"Test runs" is likely a euphemism for "got drunk and nearly killed themselves playing silly buggers". That thing is a steampunk precursor of the insanity that was the ME 163 Komet - just add wings and a leather flying hat with goggles!
I made a model of the ME163, whilst living in West Germany back in the 1980s. Not to mention the rest of them: Spitfires, Lancs, Dorniers, Focke Wulfs, Heinckles (111) Arado (234) Blenheims, Bristols, Mossies and more.
The ME163 was an absolutely insane thing. It took off on a weird cradle and was powered by an incredibly nasty fuel. One of its pilots was dissolved by the stuff (see the WP page for details)
Seriously, I miss my model planes so bad that my children know about them, decades after they we "disposed" of against my will. The hours of glue and sanding and paint. If you have any pics I'd love to see them.
The ball bearing in question was given to me by a friend in West Germany, whose dad was a ociffer in the Royal Tank Regiment. It was a ball bearing from a Chieftain tank (probably mark I - this was 1976ish). I still have one of the really big BBs from one of those beasts somewhere - it's about 2.5" diameter. This one was about 0.5" so it fitted inside the fuselage.
From memory, I made two Musties. One was nearly all silver with some black upper surfaces and another was the original UK build. I didn't realise: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_P-51_Mustang that it was oriniated from here.
What a cracking gift from our mates over the seas. That aircraft was an absolute belter. Not quite as pretty as a Spitfire (depending on your point of view, but that oval wing shape on the Spit is pretty iconic) but could give an FW 190 a right good kicking with a decent run up. The Mustie had a brilliant cockpit design from day one that started with the canopy - huge visibility. Later Spits and other fighters copied that, I think.
Later on the Lightning (US) and the Mosquitto (UK) showed what happens if you make the fighter a bit bigger and deploy seriously manly weaponry on a platform that has much longer legs. Our Mossies were counted as two kills by the Axis, if they managed to shoot one down.
I wish I was more proficient in other languages but I think I am pretty useful in English, which I particularly delight in abusing! That's the thing: you can twiddle around with it and still be intelligible. Twiddle around: It'll work.
English (other languages are available) is very, very flexible and that's one of the reasons why it is currently French ... err the lingua franca. English doesn't just borrow words, it actively goes out and steals them. That sounds a bit suspect but I like to think that we also cherish our ill gotten gains.
Thank you.
If I ever get back into modelling I'll probably go back into radio controlled flying things. That said, there are a few diorama ideas I have bubbling away too.
Now, do I get a Pitts Special up and running ... (probably)
O.o
"""
[M]any pilots were killed during testing and training, at least in part due to the highly volatile and corrosive nature of the rocket propellant used in later models of the aircraft. This includes one pilot, Oberleutnant Josef Pöhs, who was *dissolved* by the rocket fuel following an incident that resulted in a ruptured fuel line.
"""
Only after his death did I learn what the bulk of his work had been and why he refused to fly on planes: sitting in the belly of bomber planes and manually operating the mechanism for releasing the bombs while suspended over an open port looking down on a barrage of AA fire like in a scene out of Doctor Strangelove. Apparently the mechanism had to be operated manually to be even remotely reliable.
Later on, we were stationed in Bielefeld. We also were stationed in Rheindahlen too (twice)
The thing is, this is from years back. I was a British brat living in a foreign country and enjoying myself. Germany in the '80s-2000 was streets ahead of the UK in many areas apart from their sewers which were ... crap.
When we lived in Monchengladbach for a while (twice, this was the first time) (a tour/posting is roughly 18 months) we became lifelong friends with a family called the Wurms (Dragons). That was in about 1978ish.
Herr Wurm was a Luftwaffe sergeant back in the day (conscription post WW2) and then did other things - a storming Scouter. He introduced us to the Weine probe thing on the Mosel and much more.
@hnbad: we are both Europeans (OK I'm a Brit but I partially grew up in Germany and W Germany at that - I was able to visit E Germany through Checkpoint "Charlie" back in the day , roughly 1979) That was quite odd: I remember watching a hedgehog from the other side of the Brandenburg Gate wandering across the grass. We also saw what East Germany was like back then. ... It's better now and of course it's reunited with the West.