>The Sabre was fitted into the (rocket firing) Typhoon and the early
>marks of Tempest but the later ones had the Bristol Centaurus
>sleeve-valve radial.
Hi Richard,
The 'Sabre', was fitted into the 'Tiffy' long before the rocket firing
versions were introduced in late 1943. The 'Centaurus', was used in the
earlier Tornado (developed 1940).
>From an earlier thread, the Typhoon and good visibility had a lot more
>to do with the end of the Battle of the Bulge than diesel fuelled tanks.
>. . . . . . . .
And Normandy, and the battle of the 'Falais Gap', and just about every
major attempt at Armour build up by the Germans up to around March 1945.
>
>Napier and the Sabre had an uphill struggle:
>1. RR were not pleased that it was claimed to give 5000HP (when the
>Merlin struggled to 2000HP) and used their cosy arrangements with the
>Ministry to discredit Napier. Such was the string-pulling that the
>certificating officer was told not to sign it off; he did as it ran its
>100 hrs at the rated power and was promptly sacked.
hmm interesting Richard, don't know where that story came from, it was
described as having 2,200HP when first off the production line on 26th
May 1941. It was first supplied to No's 56 and 609 sqdns RAF and 486
RNZAF. It's main role as a counter to the fast FW190 which was causing
havoc with 'tip & run', raids along the channel coastal towns and
harbours. Meant that by necessity it was introduced without completion
of test trials. Development would have to continue while in service.
The 'Tiffy's' problems were structural (not mechanical), were mainly in
the tailplane and were never completely cured. In the Dieppe raid
August 1942 'Tiffy's' bounced a formation of FW190's which had taken off
from Le Treport, three FW190's were downed but two 'Tiffy's had
tailplane structural failure and did not pull out of the dive.
The first ME210 's were shot down by the 'Tiffy', as well as five
FW190's on the last ambitious daylight raid on London on Jan 20th 1943.
After losing more FW190's attempting 'tip & runs' to the 'Tiffy'. The
Luftwaffe had a major rethink on air tactics over Britain from there on.
>3. The Air Ministry would not allow oil dilution procedures, a 24 cyl
>sleeve valve without multi-grade oil is not easy to start cold so was
>run up every 2 hrs in cold weather much to the annoyance of sleeping
>pilots.
Ground crews ran all aircraft engines at least every two hours in
squadrons used mainly for interception purposes (the 'Tiffy' was also
used used for 'doodlebug' interception). I lived with my mother in
Boxgrove less than a mile from Tangmere while my father served there in
486 sqdn (and at Newchurch). We were rarely able to sleep at night
because of the noise....summer or winter.
>
>4. Nearly every Typhoon had engine trouble/seized on D-Day owing to
>inept ground crews fiddling with the admirable auto-control box that
>adjusted pitch/mixture vs boost/revs for the pilot. Napier cured this
>by lead seals on the box.
>
I think that one must have come from the same scource as the HP story my
friend. Apart from countless other major target destructions a
confirmed kill of 137 tanks in the Avranches area on DDay is recorded.
>X pattern engines were in service, RR tried to join two V12 Kestrels
>this way calling it the Exe and being fitted in the Manchester. The
>only squadron to fly the type were know something like the "Third Light
>Foot Infantry" owing to the availability/reliability of the type.
>
The Tornado was fitted with the 'X' Vulture engine.
>Fearing a justified hard smack for veering somewhat off topic I'm
>shutting up now.
>
>Richard
>(Southampton UK)
Very interesting Richard, there is many a story which only time has bent
the truth into new fireside adventures.
Regards
Colin
===
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