Well, THIS is gonna drive me nuts, it’s too late here to call back east to find anything out…called Nelson’s hangar, got no answer, called Howard’s house and got his machine…I reckon it probably happened in Florida, as we’re only 3 days from the start of Sun and Fun and he usually goes there…will have to try to reach an English friend who will be at the show and see if I can get the details…anyone who finds out ANYTHING please post it here, he is a good friend and me and my photographic partner need to know what is going on and if he’s alright…

Keeping my fingers crossed-

Mark

_ A full display by the Breitling fighters…would’ve loved to see that.
_The Birdcage Corsair from New Zealand, missed it by ONE year at Breckenridge before it departed for NZ.
_Seeing the Weeks Mosquito flying…again, a missed show at Breckenridge.

Other than that, done pretty well. Only have one B-17 I have’nt seen fly, ‘Fuddy Duddy’ up in NY…seen ALL the rest (and flown in ‘Shady Lady’!)

Mark

Funny how this all timed out with the ‘Are there any…’ post that I put on here a few days ago, asking if you guys knew if there were any Brewster Built Corsairs in the world, and the answer, which I already knew, was YES…and I see my friend Richard Phillips, Mustang historian extraordinaire, is in the middle of this one too…he was the one that sent me the pics of Cralley’s F3A Corsair….I hope Lex gets to hold on to the F3A, as the Navy already has it’s share of Corsairs in museums….some dumb preservation policies out there in the world, some military services are enlightened, some live in the dark ages…

Mark

As I mentioned before, the TV show ‘Black Sheep Squadron” was basically a badly done series, the stories going from tolerable to REALLY bad….but it had an effect….it helped to start a burgeoning warbird movement here in the states and to save MANY (and who knows HOW many) Corsair airframes around the world from being destroyed and lost…If it were’nt for this series, we may be looking at about 30 or 40 Corsairs TOTAL these days as opposed to the nearly 100 we now enjoy….

As for the ‘Twelve o’clock High’ TV series, as mentioned elsewhere in these forums, one of the planes used in that series now flies above a bar here in Greeley, CO at the ‘State Armory’, with DC-3 wings rigged to it…someone posted a photo of it under the title of ‘B-17 in a bar in America’ or something similar…

Mark

Well, lesse…multiple 8×10’s of photos by Dibbs, **** Phillips, Ken Dawson, myself, my partner Denise, a ‘Corsair Gathering’ poster, a Les Vowles Corsair painting, a BBMF Painting by…hmmm, does’nt say, but is of PZ865 (Last of the Many), a Coast Guard ship clock of the ship I served on (USCGC Evergreen), my STAR piece, a 16×24 framed photo I shot of the CAF’s P-40N Warhawk, numerous ‘multiple photos’ frames with 4, 5, 10 photos of planes in them of all different types, us and UK examples…and yet to find it’s way to the wall is a B-17 Memphis Belle painting I bought in the UK by Keith Woodcock…oh, and my Phil Makanna calendar which I had to pay for this year…last year’s was free when Phil gave it to me from the trunk of his car at the Corsair gathering, payment for tipping him off to the existence of Captain Eddie’s Firefly which was just starting to fly. Oh, and 3 8×10’s I shot air to air of Eddie’s Firefly.

Mark

Looks like it’s time to consult Dennis Bergstrom’s most recent edition of ‘Gallant Warriors’ for some numbers……

Of 13,733 P-40 Warhawks built (all models), 103 survive.
Of 12,731 B-17’s produced, 49 survive.
Of 12,681 Corsairs built, 93 survive.
Of 9939 TBM/TBF’s built, 96 survive.
Of 5562 Bristol Beaufighters built, 11 survive.
Of 658 Fireflies built, 21 survive.
Of 14,233 Hawker Hurricanes built, 76 survive
Of 22,440 Spitfires of all marks built, an even 200 survive
Of 35,000 Messerschmitt BF109’s built, 55 survive
Of 10,449 Japanese Zeros built, 41 survive
Of 30,000 Yak 1,3,7 and 9 models built, 35 survive.
And, of 15,686 P-51 Mustangs built, 312 survive…there is one plane where 100 percent of the types still fly…the JRM Mars flying boats, 6 were built, 2 still exist and both fly.

Anyone got any requests for a certain type as far as numbers built and numbers that still exist? This edition did’nt cover the T-6, but I would say it is the most plentiful ‘warbird’ to still exist from WWII.

Mark

Ah, what a lovely thread…the ‘who hates who the most’ thread from what I can tell. Funny how starting one of these threads can center all the attention on one nation until someone starts pointing out “Hey, YOU guys were’nt that great EITHER!” and then everyone starts looking at everyone else as a one time enemy/wishy washy friend, and the jabs start flying AT EVERYBODY. I have never been a big fan of the French, they seem totally ungrateful for anything the Allies did for them during WWII (not to mention half of them fought FOR the Germans during the war, using US and British materials against the countries that supplied them, to boot!) I think a good number of the British have a problem with the US as a whole, but basically we get along fairly well…let it be known that the majority of the US has a bit of a problem with President Bush and his wacked out policies and cavalier attitudes with the rest of the world and Europe in particular, but the day to do something about it is rapidly approaching in November. I believe the Aussies and New Zealanders get along with the Americans pretty well, we’ve never had any major grudges towards these countries, and I believe the reverse to be true from them also. Canada gave us hockey, the world’s most perfect sport, and we love ’em for it…nuff said.

As far as most Americans being illiterate *******s, well….some are and some aren’t…if you base it on how we spell the word ‘gray’ or ‘Endeavor’ as opposed to your ‘Grey’ or ‘Endeavour’, well, then, yes we have different ways of doing things…but we did’nt get to be one of the most powerful nations on the planet by being morons, folks. Our time in the spotlight, just like Rome or Britain, may be winding down (I for one believe it is), but we’ll still be a world power/force and someone to be reckoned with…and above all that, all of our countries…NZ, Australia, the US, and to some extent Canada…we all trace our roots back to Mother England whether we want to or not…I for one have always been a big fan of all of these nations, am playing host to an Aussie for three weeks this summer, have been to the UK twice in the last 4 years and LOVED it each time, know lots of Canadians and argue Hockey with them all the time, and was a HUGE fan of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy and its Oscar wins, not to mention pulling for the NZ team in the last America’s Cup (which unfortunately they lost)…you all have TONS to offer the world…why there is all this bickering between you on all these issues is beyond me…let’s just focus our attention on Osama and the French!

Mark

Better bloody believe TE308 is up and flying, she just came out of annual over here and Bill is planning on taking her to Sun and Fun as usual, with another busy airshow season to follow…and as soon as I get my air to airs of her back from Vancouver, I’ll be posting some of them off of the CD I’m getting to this website.

Mark