WesWorld

6th and 7th for Lavidicus and Hadrian is not too shabby considering the pilots at Talons but I must say I'm shocked at the 3rd place finish for Hürku!

It's taken many years but finally a first place finish for one of the Italians. The key seeming to be having an aircraft which is good across all the events, and luck. That said, I was expecting it to be a lot closer after adding up the points from the individual posts. So, anyone want to buy some Centauros?

Nice write up as always; I liked the two vs two action but I'm not convinced how pilots from different countries would do. I'd expect that some pairs who train together would simply be unstoppable after having developed their own tactics and knowing what the other is doing.

Fifth place for Mathusen - not too bad, not too bad.

My conclusion of this years Talon: It doesn´t make sense to send a twin engine aircraft and it doesn´t make sense to send any aircraft designed for high altitude operations. If you do, you will be at disadvantage in several categories right from the start.

Thanks James for the effort you put in thes write-ups.

Fourth place was a twin. Some nations Australia included send their planes to see how they stack up to foreign competition not to win.

Quoted

Originally posted by Desertfox
Fourth place was a twin. Some nations Australia included send their planes to see how they stack up to foreign competition not to win.

This. Canada views Talons more as a proving opportunity for it's domestic designs than a purely pride-driven contest. Sometimes this means sending planes that Canada knows won't fair the best (such as the CF-5 and CF-8s I sent for several years, and probably the CF-12 which is fairing much worse than I would've thought), but the information derived from their performance at Talons is considered fairly valuable for improving said designs, as well as looking ahead to the next ones.

Acctually I think the CF-12 did better than I would expect it too. That being said Hürku finishing 3rd just proves that you need luck as one of your skills and it helps to have chance on your side as well.

Antonio Allegro’s Press Cuttings

Just for fun the judges added up which fighters were propelled by whose engines to discover the most popular engine manufacturers.

Spartan 7, Hispano-Suiza 5, BMW 4, Rolls-Royce 4, Daimler-Benz 3, Allison 2, FIAT 2, IAR 2, Imperial Aeronautics 2, Orenda 2, Mitsubishi 2, Pratt & Whitney 2, Aero 1, BMG 1, GWM 1, Husquarna 1, Isotta-Franchini 1, LMF 1, Minerva Avia (licence built Hispano-Suiza) 1, Napier 1, Ripon 1 and Saab 1
This year Spartan has topped the charts with Hispano-Suiza, Daimler-Benz and Pratt & Whitney have fallen down the scales slightly this year with many smaller indigenous manufacturers competing in this arena. If we included the licence built Minerva Avia engines into Hispano-Suiza’s figures the total would by 6 and if Orenda’s Rolls-Royce based engines were added to its parent the Rolls-Royce would score 6.
Nine nations this year participated with foreign-designed and/or built fighters, the other nations having indigenous aircraft.

The Argentine camp was very confident this year. Not only was this Major de Aero Valdez’s third year but now they had the new FMA I-02 Pulqui and had a full year’s extra experience on the type. FMA made sure all the necessary spares were ready and indeed they had a special team of twenty mechanics ready. This year the Argentine team claimed eleventh and nineteenth on the score board. The identical Sp-40 claimed eighth in the hands of "Bulldog" Hadrian but the Chilean and Byzantine teams did worse partly due to inexperience with the new fighter. Even so the Argentine team had hoped for better but with so many top pilots at Talons the competition to score higher rankings is getting tougher.

The Italian team returned this year with a full camp and their hopes of winning were more than justified. Tenente Salvi had scored one of the highest points scores ever at Talons and the powerful FIAT G.55 seems to dominate every performance event. Tenente D'Aguilero was a newcomer but as graduate of the Bergamini school it is no wonder that he managed eighth place on his debut. Self confidence in the entire team has never been higher and indeed the ground crew managed to win two of the ground crew rugby matches after the day’s events.

Squadron Leader Douglas Bader took over leadership of the RAF team this year and a new face, Flt. Lt. Bob Stanford Tuck, has joined the team. Both are pilots with RAF Fighter Command. Again the RAF sent a Hawker Tornado and Typhoon pairing and although the majority of the reliability problems are behind them now the two powerful machines haven’t won much favour. Scoring twenty-fifth and twenty-seventh on the scoreboard has had a powerful effect. Despite fine flying ability the huge and cumbersome fighters have failed to make an impact at Talons. Both fighters still lead the horsepower ratings of the event after three years but the size and drag of the airframe and the lack of agility have shown. Bader was very unhappy telling me, “we’ll never fly these bloody crates here again!” Perhaps next year the RAF team will return to Spitfires? Even though Bader and Tuck were disappointed they didn’t let it show after hours and both men got up to high jinks in the bars and during the evenings the young pilots would crowd around Bader at the bar while he cracked jokes and passed on his wisdom about aerobatics and combat tactics.
The ground crews again played regular cricket matches organised by the RAF ground crews in between events and a series of international games of Rugby after each day’s events, the champions this year were British ground crew.

Germany returned with a new team and a new aircraft. Oberleutnant Heinrich Bär and Feldwebel Anton Hafner were both from Jagdgeschwader 51 and both flew Focke Wulf Fw-190A fighters. Both men knew each other very well and so they flew well together as a unit. Even so scoring twenty-sixth and twenty-ninth wasn’t pleasing after last year’s successes and the German team felt as depressed as the British by the final day. As if to rub salt into the wounds Capt. José Fernandez-Hermosa had finished second and had won the duels in a roughly identical aircraft. Focke Wulf technicians seemed very happy with their fighters and certainly they are very advanced and technically among the best at Talons. Perhaps it was inexperience at Talons that had hinder the team. No doubt Germany will bounce back next year.
The Luftwaffe ground crew brought no less than forty kegs of beer this year of no less than thirty different types and this got shared out among the various nationalities in the pilot’s bar and the ground crew’s bar.
Heinkel was happy with the performance of the two Turkish He-100B-6 fighters but indeed the heydays of German export fighters have passed, a few years back Talons was full of German planes, now only three other nations flew anything remotely German. The Turkish team has improved further with a third place (highest yet achieved) and twelfth being better than last year’s sixth and sixteenth and far higher than the earlier years.

France had long been absent from Talons and this year marked their second appearance. Much hope was raised last year by the sleek Arsenal VG-33. This year the VG-39bis seemed so much more advanced and the entire team was most enthusiastic and were predicting high points. Unfortunately a combination of unfamiliarity of Talons, ill luck and less than ideal performance left the French team, like the British and Germans, languishing far down the table (near the bottom). Certainly La Meslee had a long chat to the Italian D'Aguilero and he came away sure that the only hope to remain completive was to emulate the Bergamini school in France. It was all too apparent that the French having been so long away from Talons had lost a technological and tactical led to the Germans and Italians since the 1920s. The French ground crew though played some fine rugby with flair and brought with them several cases of wine but unfortunately the Champagne was never opened.

The Atlantean team wanted to follow-up l938’s win but scored sixth and seventh. Hard work after last year’s disappointing performance has led to a marked improvement and once again the Atlantean team has cemented its place among the world’s top teams. While they have embarrassed the European teams the proof that hard work can overcome past failures will be welcome news to the British, Germans and French. There was no doubt however that the Italian G.55 and the Heinkel He-100 were still a troublesome thorn in their side but the fate of the RAF team convinced them that indeed their SP-35 and Sp-40 are following down the correct development path. As ever Lavidicus and Hadrian remained convinced that dogfighting is the best tactical option and that agility should not be sacrificed purely for climb performance.

The South African team returned this year with the promised newer fighters. The legendary Group Commander Klaas Mathusen only managed fifth place this year but certainly his skill is not in doubt and his newer F-6 fighter has proven itself to be equal to most modern fighters. Flt. Captain Alberto Vargas, a native Grand Uruguayan was the newcomer. His arrival stirred some wartime memories but he was a jovial chap and certainly impressed with his flying skill flying the Foller FD-5 Mk II Wasp. He called his fighter "Sleepy-Time Gal" and the scantily clad nose-art made some impression. Indeed several pilots went home with pencil drawn beauties as souvenirs. However not everyone shared his artistic view and the Cordoba Temperance and Morality Committee wanted the art pained over and threatened legal action. This came to nothing but certainly they were more punters queued to see his plane than many others…

‘Canada’s Weird Contraptions’ was the sign hung over the Canadian servicing tent by some brave unknown mechanic in 1938 and this year it read ‘Canada’s Weirder Contraptions’. This year Antilles returned with the powerful Burnelli CF-38 twin-engined fighter, albeit upgraded to the latest CF-38b standard and Cmdr. Stele, perhaps with some trepidation, brought another CF-12. Stele was very cautious during the early stages of the contest and certainly the CF-12 must be a ‘hot-ship’ to fly but by the last few days his confidence in the fighter grew and he made some impressive manoeuvres in it. Antilles took second place this year and had finally put Canada at the forefront of Talons and proved that not all twin-engined fighters are hopelessly outclassed by single-engined fighters. A point emphasised b the performance of Vargas and Peters too.

What is the "Bergamini school"?

Cordoba Temperance and Morality Committee?!?

Yikes!

Probably Vargas should offer some nose art workshop during next Talons? Just to please his fans and visitors, and to help other pilots customising their planes of course. ;o)

Do it, is there a reason not to? I know you will have at least one or two coustimers from the Thai pilots (dont know how many I will send next year) and mechanics.

Great job on the event as a whole. Always fun to read.

23rd and the Lieutenant Y. Yucuman Memorial Trophy, not to bad. Way better then I expected in fact.

While 30th is not terribly impressive on the whole, it's a major step in the right direction from last years last place (with 2 points) finish.

Quoted

Originally posted by Brockpaine
What is the "Bergamini school"?

RA's mentioned it before; it's the elite fighter training school of Italy.

Quoted

Originally posted by TexanCowboy

Quoted

Originally posted by Brockpaine
What is the "Bergamini school"?

RA's mentioned it before; it's the elite fighter training school of Italy.

Oh - an Italian Top Gun. France already has one of those - and participates in a cooperative school with FAR, as well.

Quoted

Originally posted by Brockpaine
Oh - an Italian Top Gun. France already has one of those - and participates in a cooperative school with FAR, as well.

It's not really like Top Gun in my mind. Mostly, it'd take mid-level pilots e.g. flight commanders, before they move move up towards a squadron command. A tour at the school would last 2 years with a small intake, probably ~ 6-10 each year. At the end, they'd qualify as an air-to-air combat instructor and return to normal squadrons where they'd take up the responsibility for improving squadron performance. It's not a case of making a select group of pilots better, but making everyone a bit better. The school itself started off back in 1933 and ended up being a home for a few experimental types - it's now moved away from that role towards teaching.

In other non-fighter related news Talons last year saw the two wartime aces Major de Aero Philippe Carlos Roja and Wing Commander Michel Endress set up their joint venture, Trans Oceanic Airlines. This airline has resisted the doubters and they had a large stand at Talons where they sought further financial backers and new trade. The announcement of the foundation of Trans Oceanic Airlines in 1939 was swiftly followed by an order of four enlarged Mariners from the South African firm TMD (Thomson-Martinez-Doorman).

Called the Model 426, the flying-boat was ordered capable of carrying six additional passengers or comparable cargo weight over a distance of 1,500 miles. TMD designers answered these requirements by enlarging wing span and fuselage length and by fitting the reliable Stuart Burro B engines of 860hp each that were known for fuel efficiency. TMD managed first flight in January 1940 by rebuilding the original Model 420 prototype. Almost half a year later, on 4th of June, the first production Model 426 flying boat took off for her first flight in Trans Oceanic Airlines colours. Aboard the company’s maiden flight from Bahia Blanca to Montevideo were Roja and Endress and several representatives of the financiers and companies that supported the fledgling firm. Both Roja and Endress during the development of the Model 426 had made a couple of flights for themselves to check everything was satisfactory.

Last year the airline placed an order for four Marwijk Clippers. This totally new design has not yet been built. The Marwijk Clipper will be a large four-engined flying boat powered by four 1040hp BMG Double Lynx radial engines. The Argentine firm IMPA (Compania Industria Metalurgica & Plastica S.A.), famous for building the Vanquish bombers under licence, is to build the wings of the Clipper and already some jigs have been assembled and a workshop cleared for the start of production for the first prototype by the end of 1941.

Trans Oceanic Airlines had on hand several artists impressions of the new flying boat and a scale model. Most impressive however was a full-scale walk-though fuselage with five different cabins, each with a different décor and fit. Each visitor to walk through the fuselage filled in a questionnaire and voted for their favoured cabin style. The winning cabin design would be announced on the final day of Talons and would be applied to the production Clipper. No fewer than 6,847 people casted a vote. The winning design was by a young South African designer Joseph Hendrik and is of a modern art deco style with tasteful wooden inlays and plush upholstery with a thick dark pink carpet. The galley and restrooms will be totally covered in Formica laminate panels.



Two artists impressions of the Marwijk Clipper