That aircraft again

May be an old clip but my father worked on these in WWII as an LAC in the RAAF (I still have his Fitters manuals) and I am very fond of this aircraft. And honestly when things were really grim it was the brave pilots this aircraft and the Hurricane that stemmed the tide. Fighter command was on its knees when Britain bombed Berlin that's when Herr Goering changed from bombing the fighter airfields to the London blitz. My dad never said much of the war nor what it felt like to have his homeland bombed and all the privations placed on the populace. The war is long over and my dad a long time treading clouds but I remember his fondness of that plane. When we travel I try to get to a war museum that has one and we are very lucky in Perth Western Australia to have one where you can get almost inside of one.
This is the music I grew up with that accompanies the clip enjoy I did......Cockpit footage from Biltema Spitfire displaying at Jarlsberg Airshow 2012 - YouTube

Thanks CINDERS! I debate myself sometimes, but the Spitfire and P-51 rank nearly the same in my books. They are actually very small aircraft. Just a VERY small aircraft with the mind boggling Rolls Royce engine attached. A P-47, Corsair, etc were HUGE next to the spitfire and Mustangs. The ME-109 is also a teeny fighter.

Yes they were great in their roles but probably the P-51 became the greatest due to its range, really there was not an aircraft that could complete the whole gambit. The Corsair blew the Zero's out of the sky in-fact it has the highest kill/loss ratio of the war against the zero throw in the Hellcat which the IJNAF did not pick up it was far a superior aircraft to the one it replaced it to shot the zero to pieces. Then we have the Typhoon/Tempest arguably one of the best ground attack aircraft of the war with devastating fire power from the 4 x 20mm cannons to the 8 x 6 inch rockets under its wings. They are all up there really the Jug, Black widow, P-38, Hurri (Which ended up carrying 2 x 40mm Vickers "S" cannon as a tank buster, Seafire, Beaufighter, Mossie.

So the Spitfire and the Hurri stemmed the tide whilst "Give us the tools" Winston referred to in the US Parliament came in the guise of the P-51 and the B-17. And I have not forgotten the others who stalked the night the night bombers Lanc, Wimpy, Whitley, Halifax, Manchester, yes sir we owe a debt that I really do not know how to repay except in my unfailing eternal thanks and respect for those that went and those that never came home. semper fidelis and AUSPICIUM MELIORIS AEVI. : an omen of a better age —motto of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. Title definition ~ : thus one goes to the stars

As a postscript a fighter pilot in those air craft of the day really had the odds against them when you think of what they flew and what they were flying into I just cannot comprehend how they kept it up any of them the German fighter pilot had no rotational system they flew till they died or the war ended.
Subaru Sakai a Japanese pilot flew 000's back to base after a dogfight with a good portion of his scalp missing and an uncontrolled dive being unconscious when a fifty round came through the front screen and nearly took his head off.
Page horrifically burned and returned to active duty a product of McIndoes army, Richardson who was the only VC winner of the battle of Britain horrifically burned, Malan, Deere, Bader, Finnucane, Pattle, Barnham, Galland, Hartmann, Nowotny, Preddy, Bong they all had the same job to do.......
List of WWII scores of aircraft shot down in WWII ~https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&r...7BkBZJ6EE_kABA

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harlan

They are actually very small aircraft.

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That was my first impression when seeing a B17 as well for the first time. Put a whole new perspective on things after that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harlan

They are actually very small aircraft.

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Yes, until I saw a Bearcat sitting beside a Piper four seater...the Piper looked like a toy.

Cool footage and cool plane. I loved the spitfire so much, my first car was a triumph spitfire.

I read of these planes for years and when I first saw a B-17 what struck me at the time was, "how frail!" I had read quotes that you could shove a screwdriver through the skin of the plane and had shrugged them off but by George, it is true. A screwdriver, a pocket knife, an ice pick, whatever. You could render one unflyable with a pistol, much less a .50 caliber machine gun. And then I remember the planes that dragged home with parts missing, engines dead, control systems shot out. No wonder they became beloved mounts to those who flew them.

Bob

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CINDERS

Subaru Sakai a Japanese pilot flew 000's back to base after a dogfight with a good portion of his scalp missing and an uncontrolled dive being unconscious when a fifty round came through the front screen and nearly took his head off.

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Hi CINDERS,
The Dallas location of the CAF was the maintenance unit of the CAF and we had many great WARBIRDS pass through there over the years. We had a Corsair and a real Zero at our location at our hangar several years....

We have a large hangar, and always have visitors stop by to look at whatever aircraft we were working on and/or restoring on Saturday. One Saturday an older oriental gentleman was looking around our hangar viewing the aircraft. Long story short, the older gentleman who'd been looking at the aircraft turned out to be the ace Subaru Sakai! He had been looking at both the Corsair and Zero with reverence and respect, so he didn't even touch either aircraft. When visitors hit the hangar we try to tell them about the aircraft. Mr. Sakai was with his grandson who translated for him. As it turned out, they flew to Dallas just to see the planes that he saw on our web site.

As you probably know, the CAF is 'hands on' and we often allow people to sit in the cockpits. He sat in the Zero for quite a while and then he sat in the Corsair cockpit for quite a while. As luck had it, the Corsair demo pilot stopped by that Saturday to go 'play' around (Um, I mean "practice") and he towed the Corsair out onto the ramp and started the Corsair, lowered the wings, and did some low fly-bys before he headed out the aerobatic box just south of our uncontrolled field.

We had lunch at the greasy spoon little diner at the FBO, and one of our regular pilots showed up and was thrilled to meet Mr. Sakai. He offered to take him up in his own AT-6 Texan and let him have some stick time from the rear seat. We've had a LOT of very cool days like that.

He was happy to sign every photo we had of the Zero.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...ykcsl7ya-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...8ebmhspy-1.jpg

The Corsair is MASSIVE and Mr. Sakai was impressed and commented how big it was...
The Zero is compact and very light, and the Corsair is like a NASCAR on steroids
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...hujqmq39-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...r8winvul-1.jpg

Privately owned 'T-6' that lives in our hangar
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...jbyqxnw7-1.jpg

did you work with gary austin? i loved the work he did on the OL 927 and would loved to have met/learned from him. another gone far too soon. RIP.

Green with envy to have met an ace like Sakai those are great pics the ones of the Corsair especially. Thanks:thup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harlan

We've had a LOT of very cool days like that.

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I knew lots of those guys. They're thinning now. One friend of mine flew Lancasters, I took a book of aircraft artwork to share with him and he reminisced over the pics. He left us about 5 years ago, I miss him every day...specially this time of year at the annual gunshow as he was a fixture there... I'd have loved to have met Subaru Sakai.

Mr. Sakai was a small, polite/quiet man not unlike many of our greatest generation. He spoke broken English but his grandson spoke perfect English. I felt honored just to be a small part of an organization that has kept so many of these WARBIRDS in flying condition, and all the CAF pilots who do everything possible to get them back in the air.

You are completely correct Jim, most all of the last of them have passed in the past 15 - 20 years from natural causes. Mr. Sakai passed shortly after visiting.

My dad was chatting with the British fellow who rented him a summer cottage for a week, talking about their WWII Navy experience. His acquaintance turned out to be the captain of one of the Royal Navy destroyers that took part in the raid on St. Nazaire (Operation Chariot). That conversation turned into many and eventually the fellow gave my dad a book that he felt explained what happened well. I'll have to pick through my dad's books and find it.

Bob

When the Campeltown's delayed explosives went up as she lay wedged in the front gates of the dry dock it caught allot of sight seer's as well as German troops "The Greatest Raid Of All" a very good read and a similar one from WWI is "Zeebrugge" even used a submarine in that lot as well as block ships and from memory a cruiser with drop ramparts over the side to get the troops onto the docks, see attached pic

Cinders, the Royal Marines celebrate Zeebrugge Night.

Many years ago, I had the honour of being invited by a mate, an old 'Bootneck', to the Zeebrugge Night formal Dining In at the British Legion club in Sydney. Coincidentally, the next day was ANZAC Day for us.

Currently in my 19th year in the RAF, probably the highlight to date is my three and half years on BBMF. Working on the Flights Spitfires, Hurricanes and Lancaster brought me into contact with many veterans with tales of heroism and suffering. My grandad was an Armourer, based at Waddington, he worked on Hampdens, Manchesters and Lancasters. Unfortunately he passed away before my time on BBMF, having flown in the Lancaster and Dakota many times alongside the fighters, you can't help but imagine what it was like during those days when young lads operated and maintained these aircraft.
Here is a pic of my grandad, sucking up to the officer types at Waddington 1941

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...eonpm631-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...ge_3jpeg-1.jpg

Very cool!

In 1996 I was in London when audio console manufacturer Solid State Logic sent a car to take me to Oxford (Stonesfield) to see their pant. I rode up front with the driver and we started talking. He found out that my uncle was a Spitfire pilot in WWII and let me know he was an RAF pilot in retirement, driving to keep himself busy. In the sixties he was posted to the BBMF and flew one of their Spitfires during filming of the Battle of Britain movie. While we were visiting the plant he ran home and brought back his log books, pilot manuals from the Spit and Hurricane, and pictures from the film shoot. We were able to spend a couple of hours talking back and forth. Given my vested interest in the subject and the fact that the Battle of Britain movie was my favorite, it was a very fortuitous meeting.

Bob

Thats a great story how things work out from memory I think Galland flew and ME-109 for the film, the hardest part was getting the HE-111 bombers one from Argentina I recall could be wrong but it rings a bell.
Beautiful air shot of the Duck Egg blue of a what I think PR19 Spitfire this may be a Griffon powered one gathered by the rocker cover bulges on the top cowling stand to be corrected if wrong in my observations.

Yes, they had a two-cockpit dual-control Hispano HA-1112 Buchon (Bf-109) on the film and on one of the days of filming in England Dolpho (Adolph Galland) went to the field and was invited to take the plane for a spin. The film's pilot took the plane up and then Dolpho beat up the field with aerobatics for about thirty minutes and impressed everyone.

The CASA 2.111s (Heinkel 111s) were still in service with the Spanish Air Force and Spain was in an uncomfortable period of relations with England. It was amazing to all that Spain place their entire fleet of bombers at the disposal of the film company in Spanish airspace and allowed them to repaint the planes to Geman colors. One of those planes was Franco's personal plane that ended up in the Commemorative Air Force's fleet until it crashed on landing. My boys and I were able to tour it before that crash.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...noseboys-1.jpg
The clowns

Two bombers were allowed to fly to England and eventually France to allow interaction between the film company's British planes as well. Two interesting sidebars:
1. All of the "German" planes used in the filming except one were powered by Rolls Royce Merlins engines, the engines that powered the British planes. My understanding is that one actual BF-109 was used and it retained its Daimler-Benz engine.
2. There were only three flyable Hurricanes at the time of shooting so spare Hispano HA-1112 Buchon (Bf-109) were repainted to British colors and markings and placed at a distance in Hurricane formations to fill them out.

Bob

Did an American receive payment for work he did during filming in the form of a few buchons, P51 and a mk 9. I remember him having a two seat buchon too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by henry r

did you work with gary austin? i loved the work he did on the OL 927 and would loved to have met/learned from him. another gone far too soon. RIP.

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I never worked with him, but I met him once while he was working on the CAF B-24 at the Midland CAF Hangar (I live in Dallas). He worked for days and nights weeks on end updating that aircraft.

Yes, it's very sad. Nobody seemed to have known what he was going through inside.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...ection10-1.jpg

That was Connie Edwards. He received several flying Buchons in payment for his flying in the film, bringing over his own plane, a Spit, and for finding the pilots to fly the planes. He recently sold his planes. I think a friend got one of them. He's being secretive, but he did just buy a Merlin engine and did just build a hangar on his ranch in Texas!

MORE ON CONNIE
Bob

Even Merlined engined as they are the airframes alone would demand a premium price the spindly undercarraige is quite evident on the fore ground aircraft the doom of many a novice pilot in the Luftwaffe

HOLY COW!! You guys know more about the ME-109's and also the Battle of Britain movie than anyone I've ever met. Lefty Gardner was the co-founder of the CAF and he was fairly local so we got to talk with him at some of the CAF shows. Lefty flew spitfires in the movie and Mr. Galland mostly flew the Spanish version of the ME-109. (He was also a CAF member) Lefty said they would sit around in lawn chairs and tell 'War Stories'. Lefty was a bomber pilot in WWII, and Mr. Galland was of course one of the top aces on the German side mostly flying ME-109's. Lefty said it was strange at first sitting around 'hangar flying' with Mr. Galland, but after a little while they became good friends. It seems funny that at one time they were sworn enemies trying to kill each other and now they are friends! Below is a link telling a little about Lefty soon after he too passed:

AOL Image Search result for "http://www.aero-news.net/images/content/general/2008/Lefty-Gardner-White-Lightnin-1208a.jpg"

And yes, the CAF's Spanish HE111 was completely destroyed when on final and crashed into a car wash short of the runway. We know what happened... It was a simple pilot error and very sad. Kinda long story, but he moved the wrong lever and it cut off all fuel when he meant to start the APU to lower the gear. The only hydraulics in the HE111 was operation of lifting and lowering that landing gear.

The two levers on the left were the cause of the fatal crash.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...w2iqypk8-1.jpg

The 'yellow' lever temporarily started the APU and has to be engaged in order to raise the gear, and also lower the gear on final. The 'Red' lever shuts off the fuel supply to the engines. There were several 'close calls' in the past when the pilot or crew chief moved the gas shut-off lever by mistake and the engines started to 'sputter' before they stopped completely while the aircraft was climbing out after take-off, or when on final! You know how things are on final and you seem to have to keep up with 100 things all at once. In the past, when they touched the red lever by mistake and the engines started to 'sputter' but the crew chiefs or pilots quickly put the red lever back in place and 'went around'. They even painted the 'bad' lever RED and the APU lever YELLOW to keep this from happening. Everything happens fast when on final and the aircraft shut the engines off. The pilot only had seconds to correct the situation but he didn't figure out what he had done until the HE111 stalled and crashed.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...agwrsjex-1.jpg

The CAF worked with the FAA and told them of the lever situation and the FAA found the red lever engaged so as to cut off the fuel.

I always loved the CAF's HE111 and I looked around my hard-drive and found a few photos I had taken from the past. Originally the CAF HE111 still had the 'Battle of Britain' paint, but later it was repainted to resemble the livery style of the Africa theater.

At mandatory three month stay at CAF HQ in Midland. (The Midland location was unbelievably SLOW and saw very few visitors. I used to fly to Midland once a month or so on Saturdays just to see what aircraft were there and the museum and hangar were usually empty of visitors!)
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...zixd7wdj-1.jpg

Another time at a random air show:
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...mz3yhds9-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...ysbgjpeg-1.jpg

This shot was when the HE111 was still wearing the old paint from the 'Battle of Brittain' movie:
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...ckdvao5i-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...splpvxhf-1.jpg

Bob, that was an OUTSTANDING photo of the Spanish ME-109's. CINDER is 100% CORRECT concerning the landing gear. The CAF bought most of the Spanish ME-109s after the film was done. The funky landing gear while landing on modern runways took almost the whole fleet out! The WWII ME109's mostly operated from grass fields while in service and the gear gave some forgiveness while landing. The CAF 109's had to land on modern concrete fields and it was a disaster! First there was no forgiveness using the strange gear and some collapsed when it hit modern runways. The other MAIN situation that took most of the ME-109's out were 'Ground Loops' as the aircraft 'bit' the runway with one angled gear and the plane was too far in trouble to correct with rudder so many of the CAF 109's were crash landed and/or sent spinning or sometimes cartwheeling tearing off and destroying the wings.

Bob, it's VERY interesting to me but I have a feeling 'this' CAF 109 might be the plane that your friend has. I took this photo several years ago at CAF HQ hangar... It amazed me how small it was next to other fighters on display in the the CAF HQ hangar!
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...qunkbdhz-1.jpg

At the time ALL of the CAF 109's were grounded by the CAF because of the landing gear disasters.... The 109 pictured here was said to be the only single surviving Spanish ME-109 remaing from the fleet of ME-109's and it was said this aircraft was permanently grounded by the CAF. It sat in the HQ hangar for about a year, then suddenly it was gone! I tried to investigate as to what happened to it and the one gentleman working in the museum said it was flown out to a guy who had "big plans" to restore it to WWII status. (???)

I found a clip once on utube it had I think a resto going on with an ME-109 engine they sent the crank to Rolls Royce to check the engine out. Nope I remember now it was on the history channel Wings of the Luftwaffe.The chap from Rolls Royce who was tasked with the engine said on film he cautioned the people working on the plane not to damage the crankshaft.
Why you ask? he said during the war Germany produced about 20,000 engines for 109's all the while being bombed 24/7 allowing for weather interludes. The spokesman said its tolerances were smack bang in the middle of what they should have been and if you break it we cannot produce another one. I put the ME 109 main gear in the same realm as the ME-262 nose wheel as I wonder how many 262's collapsed being towed by a Kettenkrad over the airfield.
Until they figured on a system that evened the load from the nose wheel onto the main gear even then they had to be careful.
Of all the books I have read on both sides of the conflict some chivalry did exist between fliers the love of flying, seldom have I read where they deliberately targeted the pilot.
Most of the Schrage Musik night fighters went for the wing tanks on the bombers though I am not saying there weren't pilots who deliberately concentrated their fire on the canopy.
Some top British aces thought only to bring the plane down and not think about the pilot.

Just recently on our news an Australian WWII bomber pilot had written to certain towns in Europe apologizing for the civilians he killed whilst bombing the cities.
It had been troubling him very much over the years, all the cities wrote back from Germany thanking him and they understood that at the time he was carrying out his duty.
The plan was called "Point Blank" it is contained in a 3 volume set The air offensive against Germany it was derived at between the powers that be.
With Winston and Bomber Harris pushing to bomb the civilian population to make them lose faith and their support in the continuation of the war.

Another WWII plane with landing gear problems was the F4F/FM-2 Wildcat, but hers were down at the end of the gear in the brakes. The brakes on the Wildcat were so "grabby" that few haven't either ended up on their nose or ground looped at one time or another. We had a local one that was looped in Richmond and cleaned off the gear in the ditch beside the runway. They rebuilt it and used the brake system from a Hellcat.


Halan, I'm fascinated that the CAF'a Spanish HE111 had had its instrument panel pulled down from the ceiling where it was originally mounted and placed conventionally. I wonder if that was something the Spanish did? Of course, it was also modified for tandem control, which was rare.

Bob

I think Harris was a horrible and cold man CINDERS. If people don't know about it, late in the war when Germany was already on it knees he ordered carpet bombing of cities that hadn't been bombed before because they didn't have any value as aids to the German war effort. He knew that the cities he ordered to be obliterated were only 99% civilians and they were raised to the ground in massive around the clock bombing. He had the RAF bomb these cities through the night and the US bomb them during the day. There's an infamous filmed interview where the reporters asked him why he was attacking civilian cities and he said he was going to try to break civilian moral. He also said he was only going to try wiping out civilians and he said he was going to bomb them because it hadn't been done before! People don't talk about it much, but I think it was evil to wipe out cultural cities with little to do with the German war effort. These cities didn't even have much if any defenses in place because the Germans felt they weren't War cities with little target value.

Bob, you're correct again....
Most European bomber aircraft of the Second World War did not have co-pilots as part of the crew. I don't know if the Spanish modified the HE111, or if it was done after the war. I suspect the latter, but I have no idea. Regardless, the British and even Germany had very little manpower and felt they were better off not sacrificing two pilots if the aircraft was shot down. America had a lot of manpower and most all larger American planes were designed form the beginning to carry a co-pilot.

Oh YES, the Wildcat was really ungainly with the narrow fuselage mounted landing gear. I didn't know about the break problem until I witnessed it in person at a small-town airshow we were invited to in the Texas Hill Country. We usually arrived at shows on Friday afternoon and I liked to see what planes would show up. This Wildcat came in OK and was about to slow down enough it looked like he had landed OK, and then it just did a nose-over at low speed!

Luckily he was traveling slowly when it happened and the pilot wasn't hurt and it only did minimal damage to the aircraft. I saw the same aircraft flying again the next air show season.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...pseiynfi-1.jpg

Also, while searching my computer I found another photo of the CAF HE111 in an almost forgotten file from many years ago. During air shows the CAF only allows essential crew to be on board. I had just become a crew chief and this was my first time to be able to fly in a show. I kept my camera on a shelf beside my position between the pilots "just in case" and I snapped a picture of the aircraft as we were departing. I got one photo on the Saturday show and one on the Sunday show. Since I was doing my first air show duty I didn't try to take any more pictures or look like I wasn't taking my 'job' seriously. We were all flying in a 'racetrack' pattern and flying low over the runway so the crowds could see the big aircraft in flight. Once we were in the air you really couldn't see much other than a smallish 'dot' in front so I didn't miss any good photos.

The HE111 was still in the old chalky paint from the filming of "The Battle of Britain" and it was right in front of the two B-25's.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...kyf7wyao-1.jpg

Yes, the taxiway was as rough at it looks! This is the San Marcus airfield that was a military base in WWII and hasn't changed much. You can't see the HE111 in this photo from that Sunday but I added it when I found it in the same folder.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...yluhoeox-1.jpg

Ummm Harlan the pics don't work!:eek:

Hey CINDERS. I don't have a clue why they aren't showing up there. Have you tried closing down your browser and then opening it again? The pictures worked here for me and in the "Preview"

These photos were displayed by using photoshop as I usually do. Did any of them show up?

I "attached" the same three photos here. (Do they work in this mode?)

~ Harlan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harlan

(Do they work in this mode?)

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Yep sure do thanks for the sharing

Both sets worked for me. We've got a JU-52 and an FW-190 living down the road these days.

Bob

The FW-190 would be a good one to see, in WWII little known fact the FW 190 utilized fly by wire technology bit like the FA-18's etc a little known fact it only came to light when a chap building a 2/3rd scale flyable version the item he wanted fabricated was a scaled version of the power divider for the control surfaces which the maker said could not be done well he said the Germans did it in WWII so I am sure you guys can. The system also had redundancy built in as they used 2 sets of control wiring to the servos in case one set got taken out by shell fire or aircraft fire. Kurt Tank certainly built a great aircraft and for a while had the allies on the back foot until answers could be had to combat them the clipped wing Spitfire was a stop gap at best and a bit of a fopar really as they cropped the supercharger as well the pilots who flew them called them The "Clipped, Cropped and Clapped" Spitfire......!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Both sets worked for me. We've got a JU-52 and an FW-190 living down the road these days.

Bob

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An FW-190???!!! Can you find a photo of it or any other knowledge?

There's supposed to a real FW-190 at a small field in South Texas. I've only seen one old photo of it and it looked like it was in bad shape but they were supped to be restoring it.

I spoke of the co-founder of the CAF, Lefty Gardner and finally found this older photo of him and my son at an air show. Lefty became a crop duster after flying bombers in WWII and flying was his way of life throughout his life. Lefty and the 'White Lightnin' were famous for flying at the Reno air races and such. He was very down to earth and a nice grandfather type... He used to throw Tony up in the cockpit of his "White Lightnin' and let him play around. (Heck, I wanted to get inside but he never offered) :crying:

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...eqygq0ls-1.jpg

References made on the FW 190 control surfaces and power control box apparently they utilized electric/hydraulically controlled push rods rather than cables so whilst not quite fly by wire it did show technical advantages and that the elevator pressure was kept at 8lb as a persons wrist could only exert this amount of pressure. One thing I did find was operation AIRTHIEF where a commando raid was going to steal a FW-190 from France and fly it back to England but then one landed by mistake in England and it was cancelled.
Electrical controls referenced at 28.04 and again at 42.51 https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&r...paY6NGwmH46IMw

Harlan, this is their second. The first was sold a couple of years ago. This one is a Fleugwerk replica that has had the four bladed prop, hub, and cowling of a Tupelov Tu-2 substituted and is a much more dependable aircraft than most of the others. It also has a shorter nose and proper CG so it "looks" right compared to the inline versions.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../photo32-1.jpg

This joins a static display original radial FW190A and an inline Fleugwerk 190D replica.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...oWarbird-1.jpg

Bob

Oh, and by the way, the Museum's Bf-109e has just arrived and is being reassembled. Thought you guys would like a peek.

Gift box
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...12535084-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...91060289-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...90068846-1.jpg

UNPACKING (video)

Spares! (Parts is parts) Inverted V Daimler Benz on its side.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...43909252-1.jpg

Attaching the wings
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...13138186-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...08448232-1.jpg

Supercharger
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...21733940-1.jpg

Gearing up for retraction tests
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...57291914-1.jpg

More photos and video of the planes HERE.

They've also recently acquired a kettenkrad.

I'm like a kid in a candy shop.

Bob

Okay, new information after I did a little digging. The aircraft is a hybrid. From the firewall to the tail the air frame is an Hispano HA-1112 C.4-K64 Buchon, license-built BF-109G-2, built in Spain. The Hispanos were originally equipped with Daimler-Benz inverted V engines but after the war design was modified to use British Rolls Royce Merlin engines, greatly modifying the looks of the plane. This example has been retrofitted back to the original configuration to accept the Daimler-Benz DB 605 engine and cowlings again and will be a 109G-4 Gustav. My eye was fooled by the lack of cannon bulges (Die Beule) found on the fairings of most familiar G-6, so I assumed it was an E but it is, in fact, a G.

And yes, it is already completely flyable. It was restored in Germany by Meier Motors, knocked down and crated, and shipped to the U.S., where it is being re-assembled.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...tphoto01-1.jpg

So I've got another plane to watch for in the sky.

Bob

Outstanding great pics that is a very big intake on the spool very nice aircraft good to see it in original guise as I thought the Merlin engined ones never looked quite right. Thanks for sharing Bob:super::super::super::super::thup::thup:

AWESOME photos Bob! Thank you for taking the time to share with us. I think your photo of the ME109 raising it's undercharge is one of the best airplane photos I've ever seen. :thup:

And landing gear testing is underway with a portable hydraulic mule powering:

VIDEO HERE

The swastika must be verboten in Germany because they had to wait to add it over here today. Engine tests come next.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...89317972-1.jpg

Bob

"Clear the prop!"

FIRST START

Listen to how they spin up the flywheel and then engage. The oil smoke is from storage.

SECOND START

You'll have to wait a minute for the actual start but it is a nice clean start. Then after another minute of warming they run it up a bit.. At 3:50 it smooths out and runs nicely.

Bob

AWESOME Bob!
I swear in the first clip I could smell the lovely, sweet aroma of AvGas & oil when it first belched out the blue smoke. :super:
(I wish someone would make that odor available in an aftershave!)

Great vids I gather a flyby air test vid may be on the cards, be nice to see it next to a Spitfire when the chance arises they are really in a different world when you think they were the advanced fighters of the day brings a whole new meaning in getting the target in your sights long enough to bring the plane down no HUD helmets for these chaps.....many thanks Bob.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...13673479-1.jpg

Here's an engine test done today by the head of restoration from Germany. I suspect that we'll see taxi tests before a takeoff. Whatever the case, all the dress covers and the spinner are on so she looks better!

ENGINE TEST

Bob

The "Battle of Britain" brought lots of goodies "out of the shed" for a last gasp.

The "Heinkel 111s" and "Messerschmidt 109"s used in the movie had only just been retired from the Spanish Air Force, and thus, were conveniently available.

BOTH types, CASA 2.111d (Heinkel clone) and HA-1112 Buchon (Messerschmidt) were powered by MERLINS. The "not-quite-original" profile of the engine cowls and air inlets is a clue.

The other "classic" in the fleet, and one that movie buffs never see, was the somewhat modified B-25 Mitchell that was the main aerial camera platform.

Some interesting stuff http://www.daveswarbirds.com/bob/109s.htm here.

And here's the B-25 used for the shoot.