Roosevelt's ruthlessness, that I read about, was essentially that he illegally skirted the American Neutrality Act before even entering the war formally, In Behind the Glory (and supposedly also the Hollywood film Captains of the Clouds, but I have not seen that), Ted Barris recounts that after Canada began supplying crews and planes to the British, King (Canadian PM), Churchill and Roosevelt arranged to have the Americans supply planes AND troops as well. Individual citizens can move. And selling manufactured goods to another country is just business, not war.
Roosevelt called us the "aerodrome of democracy" (as he later called the US the "arsenal of democracy").
But I like the Goebbels quote about Canadian pilots the best: "It drives one mad to think that some Canadian boor, who probably can't even find Europe on the globe, flies here from a country glutted with natural resources, which his people don't know how to exploit, to bombard a continent with a crowded population." I expected better from their propaganda guy, honestly; and a poopyhead to you too, good sir.
For a good Murmuration synchronicity though, before signing off the open military history post, apparently, is that I just talked to the lead engineer of the new electric float plane that just took it's first test flight from Vancouver to Vancouver Island today. "Making history!" everyone kept saying, and I was rolling my eyes and saying I expected it would, because it would fly like walrus - so heavy with the batteries, and no range. So I decided to go trash talk the engineer to her face - it's mean to talk behind someone's back, I figured; and told her what I expected of her plane.
She laughed, said it was heavier, but the engine design differed radically from the cars, and they were working with the battery people (who were not high in her estimation - "uh, where's your test history? specifications?" and they'd say, "we made a video about how neat they are!"), but the new propeller designs made the plane 50% more fuel efficient on liftoff, and absolutely silent. The thing is trickle charging right now in a 220V socket.
If, she said, it was a regular plane, it would not be an improvement, but since the Beaver was a seaplane, and only did short hops at 500 feet, it actually was. When she started the project, she had found comments from the original engineer of the Beaver on the impact of adding pontoons to a plane: "It flies like a snowplow through the air."
All the engineers were talking about their "plow" by the time I left.
no subject
Roosevelt called us the "aerodrome of democracy" (as he later called the US the "arsenal of democracy").
But I like the Goebbels quote about Canadian pilots the best: "It drives one mad to think that some Canadian boor, who probably can't even find Europe on the globe, flies here from a country glutted with natural resources, which his people don't know how to exploit, to bombard a continent with a crowded population." I expected better from their propaganda guy, honestly; and a poopyhead to you too, good sir.
For a good Murmuration synchronicity though, before signing off the open military history post, apparently, is that I just talked to the lead engineer of the new electric float plane that just took it's first test flight from Vancouver to Vancouver Island today. "Making history!" everyone kept saying, and I was rolling my eyes and saying I expected it would, because it would fly like walrus - so heavy with the batteries, and no range. So I decided to go trash talk the engineer to her face - it's mean to talk behind someone's back, I figured; and told her what I expected of her plane.
She laughed, said it was heavier, but the engine design differed radically from the cars, and they were working with the battery people (who were not high in her estimation - "uh, where's your test history? specifications?" and they'd say, "we made a video about how neat they are!"), but the new propeller designs made the plane 50% more fuel efficient on liftoff, and absolutely silent. The thing is trickle charging right now in a 220V socket.
If, she said, it was a regular plane, it would not be an improvement, but since the Beaver was a seaplane, and only did short hops at 500 feet, it actually was. When she started the project, she had found comments from the original engineer of the Beaver on the impact of adding pontoons to a plane: "It flies like a snowplow through the air."
All the engineers were talking about their "plow" by the time I left.