Volcano Squadron

The Man in Black

Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 22:35:02 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: DG: EH - Starting Up

On Tue, 15 Dec 1998, Davide Mana wrote:
> If there are no other takers, being the proud owner of one orientalist
> brother, I can offer my help with the Chinese bit, too.
> I'll try and not make it too Feng Shui.
You can't be *too* Feng Shui! I was thinking Grey Dragon Island from Masks of Nyarlathotep could be used as a Secret U-boat/Luftwaffe Volcano base. Kinda hard to pull off without becoming James Bondish B-movie ludicrous.


Michael Layne

Subject: DG: Luftwaffe Secret Weapons
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 02:35:28 EST

For information on the aircraft for the squadron, check the sites at:
http://www.ufo.it/german/
and
http://www.bekkoame,or.jp/~k1-Sahara/LuftWaffe.htm
Personally, I'd be readier to believe in the modern-looking aircraft found on these pages (such as the Arado 555, which looks a bit like a US Stealth Bomber, some of the rocket interceptors, some German Kamikaze planes, and the Sanger Suborbital Bomber) than the flying saucers!

Late in the War, the Luftwaffe would have been hard-pressed to construct and maintain even a handful of flying saucers, and, if they had been introduced earlier in the War, their deployment would not still be a secret! (In fact, it is conceivable that, in such a case, this would be the Karotechnia List, where Herr Alphonse, Field Marshal MiB, etc., would be discussing how to deal with the Delta Green conspirators for the glory of the Fatherland....) :)


Michael Layne

Subject: Flying Discs (was Re: DG: Sinister Canada)
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1998 16:35:34 EST

On Sun, 20 Dec 1998 16:01:59 +0900 "David Farnell" writes:
> And from all the History Channel
> documentaries I've seen, the AVRO Car never flew, just skimmed along
> the ground--did they ever develop something that could actually have
> been mistaken for a flying alien saucer?
That was what I read about it, as well. The military designation was VZ-9V, and the disc was 20 feet in diameter.

There is a photo of it, and information on some other flying disc programs, at: http://unmuseum.mus.pa.us/realsauc.htm

The official story was apparently that, although the military expected great things of it, the jet engines of the time couldn't develop a sufficiently high power-to-weight ratio to lift the disc out of ground effect! (Of course, later, classified versions might have approached or even exceeded the original performance criteria...)

The AVRO disc, and some other flying-disc designs I've seen pictures of, didn't involve a fixed circular wing like the XF-5U "Flying Flapjack", but apparently made use of the "Coanda Effect".

Discovered by Henri Coanda -- who built a jet biplane in 1910 -- it states that by blowing a powerful jet along a flat surface (or vane), the flow of the jet will follow the flat surface, and even hug that surface as it begins to move into a circular shape. (He had discovered this by accident, during the taxi test, accidental takeoff, stall, and crash of his jet biplane prototype...) Coanda designed an Aerodyne machine that created through this effect a partial vacuum above a wing (or a disc in the shape of an airfoil). With normal pressure beneath the disc, there was created a considerable lifting force. According to Coanda, the air whirling at tremendous speed in circular motion about the rim of the disc would tend to stabilize it -- when the Aerodyne made a turn, it wouldn't bank like an airplane, but would move with a "skidding" motion through the air. While the disc would keep pointing in one direction, like a gyro, the cockpit would swivel to keep the pilot pointing in the direction he wanted to go, and by changing pressure along the different parts of the edge of the flying disc, he would be able to fly in whichever direction he chose.

The "Flying Flapjack", the Vought XF-5U, didn't use the Coanda Effect, but was more of a circular flying wing. Trying to design a high-speed fighter-bomber for the USN which could operate off small carriers, they built the prototype V-173, which first flew on 25 November 1942.
The V-173 ( inflight photo and 3-view plan) was found to have a stalling speed of 41 mph and excellent maneuverability. It had an oval combined fuselage/wing, two engines, and fixed landing gear.

The Navy was sufficiently interested to order two XF-5U-1 prototypes in 1944.

The airframes of the two XF-5U-1s were completed in August of 1945, with skin constructed of balsa wood laminated between two layers of aluminum. Delays were encountered in delivery of the special four-bladed articulated propellers, and, although the plane was ready to test in 1947, the Navy had lost interest in piston-engine fighters.

Officially, the program was cancelled, but sightings of disc-shaped UFOs in the area of Muroc (now Edwards AFB) make one wonder if it was cancelled, or simply became a "black" program... A thread concerning the XF-5U at the UFO Updates Mailing List suggests this possibility, and the additional possibility the Navy eventually refitted the XF-5U airframe with turbojet engines!

In the DG universe, we might imagine a squadron or two of XF-5U-1s embarked on the carrier "Philippine Sea" during Operation Highjump. If the USN flying discs encountered Nazi flying discs over Antarctica, the account of the resulting battle remains secret to this day (although who knows what data on it might turn up in the old files?). :)

For a photo of how a Navy XF-5U-1 might have looked, on the deck of the "Philippine Sea", check out this (All right, it's actually a photo of the 1/72 Hasegawa model, but it still looks impressive!):)

A 3-view plan of the XF-5U-1 can be found here and a photo of the plane (on the ground)

Converting the stats collected by Ortmann from metric, we get, for the XF-5U-1:
Wingspan: 32 feet 6 inches
Length: 28 feet 7 inches
Height: 16 feet 9 inches
Empty Weight: 13,117 lbs
Takeoff Weight: 18,188 lbs
Maximum Speed: estimated 460 mph
Service Ceiling: estimated 37,000 feet
Normal Range: estimated at least 993 miles on internal fuel
Powerplant: 2x 1350 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2000-7 radials turning 4-bladed propellers.
Armament: 6x20mm cannon, 2x 1000 lb bombs
For some suggestions on what the XF-5U-1 would be lining up in its sights, check out "Flying Saucers and the Third Reich"

If XF-5U-1s flew against German discs, the planes were obviously retired soon afterward, and official records would indicate that even the two initial ones never flew operationally...

(A plane that effectively didn't exist, fighting nonexistent Nazi aircraft... If any of our boys got a DFC out of this one, the citation's still classified!):)

Possibly the XF-5U-1s were all scrapped (except for one the Smithsonian apparently has in storage), but a much more satisfying fate for the planes in the DG world would have them mothballed in a hangar at Edwards, or China Lake NAS -- almost forgotten by all but a couple of DG Friendlies who conveniently know how to restore them to flyable condition (operating off a converted containership) for the Big Dogfight Scene vs. the Nazi Prototype Squadron, led by the German Knight of the Air, flying out of the Karotechia Secret Volcano Base!! :)


Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is TM and is a COPYRIGHT of the Delta Green Partnership, who have licensed its use here. The contents of this document are COPYRIGHTS of the respective authors, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.