Got to ride in a cool plane over the weekend.... 1941 Boeing Stearman, fresh restoration. Flew in formation with a bright yellow 1943 Stearman cruising around over the mountains here in Utah. What a cool ride! This thing was like a roadster in the sky. I loved it. I can sure appreciate the guts these guys had back in the day. If you ever have the chance, ride in one of these ****ers. I don't fly, and I'm not really that into airplanes, but this is up toward the top of the list of cool things I've done in my life....
Cool! I've always said if money was no problem I would have as many old weird and cool airplanes as cars!
Very nice example! Truly the "Golden Age of Aviation"....... My dad trained in them during W.W. II; quickly moved up to the Mosquito, one of the real hot-rods of the twin engine dive bombers.
Mosquitos were fighters / night fighters. Recon was secondary because they were the fastest thing the Brits had to evade and get back home with the photo intel
once flew in a sopwith camel once.. it was truly the yugo of the sky. i could have gone faster flaping my damn arms.
the mosquito now thats a hotrod. lets see whats in demand at this period of time.. that new fancy metal that aviation has latched onto.. wood is just to primitive for our high tech planes.. necessity the mother of all invention.. we have all these wood workers ( coach builders ) doing nothing, a product that was not in high demand so available in a resourced strap period.. all i can say is im glad some of them old timers remember what them wood planes could do cause the construction of the mosquito was brilliant. super fast, low on radar. maybe the first stealth fighter? heh.. iv only been in the b52 bomber that flys here come winter.. it was quite the experience. chris.
THAT is very cool and Mosquito's were fast but if I was gong to ride in a WWII "Hot Rod" plane I think it would be one of these.........
I got a ride in a Stearman about 10 years ago, lots of wind in your face and a loud high horsepower engine right in front of you. It is the ultimate roadster!! The pilot did a barrell role also!
A ride in an open ****pit airplane should be on everyone's "bucket list"! My first airplane ride was with the Red Baron Pizza Squadron-it was awesome-formation flying and aerobatics, too! I've been blessed to have the privilege to have owned and flown the Waco in my avitar picture. There's not much out there that compares with feeling the t******* of that big radial engine as you float along, feeling the wind buffeting around ya. Lots of fun! Congrats on your ride!
My Dad was always telling me that after the War, you could buy new Stearmans in the crate, covered in cosmoline, for $400 bucks apiece.
one winters afternoon, watched a c-17 do wing-overs, stall outs and loops over the mojave. that was interesting.
Crated airplanes in cosmoline? I used to hear the same thing about war surplus motorcycles when I was in high school back in the 70's. Wonder if any of that was true.
I had a ride in the back seat of a P51 years ago. I had been working a gazillion hours of overtime, two hundred seemed cheap at the time. We got upside down a couple times, made a run at a train, flew at eye level to a tug boat, one high p*** over the airshow, then landed. A good choice I made that day, all these years later its like it was yesterday.
C-17........Loops?? I have seen some of your US pilots do some crazy things in aircraft that you never thought possible but a loop?? I dunno....but I have jumped out of a C-17 at about 25,000ft. I love the Stearmans, one of the planes that really got me into aircraft when I was young. I was in Air Cadets and each year we would go and be cheap labour for an air-show held at Mangalore in Victoria. Thats where I got my first flight, a Stinson SR8 Gull Wing Reliant..............OOOOOH GOD That radial sound!! That same week end I got a ride in a Stearman, just awesome!! I have been lucky since then, especially living here in Australia to have been for rides in some great aircraft. Tigermoth, Chipmunk, Wirraway, Harvard, Winjeal and probably the best two, the RAAF museums Australian built GAF P-51 Mustang and a RNZAF TA-4K Skyhawk, to name a few. One day I want to get over to the states to ride in a B-17, B-25 and anything else I could get my hands on!! You guys are lucky over there, if you get the chance to fly in something historic, TAKE IT! Doc.
ok if we gonna pick any plane of wwII for a hotrod.. id have to for the P38 lighting.. the mustang is cool.. but it always gets the glory. chris. P.S what bomber fule tanks got used the most for the tankers out on the salt flats? looks like we have quite of few old war birds you can pay to go for a ride on during the winter ( our summer ) here in Arizona, usa.. that airplane fuel aint cheap. heh. http://www.azcaf.org/pages/rides.html
IMO the real airplane hot rods are the gee bees. lets take our Geebee Z designed for 545hp and bolt on a 750hp engine so we can got for the speed record! unfortunately it shed a wing in the process, but it's still a hot rod!
The BEARCAT (Grumman F8F) technically didn't see SERVICE before the end of the war, but no doubt was a HOT ROD! DD
the grumann sounds familiar is that the same company that ended up building the baddest tank killer ever made the A-10.. is the bearcat related? hmm now i think about i think it was something child ( fairchild is who i was thinking of yay for google ) that built the a10 nm. im losing brain cells way to fast. chris.
Fairchild built the A10, amazing to see in action!! Them and AC-130's, only reason I'm still alive today!! Thank you Spooky! Last I heard the 'Southern Cross' clone was on static display only. Doc.
I was working for Don Marks at Mar Fab about thirty years ago at a small shop just North of the Phoenix airport. Twisting wrenches on a model "A" sedan and watching out the front shop doors one day, 'cause there was a major air show in town and cool planes were taking off and landing all week, what do my wondering eyes spy? A damn Gee Bee!!! I don't know if it was an original or a replica, but it was one of the headliners at the show that week. Yep, gotta agree on that one, HOT ROD of the sky!!! They had to be nuts to fly those things - short stumpy wings with a giant radial engine attached. The fuel altered of airplanes. 'Course, I damn near fainted when the Corsair went up, up, and away too!
iv only seen video of the A10 in action and id agree with you 110% its bad to the bone.. has to even more impressive in person when you can smell the gunsmoke/hear etc.. i had to google southern cross because the first thing that came to my mind when i read the words southern cross is the limited addition guitar dimebag played!!! this photo is of #50 of the limited run. wish i could own every single one found this video of the beejee R2.. these things look so unstable for some reason reminds me of the short wheel base alterds for sure. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vaBUAh4HkU have to ask if this is the alterd.. what would be the ratrod ratplane? version.. heh.. several come to mind.. but any plane that can take loft deservs more respect than any ratrod. chris.
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