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Stepwilk

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Viewing 15 posts - 46 through 60 (of 515 total)
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  • April 4, 2015 at 3:28 am in reply to: Chariots of Fire FW190 landing incident #861350
    Stepwilk
    Participant

    Let’s be clear, by the way, that this is not a “Focke-Wulf FW-190” but a replica. I’m sorry he hurt his airplane, but I’m sorrier that the line between real and imaginary is increasingly being blurred in this age of data-plate specials, homebuilt replicas and other make-believe wannabes. There are Ferraris and ferraris, and there are Focke-Wulfs and focke-wulfs.

    April 2, 2015 at 2:03 am in reply to: AVRO-NAPIER long range bomber #862774
    Stepwilk
    Participant

    I don’t think anybody made a film in 1925 with an eye toward the idiocy that currently passes for April Fool’s Day foolishness.

    April 1, 2015 at 7:34 pm in reply to: AVRO-NAPIER long range bomber #862945
    Stepwilk
    Participant

    Five tons of bombs for 3,000 miles!!

    It’s as likely to have done that as it is to have busted the Mach. A B-17 couldn’t come anywhere near those numbers.

    March 25, 2015 at 4:02 pm in reply to: Lockheed 10 restored For BATA Czech Republic #870093
    Stepwilk
    Participant

    By the way, it turns out that I am wrong about the Electra going to “a Bata family museum.” I just talked to the restoration shop manager, Leeb von Fange, at Wichita Air Services, and he said the airplane is actually owned by a Czech aviation enthusiast, not the Bata family. That person will be putting it on display in a hangar built for the purpose on an airfield near Prague. The airplane may–or may not–be flown at air shows. And it will be flown, not shipped, to Prague in late April or May.

    March 25, 2015 at 3:04 pm in reply to: Lockheed 10 restored For BATA Czech Republic #870241
    Stepwilk
    Participant

    Thank you, sir. Big help!

    March 25, 2015 at 1:56 pm in reply to: Lockheed 10 restored For BATA Czech Republic #870292
    Stepwilk
    Participant

    Ericmunk, I’m hoping you can help me here, since I’m writing for Aviation History magazine about this airplane.

    You say the Electra was used by the Bata family to escape the Germans. I can find general references to the Batas fleeing to Switzerland and thence England, though no mention of the Electra, and one specific reference (Wichita Eagle newspaper) about the Electra having carried Thomas Bata “to freedom in Poland,” which makes no sense, and the airplane’s crew having then carried to England.

    Can you help me by being more specific about what the airplane actually did? I’m guessing it carried Thomas Bata and his immediate family to England via Switzerland. Would that be correct?

    March 25, 2015 at 10:11 am in reply to: Lockheed 10 restored For BATA Czech Republic #870558
    Stepwilk
    Participant

    This aircraft will essentially be kept in airworthy condition, though certainly hoses and seals, etc. will deteriorate over the years. It has just flown and is flyable, the difference being that the owner (the Bat’a family) won’t fly it any more. Of course the argument is endless–museums burn down, Taliban destroy artifacts, tsunamis erupt, climate change will kill us all and take our restored airplanes with it, whatever–but the least arguable of all consequences is that airplanes too often crash if they are flown. This is an original Electra, unlike a bitsa Blenheim or a data-plate Mustang, and it deserves to be preserved.

    March 25, 2015 at 12:24 am in reply to: Lockheed 10 restored For BATA Czech Republic #870713
    Stepwilk
    Participant

    Nothing sad about it. You fly it, you eventually crash it.

    March 24, 2015 at 11:12 pm in reply to: Lockheed 10 restored For BATA Czech Republic #870856
    Stepwilk
    Participant

    Yes, but it’s going into a Bat’a museum in Prague and will never fly again no matter how many seats there are for polishers…

    What’s particularly interesting to me, by the way, is that this IS Bat’a’s original company airplane.

    March 20, 2015 at 9:47 pm in reply to: Chuck Yeager thread (Updated) #875105
    Stepwilk
    Participant

    One of his claims was how he could see enemy aircraft from ten miles away

    In his autobiog, he actually says 40 miles away. Which is when I put the book down.

    February 10, 2015 at 11:27 pm in reply to: The Wind Rises (cartoon!) #904320
    Stepwilk
    Participant

    You’re quite right, Beermat.

    February 9, 2015 at 9:36 pm in reply to: The Wind Rises (cartoon!) #905127
    Stepwilk
    Participant

    Interesting that the Zero is on screen for exactly 30 seconds, at the very end of the film. Much of the Mitsubishi-related part of the film deals with the development of the A5M Claude…

    February 9, 2015 at 7:32 pm in reply to: The Wind Rises (cartoon!) #905314
    Stepwilk
    Participant

    This is a good cartoon, like Michelin starred food is good grub.

    It’s not a cartoon. A cartoon is a simple, exaggerated drawing. Miyazaki’s work is anything but that. Please stop, those of you who are doing it, being so archly condescending.

    February 1, 2015 at 10:47 pm in reply to: How many turret restorers are there? #913727
    Stepwilk
    Participant

    Sort of what I expected. Bieser told me he knew of two turret restorers in England, a couple in Canada, and himself in the U. S. We’ll add the Norskis.

    January 20, 2015 at 1:05 am in reply to: Rare Photos Of The Luftwaffe In WW2 #924872
    Stepwilk
    Participant

    all images seen before, just a normal collection from the internet

    You’re absolutely right, including photo 25, of the “WWII Ju-52” with Jepp charts clipped to one yoke. Seen that before.

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Viewing 15 posts - 46 through 60 (of 515 total)
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