Current and Finished Projects > Profiles and Pixels
Apophenia's Offerings
upnorth:
Those are some cool Macchi profiles!
I've been distracted from further work on the story due to some real world stuff. Hopefully I'll get back to it before too long.
apophenia:
kitnut617: Okay, so Occam's Razor says the winner is ... World's-Worst-Puma-Drawing ;D
upnorth: Cheers! Looking forward to seeing where your story goes :smiley:
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So, this one is a bit off the wall but the concept was prompted by Greg's Australian Combined Arms Capability in Interwar Period scenario:
-- https://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?topic=10079.msg191295#new
My image is a what-if Australia had taken up the easy-to-build US 'Skeleton Tank' - a prototype of which was produced during WWI by the Pioneer Tractor Co. of Winona, Minnesota.
Part of Greg's scenario involves armoured forces with the Medium Mk V and the Medium Mk A Whippet mentioned amongst other tank types. For its time, the Whippet was fast [1] and had four machine guns. Problem was, only two of those Hotchkiss guns could be fired at any given time - the guns having limited fields of fire and there being only two crew members to fire them. (A rotating turret had been part of the original concept but this was later abandoned for simpler flexible gun mounts). A bigger problem was that the 16-foot long Whippet was incapable of crossing wider, late-war German trenches.
The innovative (or just bizarre?) 'Skeleton Tank' got around both problems. Being 25 feet long, [1] the 'Skeleton Tank' had the track length to cross late-war trenches. And being much lighter than the British rhomboid tanks, the 'Skeleton Tank' would be less likely to collapse the sides of that trench. The US tank also had a 360° traversing machine gun turret. Best of all, only the most vulnerable parts of the 'Skeleton Tank' were heavily plated - the engines and crew compartment. Those were situated in an armoured 'box' suspended between the tracks and several feet off the ground.
As mentioned, much of the vehicle was 'open'. The track frames having no centres and being connected to that armoured crew compartment 'box' by a fretwork of struts. Each of those struts was a length of threaded 3-inch water pipe joined together with standard plumbing fittings. By only armouring essential areas, the 25 foot 'Skeleton Tank' weighed little more than the 16 foot Renault FT 2-man light tank - about 8 short tons vs 7.2 short tons. (For comparison, the 20 foot-long Whippet weighed 15.68 short tons.) Being of circular section, those steel water pipes were also capable of deflecting glancing impacts by bullets and shell fragments. Perhaps less well appreciated at the time would have been the vehicle's potential resistance to the blast effects of nearby shell bursts.
I have named my Australian what-if the 'Monash Medium'. A few changes from the original 'Skeleton Tank' are obvious. First, I faceted the crew compartment to further enhance blast resistance. Second, I have replaced the cylindrical American turret with a cast turret - a later type (fitted to some Renault FTs) to be imported from France. [1] Athough not detailed here, I'd imagine some 'Anglicisation' of equipment as well - perhaps using more powerful British-made engines instead of American to boost top speed? Possibly substituting the superior tracks from the Whippet? Otherwise, this Aussie Spider Tank would be unchanged from the Pioneer Tractor original.
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[1] The French turret is shown here rotated to the rear. (The white-painted top is a recognition mark ... which also served to lower interior temperatures.) Turret armament is a single 0.303-inch Hotchkiss Mk.I (with another Hotchkiss mounted in the hull to be forward-fired remotely by the driver).
jcf:
Reading the description of the Skeleton it states it had two "50hp Beaver 4-cylinder engines".
Doing some digging I came up with this on a site about "Milwaukee Gasolene Locomotives", the kind
of machinery used in mines etc.
H-6 a 50 HP, 6 ton locomotive, using a Beaver model JE, 4.75x6" 4 cylinder engine.
The Beaver JE displacement comes out to slightly over 425 in3.
The 1910 Mercer 30 was powered by a 30hp 285 in3 Beaver 4-cyl.
Evidently Beaver was a successful early manufacturer with most of their engines being used in
in the truck, rail, marine etc. businesses after a short stint in passenger cars.
The Tylor JB.4 engines in the Whippet were 45 hp 7.72 liter (463 in3).
Towards the end of the war the Harry Ricardo designed 105hp alloy six-cylinder started coming on line, but I don't
think it would really be an option in post-WWI Australia, ditto the Armstrong-Siddeley V-8 etc. Some sort of truck
or industrial engine would probably be more likely.
A.E.C. seem to have been dominant in Australia in period and, drum-roll, was a user of Tylor engines, the most
common one being the JB.4 which was produced in the thousands of units, and which, as we've seen, was used
in the Whippet A.
Later in the 1920s Tylor produced the Tiger which was designed as a drop-in replacement for the JB.4, it
was very conservatively rated at 40hp by the RAC , it was actually measured at 76.5hp at 1,650 rpm on a
dynamometer, highest attained by the old JB.4 was 60.05hp. Torque also increased.
https://archive.commercialmotor.com/article/16th-november-1926/50/an-interesting-proprietary-engine
Monash Medium originally built with Tylor JB.4, as per the Whippet A, in place of the US Beaver engines.
It was later re-engined with Tylor Tiger engines. ;)
apophenia:
--- Quote from: jcf on November 30, 2021, 02:19:09 PM ---...
Monash Medium originally built with Tylor JB.4, as per the Whippet A, in place of the US Beaver engines.
It was later re-engined with Tylor Tiger engines. ;)
--- End quote ---
Great stuff! Thanks Jon :smiley:
Here is another thought on Greg's Australian Combined Arms Capability in Interwar Period scenario:
-- https://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?topic=10079.msg191295#new
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As part of the Imperial Gift, Australia received 31 x Airco DH.9A and 28 x Airco DH.9s. The Liberty-powered DH.9As were excellent light day bombers. But Puma-engined DH.9s were seriously underpowered. As a result, many DH.9 airframes went straight into long-term storage at No. 1 Aircraft Depot (1 AD) at RAAF Point Cook, Victoria. By contrast, the DH.9As served the new RAAF well until 1925-26 when they were due for reconditioning and updating.
Most RAAF DH.9A airframes were rotated through a refurbishment programme by various civilian contractors. Some equipment updates were made but, other than extra cowling ventilation for improved engine cooling and the fitting of Handley Page wing slats to improve low-speed handling, few other changes were thought necessary. To speed these DH.9A rebuilds (and reduced their costs), stored DH.9 airframes were often raided for suitable parts and components.
Bottom RAAF Airco DH.9A A1-17 (ex-F2779), C Flight, 1 Squadron, RAAF, Point Cook, Victoria, late 1926. This aircraft carries a Hythe Mk.III gun camera on its Scarff ring mount. The unofficial Flight Lieutenant pennant shows A1-17 to be the mount of 1 Sqn C/O Flt Lt Harry Cobby, DFC, DSO.
DH.9A A1-17 would have just been returned from reconditioning by Pratt Bros. at Geelong. [1] Obvious upgrades are the Handley Page wing slots, Mort's Dock [2] cowling with extra ventilation, and Matthews & Hassell [3] auxiliary radiator beneath the engine.
A Local Mod - the Airco DHA.9 Dingo
Along with being robbed for parts, most of the stored DH.9s had lost their engines. [4] That proved a blessing in disguise. Beginning in 1929, the stored airframes were reconditioned and rebuilt in a very different form. The concept for what emerged as the DHA.9 Dingo rebuild originated with Flt Lt AW 'Spud' Murphy at the RAAF Experimental Section (under the tutelage of Wg Cdr Lawrence Wackett). The inadequate Puma engines were replaced by more powerful Bristol Jupiter radials. To further improve to speeds, the lower wings were 'bobbed' creating a sesquiplane configuration. Perhaps invariably, the 'new' DHA.9 Dingo was dubbed the 'Nine-Bob'.
Top RAAF Airco DHA.9 Dingo A6-28 (ex-C6323, combined with parts from A6-8 ex-F1295) in late August 1930. This aircraft served with the RAAF's first ground-attack unit - the newly-reformed 6 Squadron based at Richmond, NSW. Note the revised forward fuselage, new 'spung' main undercarriage, and absense of HP wing slats on the DHA.9.
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[1] Properly the Aircraft Manufacturing Supply Company of Australia, the Pratts were proprietors of the Belmont Common aerodrome at Geelong.
[2] In full, Mort's Dock and Engineering Co. Ltd. of Balmain (Sydney), New South Wales.
[3] Matthews & Hassell Engineering Co. Ltd. based at Essendon aerodrome (Melbourne), Victoria
[4] The Siddeley Puma 6-cylinder engines were repurposed by the Victorian Railways (VR) for use on fast petrol-engined trains for their non-electrified suburban routes. A variation on these Puma-powered 'Red Rocket' trains were also adopted for some New South Wales Government Railways routes - the NSWGR interurbans having their own distinctive bodywork.
BTW: These sideviews are based on Ronny Bar's Wingnut Wings DH.9A profile.
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GTX_Admin:
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