Story behind famous 14 Sqn RNZAF P40E photos

[Dave Homewood]

Many publications have reproduced photos from a well known set of shots of three No. 14 Squadron P40E's, one of which was famously entitled "Umsploppogas"

I recently read in the very rare book 'Fighters' by Leo White, who was an RNZAF photographer during the war and later started White's Aviation - the story behind these photos. I thought it was quite interesting so I'll share it here. Text scanned from the book.



This is one of his photos of NZ3008, "Umsloppogas"



There were many similar shots done during the war of No. 15 and No. 16 Sqn P40's, as well as Hudsons and other types. I wonder if they too were all Leo's work.

[turboNZ]

Great story !!!
Thanks Dave.

Is it me or is the rudder angle on the P-40 in the shot being aggresively used

Cheers

[Bruce]

In the photo the pilot is flying with slightly crossed controls in order to display the topsides of the aircraft to the photographer. Note the aileron positions. If this was not countered with opposite rudder the P40 would be flying into the camera aircraft, hence a reasonably large input of opposite rudder. Care has to be taken when flying in this manner to avoid stalling (especially high speed) because this would induce an extremely nasty snap into a spin, possibly inverted! To do this in close formation with a slower aircraft shows how well these pilots (remember how young they were) had come to grips with thier powerful fighters.

[turboNZ]

So basically he's sideslipping the P-40E for the photoshoot. It's amazing what you can get out of a photo just by looking at it a few times.

Cheers Bruce,

TNZ

[Dave Homewood]

Hmm, and optical illusion I think - I just found a less cropped version of the same photo, and the rudder looks pretty straight to me in this one.

[Bruce]

The thing to note is the gap in front of the rudder mass balance that shows the rudder is offset - this view also shows the aileron positions very clearly. The aircraft is out of balance, which makes perfect sense for the angle the aircraft is shown in the picture.

[turboNZ]

Also check out the trim-tab on the rudder. To me it looks like it's pointed straight ahead with the main rudder offset.

TNZ