Vintage shots from days gone by!

Funny thing is that the DC3;s were faster than most of the early and pre-WWII fighters!

Back to the drawing boards boys!

 

We need a moderator to protect my tender eyes from pictures like this. sob. sob.

 

Fngvmuch, you are right about the Boomerang being a 'stop gap' fighter and yes it was based on the NA-16 in a way. We had already produced the Wirraway at this stage, to be used as an advanced trainer with capability's as a dive bomber and light ground attack AC (Helldiver much?? (I love those things!!)) However it was realised that with a majority of our Airforce engaged in the Middle East with the RAF and the imminent threat of a war closer to home with Japan that our current front line fighter, the Brewster Buffalo just was not adequate!
We had bought the rights to build the P40, however the first aircraft (Unknown number by me) were delivered directly from US War Supply's. There were just not enough and it would take too long for our factory's to 'gear up' to production so Sir Lawrence Wackett stepped forward (By this time general manager of CAC) with designer Fred David (Who worked for Heinkel and Mitsubeishi on the Zero of all things!) and came up with the Boomerang plan.
It was intended to utilise as many Wirraway components as possible however to make this little fighter actually work very little ended up being interchangeable. The center section was different, as was the fuselage being much shorter aluminium framed and wood covered, the outer wing panels were much shorter and significantly different to fit the armament.
(Edit) From approval of the project to first flight of A46-1 was an incredible 159 day's!!
Yup 159 day's to go from a drawing to an operational aircraft!!

It was a bit of a disappointment in a dog fight with its poor performance especially above 15,000ft. However the performance at low level was more than adequate, with a strong armament and the excellent pilot protection offered by the armour made this a lethal ground attack AC (Aircraft), this is where my beloved Boomerang made its mark in the S/W Pacific.

So this is where the genesis for the Boomerang came from, an American trainer and a German and Japanese fighter designer!!

Man I'm such a nerd for this shit, I will shut up now.

Doc.

 

pm sent - let's take it outside ...

 

Roger that, pm recieved...........

Doc.

(Told you I was a NERD!)

 

Benjamin Franklin Hamblin , my great-grandfather. Taken in Union Co. MS

 

"Nice "Bullpup"!!

 

Yeah, right - it was more'n likely '61-'63 in the rustbelt. One more winter and that '58 was probably a 'one eyed cyclops'. Saw 'em like that a lot in Michigan, along with the '58 Chevies and others. Those headlight eyebrows were great salt collectors.

​

 

That 59 is looking little soft too.

 

...

 

They rusted up in Ohio but I dont remember any older cars getting that rusty in that short of time,now I do remember the late 70s Volares and Aspen front fenders going quickly.

 

Yep I remember lots of rust like that I grew up in Toronto the city of salt and so was the whole Province. I like the one eyed cyclopse and the on comings head light that shook and shimied and the other stared up at the sky.

 

Someone mention DANCE?

http://youtu.be/R0BHxhUnokU

 

The dance group here is Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, lead by my old friend Frankie Manning. Frankie is the guy in the bib overalls, dancing with his partner Norma Miller. Frankie danced until the very end of his life, passing away in April, 2009 at the age of 94. In Harlem, my band would play 'Stompin At the Savoy' at a medium tempo, and Frankie would lead the dancers in doing the 'Shim Sham,' a dance of his own creation. Frankie was also one of the original Savoy Ballroom Lindy Hoppers.

The clip also features Slim Gilliard on guitar and playing piano with the back of his hands, and Slam Stewart on bass.

 

Picnic food container suggests 1946-48 era.

 

Skotch Koolers were copyrighted in 1952 by Hamilton. Nearly everyone we knew had one whether round or rectangular like the one in the photo. That would make the stated 1954 vintage for the photo to be correct.

 

Photo of a Douglas TBD-1 Devastator of Torpedo Squadron 6 in flight over the eastern U.S. in '38 or '39, THANKS to the U.S. Navy National Museum of Aviation and to Wikipedia. This is a good example of one of our first-line planes that were quickly made obsolete by the fast pace of aviation development in the '30s. (Ironically the squadron insignia incorporated a Great White Albatross. Yike!) It flew for the first time in April 1935 and was demoted from active duty after the battle of Midway in '42, completely out of service by '44. Reportedly no devastators survive today.

The operational characteristics of the plane -- good when designed in 1935 -- read like an aviator's nightmare by late-'41, including lack of adequate armor, poor power/weight stats, attack parameters that made them sitting ducks for quick Mitsubishi Zeroes and even AAA, plus torpedoes that often didn't explode on contact OR dived too deep, thus undershooting targets. Good thing the replacement Grumman Avengers (soon to be joined by the Hellcat) were in the pipeline by Midway, where nearly all of the Devastators deployed were either destroyed or heavily damaged.

Though quickly overshadowed, the Devastator had been the first widely used carrier-based U.S. Navy monoplane, seeing deployment to nine U.S. carriers in 1937. It was full of revolutionary features, being the first all-metal naval aircraft, the first with a totally-enclosed cockpit, the first with power-actuated (hydraulically) folding wings, among other innovations. If all this induced overconfidence among the brass, actual combat quickly forced "reevaluation." Revolutionary when introduced, the Devastator quickly gained the sobriquet "Torpecker" among the crews who had to fly them.

 

And here's a keen photo of an Avenger "launching a fish" in late '42 or early '43. The torpedo-bombers
got some amusing nicknames because of their size and maneuverability issues, compared with the
agile fighters. The Avenger's handle was "The Turkey." But you have to feel some sympathy for these
planes (and their crews), as they were such PURPOSE-build aircraft. Notable Avenger flyers include
future President George H.W. Bush and actor Paul Newman who, due to color-blindness, was a gunner
not a pilot. Other than heavy bombers, the Avenger was the heaviest U.S. plane of the war, though
closely followed by the "Jug."

 

For my part, I like the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt "Jug," instead, which seems to me about a perfect
"multi-purpose" plane. You could load about anything on it from bombs to Napalm, range, wide
AND high, defend yourself well, even at high altitude with eight 50-cal. machine guns! (Jeesh! How
many rounds on EACH of those nine-yard chains, anyway? Ever think about that?) Though not as
"pretty" as a lot of others (especially the lithe-looking "gull-wing" types), the Jug was a super-versa-
tile workhorse in WWII. Fully loaded, it could weigh as much as eight tons. Whoa! Well over 15,000
were built, reportedly logging some 15 million air miles officially. First flown in May '41 (coincident-
ally when the RAF and British Navy finally caught up to the German super-ship Bismarck), the last
Jug officially left military service, mustering out of the Peruvian Air Force in 1966! (25 years, com-
pared to six for the Torpecker!) Two dozen countries continued to employ the Jug militarily after
WWII.

 

Tracers at night, AWESOME! A Thunderbolt on night maneuver firing two of its M2 Browning 50s.
Awesome pic! Below, adept at ground attack, this Jug unleashes rockets. I remember seeing a Jug
swooping in for a fiery Nape strike at Tarawa on COLOR 16-mm movie film, but I couldn't find a
still shot of that. It was an eye-popping scene.

 

yes a p-47, like, doesn't have to prove a thing.
(my favourite shots are the polished bare-metal ones in the sun and bright blue skies of Pacific... ) but those awesome night/tracer shots are usually a confection; taken with the AC standing on props for sighting and convergence of fire, iirc ...

 

Thanks, man! Those details are awesome to know. Info for the pilots, eh?

 

Let's take another stab at this.

 

not done yet

 

Just a couple more

 

eyedee this one if you can

 

One last group before bed

 

not done yet!

 

This should do it for the night.