History More WWII planes still flying

Be good to see one flying, only one I have seen is in the Air Force Museum in Dayton.

There is a P-61 in a Chinese aviation museum near Beijing, in pretty good shape. No one seems quite sure how the Chinese got it, but story is that it was abandoned by a U.S. crew when the Chinese communists took the mainland in '49 ...The museum also has a P-47, probably captured from the Nationalists in '49..

 

Picture, from the Chinese Aviation Museum

 

I....SO...want that 50 Chevy conv.

 

296Arden---There's also one in Utah warplane museum. (Salt Lake area).

 

There are only 4 Black Widows left.
P-61B at Mid-Atlantic in PA
P-61B in terrible shape in China
P-61C at Wright-Pat in OH
P-61C at Udvar-Hazy at DC

 

http://youtu.be/jueDXiuU6aM This plane found in the 80's is currently restored to flying condition and lives at the Paul Allen Flying Heritage Collection in Everett WA at Paine Field. My son and I went to watch it fly on its first public outing, what a treat. The Museum is a great place to spend part of the day. The collection also has free fly days during the spring and summer months so you can watch these beautiful birds fly and enjoy the racket that they make! Go if you ever get the chance.

John

 

Then this ain't gonna help you, is it?!!

 

http://news.yahoo.com/restored-fighter-plane-salutes-flying-tigers-094004731.html

( photo in link )

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans will get a flavor of one of the most heralded episodes of World War II when a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, restored in the shark-nosed markings of the famed Flying Tigers, goes on display at the National World War II Museum.

The aircraft, a P-40E model, is the kind flown by the 1st American Volunteer Group formed in China by Gen. Claire Chennault shortly before the United States entered the war. However, this one never flew for the Tigers; its service was limited to the Aleutian Islands.

Thousands of P-40s were produced during the war and supplied to U.S. allies in every theater. Most were scrapped as advanced fighters such as the P-51 Mustang became available. Today, P-40s are rare.

Having any P-40 is important in telling the Tigers' story, said Nell Calloway, a granddaughter of Chennault, who organized U.S. volunteer pilots in 1941 as a civilian adviser to the nationalist Chinese government of Chiang Kai-Shek.

"Because the relationship between China and the United States is so important, we have to do whatever we can do to try to remember that airplane and how they used that airplane to contribute to defeating the Japanese," said Calloway, director of the Chennault Aviation and Military Museum in Monroe.

Chennault, a Texas native who grew up in Louisiana, resigned from active U.S. duty in 1937 to become an adviser to Chiang. He designed airfields and a warning network "of people, radios, telephones, and telegraph lines that covered all of Free China accessible to enemy aircraft," he wrote in his autobiography. He retired as a U.S. Air Force lieutenant general. He died in 1958.

Japan, which had moved aggressively in China since 1931, stepped up its attacks in 1937, and full-blown war broke out.

The museum's P-40 was painted to match the shark-faced aircraft flown by Robert Lee Scott Jr., commander of the 23rd Fighter Group created by Chennault when the Flying Tigers were brought into the U.S. Army Air Force after the United States entered the war.

Chennault wrote in "Way of a Fighter" that he never knew why the public dubbed his group the "Flying Tigers" when the planes were painted with a shark nose copied from a Royal Air Force squadron.

The Tigers found fame in the air and on the silver screen. The 1942 film "Flying Tigers" put a swashbuckling John Wayne in the cockpit of a shark-nosed P-40 blasting away at Japanese aircraft.

The museum's P-40 has the shark face but is painted with the modified fuselage logo designed for U.S. service: a tiger bursting through a star with a torn Japanese flag and Uncle Sam hat, said Rolando Gutierrez, chief engineer of Flyboys Aeroworks, the San Diego, Calif., company that restored the aircraft.

The museum's curators began searching for a P-40 in 2004, said Tom Czekanski, director of collections and exhibits.

"We knew we wanted it to represent the Air Force in China-Burma-India, so it would be a Flying Tiger — the shark-mouth paint," he said.

Czekanski wouldn't say how much it cost to buy and restore. Lafayette oilman and philanthropist Paul Hilliard, a World War II Marine, provided a big chunk of money, he said.

Buffalo, N.Y.-based Curtiss built more than 14,000 P-40s of various models from 1939 to about 1944, but high-performance aircraft such as the Mustang, Republic's P-47 Thunderbolt and the Vought F4U Corsair outclassed the Warhawk by 1944.

Adding to the P-40's scarcity is that after the war, enthusiasts snapped up surplus high-performance aircraft for air racing and private piloting. But the P-40 found little demand.

Gutierrez estimated fewer than three dozen remain.

The museum's P-40 was shipped to Cold Bay in the Aleutian Islands, where it had fewer than 20 hours of flying time when it was scrapped after a taxiing accident in 1942.

"The fields were very muddy, and often the plane would dig in. Then it would flip end over end," Czekanski said.

In the 1980s, he said, someone looking for a P-38 found the P-40's remains in a ditch near the airfield.

"We came to this a little late in the collecting game," Czekanski said. "Early on, people were collecting planes that were in service or parked and saved. As the supply goes down, people go to greater and greater lengths to get them."

The Warhawk will be the 10th aircraft installed in the museum, though only one can still fly, Czekanski said.

Gutierrez said the P-40's engine, landing gear, some castings and most of the instruments are original, but most of the plane had to be built from scratch in a 72-week effort using copies of more than 3,000 original drawings provided by the Smithsonian Institution and 4,000 pages of ground-crew manuals.

The aircraft was shipped by truck to New Orleans. Eventually it will be lifted into the second floor of the museum's Campaigns of Courage pavilion.

 

Great read!!

 

My Grandson in a B-25 at Oshkosh last year.

 

While technically not a WWII still a cool little warbird that showed up last year finally flew this week. Curtiss Wright CW-19R, landing gear issue seen here has been resolved (today) but not sure about the prop.Looking forward to a ride one of these days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23gzu9EbH30

 

My Dad graduated high school in 1941. Joined not long after December '41. A highly decorated C47 pilot. Just a few of his missions were the invasion of North Africa, invasion of Italy, D Day and the invasion of Germany.
We never talked about the war. I found out much of what my Father was involved in from my Uncle after my Father passed.

 

Russian WWII Polikapov I-153, an amazing plane to see fly at the hands of NZ's top display pilot. 1000 hp, cool !!!. JW

 

Sad to say http://www.fantasyofflight.com/
will close to the public after this Sat April 6th, 2014. It will then only be available for private parties or special events until which time it is reinvented as a more mainstream attraction which may take some years. In the meantime efforts will be refocused on restoration and maintenance projects. Here's a few shots from last weekend.

Cosmoline anyone?


Everyone should have a wind tunnel...



P-38 project



Douglas B-23 and the B-17 "Suzy Q" seen in the next pic went on an unauthorized and unpiloted "flight" during hurricane Andrew in 1992, covering nearly a mile during the storm.






Rough may be an understatement,but hey,this is the Hamb,we've seen worse brought back.








The projects seem to never end around here... (Hambers will relate)







Sure hope this opens back up to the public sooner than later.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

From my flight to Fraiser Park 2 years ago.

Staggerwing Beech. The guy said his resto took 15 years, then he did a belly landing on the grass first time up. A limit switch on the landing gear broke, but the green light came on so...





Lovely old Spartan.




Observation plane.




At FANG: New Nomad, old Mustang:


Planes & other relics from private collection at the Nut Tree airport:









\







From the Reno air show:

the mighty Hawker Sea Fury:




My buddy takes a T-10 at Chandler field:

 

Thanks for sharing ( one of the few things as cool as hot rods is piston engine warbirds the pinnacle of wich were produced for ww2

 

Now I'm glad I visited Kermit's Toybox - hope it opens back up to the public quickly. I had to beg and plead with my wife to stop for an hour to go through Fantasy of Flight on our way back to the airport in Tampa from the Capitol One Bowl in Orlando a few years ago. "You've got one hour and then I'm leaving" she said, and didn't even get out of the car. That was the fastest one-hour stare-point-shoot run through a museum I'd taken since going through the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum in '91 (still brag I saw the whole thing in one day). Add to that we spent New Year's Day at Cape Kennedy, and got to be in Florida when it was freezing back in Nebraska, and you have the makings of one memorable holiday weekend.

 

4 years ago I had a private grass strip in Ohio, 8 miles away, in Urbana, a group are building a B-17, they've been on it for a number years, a huge project. I was their air show announcer for years and know these folks well, a great bunch of dedicated builders.
http://www.champaignaviationmuseum.org/

 

Kalahari Speedweek 2013 in South Africa ....... just another reason why I'll be there again this year!


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My bucket list free ride in June!!---Can't wait!

 

We will want pics and video with top quality sound Don. JW

 

B25J Mitchell at the Cleveland IX center show 2014.. First time seeing one in person.. After seeing this piece of history I could have cared less about the car show.. Haha
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We host a little show each year called EAA AirVenture... come on up for a few days of Heaven on Earth!

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This is post-WW II,but I just had to post it,as I found this sitting in a guy's yard on my way home from work...
F-86 SaberJet.


Scott


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I love those old airplanes almost as much as I love old cars!

 

That Saber is a beaut!

The paint scheme is unfinished,they are doing it up in "Golden Hawks" livery (The Canadian equivalent of the US Thunderbirds or Blue Angels).

It looks like a million bucks so far

Scott


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Hi Scott,
Here is another 86 for you, this one holds all of the speed and altitude records for the Saber program it had a rocket assist under the fuselage.
My dad flew them in USAF and later in the Cal Guard.
Have all the pieces scattered between locations.
Now.



In its day.


Dad in his Cal Guard 86
[/QUOTE]

 

Wow....!

That is killer!

.....And your Dad is a true Badass!

That is an incredible piece of history you have got there.

Scott


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I went to Oshkosh again this year. Here are a couple pics.