Aircraft

Texas Lawdog · May 07, 2009, 03:44:26 PM

Russ, I'm glad you got to do that. It has really become a big event.

Russ T Chambers · May 07, 2009, 06:06:01 PM

TL
I saw amazing growth just in the few years I was working there. The first year we had about six of Burt Rutan's VariEzees in the tie down area. Had to help hold the nose down while the pilot got out and folded the nose gear up. By the end of my time up there we had two full rows of VairEzees and Long-EZs. Looked like a bunch of ostriches with their head stuck in the ground.

Texas Lawdog · May 07, 2009, 06:15:37 PM

I have an uncle, who is retired Air Force. He lives around Atlanta and has his own little plane. He flies up there every year.

Delmonico · June 05, 2009, 07:23:00 AM

Quote from: IndiaZer on June 05, 2009, 04:44:37 AM
How much is your uncle got when he retired in air force.,?if there is?

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litl rooster · June 05, 2009, 07:52:54 AM

git 'm tyed down Del....I'll "steer him"

Tensleep · June 05, 2009, 07:58:03 AM

Quote from: litl rooster on June 05, 2009, 07:52:54 AM
git 'm tyed down Del....I'll "steer him"

I throwed him inta tha slaughter house.

Delmonico · June 05, 2009, 08:02:37 AM

Thanks fellas, Gumdrop cake for supper, ya can have an extra slice, Stella Huges's recipe from "Bacon and Beans." I'm sure ya remember her from when she wrote for Western Horseman.

Leo Tanner · June 05, 2009, 11:52:10 AM

Well they took awhile ta put this up but I figger it fits here.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Charles Donald Albury, co-pilot of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, has died after years of congestive heart failure. He was 88.

Albury died May 23 at a hospital, Family Funeral Care in Orlando confirmed.

Albury helped fly the B-29 Superfortress, nicknamed "Bockscar," that dropped the weapon on Aug. 9, 1945. He also witnessed the first atomic blast over Hiroshima, as a pilot on a support plane that measured the magnitude of the blast and levels of radioactivity.

The Hiroshima mission was led by Col. Paul Tibbets Jr. aboard the better-known "Enola Gay."

"When Tibbets dropped the bomb, we dropped our instruments and made our left turn," Albury told Time magazine four years ago. "Then this bright light hit us and the top of that mushroom cloud was the most terrifying, but also the most beautiful, thing you've ever seen in your life. Every color in the rainbow seemed to be coming out of it."

Three days later, Albury copiloted the mission over Nagasaki. Cloud cover caused problems for the mission until the bombardier found a hole in the clouds.

The 10,200-pound explosive instantly killed an estimated 40,000 people. Another 35,000 died from injuries and radiation sickness. Japan surrendered on Aug. 14.

Albury said he felt no remorse, since the attacks prevented what was certain to be a devastating loss of life in a U.S. invasion of Japan.

"My husband was a hero," Roberta Albury, his wife of 65 years, told The Miami Herald. "He saved one million people ... He sure did do a lot of praying."

Gwyneth Clarke-Bell, Albury's secretary at Eastern Airlines, where he worked for most of his career after World War II, told the Herald that Albury "felt he was doing his job, and that lives were saved on both sides."

Albury was born in 1920 at his parents' home, now the site of the Miami Police Department. He enlisted in the wartime Army before graduating from the University of Miami's engineering school. In 1943, Albury joined Tibbets' unit: the elite 509th Composite Group. They trained at White Sands, N.M., where FBI agents tailed them night and day. At the time, the participants were clueless as to the scope of what they were training to do.

After the war, he settled in Coral Gables, Fla., with his wife and flew for Eastern Airlines. He eventually co-managed Eastern's Airbus A-300 training program.

Albury told the Herald in 1982 that he deplored war but would do what he did again if someone attacked the United States.

"Everyone should be prepared to fight for liberty," he said. "Our laws give us our freedom and I think that's worth fighting for."

litl rooster · June 05, 2009, 11:09:45 PM

Quote from: Delmonico on June 05, 2009, 08:02:37 AM
Thanks fellas, Gumdrop cake for supper, ya can have an extra slice, Stella Huges's recipe from "Bacon and Beans." I'm sure ya remember her from when she wrote for Western Horseman.

They still offer the book

Thanks for the story Leo

Silver Creek Slim · June 06, 2009, 08:00:39 AM

Quote from: Tensleep on June 05, 2009, 07:58:03 AM
I throwed him inta tha slaughter house.

Steak fer supper.

Slim

Texas Lawdog · June 08, 2009, 07:34:33 PM

The CAF's B29, "FIFI" is being hangared at the Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Addison, Texas. She is undrgoing a major overhaul and they hope to have her ready for the CAF Airsho in Midland this fall. She is the only flying B29 in existence.

Four-Eyed Buck · June 10, 2009, 07:07:03 AM

Believe it's the engines they're working on..........Buck

Texas Lawdog · June 10, 2009, 10:18:35 AM

I've been thinkin' about volunteering at the Museum over at Addison. It would be sumpin' I know a little about and it sounds like fun. They've got a B25 that belongs to the Museum. Mr Cavanaugh had a computer outfit that he sold for a bunch of money. He started the Museum at the Airport in Addison. They've got a website, Cavanaugh Museum of Flight.

Major E A Sterner · June 10, 2009, 10:44:09 AM

http://www.cavanaughflightmuseum.com/

Texas Lawdog · June 10, 2009, 12:58:35 PM

Thanks Major, That's the one. They have a volunteer meeting the first Wednesday of each month, hopefully I'll be able to attend and get started.

Leo Tanner · June 10, 2009, 01:22:25 PM

It sounds perfect fer ya Tex. From your posts I have read you'd be in heaven there. Hope ya get in.

Texas Lawdog · June 10, 2009, 03:38:12 PM

I just found out that "FIFI" is at Midland right awaiting a major overhaul before Oct. The Cavanaugh Museum houses some of the CAF's planes, so I'll be one step ahead. I might even get to hitch a ride on one of the bombers or transports when they go to Airshows. I should know in a month or so if I pass "muster". Leo, If you haven't checked out the Cavanaugh Museum website, you need to. Their B24 has been repainted in OD and renamed "Ol 927". It was formally know as "Diamond Lil".

Leo Tanner · June 10, 2009, 03:55:51 PM

I've shown pics of Diamond Lil ta Lil bafore. She got a big kick outta it. Check out my avitar in the Open Range, its "The Uninvited" another great one.

Texas Lawdog · June 10, 2009, 05:50:54 PM

For a long time, "Diamond Lil" was the only flying B24 in existence. The Museum also has a Spanish version of the ME109 and the HE111 Heikel.

Delmonico · June 12, 2009, 11:19:12 PM

Quote from: litl rooster on June 05, 2009, 11:09:45 PM
They still offer the book

I know, I stock it and sell about 50 a year.

Tex, I need to 'poligixe to you, was a small fly-in at the old WWII trainin' base at Harvard last Sat includin' a P-38, was about 25 miles west of Rock Creek, didn't find out till the other night when I talked to a friend about the School Kids day at RCS next May. Now I know why Doug didn't show up at RCS.