonable conclusion is that the NASM aircraft was at one of these Army facilities in the early 1920s before the airplane, as a complete airframe or component parts, found its way into private hands. Unfortunately, no records have thus far been found that place the NASM Nieuport 28, or any of its components, at any particular U.S. military post.
After the U.S. military disposed of the Nieuport 28s in its inventory in the mid-to-late-1920s, tracing more than a few of them becomes extremely difficult. Those that were not destroyed in accidents or simply junked were surplused on the open market. Private individuals scarfed them up, re-built and modified them, and used them in a wide variety of private and commercial ventures. Some were converted into air racers. Some were used in Hollywood films. Still others became air show performers and the like. Details on any particular Nieuports used in these capacities remain all but impossible to come by.
What of the claim that the NASM aircraft participated in the making of the two Dawn Patrol films? Four original Nieuport 28s were acquired by Garland Lincoln, a war-time U.S. Air Service instructor and movie stunt pilot, for the 1930 production of Dawn Patrol. The airplanes did not fly in the film, they were only run up and taxied. Some have argued that the NASM aircraft is one of these four. At best, this can only be said of the fuselage. Several famous photographs from the production show a line-up of the four Nieuports. All four Dawn Patrol Nieuports had their wings shortened by several feet. This is quite clear in the photographs. The NASM airplane has full-span wings, at least proving that the NASM wing set was not part of any of the Dawn Patrol aircraft. The fuselage of the Nieuport is probably from one of the four Garland Lincoln airplanes used in the film. The next phase of the story points in that direction.
At this point, the trail of the NASM Nieuport begins to emerge, faintly. Garland Lincoln sold his entire stable of airplanes, including the four original Nieuports, to Paramount Pictures in 1938. In 1941, Paramount sold the lot to United Air Services, a firm owned by movie stunt pilot, Paul Mantz, and which in 1946 became Paul Mantz Air Services. None of the Nieuport 28 airplanes that Mantz had acquired was in flying condition. Photographs taken by Don Brady in the mid-1950s at Orange County Airport show these airplanes to be disassembled and derelict. Beyond the four clipped-wing Nieuports first sold by Garland Lincoln to Paramount in 1938, Mantz apparently acquired at least one other set of original Nieuport 28 wings at some time before the parts were photographed by Brady at Orange County in the 1950s.
In 1957, Paul Mantz traded one Nieuport 28 to James H. "Cole" Palen of the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, Rhinebeck, New York, for a Standard J-1. (Mantz later added approximately $200 to the trade to compensate for the Nieuport 28 being in poorer condition than the Standard J-1.) The fact that Palen's Nieuport, i.e., the NASM airplane, has full-span wings supports the belief that Mantz must have acquired more Nieuport 28 parts beyond the four clipped-wing airplanes that were in the original "Dawn Patrol" movie. Palen apparently selected the "best components" of those stored at Orange County airport to complete one aircraft. Cole Palen died in 1993, and some years earlier his home burned, destroying all his records. To confirm anything regarding his transaction with Mantz is now impossible.
The provenance of the NASM Nieuport 28 from this point on is clear. Palen completed the restoration of the aircraft to flying condition in 1958 and flew it regularly at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, and at other special shows elsewhere, until he retired the airplane in 1972. It was on display at Rhinebeck for several years before being lent to the Intrepid Air/Sea/Space Museum. It was on display there until 1986 when the Nieuport was traded to NASM for an original Nieuport 10 trainer, and transported directly from the Intrepid to the museum.
This brings us back to the original question: What is the history of the NASM Nieuport 28? Based on the foregoing research, the best interpretation is that it is an assemblage of components of various aircraft that were all manufactured at the very end or soon after World War I, which almost certainly means that they were originally Nieuport 28 "type A" rather than standard 28C.1 parts. The components undoubtedly emanated from the seventy-six Nieuport 28s operated by the U.S. Army at numerous installations in the 1920s. Without serial numbers by location for these aircraft, it is impossible to place any of the NASM components at any specific military airfield. The period between disposal by the military and acquisition by Paul Mantz is extremely sketchy. For the most part, it can only be determined what the NASM aircraft is not, rather than what it is (e.g., that it is not one of the twelve Navy aircraft, that its wings are not from any of the four Garland Lincoln Nieuports, etc.).
Regarding the origin of the NASM Nieuport 28, all that can be said with certainty is that the airplane comprises original components that can be narrowed down only to the seventy-six post-war U.S. Army Nieuports. The circumstantial evidence that Palen received Nieuport parts from Mantz, who obtained Nieuport parts from Lincoln, tantalizingly suggests that the NASM fuselage could be from one of the Dawn Patrol aircraft. The evidence cannot support anything more definitive.
In light of the vague provenance of the NASM Nieuport, some considered judgement was required concerning the final configuration and markings of the aircraft when it was restored by the museum. One obvious possibility would have been to restore the aircraft closest to what the documentation suggests the parts represent, namely a post-war U.S. Army experimental/training aircraft. Despite the apparent common sense to that approach, there were several strong reasons not to take this route. First, there are no clues indicating at which Army installation the NASM Nieuport operated, not even a single component of the airframe. It would not only have been a pure guess which airplane it is, but total conjecture even with which airfield it was associated. Further, details on the markings of only a handful of the Army post-war aircraft exist. Painting it as one of these would only in the most remote sense represent the correct aircraft. Moreover, the Nieuport 28 type is in the national collection primarily because of its place in U.S. air operations during World War I, not because of its minor role as a post-war trainer.
Configuring it as a U.S. Navy aircraft, with the unique modifications of that use of the Nieuport 28, would have been interesting. But as it was known definitively that the NASM aircraft is not one of the Navy airplanes, and that only twelve were employed in this specialized role over a short period of time, to follow this course seemed inappropriate. For similar reasons, restoring it as one of the movie airplanes did not make sense. At best, only the fuselage of the NASM Nieuport 28 can be linked to any of the film work, and that only circumstantially. More significantly, movies represent only a small part of the Nieuport 28's history. Further, the movie Nieuports only were run up on the ground; they never actually flew in the films.
This presented the final option, which was taken: configuring the airplane as one of the war-time U.S. Air Service Nieuport 28s. Even though the NASM Nieuport is certainly not a war veteran because it was manufactured after the United States ceased to use them in combat, the best alternative was to configure the airplane in this fashion. As noted above, the main reason for inclusion of a Nieuport 28 in the NASM collection is to document the aircraft type first used by organized American units under American colors in combat. Because the history of the NASM Nieuport cannot be documented with any specificity, and certain configurations can be ruled out, the most reasonable approach was to represent the aircraft in accordance with the justified rationale for bringing it into the collection. Therefore, it was restored to a 28C.1 configuration and painted and marked as a U.S. Air Service combat Nieuport.
The particular Nieuport 28C.1 that the museum chose to represent was that of First Lieutenant James A. Meissner of the 94th Aero Squadron, U.S.A.S., a/c serial number 6144. This aircraft was chosen, rather than one of the more famous ones such as Eddie Rickenbacker's, Douglas Campbell's or Alan Winslow's, because it is representative of the famous "hat-in-the-ring" 94th Aero Squadron without misleading museum visitors into thinking that the NASM aircraft is actually one of the especially well-known American Nieuport 28s. Furthermore, Meissner's number 6144 has an interesting history in its own right.
On two occasions, with Meissner at the controls, 6144 experienced the infamous wing failure in a dive associated with the Nieuport 28. He landed safely both times. Meissner went on to command the 147th Aero Squadron. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross with Oak Leaf Clusters and the Croix de Guerre. He scored a total of 5 2/3 victories while flying with the 94th and the 147th. (Meissner is often credited with eight victories, but in 1969, the U.S. Air Force divided the credit of shared victories among all the pilots involved. Before this, each was given full credit for the victory in their totals. Having several shared victories, Meissner's official tally was reduced accordingly.) He survived the war, leaving the Air Service in 1919. Meissner's aircraft carried the standard factory-applied French camouflage, the famous "hat-in-the-ring" insignia, and standard U.S. wing and tail markings of the period, making it especially representative of the way American Nieuport 28s appeared when flown in the first U.S. air combat operations.
On two occasions, 6144 experienced the infamous structural failure of the wings in a dive associated with the Nieuport 28. Meissner landed his aircraft safely both times. Meissner later commanded the 147th Aero Squadron, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and Croix de Guerre, and was credited with a total of eight victories, flying with both the 94th and the 147th. He survived the war, leaving the Air Service in 1919. Meissner's aircraft carried the standard factory-applied French camouflage, the famous "hat-in-the-ring" insignia, and standard U.S. wing and tail markings of the period. It thus well represents the way American Nieuport 28s appeared when flown in the first U.S. air combat operations.
The airplane is painted as Meissner's appeared after May 10, 1918, after repairs from the first wing fabric shedding incident. Before this date, Meissner's Nieuport carried a black, or possibly red, number "14" on the fuselage sides and probably on the wings. He shot down one enemy aircraft with the airplane so marked, for which he was awarded the DSC. After May 10, the "14" on the fuselage was replaced with a white "8" with a thin black outline. A white "8" (with no black outline) also was applied to the top of the upper left wing of Meissner's 6144 upon repairing and re-numbering the airplane. Marked as number "8," Meissner shot down three more enemy aircraft in 6144 and experienced a second wing structure failure. Number "8" was chosen because more photographs exist of 6144 as number "8" and because it flew longer with this marking.
This is the full touring configuration for the Bombadil. Nitto lugged stem, 9cm. Painted to almost perfectly match. the orange powdercoat of the frameset. Nitto Noodle 46sm bars. SRAM brakelevers. Newbaums burgundy cloth tape. Two coats of amber shellac. Twined.
PictionID:41566318 - Title:Seversky P-35 Photo of a SEV-3XAR (X-2106) in land plane configuration - Catalog:15_002868 - Filename:15_002868.TIF - Image from the Charles Daniels Photo Collection album "Seversky, Republic and P-47"----PLEASE TAG this image with any information you know about it, so that we can permanently store this data with the original image file in our Digital Asset Management System.----SOURCE INSTITUTION: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive
Saturday 18th October 2008
KEL255 Configuration
The GH-28A 8-tube general-purpose micro missile launchers are capable of firing 3 volleys....
Missile pods! Photograph dedicated to Kelvin255. The VF-0A has only four underwing hardpoints (two per wing), but I added another two to beef it up.
I used the extra missile pods that came with the QF-2200D-A Ghost Booster here.
From the series Macross Zero (the prequel to Macross), the VF-0A is the direct ancestor to the VF-1 Valkyrie. I have not yet seen Macross Zero, but this collectible was too good pass by - so I got it. Macross Zero is set in the year 2008.
VF-0A "Pheonix" (Shin Kudo)
Mode: Fighter Jet Mode (Standard Configuration)
Scale: 1/60
Manufactured: Yamato
Series: Macross Zero
Released: ? (acquired Late September 2008)
Vehicle Stats: see Macross Mecha Manual.
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This photograph is part of my Robotech and VF-0A sets on Flickr.
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Image Copyright © 2008-present Joriel Jimenez
Please use with permission and full attribution
World’s first series-production, sixteen-cylinder car
Manufacturing period: 1930 – 1937 (various design modifications)
Units: 4387
Top speed: 145 km/h
Original price (1930): $ 5900.-- (Convertible Coupé)
e n g i n e
Cylinders: 16 (45 degree angle / V-configuration)
Displacement: 7413 cc
Rated output: 121 KW / 165 PS @ 3200 rpm
Operation: 4-stroke petrol engine with dual Cadillac carburettors (patent: C.F. Johnson)
Bore x stroke: 76.2 x 101.6 mm
Cooling system: Liquid cooled with pump
Engine block: Cast iron
"Auto Museum Volkswagen - Germany - Wolfsburg"
________________________________________
The Porsche 356 is a luxury sports car which was first produced by Austrian company Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH (1948–1949), and then by German company Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH (1950–1965). It was Porsche's first production automobile. Earlier cars designed by the Austrian company includes Cisitalia Grand Prix race car, and the Volkswagen Beetle as well as Auto Union Grand Prix cars were designed by the German company.
The 356 is a lightweight and nimble-handling rear-engine rear-wheel drive two-door sports car available in hardtop coupé and open configurations. Engineering innovations continued during the years of manufacture, contributing to its motorsports success and popularity. Production started in 1948 at Gmünd, Austria, where approximately 50 cars were built. In 1950 the factory relocated to Zuffenhausen, Germany, and general production of the 356 continued until April 1965, well after the replacement model 911 made its autumn 1963 debut. Of the 76,000 originally produced, approximately half survive.
Prior to World War II Porsche designed and built three Type 64 cars for a 1939 Berlin-to-Rome race that was cancelled. In 1948 the mid-engine, tubular chassis 356 prototype called "No. 1" was completed. This led to some debate as to the "first" Porsche automobile, but the 356 is considered by Porsche to be its first production model
The 356 was created by Ferdinand "Ferry" Porsche (son of Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the German company), who founded the Austrian company with his sister, Louise. Like its cousin, the Volkswagen Beetle (which Ferdinand Porsche Sr. had designed), the 356 is a four-cylinder, air-cooled, rear-engine, rear-wheel drive car with unitized pan and body construction. The chassis was a completely new design as was the 356's body which was designed by Porsche employee Erwin Komenda, while certain mechanical components including the engine case and some suspension components were based on and initially sourced from Volkswagen. Ferry Porsche described the thinking behind the development of the 356 in an interview with the editor of Panorama, the PCA magazine, in September 1972. "….I had always driven very speedy cars. I had an Alfa Romeo, also a BMW and others. ….By the end of the war I had a Volkswagen Cabriolet with a supercharged engine and that was the basic idea. I saw that if you had enough power in a small car it is nicer to drive than if you have a big car which is also overpowered. And it is more fun. On this basic idea we started the first Porsche prototype. To make the car lighter, to have an engine with more horsepower…that was the first two seater that we built in Carinthia (Gmünd)".
The first 356 was road certified in Austria on June 8, 1948, and was entered in a race in Innsbruck where it won its class. Porsche re-engineered and refined the car with a focus on performance. Fewer and fewer parts were shared between Volkswagen and Porsche as the 1950s progressed. The early 356 automobile bodies produced at Gmünd were handcrafted in aluminum, but when production moved to Zuffenhausen, Germany in 1950, models produced there were steel-bodied. The aluminium bodied cars from that very small company are what are now referred to as "prototypes". Porsche contracted Reutter to build the steel bodies and eventually bought the Reutter company in 1963. The Reutter company retained the seat manufacturing part of the business and changed its name to "Recaro".
Little noticed at its inception, mostly by a small number of auto racing enthusiasts, the first 356s sold primarily in Austria and Germany. It took Porsche two years, starting with the first prototype in 1948, to manufacture the first 50 automobiles. By the early 1950s the 356 had gained some renown among enthusiasts on both sides of the Atlantic for its aerodynamics, handling, and excellent build quality. The class win at Le Mans in 1951 was a factor. It was common for owners to race the car as well as drive them on the streets. They introduced the four-cam racing "Carrera" engine, a totally new design and unique to Porsche sports cars, in late 1954. Increasing success with its racing and road cars brought Porsche orders for over 10,000 units in 1964, and by the time 356 production ended in 1965 approximately 76,000 had been produced.
The 356 was built in four distinct series, the original ("pre-A"), followed by the 356 A, 356 B, and finally the 356 C. To distinguish among the major revisions of the model, 356s are generally classified into a few major groups. The 356 coupés and "cabriolets" (soft-tops) built through 1955 are readily identifiable by their split (1948 to 1952) or bent (centre-creased, 1953 to 1955) windscreens. In late 1955 the 356 A appeared, with a curved windshield. The A was the first road going Porsche to offer the Carrera four-cam engine as an option. In late 1959 the T5 356 B appeared; followed by the redesigned T6 series 356 B in 1962. The final version was the 356 C, little changed from the late T6 B cars but disc brakes replaced the drums.
Prior to completion of 356 production, Porsche had developed a higher-revving 616/36 version of the 356's four-cylinder pushrod engine for installation in a new 912 model that commenced production in April 1965. Although the 912 used numerous 356 components, Porsche did not intended for the 912 to replace the 356.
When the decision was made to replace the 356, the 901 (later 911) was the road car designed to carry the Porsche name forward. The 912 was developed as the "standard version" of the 911 at the 17,500DM price of a 356 1600 SC, while the complex but faster and heavier six-cylinder 911 was priced more than fifty percent higher. Customers purchased nearly 33,000 912 coupés and Targas powered by the Type 616 engine that had served Porsche so well during the 356 era.
356 "PRE-A"
From the earliest, 1100 cc Gmünd beginnings, the overall shape of the 356 remained more or less set. In 1951, 1300 and 1500 cc engines with considerably more power were introduced. By late 1952 the divided windscreen was gone, replaced by a V-shaped unit which fit into the same opening. In 1953, the 1300 S or "Super" was introduced, and the 1100 cc engine was dropped. In late 1954 Max Hoffman, the sole US importer of Porsches, convinced Porsche to build a stripped down roadster version with minimal equipment and a cut-down windscreen. Towards the end of the original 356's time (in 1955, when the 356 A was about to be introduced) Hoffman, wanting a model name rather than just a number got the factory to use the name "Continental" which was applied mostly to cars sold in the United States. Ford, makers of the Lincoln Continental, sued. This name was used only in 1955 and today this version is especially valued. For 1956, the equivalent version was briefly sold as the "European". Today all of the earliest Porsches are highly coveted by collectors and enthusiasts worldwide based on their design, reliability and sporting performance.
356 A
In late 1955, with numerous small but significant changes, the 356 A was introduced. Its internal factory designation, "Type 1", gave rise to its nickname "T1" among enthusiasts. In the US 1,200 early 356s had been badged as the "Continental" and then a further 156 from autumn 1955 to January 1956 as an even rarer T1 “European” variant after which it reverted to its numerical 356 designation. In early 1957 a second revision of the 356 A was produced, known as Type 2 (or T2). Production of the Speedster peaked at 1,171 cars in 1957 and then started to decline. The four-cam "Carrera" engine, initially available only in the spyder race cars, became an available option starting with the 356 A.
Within the last 25 years replicas of the 356 A have become very popular with companies like San Diego Replicas offering 356 Speedster and 550 spyder replicas.
356 B
In late 1959 significant styling and technical refinements gave rise to the 356 B (a T5 body type). The mid-1962 356 B model was changed to the T6 body type (twin engine lid grilles, an external fuel filler in the right front wing/fender and a larger rear window in the coupé). The Porsche factory did not call attention to these quite visible changes with a different model designation. However, when the T6 got disc brakes, with no other visible alterations, they called it the model C, or the SC when it had the optional extra powerful engine. A unique "Karmann hardtop" or "notchback" 356 B model was produced in 1961 and 1962. The 1961 production run (T5) was essentially a cabriolet body with the optional steel cabriolet hardtop welded in place. The 1962 line (T6 production) was a very different design in that the new T6 notchback coupé body did not start life as a cabriolet, but with its own production design—In essence, part cabriolet rear end design, part T6 coupé windshield frame, unique hard top. Both years of these unique cars have taken the name "Karmann notchback".
356 C
The last revision of the 356 was the 356 C introduced for the 1964 model year. It featured disc brakes all around, as well as an option for the most powerful pushrod engine Porsche had ever produced, the 95 hp (71 kW) "SC". Production of the 356 peaked at 14,151 cars in 1964, the year that its successor, the new 911, was introduced to the US market (it was introduced slightly earlier in Europe). The company continued to sell the 356 C in North America through 1965 as demand for the model remained quite strong in the early days of the heavier and more "civilized" 911. The last ten 356s (cabriolets) were assembled for the Dutch police force in March 1966 as 1965 models.
BODY STYLES
The car was built of a unibody construction, making restoration difficult for cars that were kept in rust-prone climates. The basic design of the 356 remained the same throughout its lifespan, with evolutionary, functional improvements rather than annual superficial styling changes. Nevertheless, a variety of models in both coupé and convertible forms were produced from 1948 through 1965.
One of the most desirable collector models is the 356 "Speedster", introduced in late 1954 after Max Hoffman advised the company that a lower-cost, somewhat spartan open-top version could sell well in the American market. With its low, raked windscreen (which could be removed for weekend racing), bucket seats and minimal folding top, the Speedster was an instant hit, especially in Southern California.
It was replaced in late 1958 by the "convertible D" model. It featured a taller, more practical windshield (allowing improved headroom with the top erected), roll-up glass side-windows and more comfortable seats. The following year the 356 B "roadster" convertible replaced the D model but the sports car market's love affair with top-down motoring was fading; soft-top 356 model sales declined significantly in the early 1960s.
Cabriolet models (convertibles with a full windshield and padded top) were offered from the start, and in the early 1950s sometimes comprised over 50% of total production. A unique "Karmann hardtop" or "notchback" 356 B model was produced in 1961 and 1962, essentially a cabriolet-style body with a permanent metal roof.
ENGINE
Porsche designers made the decision to utilize the engine case they had originally designed for the Volkswagen Beetle. It was an air-cooled pushrod OHV flat-four engine. For use in the 356, they designed new cylinder heads, camshaft, crankshaft, intake and exhaust manifolds and used dual carburetors to more than double the VW's horsepower. While the first prototype 356 had a mid-engine layout, all later 356s had a rear-mounted layout. When the four-cam "Carrera" engine became available in late 1955, this engine became an extra cost option starting with the 356 A, and was available through the 356 model run.
ELECTRIC MOTOR
There are kits to convert a Porsche 356 Speedster to an electric vehicle.
LEGACY
The 356 has always been popular with the motor press. In 2004, Sports Car International ranked the 356 C tenth on their list of top sports cars of the 1960s. Today, the Porsche 356 is a highly regarded collector car. The Porsche 356 Carrera (with its special DOHC racing engine), SC, Super 90 and Speedster models are among the most desirable 356 models. Few 356 Carreras were produced and these often bring well over $250,000 at auction. A fully restored 356 Carrera Speedster (of which only about 140 were made) can sell for around $300,000 at auction.
The original selling price of a late 1950s Porsche was around US$4,000, which was also the price of a new Cadillac; today they regularly bring between US$20,000 and well over US$100,000 at auction.
Thousands of owners worldwide maintain the 356 tradition, preserving their cars and driving them regularly. The US-based 356 registry on its website states that it is "...world's largest classic Porsche club."
MOTORSPORT
The Porsche 356, close to stock or highly modified, has enjoyed much success in rallying, the 24 hours of Le Mans, the 1000 km Buenos Aires, the Mille Miglia, the Targa Florio, the Carrera Panamericana, as well as many other important car racing events.
Several Porsche 356s were stripped down in weight, and were modified in order to have better performance and handling for these races. A few notable examples include the Porsche 356 SL, and the Porsche 356 A Carrera GT.
In the early 1960s Porsche collaborated with Abarth and built the Porsche 356 B Carrera GTL Abarth coupé, which enjoyed some success in motor sports.
WIKIPEDIA
"Auto Museum Volkswagen - Germany - Wolfsburg"
________________________________________
The Porsche 356 is a luxury sports car which was first produced by Austrian company Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH (1948–1949), and then by German company Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH (1950–1965). It was Porsche's first production automobile. Earlier cars designed by the Austrian company includes Cisitalia Grand Prix race car, and the Volkswagen Beetle as well as Auto Union Grand Prix cars were designed by the German company.
The 356 is a lightweight and nimble-handling rear-engine rear-wheel drive two-door sports car available in hardtop coupé and open configurations. Engineering innovations continued during the years of manufacture, contributing to its motorsports success and popularity. Production started in 1948 at Gmünd, Austria, where approximately 50 cars were built. In 1950 the factory relocated to Zuffenhausen, Germany, and general production of the 356 continued until April 1965, well after the replacement model 911 made its autumn 1963 debut. Of the 76,000 originally produced, approximately half survive.
Prior to World War II Porsche designed and built three Type 64 cars for a 1939 Berlin-to-Rome race that was cancelled. In 1948 the mid-engine, tubular chassis 356 prototype called "No. 1" was completed. This led to some debate as to the "first" Porsche automobile, but the 356 is considered by Porsche to be its first production model
The 356 was created by Ferdinand "Ferry" Porsche (son of Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the German company), who founded the Austrian company with his sister, Louise. Like its cousin, the Volkswagen Beetle (which Ferdinand Porsche Sr. had designed), the 356 is a four-cylinder, air-cooled, rear-engine, rear-wheel drive car with unitized pan and body construction. The chassis was a completely new design as was the 356's body which was designed by Porsche employee Erwin Komenda, while certain mechanical components including the engine case and some suspension components were based on and initially sourced from Volkswagen. Ferry Porsche described the thinking behind the development of the 356 in an interview with the editor of Panorama, the PCA magazine, in September 1972. "….I had always driven very speedy cars. I had an Alfa Romeo, also a BMW and others. ….By the end of the war I had a Volkswagen Cabriolet with a supercharged engine and that was the basic idea. I saw that if you had enough power in a small car it is nicer to drive than if you have a big car which is also overpowered. And it is more fun. On this basic idea we started the first Porsche prototype. To make the car lighter, to have an engine with more horsepower…that was the first two seater that we built in Carinthia (Gmünd)".
The first 356 was road certified in Austria on June 8, 1948, and was entered in a race in Innsbruck where it won its class. Porsche re-engineered and refined the car with a focus on performance. Fewer and fewer parts were shared between Volkswagen and Porsche as the 1950s progressed. The early 356 automobile bodies produced at Gmünd were handcrafted in aluminum, but when production moved to Zuffenhausen, Germany in 1950, models produced there were steel-bodied. The aluminium bodied cars from that very small company are what are now referred to as "prototypes". Porsche contracted Reutter to build the steel bodies and eventually bought the Reutter company in 1963. The Reutter company retained the seat manufacturing part of the business and changed its name to "Recaro".
Little noticed at its inception, mostly by a small number of auto racing enthusiasts, the first 356s sold primarily in Austria and Germany. It took Porsche two years, starting with the first prototype in 1948, to manufacture the first 50 automobiles. By the early 1950s the 356 had gained some renown among enthusiasts on both sides of the Atlantic for its aerodynamics, handling, and excellent build quality. The class win at Le Mans in 1951 was a factor. It was common for owners to race the car as well as drive them on the streets. They introduced the four-cam racing "Carrera" engine, a totally new design and unique to Porsche sports cars, in late 1954. Increasing success with its racing and road cars brought Porsche orders for over 10,000 units in 1964, and by the time 356 production ended in 1965 approximately 76,000 had been produced.
The 356 was built in four distinct series, the original ("pre-A"), followed by the 356 A, 356 B, and finally the 356 C. To distinguish among the major revisions of the model, 356s are generally classified into a few major groups. The 356 coupés and "cabriolets" (soft-tops) built through 1955 are readily identifiable by their split (1948 to 1952) or bent (centre-creased, 1953 to 1955) windscreens. In late 1955 the 356 A appeared, with a curved windshield. The A was the first road going Porsche to offer the Carrera four-cam engine as an option. In late 1959 the T5 356 B appeared; followed by the redesigned T6 series 356 B in 1962. The final version was the 356 C, little changed from the late T6 B cars but disc brakes replaced the drums.
Prior to completion of 356 production, Porsche had developed a higher-revving 616/36 version of the 356's four-cylinder pushrod engine for installation in a new 912 model that commenced production in April 1965. Although the 912 used numerous 356 components, Porsche did not intended for the 912 to replace the 356.
When the decision was made to replace the 356, the 901 (later 911) was the road car designed to carry the Porsche name forward. The 912 was developed as the "standard version" of the 911 at the 17,500DM price of a 356 1600 SC, while the complex but faster and heavier six-cylinder 911 was priced more than fifty percent higher. Customers purchased nearly 33,000 912 coupés and Targas powered by the Type 616 engine that had served Porsche so well during the 356 era.
356 "PRE-A"
From the earliest, 1100 cc Gmünd beginnings, the overall shape of the 356 remained more or less set. In 1951, 1300 and 1500 cc engines with considerably more power were introduced. By late 1952 the divided windscreen was gone, replaced by a V-shaped unit which fit into the same opening. In 1953, the 1300 S or "Super" was introduced, and the 1100 cc engine was dropped. In late 1954 Max Hoffman, the sole US importer of Porsches, convinced Porsche to build a stripped down roadster version with minimal equipment and a cut-down windscreen. Towards the end of the original 356's time (in 1955, when the 356 A was about to be introduced) Hoffman, wanting a model name rather than just a number got the factory to use the name "Continental" which was applied mostly to cars sold in the United States. Ford, makers of the Lincoln Continental, sued. This name was used only in 1955 and today this version is especially valued. For 1956, the equivalent version was briefly sold as the "European". Today all of the earliest Porsches are highly coveted by collectors and enthusiasts worldwide based on their design, reliability and sporting performance.
356 A
In late 1955, with numerous small but significant changes, the 356 A was introduced. Its internal factory designation, "Type 1", gave rise to its nickname "T1" among enthusiasts. In the US 1,200 early 356s had been badged as the "Continental" and then a further 156 from autumn 1955 to January 1956 as an even rarer T1 “European” variant after which it reverted to its numerical 356 designation. In early 1957 a second revision of the 356 A was produced, known as Type 2 (or T2). Production of the Speedster peaked at 1,171 cars in 1957 and then started to decline. The four-cam "Carrera" engine, initially available only in the spyder race cars, became an available option starting with the 356 A.
Within the last 25 years replicas of the 356 A have become very popular with companies like San Diego Replicas offering 356 Speedster and 550 spyder replicas.
356 B
In late 1959 significant styling and technical refinements gave rise to the 356 B (a T5 body type). The mid-1962 356 B model was changed to the T6 body type (twin engine lid grilles, an external fuel filler in the right front wing/fender and a larger rear window in the coupé). The Porsche factory did not call attention to these quite visible changes with a different model designation. However, when the T6 got disc brakes, with no other visible alterations, they called it the model C, or the SC when it had the optional extra powerful engine. A unique "Karmann hardtop" or "notchback" 356 B model was produced in 1961 and 1962. The 1961 production run (T5) was essentially a cabriolet body with the optional steel cabriolet hardtop welded in place. The 1962 line (T6 production) was a very different design in that the new T6 notchback coupé body did not start life as a cabriolet, but with its own production design—In essence, part cabriolet rear end design, part T6 coupé windshield frame, unique hard top. Both years of these unique cars have taken the name "Karmann notchback".
356 C
The last revision of the 356 was the 356 C introduced for the 1964 model year. It featured disc brakes all around, as well as an option for the most powerful pushrod engine Porsche had ever produced, the 95 hp (71 kW) "SC". Production of the 356 peaked at 14,151 cars in 1964, the year that its successor, the new 911, was introduced to the US market (it was introduced slightly earlier in Europe). The company continued to sell the 356 C in North America through 1965 as demand for the model remained quite strong in the early days of the heavier and more "civilized" 911. The last ten 356s (cabriolets) were assembled for the Dutch police force in March 1966 as 1965 models.
BODY STYLES
The car was built of a unibody construction, making restoration difficult for cars that were kept in rust-prone climates. The basic design of the 356 remained the same throughout its lifespan, with evolutionary, functional improvements rather than annual superficial styling changes. Nevertheless, a variety of models in both coupé and convertible forms were produced from 1948 through 1965.
One of the most desirable collector models is the 356 "Speedster", introduced in late 1954 after Max Hoffman advised the company that a lower-cost, somewhat spartan open-top version could sell well in the American market. With its low, raked windscreen (which could be removed for weekend racing), bucket seats and minimal folding top, the Speedster was an instant hit, especially in Southern California.
It was replaced in late 1958 by the "convertible D" model. It featured a taller, more practical windshield (allowing improved headroom with the top erected), roll-up glass side-windows and more comfortable seats. The following year the 356 B "roadster" convertible replaced the D model but the sports car market's love affair with top-down motoring was fading; soft-top 356 model sales declined significantly in the early 1960s.
Cabriolet models (convertibles with a full windshield and padded top) were offered from the start, and in the early 1950s sometimes comprised over 50% of total production. A unique "Karmann hardtop" or "notchback" 356 B model was produced in 1961 and 1962, essentially a cabriolet-style body with a permanent metal roof.
ENGINE
Porsche designers made the decision to utilize the engine case they had originally designed for the Volkswagen Beetle. It was an air-cooled pushrod OHV flat-four engine. For use in the 356, they designed new cylinder heads, camshaft, crankshaft, intake and exhaust manifolds and used dual carburetors to more than double the VW's horsepower. While the first prototype 356 had a mid-engine layout, all later 356s had a rear-mounted layout. When the four-cam "Carrera" engine became available in late 1955, this engine became an extra cost option starting with the 356 A, and was available through the 356 model run.
ELECTRIC MOTOR
There are kits to convert a Porsche 356 Speedster to an electric vehicle.
LEGACY
The 356 has always been popular with the motor press. In 2004, Sports Car International ranked the 356 C tenth on their list of top sports cars of the 1960s. Today, the Porsche 356 is a highly regarded collector car. The Porsche 356 Carrera (with its special DOHC racing engine), SC, Super 90 and Speedster models are among the most desirable 356 models. Few 356 Carreras were produced and these often bring well over $250,000 at auction. A fully restored 356 Carrera Speedster (of which only about 140 were made) can sell for around $300,000 at auction.
The original selling price of a late 1950s Porsche was around US$4,000, which was also the price of a new Cadillac; today they regularly bring between US$20,000 and well over US$100,000 at auction.
Thousands of owners worldwide maintain the 356 tradition, preserving their cars and driving them regularly. The US-based 356 registry on its website states that it is "...world's largest classic Porsche club."
MOTORSPORT
The Porsche 356, close to stock or highly modified, has enjoyed much success in rallying, the 24 hours of Le Mans, the 1000 km Buenos Aires, the Mille Miglia, the Targa Florio, the Carrera Panamericana, as well as many other important car racing events.
Several Porsche 356s were stripped down in weight, and were modified in order to have better performance and handling for these races. A few notable examples include the Porsche 356 SL, and the Porsche 356 A Carrera GT.
In the early 1960s Porsche collaborated with Abarth and built the Porsche 356 B Carrera GTL Abarth coupé, which enjoyed some success in motor sports.
WIKIPEDIA
The Citroën DS (French pronunciation: [si.tʁɔ.ˈɛn de ɛs]) is a front-engine, front-wheel-drive executive car manufactured and marketed by the French company Citroën from 1955 to 1975 in sedan, wagon/estate and convertible body configurations. Italian sculptor and industrial designer Flaminio Bertoni and the French aeronautical engineer André Lefèbvre styled and engineered the car. Paul Magès developed the hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension.
Noted for its aerodynamic, futuristic body design and innovative technology, the DS set new standards in ride quality, handling, and braking—and was the first production car equipped with disc brakes.
Citroën sold 1,455,746 examples, including 1,330,755 built at the manufacturer's Paris Quai André-Citroën production plant.
The DS came third in the 1999 Car of the Century poll recognizing the world's most influential auto designs and was named the most beautiful car of all time by Classic & Sports Car magazine
MODEL HISTORY
After 18 years of secret development as the successor to the Traction Avant, the DS 19 was introduced on 5 October 1955 at the Paris Motor Show. In the first 15 minutes of the show, 743 orders were taken, and orders for the first day totalled 12,000. During the 10 days of the show, the DS took in 80,000 deposits; a record that has stood for over 60 years.
Contemporary journalists said the DS pushed the envelope in the ride vs. handling compromise possible in a motor vehicle.
To a France still deep in reconstruction after the devastation of World War II, and also building its identity in the post-colonial world, the DS was a symbol of French ingenuity. The DS was distributed to many territories throughout the world.
It also posited the nation's relevance in the Space Age, during the global race for technology of the Cold War. Structuralist philosopher Roland Barthes, in an essay about the car, said that it looked as if it had "fallen from the sky". An American advertisement summarised this selling point: "It takes a special person to drive a special car".
Because they were owned by the technologically aggressive tire manufacturer Michelin, Citroën had designed their cars around the technically superior radial tire since 1948, and the DS was no exception.
The car featured a novel hydropneumatic suspension including an automatic leveling system and variable ground clearance, developed in-house by Paul Magès. This suspension allowed the DS to travel quickly on the poor road surfaces common in France.
In addition, the vehicle had power steering and a semi-automatic transmission (the transmission required no clutch pedal, but gears still had to be shifted by hand), though the shift lever controlled a powered hydraulic shift mechanism in place of a mechanical linkage, and a fibreglass roof which lowered the centre of gravity and so reduced weight transfer. Inboard front brakes (as well as independent suspension) reduced unsprung weight. Different front and rear track widths and tyre sizes reduced the unequal tyre loading, which is well known to promote understeer, typical of front-engined and front-wheel drive cars.
As with all French cars, the DS design was affected by the tax horsepower system, which effectively mandated very small engines. Unlike the Traction Avant predecessor, there was no top-of-range model with a powerful six-cylinder engine. Citroën had planned an air-cooled flat-6 engine for the car, but did not have the funds to put the prototype engine into production.
The DS placed third in the 1999 Car of the Century competition, and fifth on Automobile Magazine's "100 Coolest Cars" listing in 2005. It was also named the most beautiful car of all time by Classic & Sports Car magazine after a poll of 20 world-renowned car designers, including Giorgetto Giugiaro, Ian Callum, Roy Axe, Paul Bracq, and Leonardo Fioravanti.
NAME
Both the DS and its simpler sibling, the ID, used a punning name. "DS" is pronounced in French as "Déesse" (goddess); "ID" is pronounced as "Idée" (idea). An intermediate model was called the DW.
MOTORSPORT
The DS was successful in motorsports like rallying, where sustained speeds on poor surfaces are paramount, and won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1959. In the 1000 Lakes Rally, Pauli Toivonen drove a DS19 to victory in 1962.
In 1966, the DS won the Monte Carlo Rally again, with some controversy as the competitive BMC Mini-Cooper team was disqualified due to rule infractions. Ironically, Mini was involved with DS competition again two years later, when a drunk driver in a Mini in Sydney Australia crashed into the DS that was leading the 1968 London–Sydney Marathon, 98 miles from the finish line. The DS was still competitive in the grueling 1974 London-Sahara-Munich World Cup Rally, where it won over 70 other cars, only 5 of which even completed the entire event.
TECHNICAL INNOVATION - HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS
In conventional cars, hydraulics are only used in brakes and power steering. In the DS they were also used for the suspension, clutch and transmission. The cheaper 1957 ID19 did have manual steering and a simplified power-braking system. An engine driven pump pressurizes the closed system to 2,400 pounds per square inch.
At a time when few passenger vehicles had independent suspension on all wheels, the application of the hydraulic system to the car's suspension system to provide a self-levelling system was an innovative move. This suspension allowed the car to achieve sharp handling combined with very high ride quality, frequently compared to a "magic carpet".
The hydropneumatic suspension used was pioneered the year before, on the rear of another car from Citroën, the top of range Traction Avant 15CV-H.
IMPACT ON CITROEN BRAND DEVELOPMENT
The 1955 DS cemented the Citroën brand name as an automotive innovator, building on the success of the Traction Avant, which had been the world's first mass-produced unitary body front-wheel-drive car in 1934. In fact, the DS caused such a huge sensation that Citroën was apprehensive that future models would not be of the same bold standard. No clean sheet new models were introduced from 1955 to 1970.
The DS was a large, expensive executive car and a downward brand extension was attempted, but without result. Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s Citroën developed many new vehicles for the very large, profitable market segments between the 2CV and the DS, occupied by vehicles like the Peugeot 403, Renault 16 and Ford Cortina, but none made it into production. Either they had uneconomic build costs, or were ordinary "me too" cars, not up to the company's high standard of innovation. As Citroën was owned by Michelin from 1934 to 1974 as a sort of research laboratory, such broad experimentation was possible. Michelin after all was getting a powerful advertisement for the capabilities of the radial tire Michelin had invented, when such experimentation was successful.
New models based on the small, utilitarian 2CV economy car were introduced, notably the 1961 Ami. It was also designed by Flaminio Bertoni and aimed to combine Three-box styling with the chassis of the 2CV. The Ami was very successful in France, but less so on export markets. Many found the styling controversial, and the car noisy and underpowered. The Dyane, was a modernised 2CV with a hatchback, competed with the 2CV inspired Renault 4 Hatchback. All these 2 cylinder models were very small, so there remained a wide market gap to the DS range all through the 1960s.
In 1970, Citroën finally introduced a car to target the mid-range - the Citroën GS, which won the "European car of the Year" for 1971 and sold 2.5 million units. It combined a small 55 horsepower flat-4 air-cooled engine with Hydropneumatic suspension. The intended 106 horsepower Wankel rotary-engined version with more power did not reach full production.
REPLACING THE DS
The DS remained popular and competitive throughout its production run. Its peak production year was 1970. Certain design elements like the somewhat narrow cabin, column-mounted gearstick, and separate fenders began to seem a little old-fashioned in the 1970s.
Citroën invested enormous resources to design and launch an entirely new vehicle in 1970, the SM, which was in effect a thoroughly modernized DS, with similar length, but greater width. The manual gearbox was a modified DS unit. The front disc brakes were the same design. Axles, wheel bearings, steering knuckles, and hydraulic components were either DS parts or modified DS parts.
The SM had a different purpose than replacing the 15-year-old DS design however - it was meant to launch Citroën into a completely new luxury grand touring market segment. Only fitted with a costly, exotic Maserati engine, the SM was faster and much more expensive than the DS. The SM was not designed to be a practical 4-door saloon suitable as a large family car, the key market for vehicles of this type in Europe. Typically, manufacturers would introduce low-volume coupés based on parts shared with an existing saloon, not as unique models, a contemporary example being the Mercedes-Benz SLC-Class.
The SM's high price and limited utility of the 2+2 seating configuration, meant the SM as actually produced could not seize the mantle from the DS.
So, while the design funds invested would allow the DS to be replaced by two cars - a 'modern DS' and the smaller CX, it was left to the CX alone to provide Citroën's large family or executive car in the model range.
The last DS came off the production line on 24 April 1975 - the manufacturer had taken the elementary precaution of building up approximately eight-month's of inventory of the "break" (estate/station wagon) version of the DS, to cover the period till Autumn 1975 when the estate/station wagon version of the CX would be introduced.
DEVELOPMENT
The DS always maintained its size and shape, with easily removable, unstressed body panels, but certain design changes did occur. During the 20-year production life improvements were made on an ongoing basis.
ID 19 submodel to extend brand downwards (1957–69)
The 1955 DS19 was 65% more expensive than the car it replaced, the Citroën Traction Avant. This affected potential sales in a country still recovering economically from World War II, so a cheaper submodel, the Citroën ID, was introduced in 1957.
The ID shared the DS's body but was less powerful and luxurious. Although it shared the engine capacity of the DS engine (at this stage 1,911 cc), the ID provided a maximum power output of only 69 hp compared to the 75 hp claimed for the DS19. Power outputs were further differentiated in 1961 when the DS19 acquired a Weber-32 twin bodied carburettor, and the increasing availability of higher octane fuel enabled the manufacturer to increase the compression ratio from 7.5:1 to 8.5:1. A new DS19 now came with a promised 83 hp of power. The ID19 was also more traditional mechanically: it had no power steering and had conventional transmission and clutch instead of the DS's hydraulically controlled set-up. Initially the basic ID19 was sold on the French market with a price saving of more than 25% against the DS, although the differential was reduced at the end of 1961 when the manufacturer quietly withdrew the entry level ID19 "Normale" from sale. A station wagon variant, the ID Break, was introduced in 1958.
D SPECIAL AND D SUPER (1970–75)
The ID was replaced by the D Spécial and D Super in 1970, but these retained the lower specification position in the range. The D Super was available with the DS21 2175ccm engine and a 5 speed gearbox, and named the D Super 5.
SERIE 2 - NOSE REDESIGN IN 1962
In September 1962, the DS was restyled with a more aerodynamically efficient nose, better ventilation and other improvements. It retained the open two headlamp appearance, but was available with an optional set of driving lights mounted on the front fenders. All models in the range changed nose design at the same time, including the ID and station wagon models.
Series 3 - Nose redesign in 1967 with Directional headlights
In late 1967, for the 1968 model year, the DS and ID was again restyled, by Robert Opron, who also styled the 1970 SM and 1974 CX. This version had a more streamlined headlamp design, giving the car a notably shark-like appearance. This design had four headlights under a smooth glass canopy, and the inner set swivelled with the steering wheel. This allowed the driver to see "around" turns, especially valuable on twisting roads driven at high speed at night.
Behind each glass cover lens, the inboard high-beam headlamp swivels by up to 80° as the driver steers, throwing the beam along the driver's intended path rather than uselessly across the curved road. The outboard low-beam headlamps are self-leveling in response to pitching caused by acceleration and braking.
However, this feature was not allowed in the US at the time (see World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations), so a version with four exposed headlights that did not swivel was made for the US market.
This 'turning headlight' feature was new to the market - it had only been seen before on the very rare three headlight 1935 Tatra 77A. The Tucker, which never was mass-produced, had a central headlight that turned with the steering. 45 years later, it is now a commonly available feature, even in the United States.
NEW GREEN HYDRAULIC FLUID
The original hydropneumatic system used a vegetable oil liquide hydraulique végétal (LHV), similar to that used in other cars at the time, but later switched to a synthetic fluid liquide hydraulique synthétique (LHS). Both of these had the disadvantage that they are hygroscopic, as is the case with most brake fluids. Disuse allows water to enter the hydraulic components causing deterioration and expensive maintenance work. The difficulty with hygroscopic hydraulic fluid was exacerbated in the DS/ID due to the extreme rise and fall in the fluid level in the reservoir, which went from nearly full to nearly empty when the suspension extended to maximum height and the six accumulators in the system filled with fluid. With every "inhalation" of fresh moisture- (and dust-) laden air, the fluid absorbed more water.
For the 1967 model year, Citroën introduced a new mineral oil-based fluid LHM (Liquide Hydraulique Minéral). This fluid was much less harsh on the system. LHM remained in use within Citroën until the Xantia was discontinued in 2001.
LHM required completely different materials for the seals. Using either fluid in the incorrect system would completely destroy the hydraulic seals very quickly. To help avoid this problem, Citroën added a bright green dye to the LHM fluid and also painted all hydraulic elements bright green. The former LHS parts were painted black.
All models, including the station wagon and ID, were upgraded at the same time. The hydraulic fluid changed to the technically superior LHM in all markets except the US and Canada, where the change did not take place until January 1969, due to local regulations.
INTERNATIONAL SALES AND PRODUCTION
The DS was primarily manufactured at the Quai André-Citroën in the Javel neighborhood of Paris, with other manufacturing facilities in the United Kingdom, South Africa, the former Yugoslavia (mostly Break Ambulances), and Australia.
Australia constructed their own D variant in the 1960s at Heidelberg, Victoria, identified as the ID 19 "Parisienne." Australian market cars were fitted with options as standard equipment such as the "DSpecial DeLuxe" that were not available on domestic European models.
Until 1965, cars were assembled at the manufacturer's Slough premises, to the west of London, using a combination of French made knock down kits and locally sourced components, some of them machined on site. A French electrical system superseded the British one on the Slough cars in 1962, giving rise to a switch to "continental style" negative earthing. After 1965 cars for the British market were imported fully assembled from the company's French plant. The British-built cars are distinguished by their leather seats, wooden (early ID19 models) one piece plastic (early DS19 models) dashboards, chromed number plate mount let into the front bumper, and (on pre-1962 cars) Lucas-made electrics. These were all right hand drive cars.
The DS was built and sold in South Africa from 1959 to 1975.
The DS was sold in Japan, but the models were built in France and left hand drive.
DS IN NORTH AMERICA
The DS was sold in North America from 1956 to 1972. Despite its popularity in Europe, it didn't sell well in the United States, and little better in Canada. While promoted as a luxury car, it did not have the basic features that American buyers expected to find on such a vehicle, such as an automatic transmission, air conditioning, power windows, or a powerful engine. The DS was designed specifically to address the French market, with punitive tax horsepower taxation of large engines, as well as very poor roads – it's no great mystery that it was a fish out of water when those constraints were removed.
Jay Leno described the sporadic supply of spare parts as a problem for 1970s era customers, based on his early experiences working at a Citroën dealer in Boston.
The DS was expensive, with a 115 hp (86 kW) vehicle costing $4,170 in 1969, when the price was $4,500 for a 360 hp (268 kW) Buick Electra 225 4 door sedan. For all years, 38,000 units were sold.
US regulations at the time also banned one of the car's more advanced features: its composite headlamps with aerodynamic covered lenses. Based on legislation that dated from 1940, all automobiles sold in the U.S. were required to have round, sealed beam headlamps that produced a meager 75,000 candlepower. The powerful quartz iodine swiveling headlamps designed for the 1968 model DS represented so many performance improvements at once that they were far beyond what the regulations could allow.[50] Even the aerodynamic headlight covers were illegal – as seen on the 1968 Jaguar E-Type. It took the lobbying muscle of Ford to point out that the government was requiring two contradictory things – safety, by ensuring that all headlights were best-of-breed circa 1940, and fuel economy through the CAFE standard – by definition, cars with poor aerodynamics are sacrificing fuel economy. Composite bulb lamps and aerodynamic covered headlights were not permitted until 1983.
The European lamps were legal in Canada, including the directional headlamps.
The hydraulic fluid change in 1967 was another brain teaser for U.S. automotive regulators at the Department of Transportation. NHTSA follows the precautionary principle, also used by the Food and Drug Administration, where new innovations are prohibited until their developers can prove them to the regulators; this stifles the experimentation that automakers need to advance their products. NHTSA had already approved a brake fluid they considered safe – DOT 3 brake fluid, which is red and hygroscopic to promote internal rust. This completely different fluid, used in aircraft applications – the technically superior green LHM (Liquide Hydraulique Mineral) – took NHTSA two years to analyze for automotive use. Approval finally came in January 1969, so half the U.S. cars of the 1969 model year use red fluid and half use green fluid.
DESIGN VARIATIONS
PALLAS
In 1965 a luxury upgrade, the DS Pallas (after Greek goddess Pallas), was introduced. This included comfort features such as better noise insulation, a more luxurious (and optional leather) upholstery and external trim embellishments. From 1966 the Pallas model received a driver's seat with height adjustment.
STATION WAGON, FAMILIALE AND AMBULANCE
A station wagon version was introduced in 1958. It was known by various names in different markets (Break in France, Safari and Estate in the UK, Wagon in the US, and Citroën Australia used the terms Safari and Station-Wagon). It had a steel roof to support the standard roof rack. 'Familiales' had a rear seat mounted further back in the cabin, with three folding seats between the front and rear squabs. The standard Break had two side-facing seats in the main load area at the back.
The Ambulance configuration was similar to that of the Break, but with a 60/30 split in the rear folding seat to accommodate a stretcher. A 'Commerciale' version was also available for a time.
The Safari saw use as a camera car, notably by the BBC. The hydropneumatic suspension produces an unusually steady platform for filming while driving.
CONVERTIBLE
Rarest and most collectable of all DS variants, a convertible was offered from 1958 until 1973. The Cabriolet d'Usine (factory convertible) were built by French carrossier Henri Chapron, for the Citroën dealer network. It was an expensive car, so only 1,365 were sold. These DS convertibles used a special frame which was reinforced on the sidemembers and rear suspension swingarm bearing box, similar to, but not identical to the Break (Station Wagon) frame.
CHAPRON VARIATIONS
In addition, Chapron also produced a few coupés, non-works convertibles and special sedans (including the "Prestige", same wheelbase but with a central divider, and the "Lorraine" notchback).
BOSSAERT COUPE
Between 1959 and 1964, Hector Bossaert produced a coupé on a DS chassis shortened by 470 mm. While the front end remained unchanged, the rear end featured notchback styling.
THE REACTOR
In 1965, noted American auto customizer Gene Winfield created The Reactor, a Citroën DS chassis, with a turbocharged 180 hp (130 kW) flat-six engine from the Corvair driving the front wheels. Since the DS already had the engine behind the front wheels, the longer engine meant only one row of seats. This was draped in a streamlined, low slung, aluminum body.
The Reactor was seen in American Television programs of the era, such as Star Trek: The Original Series episode 2.25 ("Bread and Circuses)," Batman episodes 110 ("Funny Feline Felonies") and 111 (driven by Catwoman Eartha Kitt), and Bewitched, which devoted its episode 3.19 ("Super Car") to The Reactor.
MICHELIN PLR
The Michelin PLR is a mobile tire evaluation machine, based on the DS Break, built in 1972, later used for promotion.
Technical details
SUSPENSION
In a hydropneumatic suspension system, each wheel is connected, not to a spring, but to a hydraulic suspension unit consisting of a hydraulic accumulator sphere of about 12 cm in diameter containing pressurised nitrogen, a cylinder containing hydraulic fluid screwed to the suspension sphere, a piston inside the cylinder connected by levers to the suspension itself, and a damper valve between the piston and the sphere. A membrane in the sphere prevented the nitrogen from escaping. The motion of the wheels translated to a motion of the piston, which acted on the oil in the nitrogen cushion and provided the spring effect. The damper valve took place of the shock absorber in conventional suspensions. The hydraulic cylinder was fed with hydraulic fluid from the main pressure reservoir via a height corrector, a valve controlled by the mid-position of the anti-roll bar connected to the axle. If the suspension was too low, the height corrector introduced high-pressure fluid; if it was too high, it released fluid back to the fluid reservoir. In this manner, a constant ride height was maintained. A control in the cabin allowed the driver to select one of five heights: normal riding height, two slightly higher riding heights for poor terrain, and two extreme positions for changing wheels. (The correct term, oleopneumatic (oil-air), has never gained widespread use. Hydropneumatic (water-air) continues to be preferred overwhelmingly.)
The DS did not have a jack for lifting the car off the ground. Instead, the hydraulic system enabled wheel changes with the aid of a simple adjustable stand. To change a flat tyre, one would adjust the suspension to its topmost setting, insert the stand into a special peg near the flat tyre, then readjust the suspension to its lowermost setting. The flat tyre would then retract upwards and hover above ground, ready to be changed. This system, used on the SM also, was superseded on the CX by a screw jack that, after the suspension was raised to the high position, lifted the tire clear of the ground. The DS system, while impressive to use, sometimes dropped the car quite suddenly, especially if the stand was not placed precisely or the ground was soft or unlevel.
SOURCE AND RESERVE OF PRESSURE
The central part of the hydraulic system was the high pressure pump, which maintained a pressure of between 130 and 150 bar in two accumulators. These accumulators were very similar in construction to the suspension spheres. One was dedicated to the front brakes, and the other ran the other hydraulic systems. (On the simpler ID models, the front brakes operated from the main accumulator.) Thus in case of a hydraulic failure, the first indication would be that the steering became heavy, followed by the gearbox not working; only later would the brakes fail.
Two different hydraulic pumps were used. The DS used a seven-cylinder axial piston pump driven off two belts and delivering 175 bar (2,540 psi) of pressure. The ID19, with its simpler hydraulic system, had a single-cylinder pump driven by an eccentric on the camshaft.
GEARBOX AND CLUTCH
HYDRAULIQUE OR CITROMATIC
The DS was initially offered only with the "hydraulique" four-speed semi-automatic (bvh—"boîte de vitesses hydraulique") gearbox.
This was a four-speed gearbox and clutch, operated by a hydraulic controller. To change gears, the driver flicked a lever behind the steering wheel to the next position and eased-up on the accelerator pedal. The hydraulic controller disengaged the clutch, engaged the nominated gear, and re-engaged the clutch. The speed of engagement of the clutch was controlled by a centrifugal regulator sensing engine rpm and driven off the camshaft by a belt, the position of the butterfly valve in the carburettor (i.e., the position of the accelerator), and the brake circuit. When the brake was pressed, the engine idle speed dropped to an rpm below the clutch engagement speed, thus preventing friction while stopped in gear at traffic lights. When the brake was released, the idle speed increased to the clutch dragging speed. The car would then creep forward much like automatic transmission cars. This drop in idle throttle position also caused the car to have more engine drag when the brakes were applied even before the car slowed to the idle speed in gear, preventing the engine from pulling against the brakes. In the event of loss of hydraulic pressure (following loss of system fluid), the clutch would disengage, to prevent driving, while brake pressure reserves would allow safe braking to standstill.
MANUAL - FOUR SPEED AND FIVE-SPEED
The later and simpler ID19 had the same gearbox and clutch, manually operated. This configuration was offered as a cheaper option for the DS in 1963. The mechanical aspects of the gearbox and clutch were completely conventional and the same elements were used in the ID 19. In September 1970, Citroën introduced a five-speed manual gearbox, in addition to the original four-speed unit.
FULLY AUTOMATIC
In September 1971 Citroën introduced a 3-speed fully automatic Borg-Warner 35 transmission gearbox, on the DS 21 and later DS 23 models. It is ironic that the fully automatic transmission DS was never sold in the US market, where this type of transmission had gained market share so quickly that it became the majority of the market by this time. Many automatic DSs, fuel-injected DS 23 sedans with air conditioning, were sold in Australia.
ENGINES
The DS was originally designed around an air-cooled flat-six based on the design of the 2-cylinder engine of the 2CV, similar to the motor in the Porsche 911. Technical and monetary problems forced this idea to be scrapped.
Thus, for such a modern car, the engine of the original DS 19 was also old-fashioned. It was derived from the engine of the 11CV Traction Avant (models 11B and 11C). It was an OHV four-cylinder engine with three main bearings and wet liners, and a bore of 78 mm and a stroke of 100 mm, giving a volumetric displacement of 1911 cc. The cylinder head had been reworked; the 11C had a reverse-flow cast iron cylinder head and generated 60 hp (45 kW) at 3800 rpm; by contrast, the DS 19 had an aluminium cross-flow head with hemispherical combustion chambers and generated 75 hp (56 kW) at 4500 rpm.
Like the Traction Avant, the DS had the gearbox mounted in front of the engine, with the differential in between. Thus some consider the DS to be a mid engine front-wheel drive car.
The DS and ID powerplants evolved throughout its 20-year production life. The car was underpowered and faced constant mechanical changes to boost the performance of the four-cylinder engine. The initial 1911 cc three main bearing engine (carried forward from the Traction Avant) of the DS 19 was replaced in 1965 with the 1985 cc five-bearing wet-cylinder motor, becoming the DS 19a (called DS 20 from September 1969).
The DS 21 was also introduced for model year 1965. This was a 2175 cc, five main bearing engine; power was 109 hp This engine received a substantial increase in power with the introduction of Bosch electronic fuel injection for 1970, making the DS one of the first mass-market cars to use electronic fuel injection. Power of the carbureted version also increased slightly at the same time, owing to the employment of larger inlet valves.
Lastly, 1973 saw the introduction of the 2347 cc engine of the DS 23 in both carbureted and fuel-injected forms. The DS 23 with electronic fuel injection was the most powerful production model, producing 141 hp (105 kW).
IDs and their variants went through a similar evolution, generally lagging the DS by about one year. ID saloon models never received the DS 23 engine or fuel injection, although the Break/Familiale versions received the carburetted version of the DS 23 engine when it was introduced, supplemented the DS20 Break/Familiale.
The top of the range ID model, The DSuper5 (DP) gained the DS21 engine (the only model that this engine was retained in) for the 1973 model year and it was mated to a five-speed gearbox. This should not be confused with the 1985 cc DSuper fitted with an optional "low ratio" five-speed gearbox, or with the previous DS21M (DJ) five-speed.
IN POPULAR CULTURE
President Charles de Gaulle survived an assassination attempt at Le Petit-Clamart near Paris on August 22, 1962, planned by Algerian War veteran Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry. The plan was to ambush the motorcade with machine guns, disable the vehicles, and then close in for the kill. De Gaulle praised the unusual abilities of his unarmoured DS with saving his life – the car was peppered with bullets, and the shots had punctured the tyres, but the car could still escape at full speed. This event was accurately recreated in the 1973 film The Day of the Jackal.
Beyond de Gaulle and the French aristocracy, the roomy DS also appealed to French taxi drivers.
Outside France, the car drew an eclectic customer mix, such as Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, Pope John XXIII, painter Marc Chagall, and actors Ken Berry, Jeff Bridges, and Rosamund Pike.
The DS appeared in several episodes of contemporary television series Mission: Impossible, including substantial appearances in 'The Slave' (ep. 2.06) and 'Robot' (ep. 4.09).
An ode to Jane Child's DS21 appears on her 1989 self-titled album.
In 1989, the film Back to the Future Part II featured a modified Citroen DS as a flying taxicab, when the main characters travel 30 years into the future (2015). Scarface (1983 film) with Al Pacino and the 2009 television series The Mentalist both feature the DS in key roles. According to Internet Movie Cars Database, the DS/ID has made over 2,000 film and television appearances so far.
Two films focus on the DS, including The Goddess of 1967 about a Japanese man purchasing a DS (goddess or déesse in French) in Australia, and 1995's Icelandic-Japanese road movie Cold Fever.
LEGACY
Citroën DS values have been rising – a 1973 DS 23 Injection Electronique "Decapotable" (Chapron Convertible) sold for EUR €176,250 (USD $209,738) at Christie's Rétromobile in February 2006. and a similar car sold by Bonhams in February 2009 brought EUR €343,497 (USD $440,436). On 18 September 2009 a 1966 DS21 Decapotable Usine was sold by Bonhams for a hammer price of UK£131,300. Bonhams sold another DS21 Decapotable (1973) on 23 January 2010 for EUR €189,000.
The DS's beloved place in French society was demonstrated in Paris on 9 October 2005 with a celebration of the 50th anniversary of its launch. 1,600 DS cars drove in procession past the Arc de Triomphe.
From 2005 to 2008, a young Frenchman named Manuel Boileau travelled around the world in a 1971 DS ambulance. It was an 80,000 kilometer journey across 38 countries called Lunaya World Tour. While traveling through Laos, he located the forlorn 1974 DS Prestige belonging to Sisavang Vatthana, the last King of the Kingdom of Laos, which is now preserved and restored by specialists in Bangkok.
In 2009, Groupe PSA created a new brand - DS Automobiles, intended as high quality, high specification variations on existing models, with differing mechanics and bodywork. This brand ranges across four models, the DS3, DS4, DS5, and the China-only SUV DS 6. The DS3, launched in March 2010, is based on Citroen's new C3, but is more customisable and unique, bearing some resemblance to the original DS, with its "Shark Fin" side pillar. These have created their own niches, with the DS4 being a mix of a crossover and a coupe and the DS5 mixing a coupe and an estate. Many feature hybrid-diesel engines to maximise efficiency.
WIKIPEDIA
An Atlas-D rocket in Mercury-Atlas Configuration is on display at Kennedy Space Center.
Atlas LV-3B
The Atlas LV-3B, Atlas D Mercury Launch Vehicle or Mercury-Atlas Launch Vehicle, was a human-rated expendable launch system used as part of the United States Project Mercury to send astronauts into low Earth orbit. Manufactured by American aircraft manufacturing company Convair, it was derived from the SM-65D Atlas missile, and was a member of the Atlas family of rockets.
The Atlas D missile was the natural choice for Project Mercury since it was the only launch vehicle in the US arsenal that could put the spacecraft into orbit and also had a large number of flights to gather data from. But its reliability was far from perfect and Atlas launches ending in explosions were an all-too common sight at Cape Canaveral. Thus, significant steps had to be taken to human-rate the missile and make it safe and reliable unless NASA wished to spend several years developing a dedicated launch vehicle for crewed programs or else wait for the next-generation Titan II ICBM to become operational. Atlas’s stage-and-a-half configuration was seen as somewhat preferable to the two stage Titan in that all engines were ignited at liftoff, making it easier to test for hardware problems during prelaunch checks.
Shortly after being chosen for the program in early 1959, the Mercury astronauts were taken to watch the second D-series Atlas test, which exploded a minute into launch. This was the fifth straight complete or partial Atlas failure and the booster was at this point nowhere near reliable enough to carry a nuclear warhead or an uncrewed satellite, let alone a human passenger. Plans to human-rate Atlas were effectively still on the drawing board and Convair estimated that 75% reliability would be achieved by early 1961 and 85% reliability by the end of the year.
•General Specifications:
oFunction: Crewed Expendable Launch System
oManufacturer: Convair
oCountry of Origin: United States
•Size:
oHeight: 28.7 meters (94.3 ft)
oDiameter: 3.0 meters (10.0 ft); Width Over Boost Fairing: 4.9 meters (16 ft)
oMass: 120,000 kilograms (260,000 lb)
oStages: 1½
•Capacity:
oPayload to LEO: 1,360 kilograms (3,000 lb)
•Launch History:
oStatus: Retired
oLaunch Sites: CCAFS LC-14
oTotal Launches: 9
oSuccesses: 7
oFailures: 2
oFirst Flight: July 29, 1960
oLast Flight: May 15, 1963
•Boosters:
oNumber of Boosters: 1
oEngines: 2
oThrust: 1,517.4 kilonewtons (341,130 lbf)
oBurn Time: 134 seconds
oFuel: RP-1/LOX
•First Stage:
oDiameter: 3.0 meters (10.0 ft)
oEngines: 1
oThrust: 363.22 kilonewtons (81,655 lbf)
oBurn Time: 5 minutes
oFuel: RP-1/LOX
Quality Assurance
Aside from the modifications described below, Convair set aside a separate assembly line dedicated to Mercury-Atlas vehicles which was staffed by personnel who received special orientation and training on the importance of the crewed space program and the need for as high quality workmanship as possible. Components used in the Mercury-Atlas vehicles were given thorough testing to ensure proper manufacturing quality and operating condition, in addition components and subsystems with excessive operating hours, out-of-specification performance, and questionable inspection records would be rejected. All components approved for the Mercury program were earmarked and stored separately from hardware intended for other Atlas programs and special handling procedures were done to protect them from damage.
Propulsion systems used for the Mercury vehicles would be limited to standard D-series Atlas models of the Rocketdyne MA-2 engines which had been tested and found to have performance parameters closely matching NASA’s specifications.
All launch vehicles would have to be complete and fully flight-ready at delivery to Cape Canaveral with no missing components or unscheduled modifications/upgrades. After delivery, a comprehensive inspection of the booster would be undertaken and prior to launch, a flight review board would convene to approve each booster as flight-ready. The review board would conduct an overview of all prelaunch checks, and hardware repairs/modifications. In addition, Atlas flights over the past few months in both NASA and Air Force programs would be reviewed to make sure no failures occurred involving any components or procedures relevant to Project Mercury.
The NASA Quality Assurance Program meant that each Mercury-Atlas vehicle took twice as long to manufacture and assemble as an Atlas designed for uncrewed missions and three times as long to test and verify for flight.
Systems Modified
Abort Sensor
Central to these efforts was the development of the Abort Sensing and Implementation System (ASIS), which would detect malfunctions in the Atlas’s various components and trigger a launch abort if necessary. Added redundancy was built in; if ASIS itself failed, the loss of power would also trigger an abort. The system was tested on a few Atlas ICBM flights prior to Mercury-Atlas 1 in July 1960, where it was operated open-loop (MA-3 in April 1961 would be the first closed-loop flight).
The Mercury launch escape system (LES) used on Redstone and Atlas launches was identical, but the ASIS system varied considerably between the two boosters as Atlas was a much larger, more complex vehicle with five engines, two of which were jettisoned during flight, a more sophisticated guidance system, and inflated balloon tanks that required constant pressure to not collapse.
Atlas flight test data was used to draw up a list of the most likely failure modes for the D-series vehicles, however simplicity reasons dictated that only a limited number of booster parameters could be monitored. An abort could be triggered by the following conditions, all of which could be indicative of a catastrophic failure:
•The booster flight path deviated too far from the planned trajectory
•Engine thrust or hydraulic pressure dropped below a certain level
•Propellant tank pressure dropped below a certain level
•The intermediate tank bulkhead showed signs of losing structural integrity
•The booster electrical system ceased operating
•The ASIS system ceased operating
Some failure modes such as an erroneous flight path did not necessarily pose an immediate danger to the astronaut’s safety and the flight could be terminated via a manual command from the ground (e.g. Mercury-Atlas 3). Other failure modes such as loss of engine thrust in the first few moments of liftoff required an immediate abort signal as there would be little or no time to command a manual abort.
An overview of failed Atlas test flights showed that there were only a few times that malfunctions occurred suddenly and without prior warning, for instance on Missile 6B when one turbopump failed 80 seconds into the launch. Otherwise, most failures were preceded by obvious deviations from the booster’s normal operating parameters. Automatic abort was only necessary in a situation like Atlas 6B where the failure happened so fast that there would be no time for a manual abort and most failure modes left enough time for the astronaut or ground controllers to manually activate the LES. A bigger concern was setting up the abort system so as to not go off when normal, minor performance deviations occurred.
Rate Gyros
The rate gyro package was placed much closer to the forward section of the LOX tank due to the Mercury/LES combination being considerably longer than a warhead and thus producing different aerodynamic characteristics (the standard Atlas D gyro package was still retained on the vehicle for the use of the ASIS). Mercury-Atlas 5 also added a new reliability feature—motion sensors to ensure proper operation of the gyroscopes prior to launch. This idea had originally been conceived when the first Atlas B launch in 1958 went out of control and destroyed itself after ground crews forgot to power on the gyroscope motors during prelaunch preparation, but it was phased into Atlas vehicles only gradually. One other Atlas missile test in 1961 also destroyed itself during launch, in that case because the gyroscope motor speed was too low. The motion sensors would thus eliminate this failure mode.
Range Safety
The range safety system was also modified for the Mercury program. There would be a three-second delay between engine cutoff and activation of the destruct charges so as to give the LES time to pull the capsule to safety. The ASIS system could not terminate engine thrust for the first 30 seconds of flight in order to prevent a malfunctioning launch vehicle from coming down on or around the pad area; during this time only the Range Safety Officer could send a manual cutoff command.
Autopilot
The old-fashioned electromechanical autopilot on the Atlas (known as the “round” autopilot due to the shape of the containers its major components were housed in) was replaced by a solid-state model (the “square” autopilot) that was more compact and easier to service, but it would prove a serious headache to debug and man-rate. On Mercury-Atlas 1, the autopilot system functioned well until launch vehicle destruction a minute into the flight. On Mercury-Atlas 2, there was a fair bit of missile bending and propellant slosh. Mercury-Atlas 3 completely failed and had to be destroyed shortly after launch when the booster did not perform the pitch and roll maneuver. After this debacle, the programmer was recovered and examined. Several causes were proposed including contamination of pins in the programmer or perhaps a transient voltage. The autopilot was extensively redesigned, but Mercury-Atlas 4 still had high vibration levels for the first 20 seconds of launch which led to further modifications. Finally on Mercury-Atlas 5, the autopilot worked perfectly.
Antenna
The guidance antenna was modified to reduce signal interference.
LOX Boil-Off Valve
Mercury-Atlas vehicles utilized the boil-off valve from the C-series Atlas rather than the standard D-series valve for reliability and weight-saving reasons.
Combustion Sensors
Combustion instability was an important problem that needed to be fixed. Although it mostly only occurred in static firing tests of the MA-2 engines, three launches (Missiles 3D, 51D, and 48D) had demonstrated that unstable thrust in one engine could result in immediate, catastrophic failure of the entire missile as the engine backfired and ruptured, leading to a thrust section fire. On Missile 3D, this had occurred in flight after a propellant leak starved one booster engine of LOX and led to reduced, unstable thrust and engine failure. The other two launches suffered rough combustion at engine start, ending in explosions that severely damaged the launch stand. Thus, it was decided to install extra sensors in the engines to monitor combustion levels and the booster would also be held down on the pad for a few moments after ignition to ensure smooth thrust. The engines would also use a “wet start”, meaning that the propellants were injected into the combustion chamber prior to igniter activation as opposed to a “dry start” where the igniter was activated first, which would eliminate rough ignition (51D and 48D had both used dry starts). If the booster failed the check, it would be automatically shut down. Once again, these upgrades required testing on Atlas R&D flights. By late 1961, after a third missile (27E) had exploded on the pad from combustion instability, Convair developed a significantly upgraded propulsion system that featured baffled fuel injectors and a hypergolic igniter in place of the pyrotechnic method, but NASA was unwilling to jeopardize John Glenn’s upcoming flight with these untested modifications and so declined to have them installed in Mercury-Atlas 6’s booster. As such, that and Scott Carpenter’s flight on MA-7 used the old-style Atlas propulsion system and the new variant was not employed until Wally Schirra’s flight late in 1962.
Static testing of Rocketdyne engines had produced high-frequency combustion instability, in what was known as the “racetrack” effect where burning propellant would swirl around the injector head, eventually destroying it from shock waves. On the launches of Atlas 51D and 48D, the failures were caused by low-order rough combustion that ruptured the injector head and LOX dome, causing a thrust section fire that led to eventual complete loss of the missile. The exact reason for the back-to-back combustion instability failures on 51D and 48D was not determined with certainty, although several causes were proposed. This problem was resolved by installing baffles in the injector head to break up swirling propellant, at the expense of some performance as the baffles added additional weight reduced the number of injector holes that propellants were sprayed through. The lessons learned with the Atlas program later proved vital to the development of the much larger Saturn F-1 engine.
Electrical System
Added redundancy was made to the propulsion system electrical circuitry to ensure that SECO would occur on time and when commanded. The LOX fuel feed system received added wiring redundancy to ensure that the propellant valves would open in the proper sequence during engine start.
Tank Bulkhead
Mercury vehicles up to MA-6 had foam insulation in the intermediate bulkhead to prevent the super-chilled LOX from causing the RP-1 to freeze. During repairs to MA-6 prior to John Glenn’s flight, it was decided to remove the insulation for being unnecessary and an impediment during servicing of the boosters in the field. NASA sent out a memo to GD/A requesting that subsequent Mercury-Atlas vehicles not include bulkhead insulation.
LOX Turbopump
In early 1962, two static engine tests and one launch (Missile 11F) fell victim to LOX turbopump explosions caused by the impeller blades rubbing against the metal casing of the pump and creating a friction spark. This happened after over three years of Atlas flights without any turbopump issues and it was not clear why the rubbing occurred, but all episodes of this happened when the sustainer inlet valve was moving to the flight-ready “open” position and while running untested hardware modifications. A plastic liner was added to the LOX turbopump to prevent friction rubbing. In addition Atlas 113D, the booster used for Wally Schirra’s flight, was given a PFRT (Pre-Flight Readiness Test) to verify proper functionality of the propulsion system.
Pneumatic System
Mercury vehicles used a standard D-series Atlas pneumatic system, although studies were conducted over the cause of tank pressure fluctuation which was known to occur under certain payload conditions. These studies found that the helium regulator used on early D-series vehicles had a tendency to induce resonant vibration during launch, but several modifications to the pneumatic system had been made since then, including the use of a newer model regulator that did not produce this effect.
Propellant Utilization System
In the event that the guidance system failed to issue the discreet cutoff command to the sustainer engine and it burned to propellant depletion, there was the possibility of a LOX-rich shutdown which could result in damage to engine components from high temperatures. For safety reasons, the PU system was modified to increase the LOX flow to the sustainer engine ten seconds before SECO. This was to ensure that the LOX supply would be completely exhausted at SECO and prevent a LOX-rich shutdown.
Skin
After MA-1 was destroyed in-flight due to a structural failure, NASA began requesting that Convair deliver Atlases with thicker skin. Atlas 10D (as well as its backup vehicle 20D which was later used for the first Atlas-Able flight), the booster used for the Big Joe test in September 1959, had sported thick skin and verified that this was needed for the heavy Mercury capsule. Atlas 100D would be the first thick-skinned booster delivered while in the meantime, MA-2’s booster (67D) which was still a thin-skinned model, had to be equipped with a steel reinforcement band at the interface between the capsule and the booster. Under original plans, Atlas 77D was to have been the booster used for MA-3. It received its factory rollout inspection in September 1960, but shortly afterwards, the postflight findings for MA-1 came out which led to the thin-skinned 77D being recalled and replaced by 100D.
Guidance
The vernier solo phase, which would be used on ICBMs to fine-tune the missile velocity after sustainer cutoff, was eliminated from the guidance program in the interest of simplicity as well as improved performance and lift capacity. Since orbital flights required an extremely different flight path from missiles, the guidance antennas had to be completely redesigned to ensure maximum signal strength. The posigrade rocket motors on the top of the Atlas, designed to push the spent missile away from the warhead, were moved to the Mercury capsule itself. This also necessitated adding a fiberglass insulation shield to the LOX tank dome so it wouldn’t be ruptured by the rocket motors.
Engine Alignment
A common and normally harmless phenomenon on Atlas vehicles was the tendency of the booster to develop a slight roll in the first few seconds following liftoff due to the autopilot not kicking in yet. On a few flights however, the booster developed enough rolling motion to potentially trigger an abort condition if it had been a crewed launch. Although some roll was naturally imparted by the Atlas’s turbine exhaust, this could not account for the entire problem which instead had more to do with engine alignment. Acceptance data from the engine supplier (Rocketdyne) showed that a group of 81 engines had an average roll movement in the same direction of approximately the same magnitude as that experienced in flight. Although the acceptance test-stand and flight-experience data on individual engines did not correlate, it was determined that offsetting the alignment of the booster engines could counteract this roll motion and minimize the roll tendency at liftoff. After Schirra’s Mercury flight did experience momentary roll problems early in the launch, the change was incorporated into Gordon Cooper’s booster on MA-9.
Launches
Nine LV-3Bs were launched, two on uncrewed suborbital test flights, three on uncrewed orbital test flights, and four with crewed Mercury spacecraft. Atlas LV-3B launches were conducted from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
It first flew on July 29, 1960, conducting the suborbital Mercury-Atlas 1 test flight. The rocket suffered a structural failure shortly after launch, and as a result failed to place the spacecraft onto its intended trajectory. In addition to the maiden flight, the first orbital launch, Mercury-Atlas 3 also failed. This failure was due to a problem with the guidance system failing to execute pitch and roll commands, necessitating that the Range Safety Officer destroy the vehicle. The spacecraft separated by means of its launch escape system and was recovered 1.8 kilometers (1.1 mi) from the launch pad.
A further series of Mercury launches was planned, which would have used additional LV-3Bs; however these flights were canceled after the success of the initial Mercury missions. The last LV-3B launch was conducted on 15 May 1963, for the launch of Mercury-Atlas 9. NASA originally planned to use leftover LV-3B vehicles to launch Gemini-Agena Target Vehicles, however an increase in funding during 1964 meant that the agency could afford to buy brand-new Atlas SLV-3 vehicles instead, so the idea was scrapped.
Mercury-Atlas Vehicles Built and Eventual Disposition
•10D—Launched Big Joe 9/14/59
•20D—Backup vehicle for Big Joe. Reassigned to Atlas-Able program and launched 11/26/59.
•50D—Launched Mercury-Atlas 1 7/29/60
•67D—Launched Mercury-Atlas 2 2/21/61
•77D—Original launch vehicle for Mercury-Atlas 3, replaced by Atlas 100D after postflight findings from Mercury-Atlas 1
•88D—Launched Mercury-Atlas 4 9/13/61
•93D—Launched Mercury-Atlas 5 11/29/61
•100D—Launched Mercury-Atlas 3 4/25/61
•103D—Cancelled
•107D—Launched Aurora 7 (Mercury-Atlas 7) 5/24/62
•109D—Launched Friendship 7 (Mercury-Atlas 6) 2/21/62
•113D—Launched Sigma 7 (Mercury-Atlas 8) 10/3/62
•130D—Launched Faith 7 (Mercury-Atlas 9) 5/15/63
•144D—Cancelled, was planned launch vehicle for Mercury-Atlas 10
•152D—Cancelled
•167D—Cancelled
Nikon D800E + 70-200mm F/2.8 Nikkor Lens vs. Sony A7r + 35mm F/2.8 Carl Zeiss Lens! Both in 45surfer bracket configurations, with Sony NEX-6 cameras attached to the upper cameras with a bracket, for shooting stills and video at the same time! Guess which is heavier! :) The new 45surfer rig is a bit lighter, but that will change a bit when Sony comes out with longer zooms for the Sony A7r.
Both are great! The Sony NEX-6 bracketed to the D800E has the 50mm F/1.8 lens on it, while the Sony NEX-6 bracketed to the Sony A7R has the 35mm F/2.8 lens on it!
Check out some video!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiOMrZIEzg8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7gq_gCk0jE
The Sony ILCE7R A7r rocks! Was using the B+W 49mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer MRC Filter on partly cloudy day with some intermittent sun, but mostly cloudy. Check out the low glare off the rocks and water and dramatic, polarizwer-enhanced sky! Super sharp images and crystal-clear pictures!
Was testing the Sony HVL-F60M External Flash on the Sony A7r. You can see it going off in some of the photos (check the exif if in doubt)--worked great, but it overheated a bit sooner than my Nikon flash on the D800E. But it's all good!
Here's some epic goddess video shot at the same time as stills using my 45surfer method/philosophy:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUbE0ay7UeI
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC-M9fVwk9k
Join Johnny Ranger McCoy's youtube channel for goddess video shot @ the same time as the stills with the Sony A7 !
www.youtube.com/user/bikiniswimsuitmodels
Beautiful swimsuit bikini model goddess on a beautiful December Malibu afternoon! Shot it yesterday. :) Love, love, love the new Sony A7 R!
Was a fun test shoot. Many, many more to come!
All the best on your Epic Hero's Journey from Johnny Ranger McCoy!
Join my facebook!
www.facebook.com/45surfHerosJourneyMythology
Follow me on facebook www.facebook.com/elliot.mcgucken !
I made this box when I took a class with Tim Holtz, details at my blog:
stampingwithbibiana.blogspot.com/2013/08/tim-holtzconfigu...
Grand Concourse, Bronx, New York City, New York, United States
900 Grand Concourse (aka [no number] East 161st Street; [no number] East 162nd Street)
Borough of the Bronx Tax Map Block 2460, Lot 1
Building Name: Concourse Plaza Hotel Date: 1922-23 (NB 841-1922) Architect/Builder: Maynicke & Franke Original Owner: The Bronx Boosters, Inc. (J.M. Haffen, President)
Type: Originally hotel (now senior housing) Style: Colonial Revival Stories: 11 and mezzanine and basement Material(s): Red brick; masonry; terra cotta
Special Windows: Round-arched window openings at mezzanine level at central section of base Decorative Metal Work: Possibly historic balconette above main entry; possibly historic light fixtures at main entry
Significant Architectural Features: Tripartite vertical configuration; one-story with mezzanine masonry base featuring pedimented window surrounds at the first story, round-arched window openings with small masonry keystones at the mezzanine level, and garland, rosette and cartouche decorative elements; small molded masonry cornice above base; balustraded masonry parapet above central section of base; double-height terra-cotta window surrounds and molded terra-cotta bands (continuous with window surrounds) at capital; shaped parapet with masonry or terra-cotta coping, bas-relief garland and cartouche details, sculptural urn finials, and masonry balustrades at main (west) and south facades
Alterations: Painted base; replaced sidelights and transom at main entry; original ballroom at center of facade gutted, roof removed, and converted into open-air courtyard (c. 1980, exterior wall remains but window sashes removed); structural beams added to courtyard at mezzanine level; non-historic brick courtyard walls at first and second stories; upper story of historic two-story restaurant at southern end of facade demolished (see c. 1940s tax photograph for historic configuration); original multi-paned arched fixed sashes and multi-paned double-hung sashes replaced (see c. 1940s tax photograph); large non-historic window sashes at remaining first story of restaurant; main entry remodeled in 1958 (BN 641-1958), including new entrance doors and new marble veneer and possibly further altered later (see c. 1940s tax photograph for original main entry appearance); six rectangular window openings created above mezzanine level to north of courtyard, cut into existing garland details (see c. 1940s tax photographs); two non-original first-story door openings, cut into masonry base trim, subsequently filled in and replaced with window openings; three filled-in mezzanine-level window openings to north of courtyard; filled-in basement window openings, several with louvered vents; original lampposts removed from balustrade above central section of base; awning at main entry; several through-wall air conditioner units; security lights Site Features: Loading dock along east facade; continuous strip of Belgian-block paving at curbline along Grand Concourse, containing planted trees; planted trees within Belgian-block paved planting beds along East 162nd Street
Notable History: The Concourse Plaza Hotel was completed in 1923, the same year Yankee Stadium opened just a few blocks to the west; the opening of the hotel was a major event at which New York State Governor Alfred E. Smith spoke; designed to rival the best hotels of Manhattan, the hotel attracted many distinguished guests including renowned Yankee players Babe Ruth, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle; the banquet rooms of the hotel were highly sought after for events ranging from wedding receptions and bar mitzvahs to political functions; beginning in 1924, it became customary for the Democratic candidate for the presidency to campaign at a ladies' luncheon on the last
Saturday before the general election; presidential candidates Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy are all said to have campaigned at the hotel; in stark contrast to its heyday, the building was converted into a welfare hotel during the general economic decline of the area in the 1960s; in 1975, the City of New York purchased the building with intentions to convert it to a home for the elderly, a project that was delayed due to deteriorating economic conditions in the late 1970s; the building has been occupied as a federally subsidized senior citizens residence since 1982
West Facade: Designed (historic, repointed)
Door(s): Replaced primary door
Windows: Replaced (upper stories); replaced (basement)
Security Grilles: Possibly historic (upper stories); possibly historic (basement)
Sidewalk Material(s): Concrete
Curb Material(s): Concrete with metal nosing
North Facade: Designed (historic)
Facade Notes: Similar to main (west) facade; stepped parapet with masonry coping and urn finials at outer edges; possibly historic decorative metal security grille at the only basement window opening; repointed; painted base; several replaced brick lintels; windows replaced; four filled-in second-story window openings; secondary door replaced; original entry with double-height portico removed and converted into window openings at the first and mezzanine levels towards western end of facade; other first-story door openings filled in and replaced with window openings; non-historic metal fencing and security gate at entrance to eastern service alley; several through-wall air conditioner units; signage
South Facade: Designed (historic)
Facade Notes: Similar to main (west) facade but with fewer decorative elements; round-arched window openings at second story; simple masonry window surrounds at second-story window openings topped by small molded cornices on scroll brackets; masonry balustrades at second-story window openings; repointed; painted base; non-historic storefronts not original to building; missing balusters at eastern second-story window opening; several through-wall air conditioner units
East Facade: Partially designed (historic) (partially visible)
Facade Notes: Red brick at projecting northern and southern portions of facade; beige brick at recessed central portion of facade; some masonry and terra-cotta details from north and south facades continue slightly onto this facade; round-arched second-story window openings at projecting southern portion of facade; non-historic metal railing above second story at projecting non-historic metal railing above second story at projecting southern portion of facade; several through-wall air conditioner units; conduit; electrical boxes.
About the historic district:
Apartment House Architecture of the Grand Concourse Historic District
The facade designs of the 61 apartment houses that comprise the Grand Concourse Historic District developed in two stages, roughly corresponding to the district's two major waves of residential development. The change in apartment house design was largely stylistic, in that many of the architects who practiced within the historic district were responsible for buildings constructed during both the earlier and later waves of development. Among the architects who designed buildings within the historic district are several prolific local firms, including Charles Kreymborg, Gronenberg & Leuchtag, Springsteen & Goldhammer, and Jacob M. Felson. Kreymborg, and the successor firm Charles Kreymborg & Son, are credited with the design of the greatest number of apartment houses within the district, totaling 10, followed by Felson, credited with the design of eight apartments within the district.
During the 1920s, Bronx apartment house design evolved from the simple brick buildings of the previous decade into larger and more luxurious structures with grander and more elaborate ornamentation. Builders during this era were more willing to invest extra capital on apartment buildings in order to make them attractive to residents who could afford higher rents and therefore offset increased construction costs. At the same time, builders were turning to prefabricated and less expensive materials, such as brick and terra cotta, to further increase profits wherever possible. Within the historic district, the apartment buildings constructed during the first wave of development almost exclusively employed red or beige textured brick with masonry or terra-cotta decorative elements. In terms of style, these buildings typically reflected the fashions popular in Manhattan, where a historicism based on revivalist architectural styles such as Tudor, Renaissance and Colonial, was the ruling theme for luxury buildings. As noted by Rosenblum, these historically-derived styles were "wonderfully suggestive of faraway places" with many seeming to have "arrived straight from the countryside" - an effective sales pitch for a population looking to escape the overcrowding of the city's more urban districts. The more elaborate buildings from this era featured decorative elements
such as corner towers (Concourse Gardens, 940 and 960 Grand Concourse, 1927, Mediterranean Revival), faux half-timbering (109 East 153rd Street, 1930-31, Tudor Revival), elaborate brickwork including diamond patterning and blind-arch corbelling (825 Gerard Avenue, 1928, Renaissance Revival), classically-decorated main entry porticos (760 Grand Concourse, 1928, Renaissance Revival), and at least one Japanese-inspired interior garden court (Thomas Gardens Apartments, 840 Grand Concourse, 1926-27).
Apartment house design within the Bronx was again transformed in the 1930s, once more influenced by predominating Manhattan tastes. During this era, Art Deco and Moderne became the residential styles of choice for the Grand Concourse and the surrounding streets. The Art Deco style, introduced to midtown and downtown Manhattan in the mid-1920s, found its way "uptown" to the Bronx before the end of the decade, and the Bronx soon became one of the great repositories of Art Deco buildings nationwide. The buildings were modern and sophisticated in appearance, utilizing materials such as terra cotta, cast stone, brick and mosaic tiles in new and inventive ways, and incorporating design features including rounded or jagged bays, corner windows, and asymmetrical facade compositions. The style was marked by streamlined elements such as curving walls and abstract decorative detailing (888 Grand Concourse, 1937), recessed or decorated spandrels used to create an effect of continuous vertical window strips (1011 Carroll Place, 1935-36), brickwork arranged in vertical or horizontal patterns (1150 Grand Concourse, 1936-37; 710 Gerard Avenue, 1936), wrap-around corner window openings (730, 740 and 750 Grand Concourse, 1936-1939), and materials suggestive of the "Machine Age," such as steel-and-glass casement windows (now mostly replaced) and decorative metal parapet rails (860 Grand Concourse, 1940-41). The striking Art Deco style building at 888 Grand Concourse, designed by Emery Roth, one of New York City's most renowned apartment house architects, incorporates many of these characteristic features, including three rounded bays, cast-stone decorative elements, and a concave main-entry vestibule featuring beige and gold mosaic tile and terrazzo flooring. The Art Deco-style apartment building at 1150 Grand Concourse, also known colloquially as "the fish building," is notable for its eye-catching mural of tropical fish and water plants in tinted concrete or cast stone and mosaic tiles.
Emerging in popularity shortly after Art Deco's rise, the related Moderne style, of which there are ten buildings within the historic district, is similarly characterized by streamlined geometry (910 Sheridan Avenue, 1945-48), but with more minimal ornamentation including horizontal bands designed to suggest "speed lines" and a fascination with aerodynamics (675 Walton Avenue, 1936). Constructed exclusively during the second wave of development, the district's Art Deco and Moderne style buildings are found in small clusters interspersed among the apartment houses built during the earlier boom. The largest cluster within the Grand Concourse Historic District is the group of seven Moderne style buildings located between East 162nd and 163rd Streets, Grand Concourse and Sheridan Avenue (both sides of the street). Largely faced in smooth beige brick, these buildings function in the streetscape as lively, light-colored highlights among their predominantly darker-brick predecessors.
Several of the apartment buildings within the Grand Concourse Historic District are also representative of an innovative form of housing - the "garden apartment." This housing type took shape in the late 1910s and 1920s as real estate developers discovered the profitability of building low-rise, relatively low-density apartment buildings on larger lots in areas of the outer boroughs where land was cheap and the demand for modern, technologically up-to-date middle class housing was rising. Architects responded to these conditions by designing larger buildings of no more than six stories that sometimes occupied an entire city block. The buildings were often characterized by groups of apartment units organized around interior and/or exterior courtyards. Many of these apartment buildings, marketed to professionals and upwardly mobile middle-class families, were among the best in the city in terms of architecture, planning, size of living space, and amenities. Housing historian Richard Plunz identified the garden apartment as "critical to the transformation of housing from a consequence of economic formulas to a unique environment" and notes the building type for having "set a standard of urban housing that has remained unmatched since."
In 1926, architect Andrew Jackson Thomas, credited as the innovator of the "garden apartment" who had already made a name for himself designing garden apartments in Jackson Heights, Queens and elsewhere, was hired to design an apartment house on the Grand Concourse. Thomas's earlier work had caught the attention and interest of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who appointed him to design the award winning Dunbar Apartments (1926-28, a designated New York City Landmark) in Central Harlem (the first major non-profit cooperative complex built specifically for African Americans), as well as what would become the Thomas Gardens Apartments at 840 Grand Concourse (1926-28, within the Grand Concourse Historic District). The very large Thomas Gardens complex, designed to accommodate 166 families, was planned as a non-profit cooperative and differed from others constructed around the same time in that it was financed by a private capitalist, as opposed to a workers' union or building residents. The innovative building occupies an entire city block and features a U-shaped plan surrounding what was originally a sunken Japanese- inspired garden courtyard containing a pond and several slightly arched bridges and walkways. Prior to construction of the Bronx County Courthouse (1931-34), there was a strong a visual connection between the courtyard of the Thomas Gardens Apartments and Franz Sigel Park across the street, which added to the calm "protective quality" of the building and its environs.
Several other examples of garden apartments are located within the historic district including 975 Walton Avenue (1929-30) designed by Gronenberg & Leuchtag, the Concourse Gardens (North, 940 Grand Concourse, and South, 960 Grand Concourse, 1927) designed by Springsteen & Goldhammer, and 800 Grand Concourse (1953-55) designed by Hyman I. Feldman. All four
complexes feature large interior garden courts around which the apartments are situated. Even the less grand apartment houses within the district were typically built to lot lines and featured large light courts within which main entries are recessed, thereby giving the effect of a garden apartment on more constricted plots of land. In the case of the Franz Sigel (aka Alexandria) and the Virginia Apartments (774 and 780 Grand Concourse, 1926), as well as the apartment buildings at 721 and 735 Walton Avenue (1927), this effect is enhanced by way of shared landscaped courtyards between the buildings.
Parks and Public Institutions within the Grand Concourse Historic District
Two public parks are located within the Grand Concourse Historic District. Joyce Kilmer Park, a seven-acre expanse just north of the Bronx County Courthouse, was acquired by the parks department in 1924 and planned concurrent with the boulevard's rise as a major residential boulevard. The park, which was dedicated in 1926 for Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918), a poet, journalist, and soldier who was killed during World War I, incorporates a triangular parcel of land, known as Concourse Plaza that originally served as the carriage entrance to the Grand Concourse at East 161st Street. The park, which consists of lawns and formal tree-lined walks, was completely redesigned in 1936. At this time, the park's two existing monuments, which predate the park, were moved to their present locations within the park. One of the monuments, a statue of Louis J. Heintz by Pierre Fietu, was dedicated in 1909, the year the Grand Concourse opened, in honor of the Bronx's first commissioner of street improvements. The other monument, the Henrich Heine Fountain, also known as the Lorelei Fountain, celebrates the German poet Henrich Heine (1797-1856), author of an ode to Die Lorelei, a siren from German mythology who is the subject of the sculpture. The fountain was initially designed by German-born sculptor Ernst Herter for the sculptor's home city of Dusseldorf, but its installation there was blocked by political groups opposed to Heine's Jewish ancestry and political views. It was brought to the Bronx in 1899 by a group of Americans of German ancestry.
In contrast to the manicured lawns of Joyce Kilmer Park is the 16-acre Franz Sigel Park, located to the south of the Bronx County Courthouse. The park consists of terraced landscapes featuring densely packed trees, steeply sloping natural expanses with massive stone outcroppings, and rough-faced historic stone walls of varying heights. Though plans dating to the 1930s show proposals to formalize the park's circulation system, the paths that exist today are mostly unchanged from the early 20th century. Most of the land that comprises the park was purchased by the city from Gerard and Mary Walton in 1885, whose estate, Cedar Grove, was the inspiration for the original name of the park - Cedar Park. The land played an integral role in the early history of the area as well, beginning with the west slope of the park which was once part of a Native American pathway, and continuing with Revolutionary War, during which George Washington, Count de Rochambeau, and their respective military staff used a high rocky ridge within the park to monitor the movements of British troops camped along the Harlem River. In 1902, the park was named for German native Franz Sigel (1824-1902), an educator, soldier, journalist, public official, and Bronx resident.
A handful of public institutions, constructed during the 1920s and 1930s, complement the apartment houses of the Grand Concourse Historic District. The Bronx County Courthouse (a designated New York City Landmark), constructed between 1931 and 1934 along the Grand Concourse at East 161st Street, is one of New York City's most imposing civic structures. The courthouse is the work of architects Max Hausle and Joseph H. Freedlander, who designed the building in collaboration with noted sculptors and artisans. Designed in a style that combines boldly modern massing with neo-classical elements, the courthouse is an exceptionally impressive example of the publically funded architecture of the period. The new courthouse opened in 1934 following a festive three-day dedication celebration. In honor of the occasion, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia officially transferred the seat of municipal government for three days from City Hall to the Bronx County Courthouse. The dedication ceremonies, which also marked the 20th anniversary of the Bronx as a county, further included speeches, a military parade and band concert, as well as luncheons at the Concourse Plaza Hotel located across the street.
The Andrew Freedman Home (a designated New York City Landmark), constructed between 1922 and 1924 (and enlarged in 1928-31), located along the Grand Concourse at East 166th Street, was the result of a generous bequest in the will of Andrew Freedman. Freedman, a businessman who had a close relationship with the leaders of Tammany Hall, was involved with many profitable business ventures, including the construction of the IRT, New York City's first subway line. Upon his death, Freedman left most of his amassed fortune for the establishment of a home for "aged and indigent persons of both sexes," with the unusual proviso that the residents of the home be poor people who had once been in good circumstances. The Board of Trustees, led by prominent lawyer Samuel Untermyer, purchased a large plot of land on the prestigious boulevard and commissioned a building from two notable New York architects - Freedlander, who would later be involved with designing the Bronx County Courthouse, and Harry Allan Jacobs. The resulting building is an exceptional example of a monumental building which, through its symmetrical massing, fenestration, and handsome detail, recalls the tradition of the Italian Renaissance palazzo. Its design displays many handsome architectural features, including a recessed loggia, balustraded terrace, finely cut stonework, and beautiful wrought-iron details. The building functioned as a refuge for the once affluent for 59 years, from its opening in 1924 until 1983, when the Andrew Freedman Home ceased to operate and the building was purchased by the Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council as housing for the elderly.
The third notable public institution constructed along the Grand Concourse within the historic district was the Bronx Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children at 1130 Grand Concourse, built between 1925 and 1926. The main entrance to the three-story red brick and limestone building, designed by architects Raldiris & LaVelle (with a later addition by Leo Stillman), is elevated above ground level and features a set of double dog-leg staircases to either side of a three-story Corinthian
portico which provides the building with a distinctive monumentality. The building was purchased in 1951 by the Bronx Young Men's and Women's Hebrew Association, and later sold to the Girls Club of New York in 1980. Since 1993 it has served as one of many locations for the social service organization Bronx Works (originally the Citizens Advice Bureau) which offers programs for children, youth and families, and which merged with the Girls Club in 1995.
Subsequent History
By the late 1950s/early 1960s, the Bronx had entered into a period of profound transformation. Numerous forces, including heavy-handed urban renewal policies, disinvestment by area landlords, and the redlining of much of the Bronx by local banks, all contributed to an economic downturn. At the same time, the forces of suburbanization were creating a massive exodus of working- and middle-class, predominantly white urban dwellers to the suburbs and single-family homes of Westchester County and Long Island. The borough was concurrently experiencing an influx of new residents, largely consisting of African Americans from the south and Puerto Rican- born citizens, who came to New York in search of work and better opportunities. However, just as the thousands of new residents were pouring into New York, the very opportunities that attracted them to the city - stable, well-paying factory jobs - were leaving the northeast and Midwest for the suburbs, the south, and eventually overseas. The newcomers were generally blocked from settling in the suburbs by racial covenants and other discriminatory practices, and were forced to settle in already overcrowded existing lower-rent neighborhoods throughout the city. During this era, the Bronx's once venerable housing stock was seen as lacking modern amenities and areas like the
Grand Concourse came to be seen as old, poor neighborhoods with cheap rents.
Unable to raise rents due to rent control laws, landlords began to cut down on maintenance, renting to poorer, subsidized families, inducing tenant turnover (which allowed them to raise rents), and failing to pay taxes; they then either walked away from or sold the buildings to the city for slum clearance. The result was a seemingly endless cycle of massive residential displacement and disinvestment. Landlords felt less and less incentive to maintain their buildings and often let conditions deteriorate with the complicit assistance of banks and insurance companies with little interest in supporting ethnically diverse or economically struggling neighborhoods.
The last apartment house built within the Grand Concourse Historic District, the Executive Towers at 1020 Grand Concourse, was intended to help stabilize the neighborhood. Designed by architect Philip Birnbaum between 1959 and 1963, the Executive Towers were touted in real estate brochures dating to the time of construction as "the first luxury skyscraper in the Bronx." Tenants who moved into the high-rise tower, which featured undulating balconies and nearly 450 apartments, were treated to the relatively novel amenity of central air conditioning. As noted by Rosenblum, for many, the 23-story Modern style building, like the buildings on the boulevard before it, represented a step up in the world. Yet the neighborhood continued to struggle. The Executive Towers, and others that might have been built like it, simply could not compete with the draw of newer developments, such as nearby Co-op City, a massive co-operative housing complex consisting of 35 towers, nearly 250 townhouses (for a total of more than 15,000 apartments), three shopping centers, half-a dozen public schools, and space for 10,500 cars, which attracted many Grand Concourse residents.
Though economic conditions throughout New York City continued to worsen during the 1970s, the solid construction of the buildings within the Grand Concourse Historic District helped them survive largely unscathed - even through decades of owner neglect. The elegant Concourse Plaza Hotel, for example, had begun to lose luster in the post-war era, running into financial difficulties in the mid-1950s when the real estate syndicate that operated the hotel was charged with fraud. By the 1960s, the building had been converted into a "welfare hotel," with a varying population of both permanent and temporary residents housed under the city's emergency relocation program. During this period, the hotel's once hallowed ballrooms were being used for bingo games, meetings, dances, and in the early 1970s, a controversial discotheque called the Tunnel. In 1975, the City of New York purchased the building with intentions to convert it into a home for the elderly, but this project was much delayed due to further deteriorating economic conditions in the late 1970s. In 1982, the Concourse Plaza Hotel finally reopened as a federally subsidized senior citizens residence, and has functioned successfully in this capacity ever since. Though the legendary ballroom did not survive the transition, the building has suffered few exterior changes.
During the 1980s, many Bronx landlords began to work successfully with community organizations and tenants using private and public financing, tax incentives and rent subsidies for the moderate rehabilitation of multifamily housing. The Thomas Gardens Apartments (840 Grand Concourse), for example, whose pipes had burst and whose floors were buckling in the early 1980s, underwent significant rehabilitation work including the installation of 160 new windows and the expenditure of $50,000 on parapets and bulkheads. Other signs of neighborhood resurgence were also evident during the 1980s, including the expansion of the Bronx Museum of the Arts (1040 Grand Concourse). Originally built as a synagogue and community hall for Young Israel of the Concourse in 1961, the then-vacant building was purchased by the city for the museum in 1982. The former synagogue building was renovated in 1988 by the firm of Castro-Blanco, Piscioneri & Associates, who gave the building an updated appearance and glass atrium, and the museum has continued to thrive in its new home.
In 1989, a "Special Grand Concourse Preservation District" was established as part of the New York City Zoning Resolution, designed to protect the existing form and residential character of the buildings along the boulevard, as well as encourage new development in keeping with the existing scale and character of the area. The special district resulted in the Grand Concourse once again beginning to see building activity. As noted by Rosenblum, by the end of the 20th century, a growing number of "star architects" were leaving an imprint on and near the boulevard. The Bronx Housing Courthouse (1118 Grand Concourse), for example, constructed between 1990 and 1999, was designed by architect Rafael Vinoly as part of the Grand Concourse Preservation District. As described by Vinoly, the new courthouse building "participates in a dialogue" with the other buildings of civic importance along the Grand Concourse, "responds to the geometry and volumetric configurations of the immediately adjacent buildings," and also "respectfully adapts to the street wall height of its residential neighbor to the South." Yet another vote of confidence in the neighborhood's resurgence came with the $55 million renovation and second expansion of the Bronx Museum of the Arts, completed in 2006 by the high-profile Miami-based firm Arquitectonica.
Today, the Grand Concourse is home to vibrant mix of working- and middle-class residents, including immigrants from the Americas, the Caribbean and Africa. To suit the needs and demands of a modern population, some retrofitting of the buildings of the past generation has been required. Along the Grand Concourse this has resulted in the creation of first-story and basement level stores and offices, which began cropping up spottily in the 1980s. The trend continued for the next two decades, and in 2003 it was reported that "almost every block between 161st Street and 196th Street now has a grocery, a barber shop, a travel agency or a medical clinic, and some stretches are chockablock with stores and large, eye-catching signs." Despite the visual disruption in the streetscape, however, residents enjoy the convenience of the stores and the jobs that they provide, which they see as helping to ensure the future vitality of the residential district.
The Grand Concourse itself has undergone unsympathetic physical changes. During the 1960s and 1970s, for example, the boulevard's grass median was replaced with green-painted cement. By the 1980s, the roadway had become "a driver's paradise" with stoplights timed to keep cars moving and bright green highway-style exit signs. Beginning in the early 1990s, however, community leaders and politicians took steps to make the roadway more pedestrian-friendly, including increasing the number of walk signals, staggering traffic lights, and reducing the number of highway-style signs. Further reconstruction, completed in 2008 on time for the boulevard's centennial, included replacing underpass structures, narrowing service roads, raising planted medians, planting new trees, adding distinctive paving and new light fixtures, and incorporating new roadways, traffic patterns, sidewalks and dedicated bike lanes. As a result, the broad boulevard - the backbone of the great apartment houses, grand civic structures, and bucolic parks of the Grand Concourse Historic District - remains an important visual element that contributes to the district's powerful sense of place. Despite the economic hardships that were felt not just within the Bronx, but New York City as a whole in the mid-century, the structures that comprise the district have survived highly intact, retaining the architectural details and distinctive character that attracted residents to the area in the 1920s and 1930s, and which continues to attract newcomers today.
- From the 2011 NYCLPC Historic District Designation Report
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The P-74 "Charger" was a fighter aircraft built by Lockheed for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Its configuration was unusual as it was designed as a twin boom pusher configuration, where the propeller is mounted in the rear of the fuselage, pushing the aircraft forward.
The P-74 entered service with the USAAF in late 1944, its conception dated back to 1939 when the U.S. Army Air Corps requested with the Circular Proposal R40C domestic manufacturers to develop high performance fighter types, allowing (even demanding) unusual configurations. Lockheed did not respond immediately and missed the chance to sign a development contract in mid-1940 until early 1941. Twenty-three proposals were submitted to R40C, and after a fist selection of ideas three companies, Vultee with the large XP-54 Swoose Goose, Curtiss with its XP-55 Ascender and Northrop's XP-56 Black Bullet were able to secure prototype contracts.
Vultee eventually won the competition, but all these innovative new aircraft suffered from various flaws or development delays, missing various performance goals, so that none ever entered service.
In the meantime, Lockheed had been working on the 1939 request in the background on a private venture basis, as it was clear that by 1944 a successor to the company's own P-38 Lightning had to be offered to the USAAC.
The new North American P-51 Mustang was also a sharp competitor, esp. for the Pacific conflict theatre where long range was needed. This role was filled out very well by the P-38, but it was a relatively large and complicated aircraft, so an alternative with a single engine was strived for. Even though jet engines already showed their potential, it was clear that the requested range for the new type could only be achieved through a piston engine.
This aircraft became the XP-74, originally christened “Laelaps”, following Lockheed’s tradition, after a female Greek mythological dog who never failed to catch what she was hunting. It was presented as a mock-up to USAAC officials on August 8th 1942 and immediately found sponsorship: with the disappointing results from the XP-54,55 and 56 was immediately ushered into the prototype stage. Its name, though, was rejected, and the more common name “Charger” was adopted.
Just like Lockheed’s successful P-38 the XP-74 Charger was designed as a twin-boom aircraft, but it was driven by only a single Packard (License-built Rolls Royce Merlin) V-1650 pusher engine in the aft part of the fuselage. The tail was mounted rearward between two mid-wing booms, with a four-bladed 12-ft propeller between them. The design also included a "ducted wing section" developed by the NACA that enabled installation of cooling radiators and intercoolers in the wing root section.
The advantages of a pusher design are that the view forward is unobstructed and armament can be concentrated in the nose, while a major drawback is difficulty in escaping from the aircraft in an emergency, as the pilot could get drawn into the propeller blades. Lockheed deliberated between systems that would eject the pilot, or jettison the propeller or the engine, via a system of explosive bolts. Lockheed eventually installed an early ejector seat which was driven by pressurized air, combined with a mechanism that would blow the canopy off. The system was successfully tested in summer 1943, even though skepticism remained among pilots.
Initial armament comprised one 20mm Hispano cannon and four 12.7mm Browning machine guns, the same as in the P-38, but two machine guns were relocated from the nose into the front ends of the tail booms because of the new aircraft’s smaller overall dimensions.
The first prototype was ready in October 1943, with a different engine and heavier armor fitted. The second prototype was built to this specification from the start, which would become the serial production standard, the P-74A.
The P-74A used the new V-1650-9 engine, a version of the Merlin that included Simmons automatic supercharger boost control with water injection, allowing War Emergency Power as high as 2,218 hp (1,500 kW). Another change concerned the armament: a longer weapon range was deemed necessary, so the gun armament was changed into four 20mm Hispano cannons, two of the placed in the fuselage nose and one in each tail boom front end. Each gun was supplied with 250 RPG.
Alternatively, a nose installment with a single 37mm cannon and two 12.7mm Browning MGs was tested on the first prototype, but this arrangement was found to be less effective than the four 20mm cannons. Another factor that turned this option down was the more complicated logistics demands for three different calibers in one aircraft.
The P-74A was ready for service in summer 1944, but its deployment into the Pacific region took until December – the 5th Air Force first units replaced most of its P-38 and also early P-47Ds with the P-74A.These new aircraft had their first clashes with Japanese forces in January 1945.
The P-74 was used in a variety of roles. It was designed as an intreceptor against bombers, but its good range and handling at all altitudes made it suitable for tasks like fighter sweeps against enemy airfields, support for U.S. ground forces and protection of sea convoys and transport routes.
While the P-74 could not out-turn the A6M Zero and most other Japanese fighters when flying below 200 mph (320 km/h), its superior speed coupled with a good rate of climb meant that it could utilize energy tactics, making multiple high-speed passes at its target. Also, its focused firepower was deadly to lightly armored Japanese warplanes.
Because of its late service introduction, only 305 P-74s were ever produced until the end of hostilities, and they were exclusively used in the Pacific theatre. The P-74's service record shows mixed results, but usually because of misinformation. P-74s have been described as being harder to fly than traditional, single-engined aircraft, but this was because of inadequate training in the first few months of service.
Another drawback was the ejection seat system – it worked basically well, but the tank for the pressurized air turned out to be very vulnerable to enemy fire. Several P-74s literally exploded in midair after cannon fire hits, and this poeblem could only be cured when the tank section behind the cockpit received a more rigid structure and additional armor. Anyway, the P-74 was quickly retired after WWII, as the USAAF focussed on P-47 and P-51.
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 10.45 m (34 ft 3 in)
Wingspan: 11.6 m (38 ft 0 in)
Height: 3.97 (13 ft 0 in)
Wing area: 22.2 m² (238.87 ft²)
Empty weight: 3,250 kg (7,165 lb)
Loaded weight: 4,150 kg (9,149 lb)
Max. take-off weight: 4,413 kg (9,730 lb)
Powerplant:
1× Packard (License-built Rolls Royce Merlin) V-1650-9 ,
rated at 1,380 hp (1,030 kW) and 2,218 hp (1,500 kW) w. water injection
Performance
Maximum speed: 640 km/h (343 knots, 398 mph)
Cruise speed: 495 km/h (265 knots, 308 mph)
Range: 1,105 mi (1,778 km)
Ferry range: 1,330 nmi (1,530 mi, 2,460 km)
Service ceiling: 11,000 m (36,090 ft)
Rate of climb: 15 m/s (2,950 ft/min)
Armament
4× 20 mm (0.79 in) Hispano-Suiza HS.404 cannons with 250 RPG
2× hardpoints for up to 2,000 lb (907 kg) of bombs, 6 or 10× T64 5.0 in (127 mm) H.V.A.R rockets
The kit and its assembly:
This whif was inspired by a CG rendition of a Saab J21 in a natural metal finish and with (spurious) USAAF markings, probably a skin for a flight simulator. Anyway, I was more or less enchanted by the NMF on the Saab – I had to build one, and it would become the P-74, the only USAF fighter code that had never been used.
The kit is the venerable Heller Saab J21A, an “old style” design with raised panel lines. But it is still around and affordable. No big mods were made to the kit during its transition into a USAAF fighter, even though I changed some minor things:
● Main landing gear was completely exchanged through struts from an Airfix A-1 Skyraider and the wheels from a Hasegawa P-51D; thin wire was added as hydraulic tubes
● New propeller blades: instead of the three-bladed original I added four much broader blades with square tips (from a Heller P-51D) to the original spinner
● Different exhaust stubs, which actually belong to a Spitfire Merlin (Special Hobby kit)
● Underfuselage flap was slightly opened
● A pilot figure was added to the nice cockpit
● The gun barrels were replaced with hollow styrene tubes
Painting and markings:
NMF was certain, but the rest…? I wanted to have a colorful aircraft, and eventually settled for a machine in the Pacific theatre of operations. When I browsed for options I eventually decided to apply broad black stripes on wings and fuselage, typical 5th Air Force markings that were used e. g. on P-47Ds and P-51Ds.
Overall design benchmark for my aircraft is a P-47D-28 of 310th FS/58th FG. The tail would be all white, and the rudder sported red and white stripes, early war insignia. The red nose trim and the deep yellow spinner were taken over from this aircraft, too. The blue individual code number is a personal addition, as well as the nose art, which was puzzled together from a Czech 'Perdubice' Meeting MiG-21 and leftover bits from a Pacific use P-51.
The aircraft was basically painted with Aluminum Metallizer (Humbrol 27002) and Polished Steel Metallizer (Modelmaster), and some panels were contrasted with Aluminum (Humbrol 56).
The anti-glare panel in front of the cockpit was painted in Olive Drab (Humbrol 66), the red nose trim with Humbrol 19. The tail was painted with a mix of Humbrol 34 & 196, for a very light grey, and later dry-painted with pure white.
The black ID stripes as well as the red and blue rudder trim were not painted, but rather created through decal sheet material (from TL Modellbau), cut to size and shape to fit into their respective places. The tail was a PITA, but for the black stripes this turned out to be very effective and convenient - an experiment that willcertainly see more future use.
Cockpit interior was painted in Humbrol 226 (Cockpit Green) and Zinc Chromate Green from Model Master, the landing gear wells received a chrome yellow primer (Humbrol 225) finish.
The landing gear struts were kept in bare Aluminum.
For weathering the kit received a rubbing treatment with grinded graphite, which adds a dark, metallic shine and emphasizes the kit’s raised panel lines. Some dry painting with Aluminum was added, too, simulating chipped paint on the leading edges, and on the black ID stripes some dark grey shading was added.
A relatively simple whif, but I love how the Saab 21 looks in the unusual, shiny NMF finish - and the USAAF markings with the prominent ID stripes suit it well, even though it looks a bit like a circus attraction now?
The Citroën DS (French pronunciation: [si.tʁɔ.ˈɛn de ɛs]) is a front-engine, front-wheel-drive executive car manufactured and marketed by the French company Citroën from 1955 to 1975 in sedan, wagon/estate and convertible body configurations. Italian sculptor and industrial designer Flaminio Bertoni and the French aeronautical engineer André Lefèbvre styled and engineered the car. Paul Magès developed the hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension.
Noted for its aerodynamic, futuristic body design and innovative technology, the DS set new standards in ride quality, handling, and braking—and was the first production car equipped with disc brakes.
Citroën sold 1,455,746 examples, including 1,330,755 built at the manufacturer's Paris Quai André-Citroën production plant.
The DS came third in the 1999 Car of the Century poll recognizing the world's most influential auto designs and was named the most beautiful car of all time by Classic & Sports Car magazine
MODEL HISTORY
After 18 years of secret development as the successor to the Traction Avant, the DS 19 was introduced on 5 October 1955 at the Paris Motor Show. In the first 15 minutes of the show, 743 orders were taken, and orders for the first day totalled 12,000. During the 10 days of the show, the DS took in 80,000 deposits; a record that has stood for over 60 years.
Contemporary journalists said the DS pushed the envelope in the ride vs. handling compromise possible in a motor vehicle.
To a France still deep in reconstruction after the devastation of World War II, and also building its identity in the post-colonial world, the DS was a symbol of French ingenuity. The DS was distributed to many territories throughout the world.
It also posited the nation's relevance in the Space Age, during the global race for technology of the Cold War. Structuralist philosopher Roland Barthes, in an essay about the car, said that it looked as if it had "fallen from the sky". An American advertisement summarised this selling point: "It takes a special person to drive a special car".
Because they were owned by the technologically aggressive tire manufacturer Michelin, Citroën had designed their cars around the technically superior radial tire since 1948, and the DS was no exception.
The car featured a novel hydropneumatic suspension including an automatic leveling system and variable ground clearance, developed in-house by Paul Magès. This suspension allowed the DS to travel quickly on the poor road surfaces common in France.
In addition, the vehicle had power steering and a semi-automatic transmission (the transmission required no clutch pedal, but gears still had to be shifted by hand), though the shift lever controlled a powered hydraulic shift mechanism in place of a mechanical linkage, and a fibreglass roof which lowered the centre of gravity and so reduced weight transfer. Inboard front brakes (as well as independent suspension) reduced unsprung weight. Different front and rear track widths and tyre sizes reduced the unequal tyre loading, which is well known to promote understeer, typical of front-engined and front-wheel drive cars.
As with all French cars, the DS design was affected by the tax horsepower system, which effectively mandated very small engines. Unlike the Traction Avant predecessor, there was no top-of-range model with a powerful six-cylinder engine. Citroën had planned an air-cooled flat-6 engine for the car, but did not have the funds to put the prototype engine into production.
The DS placed third in the 1999 Car of the Century competition, and fifth on Automobile Magazine's "100 Coolest Cars" listing in 2005. It was also named the most beautiful car of all time by Classic & Sports Car magazine after a poll of 20 world-renowned car designers, including Giorgetto Giugiaro, Ian Callum, Roy Axe, Paul Bracq, and Leonardo Fioravanti.
NAME
Both the DS and its simpler sibling, the ID, used a punning name. "DS" is pronounced in French as "Déesse" (goddess); "ID" is pronounced as "Idée" (idea). An intermediate model was called the DW.
MOTORSPORT
The DS was successful in motorsports like rallying, where sustained speeds on poor surfaces are paramount, and won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1959. In the 1000 Lakes Rally, Pauli Toivonen drove a DS19 to victory in 1962.
In 1966, the DS won the Monte Carlo Rally again, with some controversy as the competitive BMC Mini-Cooper team was disqualified due to rule infractions. Ironically, Mini was involved with DS competition again two years later, when a drunk driver in a Mini in Sydney Australia crashed into the DS that was leading the 1968 London–Sydney Marathon, 98 miles from the finish line. The DS was still competitive in the grueling 1974 London-Sahara-Munich World Cup Rally, where it won over 70 other cars, only 5 of which even completed the entire event.
TECHNICAL INNOVATION - HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS
In conventional cars, hydraulics are only used in brakes and power steering. In the DS they were also used for the suspension, clutch and transmission. The cheaper 1957 ID19 did have manual steering and a simplified power-braking system. An engine driven pump pressurizes the closed system to 2,400 pounds per square inch.
At a time when few passenger vehicles had independent suspension on all wheels, the application of the hydraulic system to the car's suspension system to provide a self-levelling system was an innovative move. This suspension allowed the car to achieve sharp handling combined with very high ride quality, frequently compared to a "magic carpet".
The hydropneumatic suspension used was pioneered the year before, on the rear of another car from Citroën, the top of range Traction Avant 15CV-H.
IMPACT ON CITROEN BRAND DEVELOPMENT
The 1955 DS cemented the Citroën brand name as an automotive innovator, building on the success of the Traction Avant, which had been the world's first mass-produced unitary body front-wheel-drive car in 1934. In fact, the DS caused such a huge sensation that Citroën was apprehensive that future models would not be of the same bold standard. No clean sheet new models were introduced from 1955 to 1970.
The DS was a large, expensive executive car and a downward brand extension was attempted, but without result. Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s Citroën developed many new vehicles for the very large, profitable market segments between the 2CV and the DS, occupied by vehicles like the Peugeot 403, Renault 16 and Ford Cortina, but none made it into production. Either they had uneconomic build costs, or were ordinary "me too" cars, not up to the company's high standard of innovation. As Citroën was owned by Michelin from 1934 to 1974 as a sort of research laboratory, such broad experimentation was possible. Michelin after all was getting a powerful advertisement for the capabilities of the radial tire Michelin had invented, when such experimentation was successful.
New models based on the small, utilitarian 2CV economy car were introduced, notably the 1961 Ami. It was also designed by Flaminio Bertoni and aimed to combine Three-box styling with the chassis of the 2CV. The Ami was very successful in France, but less so on export markets. Many found the styling controversial, and the car noisy and underpowered. The Dyane, was a modernised 2CV with a hatchback, competed with the 2CV inspired Renault 4 Hatchback. All these 2 cylinder models were very small, so there remained a wide market gap to the DS range all through the 1960s.
In 1970, Citroën finally introduced a car to target the mid-range - the Citroën GS, which won the "European car of the Year" for 1971 and sold 2.5 million units. It combined a small 55 horsepower flat-4 air-cooled engine with Hydropneumatic suspension. The intended 106 horsepower Wankel rotary-engined version with more power did not reach full production.
REPLACING THE DS
The DS remained popular and competitive throughout its production run. Its peak production year was 1970. Certain design elements like the somewhat narrow cabin, column-mounted gearstick, and separate fenders began to seem a little old-fashioned in the 1970s.
Citroën invested enormous resources to design and launch an entirely new vehicle in 1970, the SM, which was in effect a thoroughly modernized DS, with similar length, but greater width. The manual gearbox was a modified DS unit. The front disc brakes were the same design. Axles, wheel bearings, steering knuckles, and hydraulic components were either DS parts or modified DS parts.
The SM had a different purpose than replacing the 15-year-old DS design however - it was meant to launch Citroën into a completely new luxury grand touring market segment. Only fitted with a costly, exotic Maserati engine, the SM was faster and much more expensive than the DS. The SM was not designed to be a practical 4-door saloon suitable as a large family car, the key market for vehicles of this type in Europe. Typically, manufacturers would introduce low-volume coupés based on parts shared with an existing saloon, not as unique models, a contemporary example being the Mercedes-Benz SLC-Class.
The SM's high price and limited utility of the 2+2 seating configuration, meant the SM as actually produced could not seize the mantle from the DS.
So, while the design funds invested would allow the DS to be replaced by two cars - a 'modern DS' and the smaller CX, it was left to the CX alone to provide Citroën's large family or executive car in the model range.
The last DS came off the production line on 24 April 1975 - the manufacturer had taken the elementary precaution of building up approximately eight-month's of inventory of the "break" (estate/station wagon) version of the DS, to cover the period till Autumn 1975 when the estate/station wagon version of the CX would be introduced.
DEVELOPMENT
The DS always maintained its size and shape, with easily removable, unstressed body panels, but certain design changes did occur. During the 20-year production life improvements were made on an ongoing basis.
ID 19 submodel to extend brand downwards (1957–69)
The 1955 DS19 was 65% more expensive than the car it replaced, the Citroën Traction Avant. This affected potential sales in a country still recovering economically from World War II, so a cheaper submodel, the Citroën ID, was introduced in 1957.
The ID shared the DS's body but was less powerful and luxurious. Although it shared the engine capacity of the DS engine (at this stage 1,911 cc), the ID provided a maximum power output of only 69 hp compared to the 75 hp claimed for the DS19. Power outputs were further differentiated in 1961 when the DS19 acquired a Weber-32 twin bodied carburettor, and the increasing availability of higher octane fuel enabled the manufacturer to increase the compression ratio from 7.5:1 to 8.5:1. A new DS19 now came with a promised 83 hp of power. The ID19 was also more traditional mechanically: it had no power steering and had conventional transmission and clutch instead of the DS's hydraulically controlled set-up. Initially the basic ID19 was sold on the French market with a price saving of more than 25% against the DS, although the differential was reduced at the end of 1961 when the manufacturer quietly withdrew the entry level ID19 "Normale" from sale. A station wagon variant, the ID Break, was introduced in 1958.
D SPECIAL AND D SUPER (1970–75)
The ID was replaced by the D Spécial and D Super in 1970, but these retained the lower specification position in the range. The D Super was available with the DS21 2175ccm engine and a 5 speed gearbox, and named the D Super 5.
SERIE 2 - NOSE REDESIGN IN 1962
In September 1962, the DS was restyled with a more aerodynamically efficient nose, better ventilation and other improvements. It retained the open two headlamp appearance, but was available with an optional set of driving lights mounted on the front fenders. All models in the range changed nose design at the same time, including the ID and station wagon models.
Series 3 - Nose redesign in 1967 with Directional headlights
In late 1967, for the 1968 model year, the DS and ID was again restyled, by Robert Opron, who also styled the 1970 SM and 1974 CX. This version had a more streamlined headlamp design, giving the car a notably shark-like appearance. This design had four headlights under a smooth glass canopy, and the inner set swivelled with the steering wheel. This allowed the driver to see "around" turns, especially valuable on twisting roads driven at high speed at night.
Behind each glass cover lens, the inboard high-beam headlamp swivels by up to 80° as the driver steers, throwing the beam along the driver's intended path rather than uselessly across the curved road. The outboard low-beam headlamps are self-leveling in response to pitching caused by acceleration and braking.
However, this feature was not allowed in the US at the time (see World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations), so a version with four exposed headlights that did not swivel was made for the US market.
This 'turning headlight' feature was new to the market - it had only been seen before on the very rare three headlight 1935 Tatra 77A. The Tucker, which never was mass-produced, had a central headlight that turned with the steering. 45 years later, it is now a commonly available feature, even in the United States.
NEW GREEN HYDRAULIC FLUID
The original hydropneumatic system used a vegetable oil liquide hydraulique végétal (LHV), similar to that used in other cars at the time, but later switched to a synthetic fluid liquide hydraulique synthétique (LHS). Both of these had the disadvantage that they are hygroscopic, as is the case with most brake fluids. Disuse allows water to enter the hydraulic components causing deterioration and expensive maintenance work. The difficulty with hygroscopic hydraulic fluid was exacerbated in the DS/ID due to the extreme rise and fall in the fluid level in the reservoir, which went from nearly full to nearly empty when the suspension extended to maximum height and the six accumulators in the system filled with fluid. With every "inhalation" of fresh moisture- (and dust-) laden air, the fluid absorbed more water.
For the 1967 model year, Citroën introduced a new mineral oil-based fluid LHM (Liquide Hydraulique Minéral). This fluid was much less harsh on the system. LHM remained in use within Citroën until the Xantia was discontinued in 2001.
LHM required completely different materials for the seals. Using either fluid in the incorrect system would completely destroy the hydraulic seals very quickly. To help avoid this problem, Citroën added a bright green dye to the LHM fluid and also painted all hydraulic elements bright green. The former LHS parts were painted black.
All models, including the station wagon and ID, were upgraded at the same time. The hydraulic fluid changed to the technically superior LHM in all markets except the US and Canada, where the change did not take place until January 1969, due to local regulations.
INTERNATIONAL SALES AND PRODUCTION
The DS was primarily manufactured at the Quai André-Citroën in the Javel neighborhood of Paris, with other manufacturing facilities in the United Kingdom, South Africa, the former Yugoslavia (mostly Break Ambulances), and Australia.
Australia constructed their own D variant in the 1960s at Heidelberg, Victoria, identified as the ID 19 "Parisienne." Australian market cars were fitted with options as standard equipment such as the "DSpecial DeLuxe" that were not available on domestic European models.
Until 1965, cars were assembled at the manufacturer's Slough premises, to the west of London, using a combination of French made knock down kits and locally sourced components, some of them machined on site. A French electrical system superseded the British one on the Slough cars in 1962, giving rise to a switch to "continental style" negative earthing. After 1965 cars for the British market were imported fully assembled from the company's French plant. The British-built cars are distinguished by their leather seats, wooden (early ID19 models) one piece plastic (early DS19 models) dashboards, chromed number plate mount let into the front bumper, and (on pre-1962 cars) Lucas-made electrics. These were all right hand drive cars.
The DS was built and sold in South Africa from 1959 to 1975.
The DS was sold in Japan, but the models were built in France and left hand drive.
DS IN NORTH AMERICA
The DS was sold in North America from 1956 to 1972. Despite its popularity in Europe, it didn't sell well in the United States, and little better in Canada. While promoted as a luxury car, it did not have the basic features that American buyers expected to find on such a vehicle, such as an automatic transmission, air conditioning, power windows, or a powerful engine. The DS was designed specifically to address the French market, with punitive tax horsepower taxation of large engines, as well as very poor roads – it's no great mystery that it was a fish out of water when those constraints were removed.
Jay Leno described the sporadic supply of spare parts as a problem for 1970s era customers, based on his early experiences working at a Citroën dealer in Boston.
The DS was expensive, with a 115 hp (86 kW) vehicle costing $4,170 in 1969, when the price was $4,500 for a 360 hp (268 kW) Buick Electra 225 4 door sedan. For all years, 38,000 units were sold.
US regulations at the time also banned one of the car's more advanced features: its composite headlamps with aerodynamic covered lenses. Based on legislation that dated from 1940, all automobiles sold in the U.S. were required to have round, sealed beam headlamps that produced a meager 75,000 candlepower. The powerful quartz iodine swiveling headlamps designed for the 1968 model DS represented so many performance improvements at once that they were far beyond what the regulations could allow.[50] Even the aerodynamic headlight covers were illegal – as seen on the 1968 Jaguar E-Type. It took the lobbying muscle of Ford to point out that the government was requiring two contradictory things – safety, by ensuring that all headlights were best-of-breed circa 1940, and fuel economy through the CAFE standard – by definition, cars with poor aerodynamics are sacrificing fuel economy. Composite bulb lamps and aerodynamic covered headlights were not permitted until 1983.
The European lamps were legal in Canada, including the directional headlamps.
The hydraulic fluid change in 1967 was another brain teaser for U.S. automotive regulators at the Department of Transportation. NHTSA follows the precautionary principle, also used by the Food and Drug Administration, where new innovations are prohibited until their developers can prove them to the regulators; this stifles the experimentation that automakers need to advance their products. NHTSA had already approved a brake fluid they considered safe – DOT 3 brake fluid, which is red and hygroscopic to promote internal rust. This completely different fluid, used in aircraft applications – the technically superior green LHM (Liquide Hydraulique Mineral) – took NHTSA two years to analyze for automotive use. Approval finally came in January 1969, so half the U.S. cars of the 1969 model year use red fluid and half use green fluid.
DESIGN VARIATIONS
PALLAS
In 1965 a luxury upgrade, the DS Pallas (after Greek goddess Pallas), was introduced. This included comfort features such as better noise insulation, a more luxurious (and optional leather) upholstery and external trim embellishments. From 1966 the Pallas model received a driver's seat with height adjustment.
STATION WAGON, FAMILIALE AND AMBULANCE
A station wagon version was introduced in 1958. It was known by various names in different markets (Break in France, Safari and Estate in the UK, Wagon in the US, and Citroën Australia used the terms Safari and Station-Wagon). It had a steel roof to support the standard roof rack. 'Familiales' had a rear seat mounted further back in the cabin, with three folding seats between the front and rear squabs. The standard Break had two side-facing seats in the main load area at the back.
The Ambulance configuration was similar to that of the Break, but with a 60/30 split in the rear folding seat to accommodate a stretcher. A 'Commerciale' version was also available for a time.
The Safari saw use as a camera car, notably by the BBC. The hydropneumatic suspension produces an unusually steady platform for filming while driving.
CONVERTIBLE
Rarest and most collectable of all DS variants, a convertible was offered from 1958 until 1973. The Cabriolet d'Usine (factory convertible) were built by French carrossier Henri Chapron, for the Citroën dealer network. It was an expensive car, so only 1,365 were sold. These DS convertibles used a special frame which was reinforced on the sidemembers and rear suspension swingarm bearing box, similar to, but not identical to the Break (Station Wagon) frame.
CHAPRON VARIATIONS
In addition, Chapron also produced a few coupés, non-works convertibles and special sedans (including the "Prestige", same wheelbase but with a central divider, and the "Lorraine" notchback).
BOSSAERT COUPE
Between 1959 and 1964, Hector Bossaert produced a coupé on a DS chassis shortened by 470 mm. While the front end remained unchanged, the rear end featured notchback styling.
THE REACTOR
In 1965, noted American auto customizer Gene Winfield created The Reactor, a Citroën DS chassis, with a turbocharged 180 hp (130 kW) flat-six engine from the Corvair driving the front wheels. Since the DS already had the engine behind the front wheels, the longer engine meant only one row of seats. This was draped in a streamlined, low slung, aluminum body.
The Reactor was seen in American Television programs of the era, such as Star Trek: The Original Series episode 2.25 ("Bread and Circuses)," Batman episodes 110 ("Funny Feline Felonies") and 111 (driven by Catwoman Eartha Kitt), and Bewitched, which devoted its episode 3.19 ("Super Car") to The Reactor.
MICHELIN PLR
The Michelin PLR is a mobile tire evaluation machine, based on the DS Break, built in 1972, later used for promotion.
Technical details
SUSPENSION
In a hydropneumatic suspension system, each wheel is connected, not to a spring, but to a hydraulic suspension unit consisting of a hydraulic accumulator sphere of about 12 cm in diameter containing pressurised nitrogen, a cylinder containing hydraulic fluid screwed to the suspension sphere, a piston inside the cylinder connected by levers to the suspension itself, and a damper valve between the piston and the sphere. A membrane in the sphere prevented the nitrogen from escaping. The motion of the wheels translated to a motion of the piston, which acted on the oil in the nitrogen cushion and provided the spring effect. The damper valve took place of the shock absorber in conventional suspensions. The hydraulic cylinder was fed with hydraulic fluid from the main pressure reservoir via a height corrector, a valve controlled by the mid-position of the anti-roll bar connected to the axle. If the suspension was too low, the height corrector introduced high-pressure fluid; if it was too high, it released fluid back to the fluid reservoir. In this manner, a constant ride height was maintained. A control in the cabin allowed the driver to select one of five heights: normal riding height, two slightly higher riding heights for poor terrain, and two extreme positions for changing wheels. (The correct term, oleopneumatic (oil-air), has never gained widespread use. Hydropneumatic (water-air) continues to be preferred overwhelmingly.)
The DS did not have a jack for lifting the car off the ground. Instead, the hydraulic system enabled wheel changes with the aid of a simple adjustable stand. To change a flat tyre, one would adjust the suspension to its topmost setting, insert the stand into a special peg near the flat tyre, then readjust the suspension to its lowermost setting. The flat tyre would then retract upwards and hover above ground, ready to be changed. This system, used on the SM also, was superseded on the CX by a screw jack that, after the suspension was raised to the high position, lifted the tire clear of the ground. The DS system, while impressive to use, sometimes dropped the car quite suddenly, especially if the stand was not placed precisely or the ground was soft or unlevel.
SOURCE AND RESERVE OF PRESSURE
The central part of the hydraulic system was the high pressure pump, which maintained a pressure of between 130 and 150 bar in two accumulators. These accumulators were very similar in construction to the suspension spheres. One was dedicated to the front brakes, and the other ran the other hydraulic systems. (On the simpler ID models, the front brakes operated from the main accumulator.) Thus in case of a hydraulic failure, the first indication would be that the steering became heavy, followed by the gearbox not working; only later would the brakes fail.
Two different hydraulic pumps were used. The DS used a seven-cylinder axial piston pump driven off two belts and delivering 175 bar (2,540 psi) of pressure. The ID19, with its simpler hydraulic system, had a single-cylinder pump driven by an eccentric on the camshaft.
GEARBOX AND CLUTCH
HYDRAULIQUE OR CITROMATIC
The DS was initially offered only with the "hydraulique" four-speed semi-automatic (bvh—"boîte de vitesses hydraulique") gearbox.
This was a four-speed gearbox and clutch, operated by a hydraulic controller. To change gears, the driver flicked a lever behind the steering wheel to the next position and eased-up on the accelerator pedal. The hydraulic controller disengaged the clutch, engaged the nominated gear, and re-engaged the clutch. The speed of engagement of the clutch was controlled by a centrifugal regulator sensing engine rpm and driven off the camshaft by a belt, the position of the butterfly valve in the carburettor (i.e., the position of the accelerator), and the brake circuit. When the brake was pressed, the engine idle speed dropped to an rpm below the clutch engagement speed, thus preventing friction while stopped in gear at traffic lights. When the brake was released, the idle speed increased to the clutch dragging speed. The car would then creep forward much like automatic transmission cars. This drop in idle throttle position also caused the car to have more engine drag when the brakes were applied even before the car slowed to the idle speed in gear, preventing the engine from pulling against the brakes. In the event of loss of hydraulic pressure (following loss of system fluid), the clutch would disengage, to prevent driving, while brake pressure reserves would allow safe braking to standstill.
MANUAL - FOUR SPEED AND FIVE-SPEED
The later and simpler ID19 had the same gearbox and clutch, manually operated. This configuration was offered as a cheaper option for the DS in 1963. The mechanical aspects of the gearbox and clutch were completely conventional and the same elements were used in the ID 19. In September 1970, Citroën introduced a five-speed manual gearbox, in addition to the original four-speed unit.
FULLY AUTOMATIC
In September 1971 Citroën introduced a 3-speed fully automatic Borg-Warner 35 transmission gearbox, on the DS 21 and later DS 23 models. It is ironic that the fully automatic transmission DS was never sold in the US market, where this type of transmission had gained market share so quickly that it became the majority of the market by this time. Many automatic DSs, fuel-injected DS 23 sedans with air conditioning, were sold in Australia.
ENGINES
The DS was originally designed around an air-cooled flat-six based on the design of the 2-cylinder engine of the 2CV, similar to the motor in the Porsche 911. Technical and monetary problems forced this idea to be scrapped.
Thus, for such a modern car, the engine of the original DS 19 was also old-fashioned. It was derived from the engine of the 11CV Traction Avant (models 11B and 11C). It was an OHV four-cylinder engine with three main bearings and wet liners, and a bore of 78 mm and a stroke of 100 mm, giving a volumetric displacement of 1911 cc. The cylinder head had been reworked; the 11C had a reverse-flow cast iron cylinder head and generated 60 hp (45 kW) at 3800 rpm; by contrast, the DS 19 had an aluminium cross-flow head with hemispherical combustion chambers and generated 75 hp (56 kW) at 4500 rpm.
Like the Traction Avant, the DS had the gearbox mounted in front of the engine, with the differential in between. Thus some consider the DS to be a mid engine front-wheel drive car.
The DS and ID powerplants evolved throughout its 20-year production life. The car was underpowered and faced constant mechanical changes to boost the performance of the four-cylinder engine. The initial 1911 cc three main bearing engine (carried forward from the Traction Avant) of the DS 19 was replaced in 1965 with the 1985 cc five-bearing wet-cylinder motor, becoming the DS 19a (called DS 20 from September 1969).
The DS 21 was also introduced for model year 1965. This was a 2175 cc, five main bearing engine; power was 109 hp This engine received a substantial increase in power with the introduction of Bosch electronic fuel injection for 1970, making the DS one of the first mass-market cars to use electronic fuel injection. Power of the carbureted version also increased slightly at the same time, owing to the employment of larger inlet valves.
Lastly, 1973 saw the introduction of the 2347 cc engine of the DS 23 in both carbureted and fuel-injected forms. The DS 23 with electronic fuel injection was the most powerful production model, producing 141 hp (105 kW).
IDs and their variants went through a similar evolution, generally lagging the DS by about one year. ID saloon models never received the DS 23 engine or fuel injection, although the Break/Familiale versions received the carburetted version of the DS 23 engine when it was introduced, supplemented the DS20 Break/Familiale.
The top of the range ID model, The DSuper5 (DP) gained the DS21 engine (the only model that this engine was retained in) for the 1973 model year and it was mated to a five-speed gearbox. This should not be confused with the 1985 cc DSuper fitted with an optional "low ratio" five-speed gearbox, or with the previous DS21M (DJ) five-speed.
IN POPULAR CULTURE
President Charles de Gaulle survived an assassination attempt at Le Petit-Clamart near Paris on August 22, 1962, planned by Algerian War veteran Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry. The plan was to ambush the motorcade with machine guns, disable the vehicles, and then close in for the kill. De Gaulle praised the unusual abilities of his unarmoured DS with saving his life – the car was peppered with bullets, and the shots had punctured the tyres, but the car could still escape at full speed. This event was accurately recreated in the 1973 film The Day of the Jackal.
Beyond de Gaulle and the French aristocracy, the roomy DS also appealed to French taxi drivers.
Outside France, the car drew an eclectic customer mix, such as Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, Pope John XXIII, painter Marc Chagall, and actors Ken Berry, Jeff Bridges, and Rosamund Pike.
The DS appeared in several episodes of contemporary television series Mission: Impossible, including substantial appearances in 'The Slave' (ep. 2.06) and 'Robot' (ep. 4.09).
An ode to Jane Child's DS21 appears on her 1989 self-titled album.
In 1989, the film Back to the Future Part II featured a modified Citroen DS as a flying taxicab, when the main characters travel 30 years into the future (2015). Scarface (1983 film) with Al Pacino and the 2009 television series The Mentalist both feature the DS in key roles. According to Internet Movie Cars Database, the DS/ID has made over 2,000 film and television appearances so far.
Two films focus on the DS, including The Goddess of 1967 about a Japanese man purchasing a DS (goddess or déesse in French) in Australia, and 1995's Icelandic-Japanese road movie Cold Fever.
LEGACY
Citroën DS values have been rising – a 1973 DS 23 Injection Electronique "Decapotable" (Chapron Convertible) sold for EUR €176,250 (USD $209,738) at Christie's Rétromobile in February 2006. and a similar car sold by Bonhams in February 2009 brought EUR €343,497 (USD $440,436). On 18 September 2009 a 1966 DS21 Decapotable Usine was sold by Bonhams for a hammer price of UK£131,300. Bonhams sold another DS21 Decapotable (1973) on 23 January 2010 for EUR €189,000.
The DS's beloved place in French society was demonstrated in Paris on 9 October 2005 with a celebration of the 50th anniversary of its launch. 1,600 DS cars drove in procession past the Arc de Triomphe.
From 2005 to 2008, a young Frenchman named Manuel Boileau travelled around the world in a 1971 DS ambulance. It was an 80,000 kilometer journey across 38 countries called Lunaya World Tour. While traveling through Laos, he located the forlorn 1974 DS Prestige belonging to Sisavang Vatthana, the last King of the Kingdom of Laos, which is now preserved and restored by specialists in Bangkok.
In 2009, Groupe PSA created a new brand - DS Automobiles, intended as high quality, high specification variations on existing models, with differing mechanics and bodywork. This brand ranges across four models, the DS3, DS4, DS5, and the China-only SUV DS 6. The DS3, launched in March 2010, is based on Citroen's new C3, but is more customisable and unique, bearing some resemblance to the original DS, with its "Shark Fin" side pillar. These have created their own niches, with the DS4 being a mix of a crossover and a coupe and the DS5 mixing a coupe and an estate. Many feature hybrid-diesel engines to maximise efficiency.
WIKIPEDIA
Motor: EK 13
Seating Configuration: 2x3
Seating Capacity: 56 seater
Body:Pilipinas Hino w/ Del Monte Motors Eurostar HD Series Face (Note: Gawang Parañaque)
Aircon System: PilDenso Overhead AC Blower
Year Released: May 2008(Rebodied)
Plate No: DVS 339
Fare: Ordinary Fare
Original Route: Ternate-Lawton
Optional Routes:Cavite City-Lawton,Ternate-Olongapo
Transmission System: MT
Driver: W. Baldonado
Conductor: D. Donato
Shot taken: Shell-Longos, Bacoor, Cavite
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
In September 1952, the United States Navy announced a requirement for a new fighter. It was to have a top speed of Mach 1.2 at 30,000 ft (9,144.0 m) with a climb rate of 25,000 ft/min (127.0 m/s), and a landing speed of no more than 100 mph (160 km/h). Korean War experience had demonstrated that 0.50 inch (12.7 mm) machine guns were no longer sufficient, and as the result the new fighter was to carry a 20 mm (0.79 in) cannon. In response, the Vought team led by John Russell Clark, created the V-383. Unusual for a fighter, the aircraft had a high-mounted wing which necessitated the use of a fuselage-mounted short and light landing gear.
The Crusader was powered by a Pratt and Whitney J57 turbojet engine. The engine was equipped with an afterburner that, unlike on later engines, was either fully lit, or off (i.e. it did not have "zones"). The engine produced 18,000 lb of thrust at full power, enough to allow the F-8 to climb straight up in clean configuration. The most innovative aspect of the design was the variable-incidence wing which pivoted by 5° out of the fuselage on takeoff and landing (not to be confused with variable-sweep wing). This allowed a greater angle of attack, increasing lift without compromising forward visibility. This innovation helped the F-8's development team win the Collier Trophy in 1956. Simultaneously, the lift was augmented by leading-edge slats drooping by 25° and inboard flaps extending to 30°. The rest of the aircraft took advantage of contemporary aerodynamic innovations with area-ruled fuselage, all-moving stabilators, dog-tooth notching at the wing folds for improved yaw stability, and liberal use of titanium in the airframe.
The armament, as specified by the Navy, consisted primarily of four 20 mm (.79 in) autocannons, and the Crusader happened to be the last U.S. fighter designed with guns as its primary weapon. They were supplemented with a retractable tray with 32 unguided Mk 4/Mk 40 Folding-Fin Aerial Rocket (Mighty Mouse FFARs), and cheek pylons for a pair of IR-guided AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. In practice, AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles were the F-8's primary weapon, because the 20mm guns were "generally unreliable."
In May 1953, the Vought design was declared a winner and in June, Vought received an order for three XF8U-1 prototypes (after adoption of the unified designation system in September 1962, the F8U became the F-8). The first prototype flew on 25 March 1955 with John Konrad at the controls, exceeding the speed of sound during its maiden flight. On 4 April 1956, the F8U-1 performed its first catapult launch from Forrestal.
In US service, the F-8 served principally in the Vietnam War and several versions, including all-weather fighters with improved radar and photo-recce versions, were developed. An update program between 1965 and 1970 prolonged the fighters’ time of active duty into the late Seventies. The RF-8 reconnaissance aircraft served longer and were retired in 1987.
Despite its qualities, only a few foreign countries operated the F-8. Beyond France and the Philippines, Argentina bought twelve revamped Crusaders plus two additional airframes for spares from US surplus stock for its carrier ARA Veinticinco de Mayo (V-2) in 1975. The ship previously served in the Royal Navy as HMS Venerable and the Royal Netherlands Navy as HNLMS Karel Doorman and had been put into Argentine service in 1969. It could carry up to 24 aircraft and initially operated with obsolete F4U Corsairs and F9F Panthers and Cougars. These were soon replaced by A-4Q Skyhawks (modified A-4Bs, also from US stock), but these machines were rather fighter bombers than interceptors that could not effectively guard the ship or its surrounding fleet from air strikes. This led to the procurement of Argentina’s small F-8 fleet, a process that started in 1973, just after the Skyhawks had entered service.
The Argentinian Crusaders (locally known as “Cruzados”) were based on the F-8E all-weather fighter variant. This type was the ultimate evolution of the original F-8 series, before the modernization program that turned these machines into F-8Js in US service. The F-8E was, beyond its four 20mm cannon, able to carry up to four AIM-9 Sidewinder AAMs on Y-shaped fuselage pylons. The original unguided missile pannier had been replaced by an extra fuel tank, and two dry underwing pylons allowed the carriage of unguided bombs or missiles. The USN’s F-8Es also had extra avionics in a shallow dorsal hump for the deployment of the radio-guided AGM-12 Bullpup air-to-ground missile, so that the aircraft could also carry out strike duties against small target – in theory, since the AGM-12 had to be visually guided by the pilot all the way while flying at lower levels in the combat environment.
However, the Argentine Navy requested some peculiar modifications for its aircraft, which were quite similar to the French Navy’s F-8E (FN), the last Crusaders that had left the production lines in 1965. This special Crusader variant became the F-8Q. It retained the F-8E’s J57-P-20A engine as well as the AN/APQ-94 fire-control radar and the IRST sensor blister in front of the canopy. A Martin-Baker ejection seat was fitted and the cockpit instruments were updated to Argentinian standards.
In order to ease operation and especially landing on the relatively small Veinticinco de Mayo, the F-8Q was, like the French Crusaders, modified with the maximum angle of incidence of the aircraft's wing increased from five to seven degrees, and blown flaps were fitted, too. This reduced the rate of descent to 11’ (3.35 m) per second and limited the force of gravity during landings to 3.5 G. The approach speed was also considerably reduced, by roundabout 15 knots (17.5 mph or 28 km/h).
Since Argentina did not operate the AGM-12 Bullpup and wanted a dedicated interceptor, the missile avionics were deleted and the hump disappeared, in an effort to save weight. Furthermore, the wing pylons received plumbing so that drop tanks could be carried, beyond the standard unguided ordnance of bombs or unguided missile pods. The F-8Q’s total payload was 5,000 lb (2,270 kg), but when operating from Veinticinco de Mayo, any external ordnance beyond the four Sidewinders was ever carried because the F-8’s TOW was at the ship’s catapult limits. When operating from land bases, the F-8Qs would frequently carry drop tanks in order to extend their range.
Upon delivery in late 1975, the F-8Q’s sported the standard US Navy scheme of Light Gull Grey upper surfaces over white undersides, just like the Skyhawks and other operational aircraft types of the Argentinian Navy. Typically, six F-8Qs were always based on board of Veinticinco de Mayo and rotated with the rest of the machines, which were, together with A-4Qs, based at BAN Rio Grande.
The F-8Qs formed the 1st Flight of the 3 Escuadrilla Aeronaval de Caza y Ataque that operated from Veinticinco de Mayo, and the machines received tactical codes between “101” and “112”. However, this gave in 1980 way to a more toned-down paint scheme in dark blue-grey over white, at a phase when Argentina tried to acquire Dassault Super Étendards and Exocet missiles from France. The new paint scheme was gradually introduced, though, the first to be re-painted were “107”, “108” and “110” in summer 1981.
Despite their availability, the F-8Qs did not actively take part in the Falklands War of 1982. This was primarily because ARA Veinticinco de Mayo was initially used in support of the Argentine landings on the Falklands: on the day of the invasion, she waited with 1.500 army soldiers outside Stanley harbor as first submarine and boat-landed commandos secured landing areas, and then Argentine marines made the main amphibious landing. Her aircraft were not used during the invasion and remained at land bases.
Later, in defense of the occupation, the carrier was deployed in a task force north of the Falkland Islands, with ARA General Belgrano to the south, and this time the usual six F-8Qs were on board and provided air cover. Out of fear from losing the carrier, though (the British had assigned HMS Splendid (S106), a nuclear-powered submarine, to track down Veinticinco de Mayo and sink her if necessary), the ship and its aircraft remained mostly outside of the direct confrontation theatre and rather acted as a distraction, binding British resources and attention.
However, after hostilities broke out on 1 May 1982, the Argentine carrier attempted to launch a wave of A-4Q Skyhawk jets against the Royal Navy Task Force after her S-2 Trackers detected the British fleet. What would have been the first battle between aircraft carriers since World War II did not take place, though, as winds prevented the heavily loaded jets from being launched. After the British nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror sank General Belgrano, Veinticinco de Mayo returned to port for her own safety. The naval A-4Q Skyhawks flew the rest of the war from the airbase in Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego, and had some success against the Royal Navy, sinking HMS Ardent, even though three Skyhawks were shot down by Sea Harriers. The Crusaders were held back for homeland defense from Río Gallegos air base, since Argentina’s limited air refueling capacities (just a pair of C-130s, and all buddy refueling packs for the Skyhawks were out of order) had to be saved and concentrated on the Skyhawks.
After her involvement in the Falklands/Malvinas conflict, Veinticinco de Mayo resumed regular service and was in 1983 modified to carry the new Dassault Super Étendard jets (which had turned out to be too heavy for the original catapult, which also barely got the F-8Qs into the air), but soon after problems in her engines largely confined her to port. She was deemed more or less unseaworthy and this confined the Argentinian Navy’s jet force to land bases.
From this point on, the F-8Qs lost their raison d’être, since the Argentinian air force already had, with the Mirage III and IAI Nesher/Dagger, capable and less costly land-based interceptors available. Due to lack of spares and funds, the remaining Argentinian Crusaders (after several accidents, only eight F-8Qs were still in service and only five of them actually operational) were in 1988 transferred to Villa Reynolds air base in Western Central Argentina, grounded and stored in the open, where they quickly deteriorated. Eventually, all F-8Qs were scrapped in the early Nineties. Only one specimen survived and has been preserved in its original Gull Grey/White livery as a gate guard at the Naval Aviation Command headquarters at Comandante Espora Airport, Bahía Blanca.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 54 ft 3 in (16.54 m)
Wingspan: 35 ft 8 in (10.87 m)
Height: 15 ft 9 in (4.80 m)
Wing area: 375 sq ft (34.8 m²)
Aspect ratio: 3.4
Airfoil: root: NACA 65A006 mod;
tip: NACA 65A005 mod
Zero-lift drag coefficient: CD0.0133
Drag area: 5.0 sq ft (0.46 m²)
Empty weight: 17,541 lb (7,956 kg)
Gross weight: 29,000 lb (13,154 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 34,000 lb (15,422 kg)
Fuel capacity: 1,325 US gal (1,103.3 imp gal; 5,015.7 L)
Powerplant:
1× Pratt & Whitney J57-P-20A afterburning turbojet engine
with 10,700 lbf (48 kN) dry thrust and 18,000 lbf (80 kN) with afterburner
Performance:
Maximum speed: 1,066 kn (1,227 mph, 1,974 km/h) at 36,000 ft (10,973 m)
Maximum speed: Mach 1.86
Cruise speed: 495 kn (570 mph, 917 km/h)
Combat range: 394 nmi (453 mi, 730 km)
Ferry range: 1,507 nmi (1,734 mi, 2,791 km) with external fuel
Service ceiling: 58,000 ft (18,000 m)
Rate of climb: 19,000 ft/min (97 m/s)
Lift-to-drag: 12.8
Wing loading: 77.3 lb/sq ft (377 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 0.62
Armament:
4× 20 mm (0.79 in) Colt Mk 12 cannons in lower fuselage, 125 RPG
2× side fuselage mounted Y-pylons for up to four AIM-9 Sidewinders and/or Zuni rockets
2× underwing pylon stations with a capacity of 4,000 lb (2,000 kg)
The kit and its assembly:
This relatively simple build was triggered by the “In the navy” group build at whatifmodelers.com in April/May 2020, even though I started it too late for the deadline.
After having recently read a lot of stuff about the Falklands/Malvinas conflict, I wondered if Argentina could not have procured a dedicated fighter for its single carrier – and the F-8 from US surplus stocks was a perfect candidate for the potential timeframe of the Seventies, when the type was retired from USN/USMC service or, in part, modernized and/or put up for sale, like the machines for the Philippines. The only real-world problem would have been the weight: the F-8E weighed up to 15 tons, while the Super Étendard, which was reportedly already hard to launch from Veinticinco de Mayo, had a MTOW of “only” 12 tons. Not certain if the F-8’s afterburner engine and the wings’ raised angle of incidence would have been enough to launch a Crusader? Well, it’s whifworld, after all. 😉
The basis is the Hasegawa F-8E, a kit that I had originally stashed away as a donor for a different project.
The model was built mostly OOB, I just sanded the dorsal avionics hump away and gave the machine a pair of drop tanks under the wings (from an A-4) – a rather unusual sight on a Crusader, and it looks even more weird with the wings in the raised position! The Sidewinders, relatively simple pieces, too, were taken OOB, since they look very much like early AIM-9Bs.
The kit goes together well, but it is a simple affair and you see the mold’s age. You get raised (though fine) panel lines, a rather simple cockpit tub with flat dashboards (for decals), a clumsy seat and no cockpit back wall at all. Fit is basically O.K., but the windscreen refused to fit well, and the hatch turned out to be somewhat too narrow for the rear bulkhead you are supposed to glue into it. Furthermore, the fuselage halves, especially on the underside, have shallow shrink areas close to the seams, so that PSR is mandatory. I would, not call the kit my first choice for the F-8 (which would rather be the Academy kit), but you get the Hasegawa kit at reasonable prices, and I originally purchased it as a body donor bank.
Since the kit lacks a proper air intake duct, sanding the fuselage halves inside of the respective orifice is not easy - I used a soft acrylic putty and left the radome away until the job was done. Furthermore, I added a visual blocker inside of the intake, a piece of black foamed styrene under the cockpit tub - otherwise you have direct sight down the empty interior in a head-on view.
Further small additions are some blade antennae on the hull and on the fin, inspired by the Argentinian Skyhawks.
Painting and markings:
Again, I wanted a rather subtle, semi-authentic look. The most natural choice would certainly have been a Light Gull Grey/White livery like the A-4Qs, but for a twist and because I like the late French F-8Ps in their all-over dark grey livery, I settled upon something that resembles the French/Argentinian Super Étendards: a dark, bluish-grey upper surface with white undersides and the upper colors well wrapped around the wings’ leading edges.
Concerning the French grey tone there are many different opinions and recommendations – ranging from Dark Gull Grey (FS 36231, which is IMHO much too light) over Gunship Grey (FS 36118) to dark blue.
I settled for Humbrol 79 (Blue Grey) as basic tone, which is AFAIK Humbrol’s interpretation of the German RAL 7012 (Basaltgrau), a tone that is very close to the British Dark Sea Grey. The undersides, including the landing gear, were painted with acrylic semi-gloss white from a rattle can. This was done as the first step, with a masked low waterline. Then the grey was applied by brush, and also wrapped around the wings’ leading edges. In order to improve the camouflage effect from above, the pylons as well as the outer sides of the stabilizers under the tail were painted in blue grey, too.
The flags on the rudder as well as the on the stabilizers were painted with white and Humbrol 48 (Mediterranean Blue), too, just the sun emblems on the fin are decals. Since the F-8 has, unlike the A-4 or the Sue, all-mowing stabilizers, I decided to paint the whole tail surface in white and blue and not just the trailing edge. This looks quite bright, but it is IMHO a great detail that sets this whif really apart and shows some pride.
The afterburner fairing was painted with a mix of Humbrol 27002 and 27003 (Polished Aluminum and Steel Metallizer) and later treated with graphite for a burnt look.
After an overall black ink wash the upper surfaces were treated with dry-brushed post shading (Humbrol 106 and 156). The decals come primarily from an Academy Super Étendard, augmented by markings from various decals from an Airfix Falklands War kit set sheet (e.g. the sun icons for the fin flash).
The silver leading edges of the wings, stabilizers and the fin were created with decal sheet material. the same material in black was used for walkway markings.
Decals come primarily from an Acedemy Super Étendard sheet, the tactical code was modified. Only the sun icons on the fin flash had to be procured from a different source (an Airfix A-4 Skyhawk sheet). The stencils come from the Hasegawa OOB sheet.
Finally, the kit received an all-over coat of matt acrlyic varnish.
Here are the six unique configurations of headlight brick squares that I found and their mirror images.
I found a good way to describe these squares is to tell whether the tops, bottoms, fronts, or backs are facing into the middle of the square or to the outside of the square.
Using this, I can say:
A has 4 tops and 4 backs facing outwards.
B has 3 tops and 3 backs facing outwards.
D has 2 tops and 2 backs facing outwards, but is not rotationally symmetric.
F has 2 tops and 2 backs facing outwards, and has a 2-fold rotational symmetry.
H has 1 top and 1 back facing outwards.
P has 0 tops and 0 backs facing outwards.
For the most part, each unique configuration has a unique number of tops and backs facing outwards (or, conversely, fronts and bottoms facing inwards). There are two possible configurations with 2 and 2; one of those is rotationally symmetric and the other is not.
Further things for me to explore include analyzing the different rectangles created on the edges of these "squares" as well as investigating whether there are any differences in the patterns that these squares will make.
Wow, I feel like I'm back in school writing up lab reports or something. :-)
Nikon D800E + 70-200mm F/2.8 Nikkor Lens vs. Sony A7r + 35mm F/2.8 Carl Zeiss Lens! Both in 45surfer bracket configurations, with Sony NEX-6 cameras attached to the upper cameras with a bracket, for shooting stills and video at the same time! Guess which is heavier! :) The new 45surfer rig is a bit lighter, but that will change a bit when Sony comes out with longer zooms for the Sony A7r.
Both are great! The Sony NEX-6 bracketed to the D800E has the 50mm F/1.8 lens on it, while the Sony NEX-6 bracketed to the Sony A7R has the 35mm F/2.8 lens on it!
Check out some video!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiOMrZIEzg8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7gq_gCk0jE
The Sony ILCE7R A7r rocks! Was using the B+W 49mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer MRC Filter on partly cloudy day with some intermittent sun, but mostly cloudy. Check out the low glare off the rocks and water and dramatic, polarizwer-enhanced sky! Super sharp images and crystal-clear pictures!
Was testing the Sony HVL-F60M External Flash on the Sony A7r. You can see it going off in some of the photos (check the exif if in doubt)--worked great, but it overheated a bit sooner than my Nikon flash on the D800E. But it's all good!
Here's some epic goddess video shot at the same time as stills using my 45surfer method/philosophy:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUbE0ay7UeI
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC-M9fVwk9k
Join Johnny Ranger McCoy's youtube channel for goddess video shot @ the same time as the stills with the Sony A7 !
www.youtube.com/user/bikiniswimsuitmodels
Beautiful swimsuit bikini model goddess on a beautiful December Malibu afternoon! Shot it yesterday. :) Love, love, love the new Sony A7 R!
Was a fun test shoot. Many, many more to come!
All the best on your Epic Hero's Journey from Johnny Ranger McCoy!
Join my facebook!
www.facebook.com/45surfHerosJourneyMythology
Follow me on facebook www.facebook.com/elliot.mcgucken !
Hubert Schillings designed several miniature engines from 1970 to 1980. Configurations vary from 1-cylinder aircraft engines to 2-, 3-, 4-, 6- and 8-cylinder V-type engines for both aircraft and automobiles. Most of his engines are machined from aluminum bar stock.
This 6-cylinder opposed Dual-Over-Head-Cam (DOHC) design has cylinders laid out in a flat pattern. Three cylinders are on each side (“opposed”) and each side has two camshafts that operate the valves. One camshaft on each side operates the intake valves and the other camshaft operates the exhaust valves, thus the description “dual overhead cams.”
Typically, Schillings used belts to drive the cams rather than gears, but most unusual is his use of magnesium castings for the crankcase. Schillings completed only three of these opposed 6-cylinder DOHC engines, but it is not known how many were made of magnesium.
See More Schillings Engines at: www.flickr.com/photos/15794235@N06/sets/72157650830753031/
See More 6 Cylinder Engines at: www.flickr.com/photos/15794235@N06/sets/72157651696336590/
See Our Model Engine Collection at: www.flickr.com/photos/15794235@N06/sets/72157602933346098/
Visit our Photo Albums at: www.flickr.com/photos/15794235@N06/sets
Courtesy of Paul and Paula Knapp
Miniature Engineering Museum
Saturday 18th October 2008
Standard Configuration
From the series Macross Zero (the prequel to Macross), the VF-0A is the direct ancestor to the VF-1 Valkyrie. I have not yet seen Macross Zero, but this collectible was too good pass by - so I got it. Macross Zero is set in the year 2008.
VF-0A "Pheonix" (Shin Kudo)
Mode: Fighter Jet Mode (Standard Configuration)
Scale: 1/60
Manufacturer: Yamato
Series: Macross Zero
Released: ? (acquired Late September 2008)
Vehicle Stats: see Macross Mecha Manual.
--
This photograph is part of my Robotech and VF-0A sets on Flickr.
--
Image Copyright © 2008-present Joriel Jimenez
Please use with permission and full attribution
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The P-74 "Charger" was a fighter aircraft built by Lockheed for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Its configuration was unusual as it was designed as a twin boom pusher configuration, where the propeller is mounted in the rear of the fuselage, pushing the aircraft forward.
The P-74 entered service with the USAAF in late 1944, its conception dated back to 1939 when the U.S. Army Air Corps requested with the Circular Proposal R40C domestic manufacturers to develop high performance fighter types, allowing (even demanding) unusual configurations. Lockheed did not respond immediately and missed the chance to sign a development contract in mid-1940 until early 1941. Twenty-three proposals were submitted to R40C, and after a fist selection of ideas three companies, Vultee with the large XP-54 Swoose Goose, Curtiss with its XP-55 Ascender and Northrop's XP-56 Black Bullet were able to secure prototype contracts.
Vultee eventually won the competition, but all these innovative new aircraft suffered from various flaws or development delays, missing various performance goals, so that none ever entered service.
In the meantime, Lockheed had been working on the 1939 request in the background on a private venture basis, as it was clear that by 1944 a successor to the company's own P-38 Lightning had to be offered to the USAAC.
The new North American P-51 Mustang was also a sharp competitor, esp. for the Pacific conflict theatre where long range was needed. This role was filled out very well by the P-38, but it was a relatively large and complicated aircraft, so an alternative with a single engine was strived for. Even though jet engines already showed their potential, it was clear that the requested range for the new type could only be achieved through a piston engine.
This aircraft became the XP-74, originally christened “Laelaps”, following Lockheed’s tradition, after a female Greek mythological dog who never failed to catch what she was hunting. It was presented as a mock-up to USAAC officials on August 8th 1942 and immediately found sponsorship: with the disappointing results from the XP-54,55 and 56 was immediately ushered into the prototype stage. Its name, though, was rejected, and the more common name “Charger” was adopted.
Just like Lockheed’s successful P-38 the XP-74 Charger was designed as a twin-boom aircraft, but it was driven by only a single Packard (License-built Rolls Royce Merlin) V-1650 pusher engine in the aft part of the fuselage. The tail was mounted rearward between two mid-wing booms, with a four-bladed 12-ft propeller between them. The design also included a "ducted wing section" developed by the NACA that enabled installation of cooling radiators and intercoolers in the wing root section.
The advantages of a pusher design are that the view forward is unobstructed and armament can be concentrated in the nose, while a major drawback is difficulty in escaping from the aircraft in an emergency, as the pilot could get drawn into the propeller blades. Lockheed deliberated between systems that would eject the pilot, or jettison the propeller or the engine, via a system of explosive bolts. Lockheed eventually installed an early ejector seat which was driven by pressurized air, combined with a mechanism that would blow the canopy off. The system was successfully tested in summer 1943, even though skepticism remained among pilots.
Initial armament comprised one 20mm Hispano cannon and four 12.7mm Browning machine guns, the same as in the P-38, but two machine guns were relocated from the nose into the front ends of the tail booms because of the new aircraft’s smaller overall dimensions.
The first prototype was ready in October 1943, with a different engine and heavier armor fitted. The second prototype was built to this specification from the start, which would become the serial production standard, the P-74A.
The P-74A used the new V-1650-9 engine, a version of the Merlin that included Simmons automatic supercharger boost control with water injection, allowing War Emergency Power as high as 2,218 hp (1,500 kW). Another change concerned the armament: a longer weapon range was deemed necessary, so the gun armament was changed into four 20mm Hispano cannons, two of the placed in the fuselage nose and one in each tail boom front end. Each gun was supplied with 250 RPG.
Alternatively, a nose installment with a single 37mm cannon and two 12.7mm Browning MGs was tested on the first prototype, but this arrangement was found to be less effective than the four 20mm cannons. Another factor that turned this option down was the more complicated logistics demands for three different calibers in one aircraft.
The P-74A was ready for service in summer 1944, but its deployment into the Pacific region took until December – the 5th Air Force first units replaced most of its P-38 and also early P-47Ds with the P-74A.These new aircraft had their first clashes with Japanese forces in January 1945.
The P-74 was used in a variety of roles. It was designed as an intreceptor against bombers, but its good range and handling at all altitudes made it suitable for tasks like fighter sweeps against enemy airfields, support for U.S. ground forces and protection of sea convoys and transport routes.
While the P-74 could not out-turn the A6M Zero and most other Japanese fighters when flying below 200 mph (320 km/h), its superior speed coupled with a good rate of climb meant that it could utilize energy tactics, making multiple high-speed passes at its target. Also, its focused firepower was deadly to lightly armored Japanese warplanes.
Because of its late service introduction, only 305 P-74s were ever produced until the end of hostilities, and they were exclusively used in the Pacific theatre. The P-74's service record shows mixed results, but usually because of misinformation. P-74s have been described as being harder to fly than traditional, single-engined aircraft, but this was because of inadequate training in the first few months of service.
Another drawback was the ejection seat system – it worked basically well, but the tank for the pressurized air turned out to be very vulnerable to enemy fire. Several P-74s literally exploded in midair after cannon fire hits, and this poeblem could only be cured when the tank section behind the cockpit received a more rigid structure and additional armor. Anyway, the P-74 was quickly retired after WWII, as the USAAF focussed on P-47 and P-51.
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 10.45 m (34 ft 3 in)
Wingspan: 11.6 m (38 ft 0 in)
Height: 3.97 (13 ft 0 in)
Wing area: 22.2 m² (238.87 ft²)
Empty weight: 3,250 kg (7,165 lb)
Loaded weight: 4,150 kg (9,149 lb)
Max. take-off weight: 4,413 kg (9,730 lb)
Powerplant:
1× Packard (License-built Rolls Royce Merlin) V-1650-9 ,
rated at 1,380 hp (1,030 kW) and 2,218 hp (1,500 kW) w. water injection
Performance
Maximum speed: 640 km/h (343 knots, 398 mph)
Cruise speed: 495 km/h (265 knots, 308 mph)
Range: 1,105 mi (1,778 km)
Ferry range: 1,330 nmi (1,530 mi, 2,460 km)
Service ceiling: 11,000 m (36,090 ft)
Rate of climb: 15 m/s (2,950 ft/min)
Armament
4× 20 mm (0.79 in) Hispano-Suiza HS.404 cannons with 250 RPG
2× hardpoints for up to 2,000 lb (907 kg) of bombs, 6 or 10× T64 5.0 in (127 mm) H.V.A.R rockets
The kit and its assembly:
This whif was inspired by a CG rendition of a Saab J21 in a natural metal finish and with (spurious) USAAF markings, probably a skin for a flight simulator. Anyway, I was more or less enchanted by the NMF on the Saab – I had to build one, and it would become the P-74, the only USAF fighter code that had never been used.
The kit is the venerable Heller Saab J21A, an “old style” design with raised panel lines. But it is still around and affordable. No big mods were made to the kit during its transition into a USAAF fighter, even though I changed some minor things:
● Main landing gear was completely exchanged through struts from an Airfix A-1 Skyraider and the wheels from a Hasegawa P-51D; thin wire was added as hydraulic tubes
● New propeller blades: instead of the three-bladed original I added four much broader blades with square tips (from a Heller P-51D) to the original spinner
● Different exhaust stubs, which actually belong to a Spitfire Merlin (Special Hobby kit)
● Underfuselage flap was slightly opened
● A pilot figure was added to the nice cockpit
● The gun barrels were replaced with hollow styrene tubes
Painting and markings:
NMF was certain, but the rest…? I wanted to have a colorful aircraft, and eventually settled for a machine in the Pacific theatre of operations. When I browsed for options I eventually decided to apply broad black stripes on wings and fuselage, typical 5th Air Force markings that were used e. g. on P-47Ds and P-51Ds.
Overall design benchmark for my aircraft is a P-47D-28 of 310th FS/58th FG. The tail would be all white, and the rudder sported red and white stripes, early war insignia. The red nose trim and the deep yellow spinner were taken over from this aircraft, too. The blue individual code number is a personal addition, as well as the nose art, which was puzzled together from a Czech 'Perdubice' Meeting MiG-21 and leftover bits from a Pacific use P-51.
The aircraft was basically painted with Aluminum Metallizer (Humbrol 27002) and Polished Steel Metallizer (Modelmaster), and some panels were contrasted with Aluminum (Humbrol 56).
The anti-glare panel in front of the cockpit was painted in Olive Drab (Humbrol 66), the red nose trim with Humbrol 19. The tail was painted with a mix of Humbrol 34 & 196, for a very light grey, and later dry-painted with pure white.
The black ID stripes as well as the red and blue rudder trim were not painted, but rather created through decal sheet material (from TL Modellbau), cut to size and shape to fit into their respective places. The tail was a PITA, but for the black stripes this turned out to be very effective and convenient - an experiment that willcertainly see more future use.
Cockpit interior was painted in Humbrol 226 (Cockpit Green) and Zinc Chromate Green from Model Master, the landing gear wells received a chrome yellow primer (Humbrol 225) finish.
The landing gear struts were kept in bare Aluminum.
For weathering the kit received a rubbing treatment with grinded graphite, which adds a dark, metallic shine and emphasizes the kit’s raised panel lines. Some dry painting with Aluminum was added, too, simulating chipped paint on the leading edges, and on the black ID stripes some dark grey shading was added.
A relatively simple whif, but I love how the Saab 21 looks in the unusual, shiny NMF finish - and the USAAF markings with the prominent ID stripes suit it well, even though it looks a bit like a circus attraction now?
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
At the end of WW2, Sweden was in search of a new fighter offering better performance than the J21 could offer. The latter was an indigenous fighter/attack aircraft from SAAB that first took to the air in 1943 and dated back to a requirement from 1941. The J21 was designed as an unusual twin boom pusher configuration, where the propeller was mounted in the rear of the fuselage, pushing the aircraft forward. The advantages of a pusher design were that the view forward was unobstructed and armament could be concentrated in the nose, while the heavy engine was placed close to the center of gravity for better handling and agility. A major drawback was the difficulty in escaping from the aircraft in an emergency, though, as the pilot could get drawn into the propeller blades. SAAB deliberated between systems that would eject the pilot, or jettison the propeller or even the whole engine, via a system of explosive bolts, and eventually installed an early, explosives-powered ejector seat developed by Bofors for this purpose.
However, the SAAB 21 had its share of trouble (overheating an unreliable DB 605 engine), and in 1944 a new requirement for a more powerful and conventional fighter was issued. Selecting the Rolls Royce Griffon as the powerplant, SAAB initially looked into adapting the engine to the J21. However, this proved impractical, so SAAB started work on a clean-sheet design.
The L27, as it was known in the project stage, ended up closely resembling the latest designs to come from Britain like the Supermarine Spitfire or the Martin Baker MB 5, as well as the North American P-51 Mustang. The Griffon engine, chosen for initial development and flight tests, drove a contra-rotating propeller and sat in the nose. Top speed with the Griffon was expected to be around 700 km/h (435 mph). Later production aircraft were to be powered by a domestically developed, new H-24 cylinder motor similar to the British Napier Sabre engine and delivering output in significant excess of 2.200 hp (1.640 kW). With this machine, the aircraft was expected to reach a top speed of 740 km/h (460 mph) or even more.
The wings were similar to those used on the Fairey Firefly, complete with Fairey’s characteristic Youngman flaps, but with small wing root extensions and a thicker profile than the late Spitfires’ wings, and with more rounded wing tips. Similar to the P-51, the L27’s landing gear with a wide track retracted inwards into the wings, and the tail wheel could be fully retracted, too.
Armament, consisting of four 20mm Hispano cannons, was to be concentrated in the wings just outside of the propeller arc, and unlike the Spitfire’s arrangement with underwing coolers, the L27’s single radiator was placed in a ventral tunnel position, very similar to the arrangement on the P-51.
A total of three prototypes were ordered, and the aircraft was now formally designated J27A; two were to be powered by Rolls-Royce Griffon 83 engines, and one as a test structure and earmarked for the development of the 24 cylinder engine and its integration into the projected J27B.
The first flight of a J27A took place in March 1945, and the promising results kept the project evolving until late 1946, when the aircraft was cleared for service and production in January 1947. 70 aircraft with Griffon engines were ordered.
Anyway, in early 1945, SAAB had also launched a project to determine how to provide the J21A with a jet engine to get the experience of jet engines and flying at high speeds. The goal was to catch up with the development of jet aircraft, which were moving ahead fast in England, where, among others, de Havilland already had the de Havilland Vampire in production. The resulting J21R, SAAB's first jet, made its first flight on 10 March 1947 and it marked the death knell for any piston-engine fighter development and use in Sweden. Consequentially the 24 cylinder engine never made it from the drawing board, and after the initial production run of the Griffon-powered J27A was completed until early 1949, further production was stopped and the whole J27 program terminated. Serial production J27As differed only slightly from the prototypes. The most obvious change was a taller vertical stabilizer and a small fin fillet, less obvious was a modified landing gear cover arrangement, because the original design with a single, large cover of the main wheels tended to bulge outward at high speed. A split design mended this problem.
While the J27A’s projected top speed of 700km/h was impressive for a piston-engine fighter and frequently confirmed in service, it was inadequate in the oncoming jet age. In the end, SAAB opted to pursuit jet fighter endeavors that soon led to the very modern and innovative SAAB J29 that soon became Sweden’s standard jet fighter.
In frontline service the J27 was, even though it was popular among its pilots and maintenance crews, almost immediately replaced by jets, at first with the J28B Vampire (from 1951 on), which were in turn quickly replaced in 1952 with the indigenous J29 Tunnan.
The last J27A was, after serving with fighter units primarily in southern Sweden, already retired from frontline duties in 1955. Some aircraft, though, were kept in service as target tugs, liaison aircraft for the air staff and for dissimilar air combat training. The last machine was finally decommissioned in summer 1961.
General characteristics:
Crew: One
Length: 9.90 m (32 ft 5 in)
Wingspan: 11.84 m (38 ft 9 1/2 in)
Height: 4.19 (13 ft 9 in)
Wing area: 22.2 m² (238.87 ft²)
Empty weight: 3,250 kg (7,165 lb)
Loaded weight: 4,150 kg (9,149 lb)
Max. take-off weight: 4,413 kg (9,730 lb)
Powerplant:
1× license-built Rolls-Royce Griffon 83 liquid-cooled V-12 engine, 2,340 hp (1,745 kW),
driving a six-bladed contraprop
Performance:
Maximum speed: 435 mph (700 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,100 m)
Cruise speed: 495 km/h (265 knots, 308 mph)
Range: 1,100 mi (1,770 km)
Service ceiling: 40,000 ft (12,190 m)
Rate of climb: 3,800 ft/min (19.3 m/s)
Armament:
4× 20 mm Bofors cannon (license-built Hispano Mk.II cannon) with 200 rpg in the outer wings
Underwing hardpoints for 8-12 × 3inch "60 lb" rocket projectiles
or 2× 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs
or a pair of 45 gal (205 l) or 90 gal (409 l) drop tanks.
The kit and its assembly:
This is a “real” what-if model, or at least the attempt to build a phantom aircraft from single parts! The SAAB 27 is a bit of a mystery, because valid information is sparse, especially concerning details about its shape. You find some drawings or profiles, but IMHO these are based on guesswork and rather vague. The J27 is frequently described as a “Swedish Spitfire with a P-51 radiator” or a “Swedish Super-Spitfire”, but that leaves much to be desired, because the similarity is only superficial. Hence, this model here is rather a free interpretation of what a service J27 could have looked like.
For long time I fought with two building options: either convert a Fairey Firefly (Airfix’ Mk. 5 would have been my bet), or use a Spitfire Mk. 22. After long considerations I settled for the latter one, because I feared that the Firefly would result in a rather massive aircraft, and the Airfix kit itself is vintage and worth a building fight on its own.
So I used an Airfix Spitfire Mk. 22, but from this (very nice!) kit just a few things were taken, because I wanted a more individual look. Only the fuselage, cockpit interior and landing gear survived, and I even inserted a 2.5mm wide “wedge plug” around the cockpit and wedge-shaped inserts at the fuselage halves’ seams in order to add some beef to the sleek (if not spindly) Spitfire. I think it’s hard to notice, but the overall proportions look good. At the tail and the front end, the original fuselage width was kept, though.
Reason behind this was the P-51 radiator’s width (leftover from a Matchbox kit) that was considerably wider than the Spitfire fuselage. Furthermore, the thicker/more massive wings from a P-47 (from an early MPM kit) also called for a more massive body.
For the new wings, some adaptations to the Spitfire wing roots had to be made, though, e.g. a bulged mid-wing section under the fuselage. The Thunderbolt parts also had the benefit of wells for a landing gear that retracts inwards. I also used P-47 landing gear parts, even though the struts were shortened at their bases by 3mm and the covers accordingly. For the sake of a different look (the Spitfire wheels are very characteristic) I used different main wheels from a Revell G.91R. The landing gear cover arrangement differs from J27 sketches (as far as I can tell, it must have been similar to the P-51's), but I stuck with the P-47 parts because they match well with the rest of the aircraft.
The contraprop belongs to a late mark Seafire, left over from a Special Hobby kit. The propeller was in so far modified that I added a metal axis and a styrene tube adapter for the fuselage, so that both propeller parts can (theoretically) spin. OOB, the Special Hobby solution is simply to be glued onto the nose, fixed, despite being constructed in two separate parts?
Furthermore, the carburetor intake was changed: the Spitfire’s scoop at the wings’ leading edge was replace by a Firefly-style lip intake right behind the propeller.
The whole tail section was reconditioned, too. Descriptions of the J27’s tail are corny, but “more square than a Spitfire’s”. Instead of simple cosmetic surgery I thoroughly replaced the OOB fin with a Supermarine Attacker’s (Novo kit) with some mods to the outline, which fits well in size and is …more square!
The new tail is a bit taller and has a fin fillet, making it look very P-51-ish, but that’s O.K. for me. At least it’s different from the round Spitfire shape.
I also exchanged the stabilizers, the round Spitfire parts gave way to differently shaped pieces from a Hobby Boss La-7. Their shape is similar to a P-47’s, but they are smaller and match J27 illustrations well.
The canopy was also changed. Through the widened fuselage around the cockpit the tight OOB Spitfire hood would hardly match, anyway. The bubble layout remained, and I adapted a bigger Matchbox P-51 canopy to the new fuselage contours, and moved forward as far as possible.
Painting and markings:
The Swedish Air Force as operator was settled, as well as early post-WWII markings. But I did not want the standard, uniform olive green/blue grey livery, so I painted the upper surfaces with camouflage scheme made from two green tones: a medium green tone (Humbrol 102, Army Green, ~FS 34096) and a bluish, dark green (Humbrol 91, RLM 70 equivalent), applied in bands – somewhat inspired by a scheme carried by some SAAB 32 Lansen in the early 60ies.
The underside was kept in the typical Swedish blue-grey, for which I used Humbrol 87. The waterline was placed very low so that the upper camouflage was also taken to the radiator flanks under the fuselage and wings.
The cockpit was painted in very dark grey (Humbrol 32), while the landing gear and the wells were kept in Aluminum (Humbrol 56).
As a 2nd squadron machine, the code letter became blue, as well as the two-part spinner, latter’s paint was mixed, based on the squadron code letter decal’s tone on the tail.
The roundels and the 'R' codes come from an RBD Studio aftermarket sheet from Sweden, further decals like the yellow ‘9’ code, the squadron’s ‘Bonzo’ dog mascot emblem as well as most stencils come from a Heller SAAB 21.
A complex build, yet the model aircraft looks so innocent… Anyway, the goal was IMHO achieved: this J27 model just looks like a “Swedish Spitfire with a P-51 radiator”, and at first glance you cannot be certain if this is a modified Griffon Spitfire or a P-51D. Both is true, to a certain degree, but also not correct, because the changes are more fundamental and the wings are completely different from either. So, the mission’s been accomplished. ;)
And I feel inclined to tackle a J23, too, a Bf109/P-51B design hybrid that was designed as a conservative alternative to the pusher J21.
Image Disclaimer - Please note that all of the images shown are for illustrative purposes only. The rooms pictured are not necessarily typical of the accommodation available at Queen Margaret, which can vary in terms of size, configuration, and finish.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The P-74 "Charger" was a fighter aircraft built by Lockheed for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Its configuration was unusual as it was designed as a twin boom pusher configuration, where the propeller is mounted in the rear of the fuselage, pushing the aircraft forward.
The P-74 entered service with the USAAF in late 1944, its conception dated back to 1939 when the U.S. Army Air Corps requested with the Circular Proposal R40C domestic manufacturers to develop high performance fighter types, allowing (even demanding) unusual configurations. Lockheed did not respond immediately and missed the chance to sign a development contract in mid-1940 until early 1941. Twenty-three proposals were submitted to R40C, and after a fist selection of ideas three companies, Vultee with the large XP-54 Swoose Goose, Curtiss with its XP-55 Ascender and Northrop's XP-56 Black Bullet were able to secure prototype contracts.
Vultee eventually won the competition, but all these innovative new aircraft suffered from various flaws or development delays, missing various performance goals, so that none ever entered service.
In the meantime, Lockheed had been working on the 1939 request in the background on a private venture basis, as it was clear that by 1944 a successor to the company's own P-38 Lightning had to be offered to the USAAC.
The new North American P-51 Mustang was also a sharp competitor, esp. for the Pacific conflict theatre where long range was needed. This role was filled out very well by the P-38, but it was a relatively large and complicated aircraft, so an alternative with a single engine was strived for. Even though jet engines already showed their potential, it was clear that the requested range for the new type could only be achieved through a piston engine.
This aircraft became the XP-74, originally christened “Laelaps”, following Lockheed’s tradition, after a female Greek mythological dog who never failed to catch what she was hunting. It was presented as a mock-up to USAAC officials on August 8th 1942 and immediately found sponsorship: with the disappointing results from the XP-54,55 and 56 was immediately ushered into the prototype stage. Its name, though, was rejected, and the more common name “Charger” was adopted.
Just like Lockheed’s successful P-38 the XP-74 Charger was designed as a twin-boom aircraft, but it was driven by only a single Packard (License-built Rolls Royce Merlin) V-1650 pusher engine in the aft part of the fuselage. The tail was mounted rearward between two mid-wing booms, with a four-bladed 12-ft propeller between them. The design also included a "ducted wing section" developed by the NACA that enabled installation of cooling radiators and intercoolers in the wing root section.
The advantages of a pusher design are that the view forward is unobstructed and armament can be concentrated in the nose, while a major drawback is difficulty in escaping from the aircraft in an emergency, as the pilot could get drawn into the propeller blades. Lockheed deliberated between systems that would eject the pilot, or jettison the propeller or the engine, via a system of explosive bolts. Lockheed eventually installed an early ejector seat which was driven by pressurized air, combined with a mechanism that would blow the canopy off. The system was successfully tested in summer 1943, even though skepticism remained among pilots.
Initial armament comprised one 20mm Hispano cannon and four 12.7mm Browning machine guns, the same as in the P-38, but two machine guns were relocated from the nose into the front ends of the tail booms because of the new aircraft’s smaller overall dimensions.
The first prototype was ready in October 1943, with a different engine and heavier armor fitted. The second prototype was built to this specification from the start, which would become the serial production standard, the P-74A.
The P-74A used the new V-1650-9 engine, a version of the Merlin that included Simmons automatic supercharger boost control with water injection, allowing War Emergency Power as high as 2,218 hp (1,500 kW). Another change concerned the armament: a longer weapon range was deemed necessary, so the gun armament was changed into four 20mm Hispano cannons, two of the placed in the fuselage nose and one in each tail boom front end. Each gun was supplied with 250 RPG.
Alternatively, a nose installment with a single 37mm cannon and two 12.7mm Browning MGs was tested on the first prototype, but this arrangement was found to be less effective than the four 20mm cannons. Another factor that turned this option down was the more complicated logistics demands for three different calibers in one aircraft.
The P-74A was ready for service in summer 1944, but its deployment into the Pacific region took until December – the 5th Air Force first units replaced most of its P-38 and also early P-47Ds with the P-74A.These new aircraft had their first clashes with Japanese forces in January 1945.
The P-74 was used in a variety of roles. It was designed as an intreceptor against bombers, but its good range and handling at all altitudes made it suitable for tasks like fighter sweeps against enemy airfields, support for U.S. ground forces and protection of sea convoys and transport routes.
While the P-74 could not out-turn the A6M Zero and most other Japanese fighters when flying below 200 mph (320 km/h), its superior speed coupled with a good rate of climb meant that it could utilize energy tactics, making multiple high-speed passes at its target. Also, its focused firepower was deadly to lightly armored Japanese warplanes.
Because of its late service introduction, only 305 P-74s were ever produced until the end of hostilities, and they were exclusively used in the Pacific theatre. The P-74's service record shows mixed results, but usually because of misinformation. P-74s have been described as being harder to fly than traditional, single-engined aircraft, but this was because of inadequate training in the first few months of service.
Another drawback was the ejection seat system – it worked basically well, but the tank for the pressurized air turned out to be very vulnerable to enemy fire. Several P-74s literally exploded in midair after cannon fire hits, and this poeblem could only be cured when the tank section behind the cockpit received a more rigid structure and additional armor. Anyway, the P-74 was quickly retired after WWII, as the USAAF focussed on P-47 and P-51.
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 10.45 m (34 ft 3 in)
Wingspan: 11.6 m (38 ft 0 in)
Height: 3.97 (13 ft 0 in)
Wing area: 22.2 m² (238.87 ft²)
Empty weight: 3,250 kg (7,165 lb)
Loaded weight: 4,150 kg (9,149 lb)
Max. take-off weight: 4,413 kg (9,730 lb)
Powerplant:
1× Packard (License-built Rolls Royce Merlin) V-1650-9 ,
rated at 1,380 hp (1,030 kW) and 2,218 hp (1,500 kW) w. water injection
Performance
Maximum speed: 640 km/h (343 knots, 398 mph)
Cruise speed: 495 km/h (265 knots, 308 mph)
Range: 1,105 mi (1,778 km)
Ferry range: 1,330 nmi (1,530 mi, 2,460 km)
Service ceiling: 11,000 m (36,090 ft)
Rate of climb: 15 m/s (2,950 ft/min)
Armament
4× 20 mm (0.79 in) Hispano-Suiza HS.404 cannons with 250 RPG
2× hardpoints for up to 2,000 lb (907 kg) of bombs, 6 or 10× T64 5.0 in (127 mm) H.V.A.R rockets
The kit and its assembly:
This whif was inspired by a CG rendition of a Saab J21 in a natural metal finish and with (spurious) USAAF markings, probably a skin for a flight simulator. Anyway, I was more or less enchanted by the NMF on the Saab – I had to build one, and it would become the P-74, the only USAF fighter code that had never been used.
The kit is the venerable Heller Saab J21A, an “old style” design with raised panel lines. But it is still around and affordable. No big mods were made to the kit during its transition into a USAAF fighter, even though I changed some minor things:
● Main landing gear was completely exchanged through struts from an Airfix A-1 Skyraider and the wheels from a Hasegawa P-51D; thin wire was added as hydraulic tubes
● New propeller blades: instead of the three-bladed original I added four much broader blades with square tips (from a Heller P-51D) to the original spinner
● Different exhaust stubs, which actually belong to a Spitfire Merlin (Special Hobby kit)
● Underfuselage flap was slightly opened
● A pilot figure was added to the nice cockpit
● The gun barrels were replaced with hollow styrene tubes
Painting and markings:
NMF was certain, but the rest…? I wanted to have a colorful aircraft, and eventually settled for a machine in the Pacific theatre of operations. When I browsed for options I eventually decided to apply broad black stripes on wings and fuselage, typical 5th Air Force markings that were used e. g. on P-47Ds and P-51Ds.
Overall design benchmark for my aircraft is a P-47D-28 of 310th FS/58th FG. The tail would be all white, and the rudder sported red and white stripes, early war insignia. The red nose trim and the deep yellow spinner were taken over from this aircraft, too. The blue individual code number is a personal addition, as well as the nose art, which was puzzled together from a Czech 'Perdubice' Meeting MiG-21 and leftover bits from a Pacific use P-51.
The aircraft was basically painted with Aluminum Metallizer (Humbrol 27002) and Polished Steel Metallizer (Modelmaster), and some panels were contrasted with Aluminum (Humbrol 56).
The anti-glare panel in front of the cockpit was painted in Olive Drab (Humbrol 66), the red nose trim with Humbrol 19. The tail was painted with a mix of Humbrol 34 & 196, for a very light grey, and later dry-painted with pure white.
The black ID stripes as well as the red and blue rudder trim were not painted, but rather created through decal sheet material (from TL Modellbau), cut to size and shape to fit into their respective places. The tail was a PITA, but for the black stripes this turned out to be very effective and convenient - an experiment that willcertainly see more future use.
Cockpit interior was painted in Humbrol 226 (Cockpit Green) and Zinc Chromate Green from Model Master, the landing gear wells received a chrome yellow primer (Humbrol 225) finish.
The landing gear struts were kept in bare Aluminum.
For weathering the kit received a rubbing treatment with grinded graphite, which adds a dark, metallic shine and emphasizes the kit’s raised panel lines. Some dry painting with Aluminum was added, too, simulating chipped paint on the leading edges, and on the black ID stripes some dark grey shading was added.
A relatively simple whif, but I love how the Saab 21 looks in the unusual, shiny NMF finish - and the USAAF markings with the prominent ID stripes suit it well, even though it looks a bit like a circus attraction now?