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Two beautiful gals, Betty Jane and the wife. :)
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../05/orig-1.jpg
And.................
On board the B-24 the wife thought she saw an FW190 and took command of the right waist gun. A born gunner I think! :super:
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../05/orig-2.jpg
Good tour of the B17, B24 and P51 war birds, and a solemn reminder of the air war in WWII and the lost crews.
Talk about crawling up on the gun. Good thing those are dummies, if she pulled the trigger on a real one she'd be hurtin' !
I flew Betty Jane for about an hour and a half in March moving her from lake Charles to Sugarland. Sweet machine, My son polished her for a month while she was in Texas.
Is that a C model?
It is a TP51C. The only one in the world. It has a full rear cockpit, not just a stick and pedals.
This is Yankee Lady, in from the midwest for the 2008 Reading, Pennsylvania Air Show. I got to ride in her but they wouldn't let me fire the fifties. I should have offered to pay for the ammo.
And this is Glamorous Gal; she usually makes this show every year. This airplane will never look dated or old fashioned. The P-51 has that "I'm all ready to go" look to it.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...sections-1.jpg
I consider the Catalina to be the most graceful looking airplane that ever took to the sky.
Not at all graceful looking but one serious looking airplane, the Lancaster. I believe it carried a larger bomb load than any of ours.
Man, now those are **planes**
My dad was navigator on a B-17, part of the time on a B-24 as well. He loved the 17. He had a 2-bladed propeller tattoo on his arm ... of course we all grew up arguing whether a P-51 would beat a P-47 could chew up a Spitfire and so on. Part of the deal was you couldn't really build flying models of jets in those days, you had to have a propeller anyway,might as well model a prop plane.
Thanks, guys
jn
Some great pics guys thanks alot
Gets me choked up when I see those planes. Beautiful pieces of work.
Some more pictures I took of the war birds for those interested. We were able to look at the aircraft while they were doing maintainence and before they opened up to the public. Follow the link and click on the album war birds. :thup:
http://www.fototime.com/inv/3B09660326CFBB4
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../05/orig-3.jpg
Sorry, I killed the links and had to repost them.Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnF
On my monitor, you photos are clear and sharp as a crystal. Would you mind telling me what gear you use? You also have a good eye for composition.
Regards,
Louis of PA
Thanks Louis. This is not my best stuff, but no secret as to the gear and how the pics look. Camera is a Sony DSC-F707, 5.0 Mega Pixels with a 10X zoom lens. I use 128 MB memory sticks and set the camera for 2560 x 1920 high resolution image size. This gives you about 65 pictures per stick.Quote:
Originally Posted by Louis of PA
I never met a picture that didn't like Photoshop. :) What you see has been run through Photoshop, reduced to 700 x 535, cropped for balance, color trued or contrasted and pixels sharpened if needed...........it ain't the photographer that makes them look so good, but the photoshop program. Everybody can be Ansel Adams with Photoshop :super:
Louis:
The Lanc actually carried roughly four maybe even 5 times the bomb load of the B17. It could carry the 22000 lb Tallboy (10 Long tons). Due to the B17's wing spar the bomb bay could only carry 500 lb bombs, so max load was roughly 4000 lbs. Now the Mosquito (made of plywood) could carry 4000 lbs with two men, 100 mph faster, roughly the same range, did not need the Norden bomb sight (read about the Gestapo HQ raid where they put the bombs through the front door! ) and did not need to be armed or escorted. :rofl: Dave_n
PS Until the Merlin engine was put into the P51 it was only marginally better than the P40.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnF
A Photoshop guy eh? I thought so, it's all fakery! You were probably never even near those airplanes! Did you put in a fake wife too? Probably never even married. Bah Humbug!
Seriously, I hope you don't feel I highjacked your thread with evil intent; those airplanes still stir the blood and I like the other guys to see some of these legends from our great history. I suspect that a lot of members here probably don't live near a place where they can get to see these warbirds.
I'll try to add some more.
Regards,
Louis of PA
At the 2008 air show, I spoke with a man who flew these in Europe; I'll try to find and post his photograph.
I also know a fellow who served in New Guinea, maintaining B-25s and other aircraft. He saw a few of these, between bouts of Malaria and Dengue fever; they were so far from supply lines, they lacked medicines to treat such diseases, and just had to live with them.
At Reading Airport, they're trying to restore this. I believe it was salvaged from some jungle. You can't just find parts for it at the local supply house; I don't know how they'll do manage. I'm sure lots of $$$ are involved.
This fellow, shown with the girl he married after the war, flew the P-61 with the 9th Air Force, first from a base in England, then in France, then Belgium. They were in Belgium when the Bulge started; he said the Jerries got within a few miles of the airfield.
Later during that period, the Luftwaffe put everything that could fly into the air and launched a massive attack on our forces. He went up that day and got two; said he could have gotten more but "just wasn't up to it."
Nice fellow, easy to talk with. I let them go because the heat this day was blistering hot, and I was concerned about her.
P.S. Note the multiple Oak Leaf clusters
General Kinney, head of our air force in the southwest Pacific, arranged for optional nose configurations for this B-25 medium bomber. They could be changed in the theater, from solid nose, to multiple machine guns and even to a cannon, though I forget the caliber; it was 75mm or larger.
I could have used John's Photoshop skills with these views.
Regards,
Louis of PA
Louis,
The B-25 optionally carried a 75mm gun in the nose. At least one Japanes destroyer was sunk by B-25s using cannon.It may have been the Ariake in July '43.
jn
Louis, guys,
Those are great pictures, and I'm glad I'm not the onlyone who appreciates those old 'planes.
Here's on for you. After the war ended, the Soviets started getting really aggressive. They had interned some b-29s that landed on their soils after raids over Japan, and copied them bown to the last bolt as the Tu-4. Tu-4's started showing up in Alaska airspace, looking for a way in.
The new jets of the day, mainly the F-80, didn't have the range or endurance to deal with the threat. We used the p-61 black Widow as a long-range interceptor even though most of them were about worn out. There was a new 'plane, though, the P-82 that was designed for the invasion of Japan, then canceled. We had a few and the AF ordered about 350 right away.
They weren't fast as a jet, but they were faster than the Tu-4 and had long range and loitering capability. They were called the "twin mustang" 'cause they looked like 2 mustangs joined. They did the job in 1946,47,48 until the US built some better jets.
After the Chinese drove us out of Korea, the jets didn't have the range to carry out missions from Japanese bases. That job fell to the F-51s and F-82s. They were there mainly for ground attack and tactical missions, contributing greatly to the fighting after Inchon. Once the UN forces had secured some territory, the jets were brought back into the fight.
Our jets (but not our pilots, thank God) were outclassed by the MiGs until the F-86 started arriving. The Sabre was the first U.S. jet IMHO that could be placed in the same company with the great 'planes of WWII.
Once our pilots got the F-86, they would literally fly up to MiG alley looking for a fight, usually find one, and usually win. I was just a little kid then, but I still remember listening to the radio and hearing each day another story about the Sabres fighting the MiGs.
jn
As I examined it closely, it called to mind my visit to a scrap aluminum smelter in Brooklyn, watching as pieces of aluminum siding and parts of old aluminum lawn chairs passed by on the conveyor.
Yet these planes rendered invaluable service; our forces refined their application, to spot, target and call in precise artillery barrages on the Wehrmacht. They scared the crap out of the German soldiers who saw them because they knew what was coming next.
The large wing surfaces made it very stable, therefore less punishing on the pilot and crew during the long hours it spent in the air over the Pacific.
The English used these, calling them the Tomahawk. We used them in the Pacific as well as North Africa and Italy.
Graceful, but they had a reputation of being a demanding SOB to fly. Pilots said that they required constant handling of the controls at every moment. As a result, they were extremely tiring during the long reconnaisance flights over the Pacific.
Hee, Hee. :lol: You must have been really diasapointed when you found out that those great looking girls in Playboy magazine were a a quasi-facsimile product of air brushing and other techniques. :(
Louis one day I sitting out on Lake Erie doing some walleye fishing when I heard a heavy drone in the air. Several minutes later I had a beautiful B-17 fly several 1oo feet over my head. About 20 minutes later she returned and headed back to Cleveland where she was giving rides. About 3 years later I was standing on the 5th fairway of my local course and lo and behold another of those birds flew over my head. They were giving rides out of the Ottawa Co. Regional Airport. Which is the same strip where the last of the Ford Tri-motors reside.Quote:
Originally Posted by Louis of PA
[QUOTE=jon_norstog;48363]Louis,
The B-25 optionally carried a 75mm gun in the nose. At least one Japanes destroyer was sunk by B-25s using cannon.It may have been the Ariake in July '43.
Funny story bout that When they first used that 75mm, each time they fired it they were recieving heavy flak.
Turned out it wasn't from their target. The airforce types knew NOTHING about fuze setting, so they thought you screwed it all the way round to make it work. This resulted in ZERO time delay and the round was going off as soon as it left the muzzle!:yikes:
Oops!!
First use of the 75mm on a B-25 as reported by George C. Kenny. The whole book is a very good read, and is free.
http://books.google.com/books?id=tWdbngbCc84C&pg=PR13&dq="george+c.+kenney"&lr=&as_brr=1&ei=f2QRSr62AoSSzQT3_bS3Cw#PPA272,M1
I always liked the looks of the B-17 but since I work for Boeing I am a bit biased. I had the honor of working with several B-17 crew members when I first started at Boeing. There were a few people who had helped build them still working there at the time. The plane that was known to come home on a wing and a prayer. It could lose an engine and maintain altitude while a B-24 could not. My Brother in Laws Father in Law was 15th AF B-17 pilot. Flew missions from Italy to Germany and once came back on 3 engines losing one over Germany.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...9/05/b17-1.jpg
On my ride aboard that B-17 at the Reading Air Show, my position was in the radio compartment. You can see what happened to that position on these aircraft.
That writer also mentioned not being able to see the ground through the flak.
Round trip to Berlin could be nine to ten-hours plus. Strong headwinds could result in a groundspeed of only 2 mph. That made easier targeting for the Ack Ack gunners on the ground. And their radar control was excellent.
By the middle of the air war, combat losses averaged five-percent per mission; an entire air crew could expect to be wiped out in twenty missions.
Dick Johnson, copilot in the 303rd Bomb Group, said that, to hear flak over the engine noises, it had to be within 50 feet; to feel its jolt, it had to be within 25 feet, though it was considered deadly for up to 200 yards.
On one mission, his plane returned with 263 flak holes, “yet no one was hit and the airplane flew as if nothing had happened to it.”
From “B-17 Combat Missions” by Martin Bowman:
“Between January and June, 1944, of the 2,051 crew who started a tour of twenty-five missions, 1,105 of them could expect to be killed in action.”
In another book, one man describes seeing his young commander standing atop the control tower, counting only a few of his squadron’s planes as they returned from a tough mission. As he realized that no more would be coming back, he broke down and bawled his eyes out.
He was only twenty-four; the men he’d send out were mostly younger.
A co worker who was a bombadier told of a mission towards the end of the war where a ME262 flew through thier formation and shot down 3 B-17s in one pass. He was scared to death it was the first jet he had ever seen and he did not know what it was. As he said that was 30 good men gone in seconds. During debrief he was asked if it was an aricraft that had shot them down and he said no it was not since it did not have a prop. At the peak of production Boeing was making 16 B-17s a day in Seattle and Vega was turning out around 5 or 10. There were many days more were lost in combat then were made. I have heard that we lost 35,000 aircraft in europe alone in combat. Yet we won that is what matters.
There were days when we put up one to two-thousand bombers. Approaching some target areas our bomber stream could be ten-miles wide and a hundred miles in length. Must have made the blockheads below wonder about Adolf’s “Thousand-Year Reich”.
“Within ninety seconds of the attack, I looked around and found that there was no one left in our squadron except our wing man… all the other B-17s had disappeared”.
From on line: “Incredibly fifty-five percent of these 32,263 aircraft were lost in action while 29,916 enemy aircraft were destroyed. On the human side, there were 94,565 American air combat casualties with 30,099 killed in action. 51,106 American airmen were either missing in action, POWs, evaders, or internees.
Parachuting into German territory was risky business; civilians were known to lynch American flyers, and Jewish flyers sometimes ended up in the death camps.
Note that this B-17 got home with much of the fuselage floor gone, along with the ball turret.
Oddly the best bomber to survive in battle was the one with the worst reputation for accidents, the Martin B-26. I've read that it would do 400 mph in a shallow dive, must have been nice to get out of trouble faster than you flew into it.