Flying Merkel

Local air museum has their B-25 flying this weekend. Goes right over my home. It sounds like nothing else. If they have the guts to fly an irreplaceable plane, then we shouldn't be afraid to ride our bikes.

https://lyonairmuseum.org/2012/lyon-a...t-on-april-21/

sailorbenjamin

A B-17 pasted real low over our campus once. That was 20 years ago. I'll never forget the sound.
You should watch Cath 22 on a big screen with a good sound system.

Scooper

Very cool.

I took an hour-long ride in the Collings Foundation's B-17 several years ago (2004), and was able to move around in the airplane from one crew position to another during the flight. It was a thrill beyond my wildest expectations.

puchfinnland

I was a few time in St. Maarten in the caribbean, the sound of the dc-3's flying overhead running freight was so cool, Just loved to see them still earning a living.

Bianchigirll 

Beautiful plane.



Scooper thanks for the great pics! I would love a ride in one of those grand old gals.

thinktubes 

Yep. Here in Chicago there's a B-17 and B-24 that come out occasionally. I'd know that sound anywhere....

ebr898

I should have figured, the C & V crowd would have a soft spot for the rattle of the radial engines.

ZippyThePinhead

Last weekend (May 5/6) Planes of Fame had their big air show out in Chino. First time for me. It was pretty good. There are a bunch of videos on YouTube:


Of the ones I saw, the video linked above is hard to beat. Watch it on YouTube directly in large format HD.

oldskoolwrench

Of course... old school engineering, just like old school bicycles.

There isn't a more pleasing sound than hearing an old R-985 or R-2800 come to life with that rich baritone sound.

RobbieTunes

I think John Travolta has one of the B17's.

I really dig those old things, the bigger the better, but with soft spots for the P51 and the F86.

02Pilot

I had the opportunity some years ago to have some stick time in a T-6 Texan (WWII trainer) in Hawaii. I flew it twice, once from the back seat and once from the front. Sitting a few feet behind that big radial, canopy open, upside down, hanging by the straps and looking up at the Pacific Ocean a few thousand feet below was pretty darn cool.

OldsCOOL

We had a Mitchell fly in at Charlevoix 6 or 7 years ago. Dont recall the name of it but you sure can tell when it took off. There is nothing like the sound of high-performance military aviation.

These babies were the hotrods of the bomber fleet.

sailorbenjamin

I've taken a liking to WWII training films, there's a bunch on Youtube these days.
This one's nice, it's on how to crash land a B-24 properly with a narrated series of crashes with different sorts of damages and how to compensate for each.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv6D8_p7ozw

Italuminium

So cool! I'm sure I'd be into C&V planes if I had the dough now I've just some unbuild models stashed away and every once in a while an hour in a glider.

ebr898

I know and you know, but I took my kids to a fly in and I don't think it brought shivers to their spines like it does mine.

ZippyThePinhead

It takes some real money to fly these old planes. Just buying one, like a P51, is around $2 million. I read that operating costs are maybe $2,000 per hour.

JohnDThompson 

Living within 25 miles of EAA and Basler Turbo Conversions (a major refurbisher of DC-3s) we see a lot of interesting planes here. We used to even see the Concorde before they were taken out of service.

cuda2k

My dad had the opportunity to buy a B-25 in the late 60's after he finished flying them in the movie Catch-22 (he's on screen for about half a second in the intro take off scene). While my dad's list of "wish I hadn't passed on that." list, that is near the top. Beautiful aircraft. The Commemorative Air Force B-29 FIFI flew over my office building a few days ago. We're on the 19th of 21 floors and heard this roar go over head, spun around in my chair to see the heavy bomber headed south towards downtown. Even from inside the building it was quite the sound. Me loves me some radial engine roar.

sailorbenjamin

Of course, I'd prefer steel to aluminum...

rootboy 

No idea there were this many vintage WW II plane buffs here. But why not? :> I'm a fan of the fighters. P-51, the inimitable and beautiful Spitfire and the fantastic Bf 109 E, but especially, the sleek, gorgeous Me 262.

Nothing quite like the sound of a Sptifire's or P-51's Merlin engine. Sublime music.

Speaking of WW II planes, have you all heard/read the story of the buried Spitfires in Burma? Amazing story.

rootboy 

OK, you guys got me started. :> Got on a strange tangent a while ago. I hadn't built a model for about 35 years. Just finished this. The Schwalbe.

cuda2k

If you did that whole model in an afternoon I'm going to faint, and then send you a P-38 to do. The Lightning is probably my favorite WWII era aircraft, last summer I read a book detailing the history of the Army's top two aces in the Pacific, both who flew the P-38. It's a great read, if anyone is interested I'll mail them the book. I think I just added another TODO on my list of things to do on my vacation this week, get down to the Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Addison. Now that I've got a 50mm prime lens for the camera I may be able to get some decent shots indoors there.

rootboy 

Please do post the pics if you go! Although this thread is way off topic, aided greatly by my tangent I sort of like these threads now and again. Just for a change of pace.
The Me 262 took me a little longer than an afternoon. Much longer, in fact. Fun stuff, by my eyes aren't what they used to be.

I'd love to read that book Cuda 2K

BTW, I love the P-38 too. A beautiful aircraft.

roccobike

My fav WWII US fighter used to be the P-38. My brother in-law (who served in the USAF) always talked about his fav, the P-47. But after actually spending some time reading about the big three US fighters, I'm slowling swiching to the P-51. I'm impressed because it performed (in some areas out performed) the other fighters of the day, while managing to cost way less.
Then someone brings up the Corsair or the Black widow and arguments really get interesting.

silvercreek

The Douglas Skyraider towards the end was my favorite. A few of them sure save my butt in Vietnam.