On a small side note about the Texas and her location. 1.) She was pounding the gun emplacements on the beaches at Normandy on the 6th. 2.) The place where she is birthed is called the San Jacinto Battleground. This is the very piece of land where the Texas Army defeated the Mexican Army for her independence in 1836. There is a giant monument there, called the San Jacinto Monument of course, which you can tour and go to the top of, as well as tour the entire battleground. The area around Houston and in neighboring Brazoria County, are the places where Texas was originally settled and began. Checking out the local tourism sites or the Texas Parks & Wildlife site might give you a better idea of the things you can visit and experience if you are into that sort of history.

If you’d like to check out the Collings Foundation A-4 and F-4 give me a PM.

Oh, I almost forgot. After you tour the Texas, head just up the road to a place called Monument Inn. EXCELLENT seafood!!

http://www.taichiunlimiteddrawings.com/Red_Baron_Profile-L.jpg

http://www.taichiunlimiteddrawings.com/Red_Baron_1979_profiles.jpg

http://www.taichiunlimiteddrawings.com/Red_Baron_1979_top.jpg

http://www.taichiunlimiteddrawings.com/Red_Baron_1979_bottom.jpg

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Those profiles, and several more racers can be found here: http://www.taichiunlimiteddrawings.com/

Oh and octane, the Lockheed engineer you saw walking around the RB-51, was probably Bruce Boland. You can read his story here: http://warbirdaeropress.com/articles/Boland/Boland.htm

Gary Austin made that post on the WIX. You might recognize him as the man that has been behind the rebirth of the CAF’s B-24 “Ole ‘927. If he says the blades moved I believe him!

However, he clearly pointed at that the reasoning behind the strong winds was none other than a tornado! It proceeded to rip the roofs up of at least 2 hangars. Tornadoes are known to have straight line winds in the 200 mph range without really trying.

I was looking at the website for PV270, and I noticed something which I’m not sure about.

In the photos of her military service, there is one of her in Italian service and Burmese service. The Burma shot definately shows her with the sharp tail, and I believe the Italian photo does too. The only problem with this, is that she now has the rounded tail. Am I seeing things? What would prompt the tail to be changed over time?

Re: The Collings A-26.

Yes she will fly again. She actually flew great and was very solid until her crash. That is an entirely different story though and one that gets me worked up quite a bit. As far as the restoration goes, it is extremely slow and complicated.

BTW, the serial number is 44-35696. She flew 100 missions in Korea with the 95th BS, 17th BG and was named “My Mary Lou”.

If anyone wants any other details as to the restoration or the crash, feel free to PM me. I’m better off not posting anything public.

A-26

I know of a certain A-26 that has definately been rolled. I’ve seen the footage of the Mississippi River going around in the nose to prove it. I fully understand that the manual says it is prohibited, however, if the aircraft is held to 1G throughout the entire manuever then where is the stress? I’d say there is more stress and wing flex in a hard pull up or turn that in that 1G roll. I know that it is hard to tell if the roll was definately just 1G but someone was sitting on their butt in the nose throughout the entire thing and never moved an inch.

The airplane is very agile and is truely an amazing machine. I’ve seen Spirit of Waco come racing down the display line right behind a P-47. The Thunderbolt pulled up first and then the ’26 and that was all she wrote for the Thunderbolt. I’m pretty sure that Thunderbolt driver only saw A-26 going up past him.

Oscar if you get the chance go fly with the Mustang guys at the airshows. I know of a certain A-26 driver who was a little pissed when he asked if he could fly with the fighters because the bombers were killing him and his answer from a smart arsed Corsair driver was “If you can hang with us, then you can fly with us”. The story goes that all he saw behind him was black and blue A-26 everywhere he went. I’ve also seen that same A-26 and driver out run Howard Pardue in the Bearcat. Howard got tired of trying to catch her and decided to form up on the DC-3 instead.

Did you ever find out the history on your airplane? Oh and have you thought about giving her a glass nose? There is a possibilty that the hard nose she has now was put on her if she went to Korea. Thats how is was with the one I used to work on. Built as a C but was given a 6-gun nose before she went to Korea to fly with the 95th BS, 17th BG.

I’m kind of thinking that the airplane in the background is a Marauder with no props. The airplane looks too tall for a B-57. The only other thing I can think of is maybe an Arado Ar234 but I have no idea why Martin would have one at their plant.

I’m going with a Marauder and this not being a surviving Baltimore. I think Tallichet has one though. Don’t know anything else about it though. Rob Rohr probably does.

Ryan

Mark,

Lone Star’s airplane didn’t have any kind of accident like this. She flew all last summer and was fall and was waiting to fly for the End of Season Fly Day in November but couldn’t because of weather. Since then she has been put up for winter and has already made her post maintenance first flights.

Only reason I know is because a buddy of mine lives on Galveston and gives me daily reports on whats going on over there.

Cavanaugh’s airplane had a gear up in a field and still hasn’t flown since then, but most of those problems apparently are associated with the engine rebuild taking awhile.

Ryan