Fantasy of Flight - Part Two

[allardjd 1,853]

Fantasy of Flight, continues with part two…

The next AC on the list is the Connie, the Lockheed L-049 or L-1049. I don’t know which this model is. It’s parked outside looking a little tired and down-in-the-mouth in faded Lufthansa paint. It doesn’t give the appearance of being seriously damaged or degraded, but looks decidedly dis-used.

The guide said that it was last used by former German Chancellor Conrad Adenhauer and made the last piston-powered flight over the North Pole.

This is a Grumman F4U Corsair, one of the true greats of WWII. It was displayed in a large room fitted out to resemble the flight deck or hangar deck of an aircraft carrier. The lighting was dim and the wings were folded, so getting a good shot was difficult. All the shots had to be lightened in an editor to show much at all. This one is immaculate and looks like it could be rolled out the door and flown immediately.

The room had about a dozen fiberglass cockpit mockups with very rudimentary controls and a video monitor. After a how-to briefing in a mock-up of a carrier ready-room, visitors were permitted to use the “simulators” and attempt to shoot down Japanese aircraft and shoot-up enemy tanks and such. I declined the opportunity.

The script on the cowl says, “Angel of Okinawa”

The next topic is a series of mostly un-related photos of various exhibits and objects that were lying around here and there. There were many more that I did not photograph, including one with a cutaway radial AC engine in a glass-faced case with a push button. An electric motor turned it over slowly and you could see all the internals churning merrily along. I meant to photograph that, but was so engrossed that I must have forgotten.

The nose section of an A-26 with no less than 8 .50 caliber machine guns. That's the waist gun of the B-25 Apache Princess in the background. I told you it had more than nose-art.

The next two are, I believe, of the jet engine from an Me-262. It was not placarded or labeled in any way, however the fuel valve that is prominent in the first photo had several German-language tags.

I looked in the inlet end with great interest for the 10 hp, 2-cycle gasoline engine with a D-ring pull starter that was built into the forward end of the Me-262 jet engines, giving them self-start capability. It was not there, but had clearly been removed, leaving the dog-clutch ring on the forward end of the turbine shaft very evident. I think the ring on the extreme left of the photo may have been an annular fuel tank for that small starter engine.

This is a view from a balcony, looking through a window into the FoF engine shop. Though they clearly had some capability here, the guides were universally consistent in saying that most engine work, particularly re-builds and major overhauls, are farmed out at great cost to a few shops that specialize in vintage aircraft engines. One said that a crate of money normally needed to be sent with the engine needing attention.

In a separate engine storage building, we saw 310 engines (by their count) of all types, Rolls Royce (yes, including some Merlins), Diamler-Benz, Packard, Allison, Wright, P&W, Bristol, and just about anything else you care to name. They had new ones, used ones, old and tired ones, broken ones, wrecked ones and bits and pieces of all sorts. There were in-lines and vees and radials and rotaries of all sorts, including many early ones from WW1 and before. There were probably that many again scattered throughout the rest of the FoF site, many installed on the various aircraft, of course, and many others displayed on stands as part of the exhibits.

They had hundreds of propellers and blades and a rack to the very-high ceiling of wooden propellers, many rotted, de-laminated or broken. The guide said they were kept as a source of otherwise non-existent information; that computer controlled machines could measure the relics accurately and greatly facilitated the manufacture of new wooden propellers when needed. Apparently that happens all the time.

A B-17 ball turret. The rectangular hatch on the top is the entry point.

What the well-dressed bomber crewman wore when turning up un-invited at 25,000 feet over Germany.

There are two examples here of Gee Bee racing planes of the early 1930s, possibly one of the most difficult-to-fly aircraft ever conceived. I’m surprised none were ever arrested for having no visible means of support. They were designed around the just-released Pratt & Whitney R-1340 engines and are living proof that you can make anything fly if you put a large enough engine on it.

Both of these are in pristine condition and give every indication of being flyable. If Mr. Weeks can fly these, he can probably fly most anything.

The next two shots are of a Hiller YH-32 Hornet. It was used a little for testing by both the Army and the Navy and one Army version was the first-ever helicopter gunship, but of course never went into operational service.

Power was from a pair of ram-jets on the blade tips. This does not seem to me to be a great idea. In my opinion, the arrow in the second photo should be pointing in the opposite direction, toward the cockpit.

Note the sea of engines between me and the helicopter in the second photo.

No collection of WWII aircraft is complete without the ubiquitous P-51 Mustang. There are quite a few left flying apparently and they are as popular today as they were with their pilots back when the flying was more serious.

FoF has two, a C and a D model. The C is quite rare. Both are polished to a mirror like shine and appear to be not only flyable, but give the appearance of being regularly flown.

That’s me in the third photo, trying to see an image in a too-dim view finder back lit by too-bright sunlight. My brother took this photo.

This next bird is a rocket-powered interceptor, the Bachem Natter Ba-349. More or less on the order of the more famous and more widely used Me-163 Komet. This weapon was mainly of wood construction and was more or less disposable, combining both a liquid fueled rocket motor in the fuselage and solid fuel boosters attached at the rear. It was intended that the pilot bail out after a rocket powered ascent and attacking bomber formations with an array of 24 rockets housed in the gridwork within the nose. Both pilot and airframe were intended to descend under separate parachutes.

Developed late in the war, the Natter barely got out of the testing stage and had no known operational success.

I have enough pictures left for two more postings, which will come over the next few days. One will be the Sutherland and the other, everything else remaining, including a very nice Spitfire. Stay tuned.

John

[mutley 4,495]

You are spoiling us John!

Another fascinating range of shots and narration, I am like a pig in sh*t enjoying these :yes:

Looking forward to the next instalment.

Cheers

[hurricanemk1c 195]

Great shots!

Kieran