WW II Bombers over the Superstitions

[J35]

http://vimeo.com/18135369

Pretty neat, go full screen

Hope this has not been posted before.

--J

[Borregos]

Enjoyed that, thanks

[FWiedner]

They kept buzzing that dam and never dropped a single bomb.

[Mescalero]

Shows just how rugged the Superstions are.

[Ji in Hawaii]

Beautiful planes, love them pre-jet age aircraft.
We just got the B-17E "Swamp Ghost" in to our Pacific Air Museum on Ford Island. It was found in a swamp in New Guinea and will slowly be restored funds permitting: http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/brea ... =202375641

Original Crash Site


Arrival in Hawaii it's new home!


It always eats away at me that "The Confederate Air Force" was changed to "The Commemorative Air Force", even my Yankee dad thought it was pretty lame.

[Base Pin Maker]

Ji, I was at that museum in February, now I have a reason to come back! Kelye

[Old Savage]

That is really cool!

[KiwiKev]

Amazing.

Better success that the Bomber they tried to retreive from the snow in Greenland.

Confederate Airforce! At one stage the Confederate Airforce was the fourth largest airforce in the world.

It thought it was a good way of exercising 2nd ammendment rights.

It was a bit naff renaming it.

The South will rise again!

[gak]

Cool! I'm planning to go tour those two for the umpteenth time (this stuff never gets old) next weekend at Falcon. I hear the B-17, Sentimental Journey, is having a longer winter residence here than usual - I think normally gone by now on national summer tour, so - lucky us! You can climb around in
Sentimental (and get flights for more than a few $), fully outfitted with "loaded" guns and full bomb bay, etc. Though I wasn't around in the 40s, it's not just the visuals, but even the smell of the materials, oil, and grease reeks of history as I've come to imagine it. Except for VIP's, the 25 is usually "just" viewable as a walkaround. Goosebumps either way!

In the 70s my father, a B-17 (25, 29 etc) instructor-pilot in WWII, and I watched them flying in from Falcon doing fire/slurry duty - banking radically against the west face of the Supers. Pretty loud too, only a mile or two from the folks' home -- unmistakably 17s for those familiar, as they approached the mountains and then those engines' roar bouncing off that massive rock wall. They'd get darn close in and I'd get a play-by-play account of what specifically the pilot was doing. I think my father occsionally got something in his eye at those times, checking out his favorite aircraft in action like he never thought he would again.

+1 very rugged mountains. Special place in my life, the famous broad "front" face of the Superstitons were like a huge painting in the folks' picture window for 30+ years out in the foothills, and another twenty of memories before that with family visiting the property before the folks permanently retired there. They're no longer around and we had to sell several years ago now, but seeing those planes and mountains up close again is quite a combination for me!

[Mac in Mo]

Outstanding!

Kevin

[olyinaz]

I always enjoy that video. My stompin' grounds too!

[Bill in Oregon]

Thanks for that. My late uncle was a tailgunner in a B-17 until he got hit by Kraut flak.

[C. Cash]

My Dad was a pilot out of Falcon field in the 70's, and I spent much of my early life there. As a child I stood in the shade of those planes many times before they were restored....smelling the grease and looking into every window I could... flying missions in my imagination. Pretty sad to see them sit there on flat tires..it and the B -25 that sat next to it. A few Constellations were there as well that flew as slurry bombers and old Sikorski's. Always great to see the old birds restored and flying proud. The museum is worth seeing as well. They had a super Corsair there but it crashed recently and killed the pilot Bob Odegaard.

[olyinaz]

My Dad was a pilot out of Falcon field in the 70's, and I spent much of my early life there. As a child I stood in the shade of those planes many times before they were restored....smelling the grease and looking into every window I could... flying missions in my imagination. Pretty sad to see them sit there on flat tires..it and the B -25 that sat next to it. A few Constellations were there as well that flew as slurry bombers and old Sikorski's. Always great to see the old birds restored and flying proud. The museum is worth seeing as well. They had a super Corsair there but it crashed recently and killed the pilot Bob Odegaard.

Yeah that was really sad. I used to go and marvel at that Super Corsair when I was in college. The Foke Wulf 190D they had at the museum too as well as all of the other great birds and memorabilia. Erich Hartmann came to the place for a meet and greet back in the day as well - Pappy Boyington, Joe Foss and all the greats also. I think that museum is long gone?

My Grandma was an Odegaard and it was sad to see a good Nodak Norsk go down like that.

[C. Cash]

Oly, They moved the museum....used to be in the old Hap James hangers I believe, toward the control tower/Falcon's Roost. But they moved it to the west of the park....at the South West edge of the airport. That's where you get in. I was never a huge fan of the Corsair until I saw that Super Corsair....incredible. Very sad indeed about the pilot. There is still one of Odegaards Super Corsairs flying: the race 57 plane. It has the larger 14' propeller and the same engine used in the B-36 for double the horsepower. For such rare planes, I think a high speed fly over and climb is enough to exhilarate the crowds, and scrap the low altitude aerobatics. That is how Odegaard was killed. That plane had the heavily clipped wings as well.

[olyinaz]

Oly, They moved the museum....used to be in the old Hap James hangers I believe, toward the control tower/Falcon's Roost. But they moved it to the west of the park....at the South West edge of the airport. That's where you get in. I was never a huge fan of the Corsair until I saw that Super Corsair....incredible. Very sad indeed about the pilot. There is still one of Odegaards Super Corsairs flying: the race 57 plane. It has the larger 14' propeller and the same engine used in the B-36 for double the horsepower. For such rare planes, I think a high speed fly over and climb is enough to exhilarate the crowds, and scrap the low altitude aerobatics. That is how Odegaard was killed. That plane had the heavily clipped wings as well.

It used to be called the Champlin Fighter Museum - stunning collection. The engine you're talking about is the 4360 corn cob Pratt. A whopper of a motor!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratt_%26_ ... Wasp_Major

It's really impressive, but the Wright 3350 with turbo compounding gave it real run for the money. I suspect that the four rows (cooling the rear rows) and 56 spark plugs (fouling nightmare) gave the 4360 some unique challenges. The power recovery turbines were the key to the 3350s power and efficiency, but they gave that engine challenges. Still, from an engineering perspective the 3350 is a stunning design whereas the 4360 is more pure brute cubic inches IMO.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_R-3350

And I agree with you regarding the aerobatics. I really wish these rich guys would STOP IT - the dang airplanes are not replaceable! Build some clones and fly those to impress the crowds, but leave the artifacts of history to simple fly overs so that we (our kids) will still have something to actually look at up close in fifty years.

[C. Cash]

Cool.....thanks for that info Oly. Did not know about the 3350. There is a 4360, with cutaways, on display at the new museum. Have to get the kids back there to climb through the Sentimental Journey soon and soak it in. Two beautiful P-51's there the last time we went through.