british commonwealth

I keep bumping into this from different angles, its technically very interesting to me so I'll ask the question here and see what happens. In the late 50s Britain was looking for a more commercially oriented nuclear power reactor type to follow on from it's operationally successful but not very...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqcc2ActCCU

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-06/new-zealand-navy-ship-runs-aground-off-samoa-/104438052

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1024203.pdf

As any deeply invested Spitfire fan knows, the intended major developments never eventuated and the history of the Spitfire was one of interim variants that did very well. The dead ends are as follows: SPITFIRE III: Merlin 20 development with four cannon and major airframe revisions; abandoned...

I'm posting this in the post war section, but it is possible, given it's title that it may be a interwar project. I came across this proposal from Short Bros for an eight-engined long range flying boat. I have checked throughout the site but without any luck. Wonder if anyone can fill in the...

So a dude on the War Thunder forums, "Whelmy", found some docs on this Canadian "super heavy tank" a number of years back, designed by a Canadian dude named (lieutenant) Norman Samuels. Unfortunately i only saved one of the documents from his posts, but he did publish a number of them back in...

I an sure I will call down a whole host of ‘trouble’ on my head for raising this, but, Here we go… We all know that the Royal Navy post WW2 was in an invidious position regards available finance and the shifting sands of changing priorities. One thing I think was the (in retrospect at least)...

If anyone is seeking copies of Air Ministry Specifications from the inter-war years and finds it tricky to find them in the National Archives and costly to order, then I thoroughly recommend looking to the Library and Archives Canada...

Due to the jet age, various super props never go to production despite their high performance. Among those, it can be said that XP-72 and Spiteful F.16 were the most high capable design. So let say if these prototype got to production stage, which would be the ultimate piston fighter? XP-72...

I am reading an article on the LW/AW radar set designed in Australia. It states the first production unit went into full operation at Tufi in November 1942. When I google Tufi airfield, all I find is this web page, which claims it was built in the 1960s...

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/library-and-archive/archive-hidden-treasures/first-military-forecast

the richelieu hybrid: https://www.laroyale-modelisme.net/t20387-jean-bart-hybride-1-400 (in french)

Apart from on the pages of Eagle comic there is no such thing as the Royal Space Force. 1957 ;saw not just the infamous Sandys White Paper but also the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union. PM Macmillan and Defence Secretary Sandys realise how vulnerable this makes the West and Britain in...

There have been several discussions about the British aircraft of the 60s since I started here a few weeks ago, apparently it's a never ending topic. They appear to start out technically and end financially and politically in a viscous circle of failure. In the process some interesting and...

Hey fellas, I'm (planning) on making a video game, set in the late 1950s, where Britain, the USSR and the USA each have their own space programmes, the US having Von Brauns ferry rocket and space lift ops, and the Brits having the BIS', now formed as the British Interplanetary Commission...

I can't find any thread on here regarding the Nemesis MBT, a British project with some US/Commonwealth contributions. https://tankhistoria.com/experimental/nemesis-mbt/?utm_content=cmp-true This article makes mention of a variety of considered versions in both the mounting of the gun...

In July 1940 the hounded British government warns the Australians of an imminent embargo of any aviation materials. On 10 December 1941 the capital ships of the Royal Navy H.M.S. Prince of Wales and H.M.S. Repulse are sunk by Japanese airplanes. On 21 December of the same month, the firm...

I was in Kew and while rummaging in some tanker files (yes, yes, I know, it's getting to be a problem. I need a hobby) I found a reference to 28 cases of New Zealand whisky being flown to Ascension on a VC10 (that strengthened floor was good for something after all) or a Herk. This had been...

One of my continuing interests and a strength of this site is information about Royal Navy ships that never left the drawing board. Recently.not so much has been published about these designs so I thought I would start this thread. Many projects have there own threads and are well known to...