Gentlemen,
may I go ahead with this offer of a rather antique albeit magnificent twin engined bird?
carson1934
What you have there, my dear Mr Carson, is one in the very successful series of US light bombers built by the Keystone Aircraft Corporation. Most likely we are talking about the B-3A, but since the only difference between the many variants were the engines, it is probably impossible to ascertain wherever the aircraft pictured is a B-3A, LB-10, LB-10A or B-5A.
My dear Wingsofwrath
yes, it is a Keystone product and precisely we are seeing the model LB/9…very nicely done and now it’s your turn…
carson
I thank you for your kind words, my dear Mr. Carson, and in return I offer you this nice little enigma (unfortunately, I don’t own a bigger photograph):
Dear Sir,
your picture is grainy and pretty hard to decipher however at first sight I would say aAmiot 370?
carson1934
Above is a pic of Amiot 370 as available on Aviafrance
My god . . . . Amiot actually designed an aircraft that wasn’t a winged brick?
That has to be the nicest-looking Amiot I have seen from that era.
Kind Regards, Uyraell.
Spot on, Mr Carson, it is indeed the Amiot 370, a one of a kind record setting plane based on the mailplane A-340 and cousin to the Amiot 350-355, one of the fastest and most graceful light bombers of WW2. A sheer pity the French never had more than a few of them at the outbreak of war… Also, some more information on the 340-370 family can be found here.
As usual, it is now your turn to post.
Yes Uyraell France has built very ugly and very nice aircrafts amongst the latter you should consider the various Amiot 340 thru 370 which are some of the nicest bombers ever produced.
On the other hand Wingsofwrath’s article on this subject is more than informative.
Well I have to think now about a new offer which will follow shortly
Cheers
carson1934
This is a versatile and relatively well known aircraft built by an important manufacturer and produced at the end of the twenties:
Sorry for the small pic!
For what it may be worth, carson1934, My guess is a Fokker 11, Twin engine stepchild/grandchild of the Fokker7 3M.
From memory, the Italians used these in Ethopia, and the Spaniards used similar in Morocco.
In either case, employed as bomber, transport, and reconnaiscance.
Kind Regards, Uyraell.
Sorry Uyraell it isn’t a Fokker 11.
You should look more southwards…
Cheers
carson1934
Ah yes, I see we are returning towards the “boxy” section of aeronautics, with this nice example of the Caproni Ca.102, a twin Bristol Jupiter variant of the original trimotor Ca 101. If I remember correctly, the nickname given by the aircrews to this interesting airplane was Pinocchio, do to her long slim nose which housed the bomb sight as well as four 7.7mm machineguns.
@Uyraell - You were probably thinking of the Fokker F8 or the licence built Avro Type 642-2m which were two engined variations on the F.7A- the Fokker F.11 was a single engine 5 passager aircraft.
Later Edit: Since there is absolutely no shadow of a doubt that I am right (I actually have in my archives the same picture posted by our esteemed Mr. Carson) please allow me to post the next obscure piece of aeronautical engineering:
Good evening esteemed Wingsofwrath,
first of all let me tell you that the aircraft you proposed is a roumanian SET XV a fighter of 1934 of which only one prototype was built…you see I kind of specialize in aircrafts of the eastern european countries therefore this was easy for me.
Coming to my challenge yes sir you’re quite right it is the beautiful Caproni Ca102 a twin engined version of the more famous Caproni Ca101.
Also your mentioning the nickname given to this aircraft, i.e. “Pinocchio” on account of its protruding nose is quite right.
Just for the sake of nitpicking, if I may, the engines of the image I submitted were two liquid cooled Isotta Fraschini in fact this is the very Caproni Ca102/bis whereas the normal version was supplied as you said with two Jupiter VII.
Another very interesting aircraft of the same family was the Caproni Ca102/ quater with four Lynk engines mounted tandemwise in two nacelles hanging from the wings.
I’ll be waiting for confirmation of the above mentioned SET
Cheers
carson1934
Astounding work, my dear Mr. Carson!
I wasn’t really expecting anybody to identify this unique little bird right off the bat, but you are, of course right. This is one of the few photographs depicting the Set XV, an aeroplane comparable to the Gloster Gladiator which unfortunately never entered production because it was outclassed by the PZL 11…
Coming back to the Ca.102, and to “nitpick your nitpicking”, as it were, the picture you posted clearly has air cooled radials, and the Isotta Fraschini engined Ca.102bis actually looked like this:
(That’s the only picture available on the internet, I’m afraid, so there is no bigger resolution)
Set XV, dang, beaten to it.
Interesting aircraft. Powered by a 500 hp Gnome-Rhone engine and armed (theoretically) with two 7.62-mm Vickers machine guns. Nice looking machine.
Esteemed Wingsofwrath
you’re of course right concerning the CA/102:
- pic on #809 = Caproni Ca/102
- pic on #814 = Caproni CA/102bis
I don’t know what prompted me to make that silly remark…maybe old age?
I’m now getting ready to submit a new offer which will appear some time later today
Cheers
Carson1934
Gentlemen, good morning (or good evening whatever your time is now in your respective fair countries)
Now this bomber is easy to identify however as you can clearly see on the image it has a very distinctive feature that was common to this particular series of aircrafts.
I’d like to know her exact denomination
Cheers
carson1934
Well, it’s certainly a variation on the Tupolev SB-2-M103bis and I think it might be the Tupolev USB (Uchebnyi Skorostnoy Borbardirovschik), literally “Trainer Fast Bomber” - the trainer version of the above mentioned aircraft. Special noses containing a cockpit for the instructor were made in such a way that they could be attached in the field to existing machines instead of the normal glazed one. If you look in the picture, you can clearly see that the nose is a different shade from the rest of the aircraft, so I’m guessing this is the right answer, even though I couldn’t find any picture of this variant.
Esteemed Wingsofwrath
My compliments! Your assumption is correct and I’m very impressed about your deductions without the help of a picture. Therefore it is indeed the Tupolev USB (Uchebnyi etc.etc.)
I’m looking forward to receiving your mystery a/c!
Cheers
Carson1934
Thank you again for your kind words, my dear Mr Carson, but unfortunately, I am not that deserving of praise…
In fact, I wasted a few hours looking into all the unknown Japanese aircraft because the mystery machine had a vague family resemblance to the Ki-48, instead of concentrating on the clues that were visible in the picture (different nose, wrecked I-15 in the background, soviet style uniforms, etc.)
In any case I am proud to present you with the next enigma, a rather peculiar and seriously ungainly aircraft of which only one was manufactured:
I think that is the Belgian LACAB GR.8 Doryphore. Two 780?HP Gnome-Rhones, top speed of around 340 or so Km/h. Ugly beast.