The Ultimate Airfix Kit - Paging KLR......

[Clinton Huxley]

The Fleet Air Arm Museum in Somerset is starting to put together pieces, gathered from numerous wrecks, to make a Fairey Barracuda, a world war 2 vintage torpedo bomber. Currently, no complete example exists. One for KLR, this.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-24728005

[laklak]

I see they are just finishing up with the restoration of Sir Malcolm Campbell's last Bluebird speedboat. His Bluebird V LSR car is in the Daytona Beach International Speedway museum, he broke the land speed record 5 times on the beach at Daytona. It used to live at the Ormond Beach Birthplace of Speed Museum, unfortunately closed years ago. They also had a Stanley Rocket Racer there, similar to the one that set the world "flying mile" record of 127.6 mph in 1906, driven by noted automobile racing driver, daredevil playboy and all around bon vivant Fred Marriott. This is the record breaking car, which was unfortunately wrecked in 1907 in another record attempt. It hit a rut in the sand at an estimated 140-150 mph. Imagine those speeds on what amount to bicycle wheels. You can see Fred has trimmed his mustachios to avoid being whipped by the slipstream. Steady on, old man.

[Clinton Huxley]

Interesting, thanks Lak. Not sure I'd want to go above 20mph in that car...

[laklak]

They were made of sterner stuff back in those days.

[Clinton Huxley]

That is a fact. And barking mad, of course.

[klr]

I'd be happy if Airfix did the Barracuda in plain old 1/72 scale.

Seeing as 2014 is the 70th anniversary of a whole range of attacks on the Tirpitz (from Operation Tungsten to Catechism), and Airfix likes 70th anniversaries of all things WW II-related, I suppose a Barracuda kit is not completely out of the question. Just very unlikely. Airfix will have bigger fish to fry with D-Day.

[laklak]

70 years. Damn, time flies, eh?

[klr]

70 years. Damn, time flies, eh?

Almost as well as a Barracuda ...

[laklak]

I just fucking love that aircraft. Torpedo bombers are a bit of a fixation of mine, but you hear a lot more about the American ones in the Pacific theatre. Of course it was a much more heavily naval war on that side.

[mistermack]

I didn't know that we had carrier planes like that in WW2.
I just had the image of the Swordfish in mind. It must have been late in the war? It has some of the looks of the spitfires and hurricanes about the fuselage.

[klr]

I didn't know that we had carrier planes like that in WW2.
I just had the image of the Swordfish in mind. It must have been late in the war? It has some of the looks of the spitfires and hurricanes about the fuselage.

The Swordfish served right to the end of the war in a limited capacity, even outliving its replacement, the Albacore - another bi-plane. The Barracuda was the preferred Royal Navy torpedo bomber in later years though. It also doubled as a dive-bomber. It was powered by the same Rolls-Royce engines that the Spitfire used - first the Merlin (which was also the only engine used on the Hurricane), and then the Griffon.

The Swordfish, Albacore and Barracuda were all designed by Fairey, which was a big cheese in terms of Royal Navy aircraft at the time. It also designed the Fulmar and Firefly scout-fighters, which again used the Merlin and Griffon:





I'm unclear as to why the Barracuda had shoulder-mounted wings though, which made the main undercarriage really complex. You'd have thought that was to be avoided at all costs on a carrier-based aircraft.

[mistermack]

I'm unclear as to why the Barracuda had shoulder-mounted wings though, which made the main undercarriage really complex. You'd have thought that was to be avoided at all costs on a carrier-based aircraft.

I don't know, but I would have thought that the whole plane is designed around the torpedo it will be carrying under it's belly.
That leaves less room to fold the wheels in after take-off. It's a difficult job to find a place for that, and make it aerodynamic.
Also, they had to design for some pretty heavy landings.
So the options must have been pretty limited.