i 153 in real

[stealth finger]

Originally Posted by Panzergranate

The "F" word came into existance, in the English language in 1872, according to Whitely's Oxford Dictionary of Swearwords and Expletives.

It is a Police charge sheet abreiviation and stands for "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" which one would be charged with if caught with one's pants down in a brothel during a police raid.

The offence came onto the statute books in the UK in 1872, as part of the government's on going moral campaign to stamp out prostitutution in the UK.

Until then, patrons of brothels were allowed to go free and uncharged during a police raid.

Prisoners in the cells would ask each other what they were in for and one could be in jail, awaiting trail, for f**king.

Its use in films and plays set before this date are historical language errors, in the same way as the Sherif Of Nottingham, in Kevin Costner's Robin Hood film, telling someone to come and see him at 12:30.

There are many urban myths about the word's origin, this is the true origin.

and now for something completely different

[Panzergranate]

The 38:1 kill to loss rate against Soviet aircraft of all types still proves a mega-point.

No other Finnish piloted fighter type came halfway close to this.

Between 1942 and 1943 one BUffalo squadron, with just 18 Buffaloes, managed to achieve 274 confirmed kills for the loss of just 2 Buffaloes through Soviet action, of which was shot down killing the pilot and one was written off when it crash landed at base.

The I-153, whether flown by Fins or Russians, was hopelessly outclassed by modern high speed bombers such as the SB-2M, Blenhiem II, Blenhiem IV, etc. with the latter being simply able to throttle up and leave pursuing I-153s far behind. The I-153 makes 288 MPH and the Blienhiem makes 293 MPH.

A fighter need to be at least 100 MPH faster than a bomber that it is dealing with. Being slower or just about able to match speed makes it an easy target for a bomber's gunners.

With modern bombers being faster and able to out perform the I-153 at altitude (and the I-16), the only other roles open to the I-153 were as a dogfighter and ground attack fighter-bomber.

Most bombers it faced could simply fly high and out of reach.

As a dogfighter it lacks the performance at altitude and the speed to deal with the fighters it faced, apart from Finnish Gladiators, Bulldogs and D-21, German Hs-123 ground attack aircraft.

The I-15 and I-15 Bis may have performed well against other bi-planes such as the He-51 over Spain, but by 1941 it was just a dinosaur fighter in a changing world, only outclassing similar dinosaur fighters and bombers flown by both the Fins and Russians. The premise for creating the I-153 as a dogfighter was flawed because by 1938, the age of the high speed maneuverable monoplane was beginning.

As for ground attack, the only other bi-plane to carry rockets was the Fairey Swordfish.

Apart from being an easier target for enemy FlaK, bi-planes do perform better in ground attack roles than faster monoplanes with less agility. Short take off and landing is also an advantage.

[Soviet Ace]

The reason why Russian planes seemed so outclassed, was because in the 30s, Russia put more effort in their biplane designs than monoplane designs. The reason why? Because during the 30s, Stalin and the rest thought that Biplanes were the way of the future because of their amazing maneuverability, and agility. The USSR, saw monoplanes as basically obsolete before they even really got going.

Same goes for many French planes as well. The reason the MS 406 and other French fighters were slow, was because though they were monoplanes, they wanted to keep that good maneuverability and agility going that many biplanes had. Same goes with Italy, and that's why we have the Fiat CR. 32-42 also.

Britain also thought biplanes would still be important, and actually the first designs of the Hawker Hurricane was actually a Biplane design.

It was Germany and the US, who started putting more work into the Monoplane structure/design, and that's why it seems like they outclassed most of their allies and enemies.

[f1rebrand]

So I see.