[Graham Boak]

Cheriz, I've been reading the literature from long before the internet was invented. For over 50 years now, and have been professionally employed in aircraft design, performance, operational analysis and comparative aircraft studies. Which doesn't make me omniscient even in those fields, of course, but should make it clear that I have already read a few books on the subject. Perhaps we could compare the sizes of our personal libraries?

No doubt it wouldn't hurt to read a few more, or even reread (again) ones already in the collection. I will say again that the idea that the Pe 2 was a copy of the Bf.110 is nonsense, for it is. Whether the configuration chosen owed anything at all to the Bf.110 is open to considerable doubt, for reasons others have described. However, there is a massive step between choosing a configuration and producing an aircraft.

That the Russians made use of other people's technology at times is indeed true - as did every nation who ever built aircraft (and the tanks you quote). And they in their turn possessed technologies that some other nations did not.

I'd pick you up on a couple of details: just what is the pressurised carburettor that you talk about on the Merlin? If you mean the supercharger, that was widely used on many aircraft and the example on the Merlin was specifically RR technology. Also, the Tu.2 was also indeed a copy of the B-29, but not in every detail. It was armed with 23mm cannon rather than 0.5in machine guns, a fairly significant minor detail, and the engines were being tested/flown in Russian aircraft before the first B-29 arrived on Russian soil. No doubt it helped that much Russian engine technology was developed from earlier US engines. The same, however, is also true about Japanese and German radial engine technologies. And before that, much 1920-30s radial engine technology was based on the British Bristol company's designs. That's just the way things go in engineering.

As to whether I should be less direct in my expression: you may well have a point. On the other hand I feel that noticeboards, like civilisations, are capable of coping with a few outspoken comments in the interests of applying rational thinking.

Ruy does have a specific problem on this board, in common with other boards dealing with Luftwaffe subjects. An interest in Germany of the period does not mean direct love/hate of Nazi-ism, or indeed Communism. His position is made more difficult by threads that do not stem from a genuine spirit of enquiry.