Octane (#11683),
Michael,
Thank you for the video. Betty Grable (that brings a gleam to my rheumy old eye !) A princess of the silver screen in WWII, her legs were reputedly insured for a million dollars by the film studio. She was renowned more for her very short, tight pants, which were cut as high on the hip as the Hays Code (the US equivalent of the "British Board of Film Censors") would allow. Not much of an actress, but Hell - who cared ?
It was the RAF practice in the Far East for the ridiculously baggy issue KD shorts to be rolled up or shortened by the wearer (for ease of movement and coolness, you understand) as far as decency permitted (as no underpants ever worn). They were universally known as "Betty Grable" shorts.
You couldn't find anything similar for the VV. Not surprising - there is nothing ! Nobody at home ever heard of them and the only useful youtube is by "Vlad" (Page 129, #2561 here), which Chugalug brought to our notice, and on which I've commented on a following Post.
Your queries:
1. "Why do the Americans refer to the aircraft as a ship?" ...... And a car as an automobile ?
Because they do, that's why !
2. "Why is the airspeed in mph rather than knots? Seems an odd thing to do ?" .....
As far as I can remember, all our ASIs were calibrated in mph up to the time they chucked me out in 1946. All our maps were measured in multiples of statute miles (eg 1:1,000,000). This helped poor benighted pilots to do their own DR nav.
Clever navs could do the conversion, or prick off the map distance with dividers, then straddle the latitude scale at the side of the map (a minute of latitude is one nautical mile) to read off distance.
When I came back in 1949, we were all using knots, a knot is one nautical mile per hour, which made life easier for navs. Pilots could like it or lump it. So it has been ever since.
That's all, folks. Happy New Year to you and yours , Michael, and to all our readers !
Danny.