British military 'inventions''?

I believe our esteemed British couzans (Cajun French for cousins) developed the aerial approach of naval aircraft for landing on aircraft carriers. After many mishaps in landing, it was determined that the straight-on approach did not give pilots a clear view of the flattop they were trying to land on. The perpendicular approach, followed by turning towards the deck was a much more successful process and adopted by all. This was prior to WW2 of course, but it made a lot of difference in naval aviators life expectancy.

 

Not exactly sure what you trying to say here.

AFAIK, it was the upwind leg(flying parallel to the aircraft carrier in the same direction as the carrier), break (turn onto the downwind leg), fly the downwind leg( flying parallel to the aircraft carrier in the opposite direction of the carrier), break (turn onto final approach), final approach, and land.

Much the same as you would land at an actual airport.

 

I don't know what I'm trying to say most of the time either, but I've read that the British developed that landing approach to landing on aircraft carriers prior to WW2.

 

And a method of reusing old newspapers....

 

But... we are the bestest. Thought that was a universal truth?! :v4victory:

 

I'd say something, but--it's for another thread

 

OK, I will

It is a universal truth...Just not in this one. :eyebrows:

 

I am living proof of the very best British invention...Australians.
The US comes a close second...

 

Carrolade.
Gotta be the birth of smoothies, right? (Mixed carrot and Swede juices.)



On special WW2 Remembrance Day occasions, mom would serve Carrot Jam (Not half bad by the way) dried egg omelettes, canned milk,
+ Woolton Pie, which I have turned into a bit of a home favourite, using more modern / flavourful squashes.

Other food inventions, from: http://www.cooksinfo.com/british-wartime-food
National Flour (Wheatmeal)

Household Milk", dried skim milk for general consumption
National Dried Milk, a dried "full cream" milk powder aimed at feeding infants.

National Butter made, to help replace the reduced butter supplies from New Zealand.



National Margarine: http://www.cooksinfo.com/national-margarine
in fact two types, a standard and a special which was, in theory, of slightly better quality than the standard, though some people said even it tasted like melted candles.

Special Margarine contained hard and soft vegetable oils and marine oils in proportions which were frequently varied according to the supply and the time of year, as well as milk, salt, flavouring and vitamin.

The only other variety on sale to the public was kosher and vegetarian margarine, which contained no marine oil, milk, salt or flavouring.



Anyone know of more?
National Dried Egg, courtesy of America

 

Again from: http://www.cooksinfo.com/british-wartime-food

Fish and chips were not rationed.
Consequently, fish and chips, which before the war had been seen as just a working-class food, made its way upward to become a food that all Britons ate.

- Hell, they are chock-a-block even here in Canada, Australia, NZ...

(I've heard very little about the British Fishing Fleet in WW2. Catch Volume... where they focused, how they got woman / manpower. It is a story I would very much like to hear.
"Saviors of the day" one would think.)

Your local chippie could also sell you meat pies, as they were not rationed, either -- though the meat in them was more likely to be Spam than anything else.

 

..great thread and some great info from phylo RK - where can we read more about the German nuclear physicists held in the UK post-war ?

and another 'radar-related' British invention - which for the reasons stated by PRK above appears to be an American one but isn't..airborne early warning (AEW & AWACS)

the British invented the air-cooled cavity magnetron and put it a Wellington - the Wellington ACI counts as the first practical AEW aircraft..and was used to detect air-dropped V-1s launched over the North Sea. The Tizard mission gave all our radar secrets to MIT for them to develop...

http://falkeeinsgreatplanes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/beyond-horizon-history-of-airborne.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tizard_Mission

 

Has anyone mentioned the angled flight deck yet?

 

this is why I started the thread...I mentioned a couple of carrier deals, but not this one...you are correct....here's my point, the US had the need for angled flight decks more so, [ I would think, because of its immense carrier fleet in WW2<>more flights, more crashes,more people researching it??etc ] but the Brits invented it?

 

IFF morphed into Aircraft Transponders, ADS-B

- The modern FLARM and PowerFLARM is of special interest to us recreational aviation types http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLARM

 

Just on that one-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Restaurant

 

At the time, the need for an angled deck in the US Navy was not there.

The Royal Navy, late in World War II, accepted that the future was in jet aircraft. Thus began to plan accordingly for an angled flight deck, because to use jets operationally on an aircraft carrier necessitated an angled flight deck. Landing speeds were to great, crash barriers were not near as effective, etc.

The US Navy had it's priorities changed on August 6th and 9th, 1945, with the dropping of the two atomic bombs. Thus the US Navy focused on getting atomic bombers aboard aircraft carriers. Such bomber would need a long straight run to takeoff, and a long straight run to land. An angled deck would provide no help in operating such atomic bombers. Certainly, the US Navy had recognized the value of jets, but putting jets on carriers was not the priority that getting atomic bombs on carriers was.

 

Fred, I can answer some of the points above...

Fish and chips weren't rationed....in that they weren't rationed when you bought them over the counter...but you couldn't buy spuds on grocers shops. They just weren't sold. At least, not in Northern Ireland where the same ration regime applied.

ALL spuds grown went into MoF hands, to do with what they would. Every pound-weight was accounted by the men from the Ministry and carted off from potato farmers to disappear into the system.

Caveat now....spuds DID occasionally appear in shops but only if there was a glut, at particular varieties' harvest times. THEN they were off the ration. But most of the year they just weren't there to buy after what was needed for other purposes were taken out of the supply; they were processed for potato flakes, and also into potato flour.


Fish....now, thereby hangs a tale! The traditional view is the British fishing fleet, battling all sorts of perils, including an acute shortage of labour, captains AND even boats after the formation of the RNPS....to feed the nation all through the war....

A thread on this came up on AHF a year or more ago. In reality, after a bit of searching by various people....the REAL picture was very different!

As the war progressed, British fishing boats and crews were increasingly loath to take to sea! Under the Hague Conventions, fishing boats were safe from attack IF they had no defensive armament, OR RADIOS and burned a specific set of identifying lamps. But through 1939 and 1940 the Admiralty seems to have forced guns and radios into British fishing boats, outside of the RNPS....so that the Navy didn't have to waste resources escorting them!

So they increasingly came under attack by aircraft and eboats - as well as all the perils from floating loose mines etc.. And the British national catch plummeted as a result. Crews refused to go to sea up and down the coast.

But supplies of certain types of fresh landed fish, frozen and tinned fish supplies DID stay up, and in some cases actually rose...thanks to the fishing fleets of the Faroes and Iceland, who came south to the UK to sell their catches!

 

but what was the standard atomic bomber? B-29? I would think it very hard to get even a B25 off a carrier with that kind of bombload, unless the deck was extremely long

 

Standard for the Air Force because of its range as a hemispherical bomber....but the point about aircraft carriers is that they vastly cut the range to a given target

 

yes....do they still keep nukes on US ships? what aircraft would deliver it? A3 Skywarrior could handle 12,000 lbs of weapons? I wonder what the difference was between a stall and flight from the carrier with full load?