While not built in significant numbers at any one time, the Pyörremyrsky or Waterspout, has remained in limited production since before the Winter War. Initially constructed for the government appointed airline under the name of Merituuli, or Sea Breeze and was initially powered by Bristol Hercules engines, produced under license. It was just one of many sea-landing airliners, whether flying boat or float-plane, built during the 1930s.
While some of the Merituuli remain unmodified for military duties, most, along with new builds, have been appropriated and modified for military service where it has found a critical niche for itself.
Re-engined with twin BMW 801G-12 engines driving contra-rotating 115" VDM-Dural 4-Blade propellers with a single exhaust collector pipe for each engine that provides a jet-like boost in speed from the heated exhaust. Cooling was a unique system pioneered by Focke-Wulf earlier in the war during the development of the Fw-190 in which air was rammed into the air cooled engine around a prominent fixed conical protrusion ahead of the engine and vented into the exhaust system. At the time engine outputs were not great enough to capitalize on this system but was a proper fit for the redesigned Pyörremyrsky. A ventral gondola with two gunnery positions and a reconfigured nose and tail assembly allowed for two additional gunnery positions. The cramped accommodations provided by the aircraft did not permit full turret mountings but it provided the aircraft some level of defense with its four 20 LTK/404 2 cm auto-cannons.
The roles the Pyörremyrsky serve in are numerous. She has been employed in the roles of transport, VIP transport, paratroop transport, air-sea patrol, patrol-bomber, liaison, target tug, trainer, med-evac as well as search and rescue of downed aircrews and survivors of shipwrecks. In the latter two roles the aircraft lacks the pylons for underwing stores, has a different paint scheme of overall light gray, Finnish Insignia as well as prominent red crosses on the wings, tail surfaces and fuselage - but retains the cannon armament for self-defense for those who do not abide by the conventions of warfare. These med-evac as well as search and rescue aircraft have seen the most of the western allies' aircraft as they rescued allied as well as axis aircrews and shipwrecked castaways. Unlike the Luftwaffe policy of taking allied airmen and seamen as POWs or firing upon them in the water Finland has made a point to signal allied seaplanes and floatplanes to release them into their custody. Goering, who has been instructing his aircrews to shoot allied pilots in their parachutes and in the water, has been very vocal about Finnish policy regarding the treatment of rescued allied aircrews and seamen but thus far no repercussions have emerged.
It is unknown if Finnish policy on this matter has any direct impact on the opinion in the west. Truth be known, they simply do not have a policy in place for imprisoning airmen and seamen with countries with whom a formal though purely political declaration of war has been made. While at one time nearly half a million Soviet military POWs were in their care MOST of their Soviet prisoners of war have been handed over to Germany due to their assurances that they have ample prison camp space.
Coincidentally the world's first smog advisories have been announced over former Polish Airspace in the past two years. When inquiring into the matter, Finnish authorities were informed that controlled burning of brush and increased industrial activity due to the ongoing war with the allies was the cause.
Flight Instructions;
-This aircraft is NOT Amphibious!! Start at one of the Water Takeoffs.
-Use VTOL to lower the flaps.
-Apply full pitch to climb and hold it in position to keep the nose of the floats out of the water.
-Throttle up to 60%.
-With the bombload, take-off is at around 144 mph. Without, it is 122 mph.
-Return flaps to the center position or at least reduce it for use as trim to climb to the desired altitude.
-Throttle up to 75% for cruising speed; 100% for maximum speed.
You will find that despite the heavy floats and 500 Lb. bombload she is remarkably nimble for an aircraft in her class and capable of speed worthy of a combat aircraft.
AG 1 - Activates the forward firing guns, use Trim to elevate and depress the nose gun while the forward ventral gun will rake from side to side under the nose.
AG 2 - Activates the rearward firing guns, use Trim to elevate and depress the tail gun while the aft ventral gun will rake from side to side under the tail.
AG 3 - (Optional;) Drops both 250 Lb. bombs at once or can be dropped independently in the conventional fashion. WARNING! Make certain the aircraft is not banking when dropping the bombs as they pass dangerously close to the outrigger floats.
NOTE: The guns are modded with the stats of 20 mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 guns, spuriously produced under license in Finland. They are set up in such a way that they will not endanger the aircraft even if both AG1 and AG2 are activated. The aircraft is vulnerable to attacks that come more or less directly in from port, starboard, above and below. With the fact that these are not normally formation flying aircraft however flight crews are trained to take evasive action that will place aggressors in the line of fire. Considering the aircraft's performance IF the modified variant displayed here were available before Operation Sea Lion, the aircraft would have too much for the RAF to handle during the Battle of Britain.
Landings:
- Personally I prefer dead stick landings on the water, but that's just my personal preference.
- In either case you will have to decelerate and drop in altitude.
- Adjust the attitude of the aircraft with flaps and pitch as you approach the water's surface; Maintain a speed above 120 mph though!
- At 100 ft hit the break; You will want to be moving at about 120~140 mph, apply full flaps, pull up and let gravity do the rest, easing her down - float-rudder first.
- Do NOT release pitch until the aircraft has slowed to 35 mph; Apply rudder to brake more quickly.
- While I have not attempted it myself, it is not recommended that you try to land with the bombs still in place as this will likely pull the nose of the floats underwater.
Designer's Notes; I initially decided to build an attack aircraft when I started this project however as the build progressed it took a life of its own and appeared as you see before you. Yes, I've built similar float planes in the past. Yes, it may seem redundant. However I like float-planes, sea-planes and amphibians! I love to fly, I love to swim, its a match made on SimplePlanes! XD Either way, not to toot my own horn, but I think this is the best floatplane I've built to date. It was a little tricky to learn how to handle those powerful engines, which in reality are a pair of T1000s in each housing but once I got it down, despite her size, flight characteristics can be described best as "frolicking in the sky," an absolute joy to fly. It was built for General360's Alternate WW2 role-play build.
Most builders do not include a long schpiel on the history, power plants, service, etc. - of their builds but as an old time table-top gamer, war gamer and amateur historian I like to put my builds in some manner of perspective. It does not necessarily reflect General360's RP or actual goings-on.
Wanna get in on the fun? Search for General360 and read his forum posts regarding the alternate WW2 history, look at the country list available and pick a side! :-D The war is updated every 5 days.
Specifications
General Characteristics
- Created On Windows
- Wingspan 53.9ft (16.4m)
- Length 42.4ft (12.9m)
- Height 14.5ft (4.4m)
- Empty Weight 8,141lbs (3,693kg)
- Loaded Weight 11,973lbs (5,431kg)
Performance
- Horse Power/Weight Ratio 0.334
- Wing Loading 22.0lbs/ft2 (107.3kg/m2)
- Wing Area 544.9ft2 (50.6m2)
- Drag Points 4663
Parts
- Number of Parts 146
- Control Surfaces 11
- Performance Cost 608
@TheAceOwl I see what you mean! The screenshots make the propeller blades look a little odd but I still see what you mean, very cool stuff! I've been thinking about playing around on here a little again or at least take a look at Juno New Horizons. At least until I can either upgrade my PC or maybe hire my brother-in-law to build me one. (Again, I'm not that computer savvy.) Time is always an issue for me though.
I now live in a place where I have display space for actual plastic models too so, something tangible, built in detail, without having to shoehorn it all in? In a lot of ways it has a greater appeal. Especially when you look at the collection as a whole. On the other hand you can't fly them or fire their weapons. I guess you can fly them around the room with your hand, making your own sound effects & tear off their bombs, rockets or missiles & yeet them at something else? It just doesn't have the same appeal though. lol
That said - building something here or on another game is infinitely cheaper than building models. I picked up a 1/72 scale Kawanishi H8K2 "Emily." That ran me about $93 USD. I dropped another $55 USD (plus or minus a dollar or two) on photo etched accessories. Add in the materials for additional scratch building, liquid masking solution, good quality modeling masking tape, paint, decal film, decal setting solution, decal sealant & a carefully masked satin clear coat; I don't even want to think of the total final cost! It sure did build into a real beauty but some of these models can be painfully expensive.
Add that to daily tasks/jobs, dealing with multiple health issues, dealing with my wife's health issues, still caring for my vulnerable adult daughter, now taking care of my son since C19 left him very nearly (in fact legally, even with glasses) blind, as well as trying to keep my apartment from turning into a roach & flea infested slum because some nasty people moved into the apartment building early this year?
Yup, I'm the proverbially one legged man in a butt kicking contest! lol
@DragonAerotech If you have discord I could show you there, or https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198067645429/screenshots/ there is my steam screen shots, you can see planes there
@TheAceOwl Flyout? I wonder if my PC could handle it ... hmm. I'll give it a look!
While my processor, a Intel Xeon CPU E3-1226 v3 @ 3.30GHz, seems to be good enough for it the integrated Intel HD Graphics 3600/3700 is crap compared to either of the two minimally recommended GPUs. My son's PC could handle it though ... -_-; My boy & his toys~ (He just turned 21 on the 1st!)
I'm not real computer savvy when it comes to hardware so I'd need to check in with my brother-in-law to see how much of the innards I'd have to change to get a fair enough GPU for Flyout to work. My tower might be a bit of an issue too. It's one of those mini-towers so it doesn't have a whole lot of extra room inside. I'll probably need a new tower altogether to accommodate the extra fans for the heat that'd all generate. Do you have any samples of your RP work over there? I'd be real interested in seeing them!
@DragonAerotech yo its been so long! Ive kinda jumped ship over to Flyout a long time ago, SP wasnt enough when it came to aircraft engineering and Flyout is just a whole new league of its own.
@Rodrigo110 This response is "somewhat late" but yes, I've seen plenty of images of the real Pyörremyrsky. I just stuck with the Finnish propensity for naming aircraft after weather phenomenon when creating this aircraft. This was a project for a group oriented RP build series based on an alternate timeline/allegiances.
I was late to the show & the person running it all switched soon after I joined. Afterwards it kinda went sideways. I had fun with the aircraft I produced for it though. I had a lot of other projects in mind at the time when it ended; Rather disappointing, really. @TheAceOwl allowed me to create modified versions of some of his aircraft for this RP, which were among some of my favorites.
A lot has changed since I created the last few aircraft I created - in fact some of them don't even work anymore. Some modding could fix some of these aircraft but their performance will never be the same as they used to be. (Contra-rotating T1000s could often produce speeds over 700 mph on some fighters, for example.)
I haven't submitted anything new in a very long time. My PC was terribly obsolescent & wasn't a gaming PC from the outset so I had a lot of issues with crashes or the game simply freezing up. I've gone through 2 other PCs since & my current one isn't a gaming PC either. I also went through a sudden, unexpected move where I'm now more focused on real 3D models of aircraft.
Of course the notice of the creation of Juno was a further incentive not to return to SimplePlanes.
Have you... ever seen a Pyorremyrsky?
@zed Thanks ... again? ^_~
@zed So I see! lol
Thanks for stopping by and upvoting, @TAplanes! ^_^
@DragonAerotech I wont make the PZL P.37, i think its to simialr to the A-20.
@VladCelTroll I just took a gander at your' list of builds, are you one that frequents the Luft46 site? You earned yourself a follower, amazing work, above and beyond anything I've built to date! ^_^
Thanks for taking a look and giving her your' seal of approval on this beaute, @VladCelTroll & @Stampede, sorry for the virtual flight manual above, but she's quirkly on water handling. lol
@JetboyInc Anytime~
@DragonAerotech No problem, lol. I thank YOU for YOUR support.
@JetboyInc lol I noticed, THANK YOU! :-D
@DragonAerotech Hey, I'm the one that upgraded you to gold status.
Thank you for your' support, @JetboyInc!
@LouisEP Thank you for the upvote!! :-D
Thanks for the upvote, @MrMecha! ^_^
@General360 Oh, that's still quite a while. I wonder how long Finland will survive in those posts~? lol
@General360 Oh okay! A little disappointing that it'll end soon but all good things must one day come to an end. ^_^ It's been fun! Should I not bother with the heavy bomber, the nearly 300 foot long cruiser or the 90 foot torpedo boat? The cruiser would take me a week to finish out as I only have the hull, power plants and steerage assembled with a 110-ish part count.
@ccooper On take-off or on landing? I've heard from my son that the fellow on Youtube, "Weasel" I think, has a hard time with seaplanes and floatplanes. In the lengthy description above are tips for flight. I have no trouble taking off and landing with her and in reality ALL aircraft have their quirks. This one is that she has so much power up front, she'll nose over if you aren't gentle. I throttle up to 30%, with the flaps down and while pulling back on the stick. At around 50 mph there's a change in her dynamics in the water, and you can throttle up to 50%. She easily hits the 144 mph mark even at that throttle level.
Landings are a lot more tricky. Firstly, don't try to land with the bombs. Second use those flaps, you'll need them. Slow down to 140~160 mph by the time you hit 100 ft and then kill the engines and pull up on the stick. Don't pay any mind to your' airspeed at that point but "feel" out how the aircraft is handling in a nose up attitude. From orbit view you should see the float rudder slice the water first before it settles down on the water surface. Keep the stick pulled back until she slows down to about 30 mph. You can decelerate from there using yaw down to 7 mph. I didn't try a whole lot of taxiing, but 10-15% throttle should be enough, just don't pass that 30 mph mark and keep the stick pulled back. Throttle too high and the top of the aircraft will try to accelerate faster than the water tension will allow the floats to - ergo - she'll nose over. I tested her out over and over to get the floats just right and was frog-hopping all around Krakablowa with her.
This is my first time designing a central float the way I made this one. I think it looks better than my prior floatplane designs but it is definitely not as forgiving. I think my little single engine floatplane was even more of a challenge to land as she didn't have flaps and you still had to hit the water just so, so she wouldn't nose over. Even the first starter float plane you got with the game, not the red one, but the high-wing monoplane, took a bit of getting used to to land. Play around with her, once you master her operations you'll have greater repect for the pilots that had to do that on choppy seas and heavy winds when rescuing downed aircrews and survivors of sunken ships! ^_^
Glad to hear it, @General360, and thank you. Just as a note the historical data I offered is of course without any real basis. I am curious though was Finland's involvement with the axis nations the same in this alternate history and have shots been fired between Finland and the western allies? I don't think I've seen Finland mentioned in the war updates.
@Potkuri Thank you for the upvote!! ^_^
Thank you, @ccooper, did you give her a whirl in sandbox? ^_^