Ah,more treasure 🙂 Thanks again John,that head-on Hudson shot is wonderfully evocative.

Wonderful shots John,thanks for digging them out. Do you have any details to go with the photo’s?Any ideas what type the biplane on the right in the very top row is,or who the pilot might be?What about the biplane ‘fighter’ with the wide track undercart in the second row of the second batch?It looks rather like a Gloster Mars or one of its derivatives.
Interesting. 🙂

Wonderful footage of an amzing machine,as others have said it seems remarkable that the film has survived.
The question of how a pilot might’ve bailed out is an interesting one. The Do335 was fitted with a primitive ejector seat propelled by compressed air,and it makes me wonder if the Japanese devised or copied a similar device for the Shinden. Does anyone have any details of Japanese ejector seats?
TT-being a pedantic g*t,I have to point out that the Do335 never had detachable prop blades,but it did have a detachable tail fin. Because of the type’s cruciform tail configuration,the lower tailfin was seen as being inconvenient in the event of a belly landing. For this reason the lower tailfin was attached via explosive bolts,which blew this lower fin off prior to a belly landing. Perhaps this is what you were thinking of?

Ok,had another brainwave! Perhaps it was a Seibel Si204? This was a German equivelant to the Anson and a number were built in Czechoslovakia and France post-war. The Czech version was the Aero C.3 and the French was the Nord NC.702. There’s a listing of survivors here…

http://www.preservedaxisaircraft.com/Luftwaffe/siebel/siebel.htm

and a decent pic here…

http://www.preservedaxisaircraft.com/Luftwaffe/siebel/images/NC%20702%20cn%20350%20Aero%20C3A.jpg

Yep,N611JR and G-HUNT are one in the same.

Since this thread was first posted,I found the Old Rhinebeck website via Google. It’s a great site with comprehensive listings of the collection’s airframes and artefacts,and includes details of each aircraft’s current status (airworthy,taxiiable,static etc)…

http://www.oldrhinebeck.org/collection_airplane.htm

I was under the impression that the collection was made up almost exclusively of replicas,but even just a quick browse shows how many original machines they have. Some absolute gems,one to add to my ‘must visit’ list if I ever get to N America.

Early Oscars (the Ki43-I models) had the two blade props,but the improved Ki43-II had a more pwerful engine and a 3 blade prop.