This series is dedicated to the gallant service performed by the brave airmen of World War 2 who risked all so that we may enjoy our American way of life. The phrase “Big Brother, Little Brother” refers to the way the heavy bomber and fighter escort aircraft pilots called each other on the radio chatter.
On a personal note, my father “John” served as a flight engineer on a B-25 Mitchell out of Italy in 1944 and 1945. He made it back alive, as did my father-in-law “Danny” who served as a belly gunner on a B-24 Liberator out of Libya. “Danny” was one of the few airmen who flew in both Ploesti oil field raids to Romania (June 1942 and August 1943) and did so without so much as a scratch. He flew his 25 missions and returned to the US as a gunnery instructor (Lead, Dammit, Lead!).
Finding all the caches will display a GeoArt form of the Big Brother, Little Brother relationship on your map. The caches were not meant to be difficult to find. If you can’t find a cache, it’s probably missing. Send me a picture of the location by email, I’ll accept the find and replace the cache.
A-35 Vengeance
In 1940, Vultee Aircraft started the design of a single engined dive-bomber, the Vultee Model 72, Which ultimatley became the A-35 Vengeance.
The Vengeance was uniquely designed to dive vertically rather than at an angle. To this end the it had a 0° angle of incidence on the wing to prevent the aircraft from "tracking" forward during its dive. This resulted in the aircraft cruising in a nose-up attitude giving a poor forward view for the pilot, particularly during landing. It had an unusual, "W"-shaped wing planform. This resulted from an error in calculating its centre of gravity. Moving the wing back by "sweeping" the centre section was a simpler fix than re-designing the wing root. This gives impression of an inverted gull wing when seen from an angle, when in fact the wing has a more conventional dihedral on the outer wing panels.[2]
In combat, the type was considered rugged, reliable, stable, and generally well-behaved. Commonwealth forces operated the type from May 1942 to July 1944. Burma tended to be a low priority for Allied air planners, and forces in that theater got what was left over. Aircraft such as the Vickers Wellington and Hawker Hurricane spent their last days in Burma. The Vengeance saw considerable action attacking Japanese supply, communications and troop concentrations in Burma. Its service in that theater has been described as sterling.
Vultee A-35 Vengeance Technicals
General characteristics-
Crew: 2 (pilot, navigator/gunner)
Length: 39 ft 9 in
Wingspan: 48 ft 0 in
Height: 15 ft 4 in
Wing area: 332 ft²
Empty weight: 9,725 lb
Max. takeoff weight: 14,300 lb
Powerplant: 1 × Wright R-2600-A5B-5 Twin Cyclone 14 cylinder radial air-cooled engine, 1,600 hp
Performance-
Maximum speed: 275 mph at 11,000 ft
Cruise speed: 235 mph
Range: 1,400 miles
Service ceiling: 22,500 ft
Armament-
Guns:
4 × fixed forward-firing .30 in Browning machine guns in the wing
2 × flexible mount .30 in or .303 in machine guns in rear cockpit
Bombs:
2 × internal 500 lb bombs
2 × 250 lb bomb on wing racks
Survivors
On display-
The only known surviving V-35 is on display at the Camden Air Museum, New South Wales, Australia.