Vintage Aircraft

I don't know, but the 50th National Stearman Fly-in is scheduled for September 2021 in Galesburg. I remember the one that I attended, it was a lot of fun. Wow, I am getting so old.
 
Doug said:
Bell P-63E King Cobra
Despite appearances, the P-63 was still inferior to other fighters in production for the Army Air Force, mostly due to a shortage of suitably powerful engines, and very few Kingcobras entered US service and none saw combat. First delivery to the US Army was in 1943, but 72% of production went to successful use by Russia in the lend-lease program. US pilots, mostly WAC (Womens Army Corps) ferried the planes from upstate NY to Alaska whence Soviet women pilots ferried them westward. Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, AZ.
U77I1475736577.SEQ.1.jpg


Pentax K-1, 1.8/77mm Pentax SMC
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The Airacobra was totally sabotaged by the decision to not manufacture it with a supercharged engine. I understand the reason was that the US would not export supercharged aircraft, so the plane was thoroughly unsuitable for the high altitudes at which combat took place in Western Europe. However, the Soviets loved them -- air warfare took place at lower altitudes there.

The King Cobra was saddled with the same engine, and by the time it was in production, it was outclassed by the Mustang, Thunderbolt and Lightning (the Lightning had the same engines as the 'Cobras, but those were supercharged). What might have been. The only King Cobras in actual service were used by the Soviet Air Force in very small numbers, against the Japanese at the very end of the war.

Sorry, I felt like geeking out! Thanks for this picture.
 
Moto-Uno said:
" Doug" , love the back stories to these aircraft , my father flew CF-104 Starfighters in Germany in the middle to late 60's for the RCAF at 4 wing .
As a kid I used to sneak up to the end of the runway and wait for them to take off with full afterburner , you had to be there to know what an experience that was !
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Weren't they nicknamed, the "Widowmaker"? Your father was lucky to make it home in one piece.

filmtwit said:
14349122798_d6b81634ce_b.jpg
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70 years on and that P51, along with the Supermarine Spitfire, remain objects of unequaled winged beauty.

Speed, grace, brutal lethality and aesthetic masterpieces.
 
f.hayek said:
Weren't they nicknamed, the "Widowmaker"? Your father was lucky to make it home in one piece.

70 years on and that P51, along with the Supermarine Spitfire, remain objects of unequaled winged beauty.

Speed, grace, brutal lethality and aesthetic masterpieces.
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Interesting how some aircraft are just functional machines and others are things of beauty; thinking of the Avro Vulcan as I type...

Regards, David
 
Darthfeeble said:
Like the idiot I am, I took no notes of the aircraft so I have no idea what this is but I thought it was interesting.

20170516-_MG_8285.jpg by Steve Gumbiner, on Flickr
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It's an A26 Invader - or it was at the end of WW2. By the start of the Korean War it had been re-classified, the A-for Attack class giving way to B-for Bomber, as the B26 Invader leading to much confusion amongst unwary later writers!
 
Muggins said:
It's an A26 Invader - or it was at the end of WW2. By the start of the Korean War it had been re-classified, the A-for Attack class giving way to B-for Bomber, as the B26 Invader leading to much confusion amongst unwary later writers!
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Thank you.
 
The early Starfighters had an ejection seat that fired *downwards* - not (quite) as crazy as it seems as the seats of the day were low-powered, and at high speed were considered unlikely to be able to get the pilot over the tail. Though as soon as more powerful seats were available, upward-firing ones were fitted - the original seats were implicated in the loss of a number of pilots.

The Luftwaffe bought the Starfighter when it was still very much in the teething stage, and had an appalling loss rate - something like one in 5 ended up as smoking holes in the scenery, and it was joked that if you bought a field it would come with a free Starfighter, you just had to wait. Ironically Germany is the only place I ever saw one in the air, in 1994, so it may not even have been a Luftwaffe aircraft!

There's one flying in Norway - see here: https://vintageaviationecho.com/starfighter-test-flight/

OK, back to the photos!
 
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