Art & Inspiration ot ww 2 planes

The installation of the modern GE j-85's on place of the original jumos was harder than they first thought, due to weight balance, but last I heard they are close to offering flights.

 

The true HOT RODS OF THE SKY !






Some Black Sheep

 

The true HOT RODS OF THE SKY !

You've got that right!

 

My 1980s were spent as a "colonel" in the Confederate Air Force, what a ride that was..I was driving my 57 Nomad, a 64 Riviera, and I built a 39 Chevrolet period Kelly AFB staff car for my Dad to tool around in, we still have the 39..worked on, rode in, and flew Rt. seat on most of those airplanes..A full throttle 100 ft. off the deck "strafing run" in a B-25 (The Yellow Rose) is truly an awesome experience, doing justice and weight to the word awesome..My Dad and I truly blew the family fortune on that experience and it was worth every moment and dollar..still have a 41 Taylorcraft basket case I'm gonna put together and buzz y'alls house with...Lest We Forget...

 

Ok so heres a good one for all you air nuts... Who restores these old birds and how the hell do I join them????

 

I flew on the Nine O Nine B-17 while it was in Sacramento in May. One of my fellow passengers was a radio operator on a 17 during the war...riding with him was an honor and an added bonus. The experience is beyond description, if given the opportunity, grab it and be prepared for the ride of your life!

 

Didn't that B-24 see actual war duty? Those planes were at Rockford ILL. airport last year, and if I remember right the B-24 served with the RAF in China / Burma / India theater.

 

Two of my favorite shots. These were over Folsom Lake on May 30, 2009 (Sacramento) right after we said our vows. Turned out really cool.

Just a bit of trivia James (Jimmy) Stewart. He was the first American movie star to enter to war. He trained pilots for WWII on B-17 before getting his wish to see combat and flying his 20 WWII missons in the B-24, 453rd Bombardment Group.

 

Go to the airport in Chino Cal. and volunteer to sweep the floors, anything...

 

Do they still have the flyover at the SO CAL Speedshop open house? The first few years a P51 Mustang, and a P38 Lightning (I think that's what it was) flew over.

 

My dad flew a B-17 with engines made by Studebaker.

 

Thanks for posting I love the old Warbirds especially bombers. Liberty Bell was just here a couple weeks ago and I was lucky enough to get to pull my coupe up along side and get a few pics
But I really have a soft spot for the B24's ( sorrry I love to tell this story)
My uncle was shot down in a B24 (tail Gunner) over Gotha Germany and was a POW the cool thing about his story was after returning from a mission a few days earlier with their 24 too shot up to use again for this mission they got assinged to a new 24 nick named "The Jinx"!.... yep shot down on the first mission only 2 survived how would you like to have just barely made it back and then have to get on a new one named The Jinx! Man those guys were something else, true heroes every one of them.

 

grate photos Ilike all the old birds

 

Got the chance to fly in the Flying Fortress Liberty Belle. Took dad for a fathers day gift. So neat, even though the weather was not great. Smaller inside that they look in movies like 12 Oclock High with Gregory Peck. See that movie if you havent already. The neat thing was after we were done to see the next group get a chance. When it taxi'd away it sounded like a muscle car

The EAA is sponsering a B-17 tour, go to www.b17.org quite a few stops on the list for the remainder of this year.

If you havent done it go do it, well worth the money!

 

These pix are awesome, and makes me think that I need to get out to talk to the two old fellows in town that are still around that were part of this before they're gone. One was a belly gunner, and the other a bombardier. Never heard any stories, but what my Dad's told to me second hand, and I need to before it's too late. Boy those are cool.

 

that B-24 is gorgeous! I've always liked them the best. I guess seeing the "Strawberry Bitch" at wright-pat when I was a kid affected me more than my dad coulda known!

 

I spoke with a veteran who flew as tail gunner in B-24's. Quite often he said he was in the lead plane on the run. You stand up in a B-24 tail-gun, relatively (when your not getting shot at) comfortable compared to the prone position in a B-17. With a far-off look in his eye he told me the pf the awesome sight of looking back on the entire bombing wing behind his plane releasing their payloads. He said he didn't enjoy it, but it was the most incredible thing he had ever seen.

Definiitely talk to vets willing to tell their story. Some never get the chance!

 

Check this out

 

Good question -- the Collings Foundation B-24 came from India. The U.S. sold surplus B-24s to India, which used them for coastal patrol....both the Collings B-24 and B-17 came to Montgomery, AL some years ago, and I took my youngest daughter to sit in them. As we were waiting for them to come in, an elderly gentleman was standing by the fence, and he asked when they were coming...I told him that they were giving rides, and he said, "no thanks, I flew 6 and a half missions in a B-17." He had been a POW in Germany after the half mission. ... It was a chance to thank a real hero....also saw the Collings B-24 in Lancaster, OH, and while standing in line to go through it, got to listen to some former B-24 crew guys who had brought their wives to see what they had flown in...just the stories alone were worth it! These guys are my real heros.

 

Neat--thanks for sharing

 

Call them tomorrow! My Dad and I got along just great but he never talked much about 3 years on a B-17 base in England, I thought he'd live forever and we'd get around to it. I've learned more about life on the base on the internet and books veterans wrote. The one thing that really bugged me early on was the fact that flight crews and ground crew personell were housed in different areas and never socialized. At first I thought that made flight crew guys elitists, but in fact they didn't want ground crews to know the ten guys in every B-17 that didn't make it home. One day 80 guys never returned.

 

We got to meet so many veterans and people that had a story to tell it was amazing. We especially enjoyed Iris Taggart, her late husband was co-pilot on the first B-17 that started the airlift out of Berlin in 1948. She was the first one to hug me when I got off the plane. She was flown out to Berlin about 5 weeks ago for the 60th aniversary. Although we decided to get married on the B-17, I am partial to the B-24's

Iris's story
http://www.sacunion.com/pages/education/articles/9849/

 

(This photo is copyrighted by Brad Smith, son of R.T. Smith)

This extremely rare, maybe unique, photo shows a flight of Flying Tigers on their way into combat ... not a photo op. Some of you may remember the cigar-smoking R.T. selling autographed copies at airshows. The Salween River Gorge, by the way, is where they alone caught the Japanese 56th Division out in the open on the barren mountain road to Kunming ... one of the turning point battles of WW2.

From warbirdforum.com:

This is the iconic photograph of the American Volunteer Group Flying Tigers, taken by R.T. Smith of the 3rd Squadron Hell's Angels. His son, Brad Smith, describes the photo this way: "The photograph was taken by Dad, probably from #47, on May 28, 1942 near the Salween River Gorge. The shot includes #68 flown by Arvid Olson, #46 flown by Bob Prescott, #49 flown by Tom Hayward, #24 flown by Ken Jernstedt, and #74 flown by Link Laughlin. Dad remembered Bill Reed flying #74, but Ken Jernstedt, the only pilot associated with the shot still living, said Bill Reed was not in the area at the time."

Earlier, R.T. himself told how it was taken, in a letter to Terrill Clements, author of American Volunteer Group Colours and Markings. R.T. seldom took his camera on combat missions, he explained, because "there was no place to stow it in the cramped space of a cockpit, which meant having to carry it on my lap secured only by a leather strap around my neck. Obviously the last thing a fighter pilot needs while frantically maneuvering in a combat situation is a camera flying around in the cockpit....

"It was a beautiful spring day, with a layer of strato-cumulus just above the mountain tops at about ten thousand feet off to our right. We were headed northeast near the Salween River which marked the China-Burma border, and although the air was relatively smooth I soon learned that taking a picture of this type was no easy task. It required trying to fly my plane on a steady course by holding the control stick between my knees, twisting back to my right while holding the camera with both hands, and waiting impatiently for the guys to stop the inevitable 'yo-yo'ing and get into proper echelon formation. There was the added requirement, most important of all, of scanning the surrounding sky every few seconds to make sure no Jap fighters were about to ambush us. The resulting exposure, as I recall, was made about f8 at a 200th of a second."

 

I took a flight in a B-17 a coupla years ago....Something i've always wanted to do and yes, the top turret was removed so you could stick your head out and get a 360 degree view ...It was awesome....What struck me was how cramped they were and how the skin didn't seem much thicker than a beer can.....Seated on the floor next to me as we were climbing out was an old guy with a cane....He told me that his grand kids bought him the flight as a birthday gift....He also told me that he was a ball turret gunner that made numerous flights over Germany during WW-2....This was absolutely the coolest, an experienced tour guide during the entire flight!....Probably the best best gift ever that grandkids could give....I had to ask him at one point how did the guys take a leak while on these long missions....He laughed and said that they would usually whip it out and piss on the floor...It would immediately freeze anyways...Best $400.00 ever spent!!!!!

 

Yup, volunteer to sweep floors, clean benches, empty rubbish, be the runner. Do all the crap jobs, as they get to know you and your ability's they may let you do some work on the aircraft.
Thats how I got into it at several museums. I have worked on....
DAP Mk21 Beaufighter,
CAC CA-1 Wirraway,
CAC CA-12 Boomerang, I almost bought one. Still kicking myself for passing on it.
Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk, (It was sitting on Mustang wings! now on display as having maintenance done)
Fairey Firefly,
De Havilland DH-82 Tigermoth,
CAC CA-6 Wackett, (Trainer)
CAC CA-28 Ceres, (Modified Wirraway crop duster)
Gloster T7 Meteor,
Judy Pay's Ultra rare P40F, (Airworthy)
NA P-51 Mustang, (Airworthy)
Lavochkin La-9, (Airworthy)
NA T-28 Trojan, (Airworthy)

There was a few others but I cant remember them all now. Spent a lot of time washing and cleaning the display aircraft before they let me work on them, also spent some time doing research for restorations.
Its all great fun, DO IT!

Doc.

 

I love the old girls! I have studied them for years and years. I find them absolutely fascinating! The Americans had great powerful planes but our adversaries had some bad ass machines too.

I have always been drawn to bombers for some reason. The B-17's in particular. I usually get goose bumps while approaching one. The sheer air power and air superiority that those big birds commanded is just mind boggling!

 

Thank you all for the photos and the personal stories. You made my day. Fred

 

more...

 

I flew "Aluminum Overcast" in 1997, the restored B-17 that the Experimental Aircraft Association flies on tour. I got to ride along with my father, who hadn't flown one since 1945. He was a command pilot then. His ride cost the family $600.00 for a 1-hour trip. Since I had fixed one of the pieces of ground equipment that was essential for the airshow the night before, I got a freebie! I came away from that flight with a whole new respect for the men who flew them. My bomb runs on a B-52 over Viet Nam were joyrides by comparison! Dad is 84 now, and I'm hoping to get him another flight while he's still able to enjoy it.

Here's a pic from the Bomber Restaurant in Portland, Oregon some time ago. Dad is on the right, with his top turret gunner. They got together for the first time since 1947 in 2004. I think they're the only survivors of a 9-man crew. No combat losses, just old age.



Jerry

 

Thanks doc! I think it was mentioned on here before but the College I go to has a connection with the Collier Collection and I've been told they have a fair number of planes... I'm going to look into it and see where it gets me. So do most of these guys just do their own restorations or are there some dedicated aircraft restoration shops out there?