Re: [Leica] Trivia question...

["Skip Williams" <skipwilliamshome@hotmail.com>]

Here's what I found via Google.  Which seems to point to the common thread 
that the "no visible means of support" was the important factor driving this 
nickname, which was one of many.

Skip

1. http://www.execpc.com/~brouchou/b26story.html
"Gradually, the Lady began to get a rather shady reputation. Pilots began 
talking about her. They christened her the "Flying Prostitute" because, with 
those cherub wings, the Lady, so they said, had no visible means of support. 
Certainly, the high command began lifting their eyebrows? There were rumors 
the Lady was a tramp and might be barred from further association with the 
young gentlemen of the Army Air Corps."

2. http://www.military.cz/usa/air/war/bomber/b26/b26_en.htm
"With a troubled development history, it was called (among other things) the 
"Flying Prostitute" - with its high wing loading (51 lbs per square ft) and 
small wings, it was said to have had no visible means of support"

3. http://www.warbirdalley.com/b26.htm
"Nicknames: Widow-Maker; The Flying Coffin; B-Dash-Crash; The Flying 
Prostitute; The Baltimore Whore (The last two because it had no visible 
means of support; "Baltimore" because the Martin Company was located there.) 
"

4. http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/baugher_us/b026-18c.html
"The increases in weight that had been gradually introduced on the B-26 
production line had made the wing loading of the Marauder progressively 
higher and higher, resulting in higher stalling and landing speeds. Veteran 
pilots in combat overseas had enough experience that they could handle these 
higher speeds, but new trainees at home had serious problems and there were 
numerous accidents, causing the Marauder to earn such epithets as "The 
Flying Prostitute", "The Baltimore Whore", "The Flying Vagrant", or "The 
Wingless Wonder", these names being given because the B-26's small wing area 
appeared to give it no visible means of support. Other derisive names being 
given to the B-26 were "The Widow Maker", "One-Way Ticket", "Martin 
Murderer", "The Flying Coffin", "The Coffin Without Handles", and the 
"B-Dash Crash". In particular, there were so many takeoff accidents at 
MacDill Field during early 1942 that the phrase "One a Day Into Tampa Bay" 
came to be a commonplace lament. "


- -----Original Message-----
From: Photo Phreak [mailto:leicam4pro@yahoo.com]
Sent: Fri, Apr 19, 2002 3:24 pm
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Cc: jsmith45@bellsouth.net
Subject: Re: [Leica] Trivia question...



- --- "Jeffery L. Smith" <> wrote:
>Did it have anything to do with a joystick?
- -----------------------------------------------------------------

        No.



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