Aircraft

[pony express]

Probably about time for the airshow circuit to start winding down, isn't it? I'm sure they don't want to get caught in any weather with those old ones.

[Texas Lawdog]

I know that "FIFI" is scheduled to be at the EXPO this weekend, and probably the B-25 as well. I'll be working over there this weekend.

[Major E A Sterner]

Found out where they are, The Dutchess county airport, they have Betty Jane, a P-51C, Nine of Nine a B-17 G and a B-24J I think she's named Witchcraft,Go here to read story.
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2014/09/29/vintage-aircraft-show-airport/16453939/

[Texas Lawdog]

"Witchcraft" is owned by the Collings Corp. I don' know about the other two.

[Arcey]

Stopped for a short stretch after making passage thru the tunnel heading home from the shoot yesterday. Took the break on the north side of Little Bay across from NAS Norfolk. Managed to catch a Dragon.



No clue was swinging under it but I've an idea someone off shore was waiting on it.

[Texas Lawdog]

Jolly Green!

[Arcey]

For your comsumption. Credit as shown - including the question marks I have no explanation for...........

Unedited.

A dogfight for world's rare planes

By Pilot and wire reports

© October 3, 2014

A Grumman F6F Hellcat, its dark-blue wings glistening in the sun, banks sharply to evade a pursuing Japanese Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero. The planes pull out of their steep descent and accelerate, the roar of their engines rattling the heavens.

Battles like this played out numerous times in the skies above the central Pacific in late November 1943 as the U.S. Navy launched its carrier-borne Hellcats into action against the Japanese. Only this particular dogfight happened not in 1943 but in June 2013 over Paine Field, a former U.S. Air Force base outside Seattle.

That's where Paul Allen, the Microsoft multibillionaire, keeps his Flying Heritage Collection - more than 20 vintage World War II fighter planes, all in working condition - of which the Hellcat and the Zero are a part.

Meanwhile, on the underside of the globe, visitors to Hood Aerodrome near Masterton, New Zealand, could be forgiven for thinking they've been transported to northern France, circa 1918. There, the skies fill with British Sopwith Camels and brightly colored German Fokker Dr.I Dreideckers, for which enthralled spectators can thank another wealthy aviation enthusiast and amateur pilot: "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson.

The filmmaker, who has amassed more than 40 flyable World War I warbirds - the planet's largest collection - is now neck-and-neck with Allen when it comes to claiming the Top Gun trophy for world's foremost fighter collector.

The vintage-aircraft market was once divided between individual pilots, who might own the odd North American P-51 Mustang or de Havilland Moth, and aviation museums, which typically display only stationary examples of historic aircraft. Allen and Jackson, however, represent a new breed of collectors who are buying, restoring and flying a National Air and Space Museum's worth of vintage planes.

"We are selling more and more to private collectors," confirms Simon Brown of Platinum Fighter Sales in Redondo Beach, Calif.
There are collections of vintage aircraft larger than Allen's and Jackson's. Oilman Rod Lewis has more World War II warbirds than Allen in his Lewis Air Legends collection in San Antonio. So, too, does oil heir Kermit Weeks, who claims more than 100 vintage aircraft at his Fantasy of Flight collection in Polk City, Fl?a.

Virginia Beach? also? is home to one of the world's foremost collectors. Jerry Yagen houses more than 60 vintage warbirds at the Military Aviation Museum in Pungo - 23 are from World War I and the rest date from after that war to the middle of the past century.

??His collection includes three Fokker Dr.1 triplanes, like Jackson's, and? in the works are? two Mitsubishi Zeroes, like Allen's, ?and a Sopwith Camel. The museum also houses the only deHavilland Mosquito in the world that ?still ?flies.

?More than 90 percent of Yagen's planes are flight-ready. The World War I collection will fly Saturday and Sunday in the museum's Biplanes and Triplanes airshow, Yagen said in an email. Information is atwww.VBairshow.com.

What sets Allen and Jackson apart is their deep-pocketed desire to dominate two of the most-storied and at-risk chapters of aviation history. When it comes to World War II fighters, no collection is as comprehensive as Allen's, which encompasses planes from all the war's principal combatants, including Germany, Japan and Russia.

He also owns a great many planes with combat experience, which are as valuable as they are rare.

Most World War II-era warbirds are late models that never saw action. Combat veterans, on the other hand, are often salvaged from crash sites, such as Allen's Messerschmitt Bf 109 E, a Battle of Britain fighter found buried in a sand dune in Calais, France, in 1988.
Restoring a wrecked warbird to flying condition can cost in excess of $3 million and take more than two years, says John Romain, CEO of Aircraft Restoration Co., which restores and flies vintage aircraft from a former World War II airfield outside Cambridge, England.

Visit Aircraft Restoration's workshop and it's clear why. Engineers use original 1940s lathes and metal-working machinery to manufacture parts when they can't find originals, wrap new wiring in 1940s-style insulation, and even hide contemporary safety components, like a modern radio, behind original features such as a map case. It's the sort of historical detail Allen craves.

"Our goal is to restore these aircraft to an absolute obsessively original condition - and then fly them," says Adrian Hunt, executive director of Allen's Flying Heritage Collection.

Jackson, too, is a stickler for historical veracity and, similar to his approach to "The Lord of the Rings," for which he pioneered his own visual effects studio, largely built his collection from the ground up. The bodies of World War I aircraft were essentially oversize kites, made primarily of cloth stretched over wooden frames. As a result, few original aircraft survive - fewer still in flying condition.

Consequently, Jackson has made an art of constructing precise replicas using original blueprints and historically accurate materials and techniques and then incorporating original engines, fuselages and parts whenever possible.

Brown says many collectors see investment value in vintage aircraft, with the prices of some models rising rapidly. A Supermarine Spitfire, Britain's classic World War II fighter, for example, now sells for as much as $5 million - more than double its value a decade ago.

Of course, neither Allen nor Jackson are in it for the money. Both are the sons of World War II veterans and have spoken of a lifelong fascination with vintage warplanes. Allen has tried to collect a real version of every model plane he built as a kid, while Jackson's passion for old warplanes extends to his filmmaking.

In 2008, he wrote and directed a World War I short called ?"Crossing the Line" and he has spoken about wanting to remake both ?"The Blue Max,?"? a 1966 film about World War I aviators, and 1955's ?"The Dam Busters,?" about daring World War II raids on German dams using ingenious bouncing bombs.

This story was compiled from reports by Bloomberg News and Pilot writer Elisabeth Hulette.

[Blair]

There must be an Air Show going on somewhere locally?
Last two days we have had Jets flying around and now we have Propeller jobs practicing their routines.

I have heard nothing about an Air Show or where it might be in the local media. Nothing new about that!
But, I do love watching them practice.
My best,
Blair

[Blair]

Afternoon rains have started.
The fly by's and zoom zooms have ended for the day.
Not saying the aircraft can't deal with the weather, it just makes things for the ground crew pretty nasty keeping the aircraft serviced
I have been there and don that aboard ship. However, we could usually change direction and/or out run the weather. Shore based, well you usually get what ya got.
My best,
Blair

[Major 2]

Tiz this Blair
http://www.airandspaceshow.com/


Not much in the press for coverage

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/entertainment/2014/10/01/melbourne-air-space-show-takes/16543555/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=

[Major 2]

I ran across this bit of Trivia

the first drummer for the Ventures ( remember them ? ) was George Babbitt.

that's 4 Star General George Babbitt ...USAF

enjoy.... I always liked the Ventures  

http://www.stumptownblogger.com/2012/04/what-a-cool-video.html

[Texas Lawdog]

I had all of their albums ms on 8-Track, The Safaris, The Chantays, Dick Dale and the Daletones, and Dwayne Eddy.

[Arcey]

If it keeps up it'll be rainin' on the WWI Biplanes and Triplanes Air Show 2014 at the Pungo museum. Supposed to start puttin' the things in the air at noon.

[Major 2]

I spent some time listening to all of them , last night I revisited the Ventures.
That was the music of my youth....
The Grease & Surf culture , Jan & Dean , the Beach Boys , the British rockers took the Stage front & center ....

Just kinda got nostalgic, sorry for any high jack , General George sorta fit in with theme  

[Russ T Chambers]

I had all of their albums ms on 8-Track, The Safaris, The Chantays, Dick Dale and the Daletones, and Dwayne Eddy.

Used to watch Dick Dale and the Deltones at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach CA.  The Belly Up took up two of about twenty side-by-side Quonset buildings.

[Texas Lawdog]

I had another full day of watching WW2 Aircraft in the skies over the Metroplex.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Lucky you!

[Texas Lawdog]

I was taking money at the gate, and got to watch them take off, land, and fly across in front of me.

[Arcey]

The back doors were open.



1943 era drone?



Taking a peek outside.

[Texas Lawdog]

Some kind of Trainer?