Good article in the AOPA magazine.
Think a car is a big undertaking?
They need to some some WASPs to teach them how to not catch the engines on fire.
I saw the video of them doing touch and goes, and was surprised how active the pilots are. No fly-by-wire here!
Could you imagine flying into a E36 M3 storm of flak in that glass nose? Not this guy. I know the aluminum skin isn't any more protection tht the glass, but at least I don't have to feel like my nads are hanging out in the open waiting for a chunk of shrapnel.
IIRC, an engineer is managing the throttles and mixture.
Also, some museum somewhere is in the process of rebuilding a KC-50.
What an amazing plane, and what a view!! You can really see how the Millennium Falcon was inspired by it in that shot, too..
Fifi made a stop at the local airport, about a mile from my house, a few months ago.
I got to see both FiFi and Doc last year at the EAA get together in Oshkosh, WI.
I don't think that any B-229 ever looked as good as Doc does today.
I wonder how may hours were put into polishing the exterior skin?
I proposed to my fiance in front of Doc. That plane will forever be a part of us.
Good god, that’s freakin cool.
Greatest generation.
Appleseed said:I proposed to my fiance in front of Doc. That plane will forever be a part of us.
Naming for first born Doc are we?
i always wanted to come up with something lik Curtis Wright or Pratt Whitney. Best I could sneak in was Morgan.
My brother was ground crew on B-29 on Saipan. Never talked much.
I had FiFi fly over the house a few years ago. They where turning the props REALLY slow, probably 1200 rpm? I think they are trying to put as little stress on the engines as possible. Those engine where very big maintenance headaches during the war. I am sure they have simplified them a bit (e.g. removed the turbos).
The turret / fire control system on those was insanely sophisticated for the time.
What a great damn generation that was that flew these amazing airplanes. The aircrew must have had huge balls, but I don't think they even considered that. They just did it because they needed to ... and they really wanted to. Actually, the B-29 was pretty much a luxury vehicle compared to the B-17 and B-24. Pressurized, and the gun turrets were remote controlled. Compare that to those poor-bastard B-17 and B-24 crews, which I've read about extensively. Gigantic balls knowing what the odds were going in. Anyway, they were all brave heroes in my opinion.
(Elsewhere on this forum I've talked about a very nice gentleman who I delivered newspapers to back in the late fifties and early sixties. Family guy, wife and three kids. I admired and respected him. He was an insurance salesman. Quiet, friendly. I knew he was a WWII vet, but little else. A few years ago I found out what he really did. He was a bombardier on B-24s, flew 30 missions over Germany in '44-'45, saw unbelievable carnage to other crews and friends, and survived, which led to leading a very sedate life in a sleepy town with the woman he loved. That was his dream. I'm sure that was the dream of most of the others).
Here's the link to the B-24 bombardier in my previous post:
Every time I watch this video it brings tears to my eyes. I knew both Eddie and Marie. But I didn't know their story at the time. Based on this one experience, I feel we've missed a lot if important history.
While I was teaching middle school 20+ years ago, a local company sponsored the Collins Foundation bringing in their B-17 and B-24 to Jack McNamara Field on several occasions. We always got a bus and took our 7th graders to tour both bombers. When the students were able to get inside the aircraft, they often commented how small they were. Since my only frame of reference was "12-O 'Clock High", I was stunned how small they actually were.
We got my father-in-law down to see them on one visit - he was in the Army Air Corps during WWII and stationed in Galena, Alaska , which was the hand-off point for aircraft being given to the USSR. He was a mechanic and serviced each aircraft before handoff. He looked at them like old friends. He always said that Galena wasn't just near the end of the earth, it WAS the end of the earth.
One afternoon, I was leaving the school and looked west. I saw something off over the ocean that looked odd and started driving toward the ocean, which was about three blocks away. The B-17 and the B-24 were doing a flyby prior to landing at the field and flew right over my head at about 800 feet. I will never forget the sound they made, flying together like that.
In reply to spitfirebill :
We had a student named Austin Healy. Don't think any of his classmates had a clue
CJ said:In reply to spitfirebill :
We had a student named Austin Healy. Don't think any of his classmates had a clue
My late father in law was a big car guy. He had a theme with the kids that my mother in law didn't realize until years later. Devin Dana and one with the middle name Audi (my wife)
his grandkids -some of my offspring included- are Ford Cooper Tucker Shelby Elise and Eleanor (movie buffs there)
Someday we may have a McLaren. My wife wants to go purely by the name (Paige, for instance) but I want the car to be cool too
guy names are harder to come by so if needed we may have a Hudson though I've never really cared either way about them
EDIT: oh yes the reason for the post-- that plane is BBEEEAUTIFUL! I love memoirs from soldiers sailors and airmen and one I read the other day mentioned how as the Japanese were surrendering we filled the skies with every aircraft we could muster, kinda a shock and awe of sorts in order to "prove" to the Japanese that they really were overmatched. Kinda like to make up for how the Germans post WW1 thought they were betrayed by the higher ups and could have kept fighting.
Anyway, THAT would have been something to see or be a part of!!
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