[QUOTE=carnivorousplant]
I wonder how many hours it has on it.
[/QUOTE]
So it doesn’t say how many hours are on it. But the aircraft was a year old when it was captured, clocked 190+ hours in U.S. military hands, and has been flown ‘judiciously’ since 1978.
[QUOTE=Robot Arm]
I’ve always wanted to talk to someone who knows how these work.
[/QUOTE]
That would not be me. I’ve learned more from that site than I’ve ever gotten from text descriptions, but I could hardly explain the things.
[QUOTE=Weirddave]
A very, very close second would be a Jug. You can take your Spits and Mustangs, give me a fighter than can get me home even after it’s been shredded.
[/QUOTE]
Plus, as an RAF pilot remarked when he first saw one looming over a Spitfire, “If all else fails, the pilot can undo the straps and run around the cockpit taking evasive action”.
[QUOTE=Robot Arm]
Castor oil was used because it wouldn’t mix with the fuel/air in the crankcase, and the centrifugal force is going to carry the oil through the lubricated surfaces and then out of the engine anyway. (A total-loss system; again from tomndebb’s link.)
[/QUOTE]
Some of the castor oil blew back into the pilot’s face, with the result that few WW1 pilots were troubled by constipation. 
[QUOTE=Bookkeeper]
with the result that few WW1 pilots were troubled by constipation.
[/QUOTE]
I thought the opposite was true.
[QUOTE=Bookkeeper]
Some of the castor oil blew back into the pilot’s face, with the result that few WW1 pilots were troubled by constipation.
[/QUOTE]
Or the inconvenience of being able to see where they were flying…
Interesting piece of trivia: All RFC pilots were issued a Webley Mk V or VI .455 calibre revolver, in case they made a forced landing in enemy territory- at least, that was the official reason. The unofficial reason was that, if you were shot down, your chances of survival were practically nil- and so the service revolver was available should you decide that burning to death or being mangled beyond all recognition was not quite how you’d intended to go out…
More interesting trivia: RFC pilots were never issued parachutes, despite the technology existing. It was felt that pilots would be too hasty to abandon their planes, and since they were expensive… well, somehow the logic was that it was better to have a dead pilot and a wrecked aeroplane than an alive pilot and a wrecked aeroplane.
The Germans started issuing parachutes in 1918, much to the surprise of Allied pilots who would shoot down a German plane and then see the pilot jump out- and deploy his chute, drifting back to earth and presumably either waving at them or giving them The Finger.
Balloon crews on both sides had parachutes right from the outset of WWI- in fact, British ballon crews were encouraged to bail out at the first sign of trouble, so the balloon could be winched back down! :eek: