Category: Flight Simulator X - Aircraft Repaints, Textures and Modifications
Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IX EN186 Bluebird

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File Description: Spitfire IXc EN186 was the personal aircraft of S/L L.C. Wade, an American flying with the RAF. Wade was born in the small farming community of Broaddus, Texas in 1915. He was the second son of Bill and Susan Wade, who named him L.C. (only after the RAF demanded a forename did he call himself Lance Cleo Wade). After the family moved to a farm near Reklaw, Texas in 1922 he worked on the family farm and attended the local school. He was unable to join the US Army Aviation Cadet Program due to a lack of a college education. He began flying at age 17, at Tucson, Arizona. In 1934 at age 19, Wade joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in Arizona. He joined the RAF in Canada in December 1940 and trained with No. 52 Operational Training Unit (OTU). Wade was then sent to the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal and flew off her deck in Hawker Hurricane to reinforce the depleted ranks of aircraft on the island of Malta. He was then sent to Egypt as a Hawker Hurricane Mk I pilot in September 1941, and was posted to 33 Squadron. The squadron's mission was to provide close air support for Operation Crusader, the British assault launched on November 18, 1941, against the German Afrika Korps. His first kills were two Fiat CR.42s on 18 November. He attained the rank of "ace" on 24 November 1941. He began flying Hurricane Mk IIs in April 1942, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). He had 13 victories as of September 1942. He spent the next several months back in the US on various RAF projects including evaluating some American fighters at Wright Field. He returned to combat as a Flight Commander in 145 Squadron with a Bar to his DFC, flying Supermarine Spitfire Mk Vs. Promoted to squadron leader, he had a busy 60 days, as by the end of April his score was 21, by then flying Spitfire Mk IXs. His squadron moved to Italy, and as a Spitfire VIII pilot he claimed two Focke-Wulf Fw 190s of Schlachtgeschwader 4 on 2 October 1943. His last claims were three FW 190s (again of SG 4) damaged on 3 November. Wade became a wing commander and joined the staff of the Desert Air Force but was there only briefly, as he was killed in a flying accident on 12 January 1944 at Foggia, Italy. In 30 fights for which he made claims he was credited with 23 victories including two shared), one probable, and 13 damaged. He is also credited with one destroyed and five damaged on the ground. Wing Commander Wade is usually listed with 25 victories but official RAF records show that he had 22 solo victories and half each of two more for a total of 23, not counting one probable. Regardless of whether his score is 25, or 23 victories, he is still the leading American fighter ace to serve exclusively in any foreign air force. Since he never transferred to the USAAF, or any other American Air service, Wade never got the publicity that other American aces received and thus is more obscure than his peers. The aircraft depicted in this repaint, EN186, started its active career with 249 sqn on Malta, who used it for high flying reconaissance, and who were responsible for replacing the dark green with Mediterranean Blue. The aircraft was then transferred to Tunisia, where it was the personal aircraft of W/C Gleed of the 244 wing. After his death, it went to L.C. Wade, who scored 5 victories with it in april 1943. He did not apply any codes to it, and referred to it in his logbook as BB, for Blue Bird. He flew it till august 1943, when he changed to flying Spitfire MK VIII JF472 Repaint by Jan Kees Blom, based on the paintkit by RealAir.

Filename:	jk_realair_spitfire_en186_bluebird.zip
License:	Freeware
Added:	11th July 2018, 16:54:01
Downloads:	101
Author:	Jan Kees Blom
Size:	3.75 MB

Category: Orbiter - Orbital Stations
New Skylab 2, 3 And 4 Mission

File Description:
Skylab 2 25 May 1973 13:00 GMT. Duration: 28.03 days. Call Sign: Skylab. Backup Crew: McCandless, Musgrave, Schweickart. Nation: USA. Agency: NASA. Launch Site: Cape Canaveral . Launch Complex: LC39B. Launch Vehicle: Saturn IB . LV Configuration: Saturn IB s/n SA-206. Program: Skylab. Class: Manned. Type: Lunar spacecraft. Spacecraft: Apollo CSM. Payload : Apollo CSM 116. Mass: 19,979 kg. Location of Spacecraft: Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola, FL. Perigee: 427 km. Apogee: 439 km. Inclination: 50.0 deg. Period: 93.2 min. Epic repair mission which brought Skylab into working order. Included such great moments as Conrad being flung through space by the whiplash after heaving on the solar wing just as the debris constraining it gave way; deployment of a lightweight solar shield, developed in Houston in one week, which brought the temperatures down to tolerable levels. With this flight US again took manned spaceflight duration record. When the meteoroid shield ripped loose, it disturbed the mounting of workshop solar array "wing" two and caused it to partially deploy. The exhaust plume of the second stage retro-rockets impacted the partially deployed solar array and literally blew it into space. Also, a strap of debris from the meteoroid shield overlapped solar array "wing" number one such that when the programmed deployment signal occurred, wing number one was held in a slightly opened position where it was able to generate virtually no power. In the meantime, the space station had achieved a near-circular orbit at the desired altitude of 435 kilometers (270 miles). All other major functions including payload shroud jettison, deployment of the Apollo Telescope Mount (Skylab's solar observatory) and its solar arrays, and pressurization of the space station occurred as planned. Scientists, engineers, astronauts, and management personnel at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and elsewhere worked throughout the first ten-day period of Skylab's flight to devise the means for its rescue. Simultaneously, Skylab--seriously overheating--was maneuvered through varying nose-up attitudes that would best maintain an acceptable "holding" condition. Because of the loss of the meteoroid shield, however, this positioning caused workshop temperatures to rise to 52 degrees Celsius (126 degrees F). During that ten-day period and for some time thereafter, the space station operated on less than half of its designed electrical system, in the partially nose-up attitudes, was generating power at reduced efficiency. The optimum condition that maintained the most favorable balance between Skylab temperatures and its power generation capability occurred at approximately 50 degrees nose-up. The crew rendezvoused with Skylab on the fifth orbit. After making substantial repairs, including deployment of a parasol sunshade which cooled the inside temperatures to 23.8 degrees C (75 degrees F), by June 4 the workshop was in full operation. In orbit the crew conducted solar astronomy and Earth resources experiments, medical studies, and five student experiments; 404 orbits and 392 experiment hours were completed; three EVAs totalled six hours, 20 minutes. Skylab 3 28 July 1973 11:10 GMT. Duration: 59.46 days. Call Sign: Skylab. Backup Crew: Brand, Lenoir, Lind. Nation: USA. Agency: NASA. Launch Site: Cape Canaveral . Launch Complex: LC39B. Launch Vehicle: Saturn IB . LV Configuration: Saturn IB s/n SA-207. Program: Skylab. Class: Manned. Type: Lunar spacecraft. Spacecraft: Apollo CSM. Payload: Apollo CSM 117. Mass: 20,121 kg. Location of Spacecraft: NASA Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, OH. Perigee: 422 km. Apogee: 442 km. Inclination: 50.0 deg. Period: 93.2 min. Continued maintenance of the Skylab space station and extensive scientific and medical experiments. Installed twinpole solar shield on EVA; performed major inflight maintenance; doubled record for length of time in space. Completed 858 Earth orbits and 1,081 hours of solar and Earth experiments; three EVAs totalled 13 hours, 43 minutes. Skylab4 16 November 1973 14:01 GMT. Duration: 84.05 days. Call Sign: Skylab. Backup Crew: Brand, Lenoir, Lind. Nation: USA. Agency: NASA. Launch Site: Cape Canaveral . Launch Complex: LC39B. Launch Vehicle: Saturn IB . LV Configuration: Saturn IB s/n SA-208. Program: Skylab. Class: Manned. Type: Lunar spacecraft. Spacecraft: Apollo CSM. Payload: Apollo CSM 118. Mass: 20,847 kg. Location of Spacecraft: National Air and Space Museum (Smithsonian Institution), Washington, DC. Perigee: 422 km. Apogee: 437 km. Inclination: 50.0 deg. Period: 93.1 min. Included observation and photography of Comet Kohoutek among numerous experiments. Completed 1,214 Earth orbits and four EVAs totalling 22 hours, 13 minutes. Increased manned space flight time record by 50%. Rebellion by crew against NASA Ground Control overtasking led to none of the crew ever flying again.

Filename:	skylab_mission.zip
License:	Freeware
Added:	11th January 2003, 16:39:14
Downloads:	1,934
Author:	Ronald Dandurand
Size:	6 KB