Vintage Aircraft

[jimcon11]

one more, fuselage detail from a Curtiss JN-4, on medium format tri-x

This airplane is found at the aviation museum in College Park, MD, and those from my above post are from the Smithsonian. I am making a trip to Wright Patterson this summer to continue the series.

 

[kxl]

Lightning

 

[Kenj8246]

F4U Corsair, Nikon F4S, Acros 100. Excuse the vignette, wrong lens hood.


F4U Corsair, Central TX Airshow by kenj8246, on Flickr


F4U Corsair, Central TX Airshow by kenj8246, on Flickr

Kenny

 

[splitimageview]

Kenny, I was at the show last weekend too. Nice shot of the Corsair. 🙂

 

[Ronald_H]

Tell me about Black 6 -- looks like a 109F or maybe G-2; JG-77 desert markings?

I love looking at old aircraft -- and that shot of the FW-190A up at the start really got my juices flowing: It appears to be in flying condition! Another nice shot in this strong of what I believe to be a Yak-3; a very underrated aircraft.

Keep 'em coming folks!

It's a 109-G2, captured in North Africa. It was restored over a period of 25 years if my memory serves me correctly and is unique in that it is an actual wartime Daimler-Benz engined German 109 (not a Spanish or Czech one). It has been on the airshow circuit for some years until it crashed in 1997. Due to its rarirty it is not flown anymore and can be seen in the RAF museum in Hendon, UK.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Loving these photos. Thank you all for sharing them. Two of my favorite things: vintage warbirds and photography 😉

 

[Bill58]

Lightning

Awesome photo-I often wonder how the war would've turned out if we had not had superior weapons.

 

[nemo2]

Why no Spitfires ?

For anyone living near New York, I strongly recommend the Glen Curtiss Museum. QUOTE]

Here you go - and I agree about the Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport!

This is the same aircraft in front of the Bf109 in the first photo of this thread.

I am surprised there is a Spitfire in the marking of some Czechoslovak squadron of RAF 🙂.

Nice photos, I like the Polikarpov I-16 in the begining of the thread.

 

[Vince Lupo]

Sailabration210 by Vince.Lupo, on Flickr

 

[ChrisN]

Two from my gallery:

Catalina A24-30 served with the RAAF in WW2, and is now housed in the museum at Lake Boga, inland Victoria (SE Australia) which was a base for repairs and servicing for these aircraft.

ME262 in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

 

[Ronald_H]

What about this one? It is a replica of a Fokker G.1, a twin engined heavy fighter, the most advanced Dutch military aircraft ever to see combat. For 5 whole days in May 1940. It combined multi-role capability with high agility and heavy armament, but was underpowered and would easily burn when hit. Hard to photograph, but it is a twin boom design, sharing many similarities with the P-38, yet being designed much earlier.


Fokker G.1 (replica) by Ronald_H, on Flickr

The other one is also nice, it is a Fokker D.XXI, contemporary to the G.1, and sharing the Bristol Mercury engine and mixed construction. Used by the Netherlands, Denmark and of course Finland, where this simple rugged fighter had consirable success in the Winter War. Both can be seen in the Militairy Aviation museum in Soesterberg, the Netherlands. Well worth a visit!


Fokker D-XXI (replica) by Ronald_H, on Flickr

 

[L David Tomei]

The Caproni Campini N0.1 was arguably the first jet airplane before the Heinket He 178. A 900 hp Isotta Fraschini L.121 RC.40 12-cylinder liquid-cooled piston engine drove the compressors instead of using only inlet air to maintain combustion chamber pressure in a continuous cycle. This design was called a "Thermojet" and is actually considered to be a ducted fan. Thus, this hybrid lost out on the title of "First Jet Airplane". It's first flight was in August, 1940.

David

 

[KoNickon]

David, where is this Caproni?? I'd forgotten all about this design -- remarkable. Thanks for posting this.

 

[Sparrow]

... and vintage pilot

 

[KoNickon]

Ronald, thanks so much for these. It looks like I'll need to visit this museum some day! I note that these are both replicas -- do no examples exist? Maybe the Finns have a D.XXI, since as you point out the plane did valued service in the Winter War (along with the Brewster Buffalo, to name one).

What about this one? It is a replica of a Fokker G.1, a twin engined heavy fighter, the most advanced Dutch military aircraft ever to see combat. For 5 whole days in May 1940. It combined multi-role capability with high agility and heavy armament, but was underpowered and would easily burn when hit. Hard to photograph, but it is a twin boom design, sharing many similarities with the P-38, yet being designed much earlier.


Fokker G.1 (replica) by Ronald_H, on Flickr

The other one is also nice, it is a Fokker D.XXI, contemporary to the G.1, and sharing the Bristol Mercury engine and mixed construction. Used by the Netherlands, Denmark and of course Finland, where this simple rugged fighter had consirable success in the Winter War. Both can be seen in the Militairy Aviation museum in Soesterberg, the Netherlands. Well worth a visit!


Fokker D-XXI (replica) by Ronald_H, on Flickr

 

[L David Tomei]

David, where is this Caproni?? I'd forgotten all about this design -- remarkable. Thanks for posting this.

The Caproni is at the Aeronautica Militare at Bracciano just north of Rome. I should mention that it was shot at ISO 1600 and the brightness boosted since the museum was in darkness... they were trimming trees outside that day and the power was off.

There's a great video on YouTube showing the incredible way they started the jet engine. The fuselage could be separated just aft of the cockpit in front of the assembly. This was done to prevent accumulation of unburnt fuel in the exhaust tube. Then they replaced the tail over a flaming engine exhaust, a process that tended to blow the entire tail away violently as pressure built up making final securing of many bolts around the fuselage a very hazardous job.

David

 

[KoNickon]

There's a great video on YouTube showing the incredible way they started the jet engine. The fuselage could be separated just aft of the tail assembly. This was done to prevent accumulation of unburnt fuel in the exhaust tube. Then they replaced the tail over a flaming engine exhaust, a process that tended to blow the entire tail away violently as pressure built up making final securing of many bolts around the fuselage a very hazardous job.

!! No wonder the design didn't catch on!

 

[Ronald_H]

Ronald, thanks so much for these. It looks like I'll need to visit this museum some day! I note that these are both replicas -- do no examples exist? Maybe the Finns have a D.XXI, since as you point out the plane did valued service in the Winter War (along with the Brewster Buffalo, to name one).

In the Netherlands no genuine examples exist, unfortunately. The G.1 is obviously a prop, more something you would expect in an amusement park, but it is 1:1 size. The only thing that remains of an original are some tail booms somewhere. The replica D.XXI looks like a real aircraft, even up close.The Finns indeed do have a survivng D.XXI. Btw, the first of the Brewster B.239's that the Finns recieved appeared in the Winter war, but too late too see combat. They were used to great effect in the Continuation war that followed. The Dutch had Brewsters too, in the Dutch East-Indies, now Indonesia. They quickly succumbed to the Japanese onslaught. There exists a replica of a Dutch Brewster at Soesterberg, but for some strange reason it is not on public display.

Edit: Apparently the Brewster is on display now, there are pictures of it on Flickr 😉

 

[Ronald_H]

Here's another nice snap, taken in 2000 or so. Forward fuselage of a Gloster Gladiator that fought in the Norwegian campaign in WWII. It has been on the bottom of a lake for 50 odd years before it was recovered. Shot in the RAF museum in Hendon.


Gloster Gladiator by Ronald_H, on Flickr

 

[biomed]

I am surprised there is a Spitfire in the marking of some Czechoslovak squadron of RAF 🙂.

Nice photos, I like the Polikarpov I-16 in the begining of the thread.

Thanks. This Spitfire is in its wartime colors and was flown in a Czech squadron.

FHC Spitfire