Steve TPeter/Al–
Martin upper turrets? 250CEs that is? Late production Lanc Xs had those…Toronto’s FM104 springs instantly to mind as TAM are restoring her in 1945 configuration, but she’s currently a top-turretless 10MR…Not sure what the plans are for the Edmundston and Windsor Lancs but that could be of interest to those groups as well…
Cheers
S.
Steve THarald–
Nope, no flying Wimpys at present…The two complete survivors are T.10 MF628 on show at Hendon, and Mk.I N2980 “R-Robert”, recovered from Loch Ness in the early eighties (FlyPast’s first big scoop was the finding of N2980 in the loch in, I think, 1982) and now restored/conserved at Brooklands.
Anyone for building a Wimpy fuselage to go between a set of Viking/Valletta wings…?
S.
Steve THi all–
A few from the lefthand side of the pond! 😀
In no particular order…Hanging about Mount Hope on arrival days back in the late 70s and early 80s. Rotol haircut from Jerry Billing in Spit MK923 on the Thursday before the ’82 show. Sandwich lunch interrupted by a Mustang flying between two of the hangars at rooftop height and Reno speed, at ninety degrees to the runways and flightline, same year. Trios or quartets of Voodoos roaring by, with the “whamwham” of reheat being selected…
…Geneseo, 1991. Seven-plane formation of five Forts, a Lib and a Lanc, with four Mustangs weaving about high up as “top cover”. Martial band version of “Amazing Grace” in the background on the PA as twenty Wrights, four Pratts and four Merlins roared by in mighty chorus, with four more Merlins whistling far overhead. How comes it that a guy born twenty years after the end of World War II chokes up at the mere memory of this…?
…Batavia, 1994-96. Probably the three best Warbird shows I’ll ever see. Pas de deux aerobatic demo of F7F and F-14 including a joinup with the Tomcat doing a low pass alongside the Tigercat as the latter was taking off. B-25s and a C-141 doing passes in a sudden violent rainstorm. Standing next to a taxiway, completely compassed about by active Warbirds. P-38 and two Corsairs starting up behind; Mustangs taxiing alongside; PBY taxiing in front; F8F taking off; B-17s doing passes…what beautiful overload.
…London (Ontario), 1988. Phantom 30th anniversary. Lineup of twenty-six F-4s in the static; four more (from fairly-nearby Selfridge AFB) flying over to open the show. Not likely ever to see thirty Phantoms in the same place again!
…Trenton, 1992. Spent the whole weekend there with one of the vendors (model-decal maker Howard McLean–who now runs CWH’s youth programs). Wonderfully complete access to a military-base show on arrival day. Ultra-tight break for landing by an RF-4 whose pilot seemed to have forgotten he was not flying a 16. Close look at an F-117A being towed out of 424 Sqn’s hangar where it had spent the night. First MiGs of any sort seen in the air–two Ukrainian AF MiG-29s!
…Geneseo, 1986. Flew down aboard CWH’s Fairchild 24R (with Keith Houston, who now flies their Firefly). Whole weekend at that magical grass-field show. P-47G, P-51A, et cetera, in the soft evening light. Only ever air-to-air sortie (sort of) in the Fairchild with three PTs, being photographed from an L-5 for a magazine. Probably everybody in the Fairchilds had cameras too.
…Mt.Hope, 1996. Magnificently reckless-looking F-4 demo by a Luftwaffe major (“Rolf” something…I forget the surname), who seemed to think the fence at the front of the crowd was the actual showline…yee-haw! Also saw a B-2 for the first time, sailing ghostlike overhead at that show.
…Not really airshows, but similar memories. September 24, 1988, Mt.Hope; the public debut of the completed and flying CWH Lancaster. The museum thought maybe a couple thousand people might turn out. I had worked there recently at the time and could’ve told them otherwise. On top of that it was a gorgeous day. Around twenty thousand showed up, turning the roads around the airport into an ersatz parking lot/grandstand for those who couldn’t get in. “VRA” flying by under a cobalt sky with Spit and Hurricane escorts; hardly a dry eye anywhere. They’d assembled a representative Lanc crew from Bomber Command vets who’d worked on “VRA”, and I particularly remember one of them, Roy Freckleton, whom I’d talked with many times, and how he looked like he might explode from sheer pride and delight on that marvelous day. I’ve always seen that day as CWH’s zenith…
…Mt.Hope again, February, 1985. Dropping by in the dead of winter to see what might be new at CWH. That day what was new was a pristine Mosquito that hadn’t been there before. I about passed out from the shock. Next morning went back up to see G-MOSI depart for Dayton with George Aird at the stick, on her last flight. Mr Aird did three passes. The last one, diagonally across the hangar line, took the Mossie out of sight…then the propwash blew a great cloud of snow off the roof of Hgr#3. Unforgettable.
Thanx for starting such a nostalgic thread!
Cheers
Steve T
Steve THello–
A few faves from another Canuck…non-fiction:
“To War In A Stringbag” (read it in the middle of the night on a train!)
“Winged Victory” (lent to me years ago…a very haunting read)
“Nothing By Chance” (Richard Bach barnstorming in 1966)
“Terror In The Starboard Seat” (Mossie ops; horror and hilarity intermingled)
…fiction:
“The Shepherd” (Frederick Forsyth short story; historically askew but lovely)
“Whip” (Martin Caidin’s “squint” at the 345th BG in the Pacific)
“The Last Dogfight” (also Caidin; lame title, excellent book)
“Ace” (Spencer Dunmore; a kind of WWII “The Blue Max”)
All those last three would make wonderful films, especially “Ace”…now that 109s, 190s, 262s, Yaks et cetera are turning up flyable…Actually “The Last Dogfight”, with its Tora-like dual perspective, was slated to be filmed at one point, pity it wasn’t.
Have to second Contrail’s citation of the Donald Jack “Bandy Papers” series too. Bit uneven, but all five books in that series have some hilarious moments in them. The first two, where Bandy is in the RFC/RAF, are probably the best. One reviewer memorably referred to the first one, “Three Cheers For Me”, as evoking “a clown tapdancing on a coffin”…How well is that series known outside Canada, I wonder?
S.
Steve THi FF–
Very pleased to hear about this; all the best with the restoration. As a Canuck I’m especially pleased with the decision to restore this Boly in RCAF finish–the temptation must have been considerable to complete her as a Blenheim given the fact that the two types are virtually identical and the Blenheim is such a significant type in the histories of both the RAF and the British industry. Noticed the “low” RCAF serial in the post header, then could see faint code letters under the BCATP yellow in the pix…unlike most survivors which were solely trainers this one was genuinely a patrol bomber. Great to hear of the plans for her. Maybe will see her “in the metal” sometime.
Cheers
Steve T (hopeful of seeing another Boly come together fairly soon nearby!)
Steve TPeter–
Bit early for Thunder Over Michigan, but maybe either the Russell or Potter collection Spit is visiting Oshkosh as well first??
Steve
Steve TMike–
Fair busted a gut when I read that retort! :diablo: Nice one…
Steve
Steve THi all-
Neat thread.
There was at least one other “helicopter chase” TV-movie in the late 70s. “Birds Of Prey” was the title. The flick starts at an airshow in California with a lovely P-40 on static display.
One of my favourite films of any genre is “The Great Waldo Pepper”; part of that movie revolves around Hollywood’s early attempts to replicate the aerial combat of World War One, but it certainly isn’t conventionally a war film. And of course it has a much-modified Chipmunk (the ill-fated “Styles Skystreak”) in it along with the WWI replicas. “Always”, already mentioned, is another favourite–a rare case of the remake being far better and more interesting than the original.
One of the Cannell-type action series in the late 70s-early 80s featured a sort of dogfight between Clay Lacy’s purple Mustang and a Learjet (probably also Lacy’s). Forget which show it was though…
S.
Steve THi–
Can’t recall distances off top of my head, but yes, CWH’s Lanc and several of the surviving Forts have operated off the turf at Geneseo. B-17 “Fuddy Duddy” was in fact based at Geneseo for several years before NWM moved. The Tallichet B-17 “Memphis Belle” often flies from there these days. At least one Liberator has also flown from Gennie, as has the much-missed MATS Constellation.
One of my alltime favourite airshow memories comes from the 1991 Gennie show: a seven-plane “stinger” formation consisting of a vic-five of Forts with the Lib and Lanc behind in trail. Twenty R1820s, four R1830s, four Merlins, in mighty chorus. Four Mustangs whistling by as top cover, too. I mist up every time I think of it. All seven of those bombers took off and landed on the grass.
S.
Steve TColin–
Hm! Where’s the nosewheel! (I knew the HP88 testbed was a taildragger, based as it was on a Supermarine Attacker…but not that any production Victor variants were taildraggers too…) :rolleyes:
So what’s the story?
S.
Steve THI C6–
Hm. I like your Axis idea, but surely it’s worth expanding on. Why only one 190 and one 262? And then there are 109s flying, too. How about having the formation over AirSpace be threefold: vic-three of 109s consisting of Ed Russell’s Emil flanked by the two Messerschmitt Foundation Gustavs; in close pursuit, a rotte of FlugWerk 190As (or another vic, with a Dora in the lead); chasing those, a rotte (or more) of Seattle 262s. Delish…Then of course there are the Italian types. CR42; ex-Zuccoli G59B…is there a Macchi flying?
At the same show, since it would have a decided Fortress Europe theme, how about a heavy bombers/escorts gathering? Bring over the Collings B-24 and B-17, and the CAF LB-30 and Fort(s), to join the two Forts already that side of the pond; maybe bring IWM’s static 17 out as well (I realise this may be impossible–is she in the AAMiB along with the Lib?)…Get as many 8th, 9th and 15th AF fighters as possible to fly top cover. (Hm, this paragraph makes me pause and think how lucky I am over here…I’ve just basically described what the Yankee Air Museum’s Thunder Over Michigan lineup looked like last August!)
Perhaps the piece de resistance, though: how about a four-plane lineup of Lancasters? PA474, obviously; bring over CWH’s Mk.X; pull IWM’s Mk.X out (of course that might be as difficult as springing their Lib, I don’t know)…and just this once, ferry “Just Jane” down from Lincs for static display alongside the other three. One more: Jerry Yagen’s Mosquito FB.26 will probably be ready before too terribly long, too. A vic-three of Mossie leading the BBMF and CWH Lancs would be memorable…
Cheers
S.
Steve TBC et al–
Those wings are indeed Vampire; specifically they’re from a Vampire F.1 of the “TG” block which was cold-weather tested in Alberta in the late 40s. I think I saw the tailbooms in store in the old loft a few years ago too, but have never seen the fuselage/pod…anyone happen to know whether that survives too, or not?
S.
Steve THi Roy–
Haven’t got manuals or the like, but which version of MB bang seat was in a Victor K2? I’ve got one of those upstairs; can shoot pix of it if you like.
(Clarification: I’ve got the seat…not the whole Victor!) :rolleyes:
Cheers
Steve T
Steve THi sat2–
Russell Group Aviation is near Niagara Falls, yes; specifically Mr Russell’s collection, and his airshow the past two years, are at Niagara South Airfield, which is at the junction of the QEW and Sodom Road, so between Niagara Falls and Fort Erie, near Ridgeway.
Vintage Wings of Canada is Michael Potter’s collection and is based at Gatineau Executive Airport, Gatineau, Quebec, across the river from Ottawa.
Both collections do have websites; I don’t recall either URL off the top of my head but Googling them would be a breeze anyway. Both are private collections, not museums; however Vintage Wings does, as has been pointed out previously, host selected flying days during the summer months.
Cheers
S.
Steve TWhat intrigues me about that T-bird is the little sign by the tailpipe, which appears to read “TV-2”–the infrequently-seen US Navy designation for the T-33. Is this bird ex-USN?
S.
(PS: whew, that’s a wrenching photo of that stack of near-pristine F-84s on the front of that book. Full marks to the publisher/editor/art director for choosing an image that guarantees the book will get looked at!)
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