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Spitfire and V1


TimHepplestone

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Polish Mustang III squadrons also engaged in the tipping technique. W/O Tadeusz Szymanski with 316 Squadron, knocked two down on separate occasions by hitting them with his wingtip after he had run out of ammunition.

 

The first time he tried it he took eleven swipes at it before he decided to fly alongside and then pulled up into the beginning of a loop, denting his wingtip. The second time was much more successful a few days later over the Channel. One of his squadron mates tried the same technique but damaged his wingtip so badly that the aileron jammed and he was killed in the subsequent crash. Tipping was strongly discouraged after that, but fighter pilots being fighter pilots...

 

Interesting but poor photo of Szymanski and a member of the ground crew examining the damaged wingtip after his first successful tip of a V-1 on July 12, 1944. Mustang III, SZ-R, FB377

 

Fbe5Bpsl.jpg

Edited by R Palimaka
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Guest The Southern Bandit

I knew this stuff happened but always assumed it was the wing under a V1 wing tip and flipping it did the trick, but over or above would do the trick I suppose.

Not sure about this newish theory someone here proposed about a wing tips magnetism under a V1's gyro would upset it? that would require even more precise flying to not make contact and maintain inches apart formation with the V1 ... the Gyro would be in the body of a V1 for starters ... also as someone mentioned, Mosquito's later did this stuff too and it was likely the Mosquito's outer wing parts were wooden!

I think R Palimaka's  above post proves you had to make some physical contact with a V1 to upset it in flight, but I've always thought, the V1 is going to come down somewhere, so unless you intercepted them at sea, it will still cause as much damage on land, but hopefully not London or its other intended real target.

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Guest The Southern Bandit

Are there any good 1/32 V1 models out there? Tamiya did one in 1/48 I built once ... what a diorama that would be!

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I knew this stuff happened but always assumed it was the wing under a V1 wing tip and flipping it did the trick, but over or above would do the trick I suppose.

 

Not sure about this newish theory someone here proposed about a wing tips magnetism under a V1's gyro would upset it? that would require even more precise flying to not make contact and maintain inches apart formation with the V1 ... the Gyro would be in the body of a V1 for starters ... also as someone mentioned, Mosquito's later did this stuff too and it was likely the Mosquito's outer wing parts were wooden!

 

I think R Palimaka's  above post proves you had to make some physical contact with a V1 to upset it in flight, but I've always thought, the V1 is going to come down somewhere, so unless you intercepted them at sea, it will still cause as much damage on land, but hopefully not London or its other intended real target.

 

Actual, this was eventually put into practice. To encourage a V-1 shoot down over water, a greater "credit" was awarded for a V-1 shoot down over water than land. 

 

Mark Proulx

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a video on the Tempest and the pilots swear that it rarely happened and the tipping of wings that is a confirmed story was by a Polish pilot in a Spit. Also the Meteor wasn't involved hardly at all either. It sort of stacks up because the Tempest was the fastest fighter assigned to catch the V1 if they flew past the coastal gun belt on their way London.

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