Folks Of Interest For my fellow aviation buffs.

Jack Roush has had at least one P51 painted as "Old Crow" as flown by Bud Anderson, a triple ace and one who is still with us.

The first Chapter of Bud's book is on his site and is an extremely stirring description of air combat at 250 yards or less: http://www.cebudanderson.com/ch1.htm.

 

Brings back another era. used to see many WW2 planes flying around when we moved to L.A. in 44. As a kid the P-51 was my favorite. [still is]

 

Here is a P51 from Sweden, it's a Swedish company named Biltema who owns it.

Lars

 

Awwww! Man, how did I miss this thread?
The video wouldn't play for me but the rest of the site is pretty good.
I stand proud as a WWII Aviation NERD!

I remember when we repainted the Beaufighter at Morrabbin (Built it a new hanger) and on the unveiling we invited as many ex 31 Sqn members (Well, any pilot that flew the Beau) to a function.
I had a big print of a 31sqn Beaufighter, probably three and a half by five foot in size that I left on the reception table. Every pilot, aircrew and other WWII vet that worked on these signed it. I had the greatest time talking with these guys, learned so much more from them than I ever would out of a book it is true they are the greatest generation. That night stands out as one of the best times I have ever had that I coudl remember the next day!
When a bushfire destroyed everything I had in 1996(?) that was the ONLY thing that I really miss.
Its funny. After, all I had were the gear I was wearing, issued by the Army and my equipment as I was 'out bush' at the time. Lost school pics, papers two cars one a steel 32 coupe but that print was the thing that got to me the most, even to this day it stings to think of it.
It was going to the museum when I p***ed, just some more history lost forever.
Doc.

 

Wow.... thanks. You set the morning off right.

Last week I got to ride in this B-17 with this veteran, what a day. 65 missions under his belt. At 25 missions these boys were to have fullfilled their duties. But our goverment needed more men, so these boys from our "Greatest Generation" did what they had to do.

On his 60th mission, Dec. 25th 1945, he was deemed to ill to fly. Welp, he wasn't going without his friends... so he snuck onto the tarmac and tried to slip onto that plane. He was caught and sent back to bed. Those friends never came back. Every Christmas is the worst day of this old waist gunner's life. He flew 5 more missions and retired.

It was such an honor to meet and fly with him... a life long dream for me fullfilled.

What a trip.... more pics if you guys want... I was like a mental patient taking pics.

 

Forgot to mention... I saw Betty Jene. What a plane!

 

Sorry Doc, I love the Beau.

I also have a print, signed by all the AVG "Flying Tigers" at their 50th anniversary.
It was hand delivered to me by Charlie Bond, who flew #5, which is the subject.
It is truly one of my prize possessions.

 

WOW! That would look sweet hanging next to my signed Guardians Of The Reich by Philip West..

 

Absolutely awesome man! I am jealous, and envious all at the same time. What a thrill it must have been to rumble down the runway with all 4 of those cyclones wide open!! Gives me chills just thinking about it!!

 

What a trip!

Marvin Lebow is this gentlemans name, it was a real honor to meet and talk with him. I also fimed him speaking about the attacks he was in and friends he lost. These guys were only 18 years old. The pilot being the eldest at 24.... wow!

His son was really cool too, raced drag bikes. I was wearing an old SCTA shirt and we got talking. He wants to meet in Bonneville when our belly tank is done. Great people, great day.

I'm also a fromer Marine and have flown in C130's... but this was something else. I put my head outside the top of that B-17 doing 148.... that was super cool. And you wouldn't believ the movement on them tails... man do they sway in the wind.

Ok, back to work...

 

OK Wingnutz, here's the pix----------Don

 

God bless the guys that flew these things in combat. One of the best parts of my job is meeting some of the old vets and hearing them tell of their exploits "when they were young"...

And my avatar is a self-portrait, taken at 14,000 ft. over Colorado in the back seat of a P-51D. Good times!

 

Actually it hangs next to "Ace of Aces" a signed print of Erich Hartmann.

 

Ok... here we go again...!

Dons Dad has the "X" on his shoulder...!

 

nice to see this, last year at the morris il airport(right next to the pile-up) they had a b-17 and a b-25 and you could buy fights on them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks for posting.

 

AWESOME !!

It IS sad that these guys are slowly "leaving" us, but thats what makes their courage and sacrifice all the more important and momentous.

If you have a grandfather like that, cherish him, learn from him, ask him questions....they ARE living history.

Some of us hav'ent been so fortunate as to have someone in their family like that who survived WWII and so havve not been able to learn the valuable lessons that history has taught them

God bless em all....

Rat

RAt

 

That's an awesome pic. I saved this one called "Desperate Days." I thought it was a very deep drawing.

 

The Black Widow is without doubt the ***yest plane built in the US, but then again I have odd taste, CA-12 Boomerang, CA-15, TA152, Yak 3, Do 335, man this list could get L O N G.

Rat, couldn't have said it better myself (Not that I could if I tried!) When you get a chance listen to them. Its breathtaking what some of these guys did.
I remember one ANZAC day having a go at an Army Reserve member because he was saying how tough he had done it, went to Timor (OH NO!!), I was in the process of setting him straight on how tough we did it as regular Regiment Soldiers that have been in real combat.
This old vet tapped me on the shoulder and told me its all relative. He then went to tell us both how he fought in the Middle east against the Italians then the Germans, was in Tobruk, fought along the Kokoda Trail and was taken prisoner in Dutch New Guinea. He worked on the infamous Burma-Thailand railway surviving the 'speedo' period and the Hellfire P***. Later sent on foot with the other survivors to another camp, of the 2,000 that were made to walk, 5 of them survived. By the end of the war he was the ONLY surviving POW in the camp, a camp that had an estimated 10,000 prisoners at one time.
He finished by telling me that he thought he was lucky not to suffer like some of them did!
This tough soldier had a tear in his eye, and that REAL soldier never bought a beer at that RSL as long as I was posted in Perth the ll went on my membership card.
This is what we are loosing, take an interest guys and girls.
Doc.

 

now you really ****!!!!

 

I like the blue & white Globe Swift, they were built in Ft. Worth Tx.

 

cool this thread !

thank's a lot for theses beautiful picts

i'm more spe******t in pre-war aviations, from 1900 to 1940. i've also worked on younger planes as dh chipmunk or fiat G46...

nevermind, when there are wings i enjoy it

let's have a look to our website here


ps: excuse my language

 

Great thread, fellas! I don't know if any of you were at Bonneville for World of Speed this year, but those of us that were there got a real unexpected treat. It just so happened that there was an airshow set for Saturday at the Wendover Airport (where the Enola Gay crew was trained)...well, here we are, sitting on the salt watching runs, when someone yells, "Holy S--t!!" I look up just in time to see an absolutely beautiful B-25 in a shallow bank at about 500 ft. off the salt!! It must've taken weeks to polish that beauty! It made a few more p***es and headed for the airport. Same thing happened awhile later with a super nice T-6. The only bad part was that I wasn't within reach of my camera so no pics.

 

Just bought Bud Anderson's book off this thread. Although I was a lowly 2nd LT at the time, I got to fly on the wing of some of the WWII aviators in F100's. Smooth, easy going and really knew how to push you to your limits. I learned a bunch of air combat tricks from these guys and feel lucky to have flown with them. True Americans who knew what was important and what was bull.

 

REAL Aircraft are fast becoming my Second BIG obsession!Can't get enough of them of late.Planning a bit of a hike to see the remains of a P-47 Thunderbolt quite soon,I know it will be moving when we find the remains of the P-47.We owe a HUGE debt to the Allied airmen who flew these Aircraft to defend our ways of life.THANKS.If I win me the lottery I'm ****** well going to buy myself a Super Marine Spitfire!

thanks for the great link too!

Nick.

 

thanks for that, ive been a geek for this stuff since i was like, 8. pops got me started young. if your ever in so. california make sure to visit the chino air museum. lots of cl***ic aircraft, and the airworthy ones are almost all flown

 

This thread keeps getting better and better...kind of like a fine wine.