Russian panel stencils - the myth ?
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Russian panel stencils - the myth ?
An old retired AF maintenance tech told me a story recently of a tour he took around the museum at Nellis a few years after he retired from the service. As the tour guide showed them around the Russian cold war jets they had on display my buddy commented about how thorough USAF had been to add English stencilling under the Russian stencils on the aircraft access panels. The tour guide stopped and proceeded to tell the assembled group of old vets that USAF had not added the English text, it was put there by the Russians as it was part of their war plan to operate from captured bases in the west and use our aircraft technicians as slave labor.
This always struck me as a myth intended to make a cool story - anyone know if there is any truth to it?
This always struck me as a myth intended to make a cool story - anyone know if there is any truth to it?
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Personal view? hahahahahahaha
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Yup, a little knowledge would ensure a one way trip for the said aircraft, oxygen in tyres, nuts and bolts down intakes, pipes loosened, seat oxygen serviced with nitrogen, seats disconnected, fuel contaminated... The list goes on.. I read an article on FW190 deliveries with slave labour built engines, quite a few strangely never made it
Wasn't the old SLR musket incapable of firing Russain ammo, but the AK was capable of using ours?
Wasn't the old SLR musket incapable of firing Russain ammo, but the AK was capable of using ours?
Ours was 7.62x51 theirs 7.62x39 (well, I think 39 but it was definitely the shorter one).
That x51 and x39 being the length of the cartridge in mm (so, not including the bullet), their chamber would have been shorter.
Jamming our round in there would not have gone well.
Very likely we could have chambered their rounds.
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I think they were but that memory is faint.
Not faint however is what my boss said about WE177. He reckoned about 30 minutes to break the electronics. I guess Judy rigging the control box from a Bucc or Jag would have been easy too.
Not faint however is what my boss said about WE177. He reckoned about 30 minutes to break the electronics. I guess Judy rigging the control box from a Bucc or Jag would have been easy too.
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Sounds like nonsense generated by those brainwashed by Joseph McCarthy.
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Thus "lingua franca" - a Portuguese term, lifted by the Anglo-Saxons, describing French as a universal language
In order to make things work even without understanding any stenciled language they had colored positioning dots on every panel opening and on every screw to make sure everything gets set up and locked right. Soviet military conscripts were not necessarily from Russia but maybe from central asia back then.
Last edited by Less Hair; 25th Jun 2018 at 11:21.
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I've come across Russian kit in other fields and they really do think about who is going to be using it and in what conditions. To us it may look like a grossly over sized lever painted an awful colour - but if the guy operating it is in -20C with great big mits on and (as you say) may not be a fluent Russian speaker "always pull the big GREEN one -" has a lot of merit.......
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I don’t know about English stencilling, but I’ve always wondered why Russian / Soviet cockpits were all some gopping shade of blue? Is it supposed to be relaxing??!!
You mean just like the US?