WWII aircraft event in my town today

[daan]

So my Dad called me earlier this week to tell me his Legion post was putting on an event at our airport (New Richmond WI) with the "Confederate Air Force" where they would have a B-25 and "a couple other aircraft" come out. Plus, they were GIVING RIDES IN THEM! Dang, count me in! I ended up bringing the family, but the rides cost $400 for the B-25 or $150 for the trainer. The budget didn't really support this, so I unfortunately stayed on the ground. I did get a bunch of pix, though.







For a much smaller fee (which helps towards the upkeep of the plane) they let you go in and look around. (There was a sign with info about the plane, and part of it stated the operating costs are $2400/hr so I had NO problem paying $20 to get to go into a piece of history. I brought 2 of my girls in, but the youngest was too young and for some reason my wife wasn't interested...
You start by climbing up thru this hatch behind the bomb bay


It looks a couple stories high from the ground

Looking aft towards the tail gunner's position (They wouldn't let us go back there because the tail stand wasn't under the plane. Wouldn't want my lard-butt making the plane fall over onto it's tail, now...


There's 2 waist gunner positions here. A seat that looks more like a folding chair and 2 more big machine guns. Man those guys roughed it up there, people were made of sterner stuff back then.


Next you climb back out and walk under the bomb bay


Miles of hydraulic lines, electrical wires, etc. They had 4 bombs in the racks, but I didn't know if they were "real" (decommissioned, I'm sure) or just things made to look like bombs. Cool either way. Plus it was cool knowing everything in there was mechanical, nothing electronic. Designed by guys with slide rules instead of computers, and assembled by real people, not robots.
Next we climbed up another hatch, kind of under the flight deck. You crawl thru a passage that looks suspiciously like a heat duct to the forward area (obligitory pic of my kids)


the bombardier's area in the nose (there's also 2 giant machine guns in there)

the bomb sight (I thought they took those out when they deactivated old military aircraft.)

I can't imagine riding up there all day, while getting shot at, in freezing temps. (not to mention how LOUD it must have been) Makes bitching about my airline seat seem silly in comparison)


We were supposed to go up to the flight deck too, but my girls have the attention span of gnats (and I'm sure aren't all that interested in WWII, ha ha), the guys said they were running out of time for tours before they were gonna take off, and I was kind of worried my girls might break something so we got back out and looked around the field some more. There were some other interesting planes there

The other plane they were giving rides in. It's late and I can't remember what they called this one...

They had a bunch of home built experimental planes there. I don't know why this one was sitting on it's nose
Cool old crop duster. It had vinyl "eyes" like in the movie "Planes"

GIANT radial engine on this one.










A good time was had by all. I got to hang out with my Dad and his Legion buddies, plus get to show my girls some neat history. WHo knows how much longer anybody'll be able to do stuff like go inside a B-25?

[daan]

And I don't know why  some of the pix are sideways... THey don't look that way on my computeror on P-bucket...
If you click on them they open up the right way. ??

[wellREDman]

The trainer they were giving rides on is a T-6 (harvard this side of the pond)
really great to see the Fairey Gannet (the big one with the double props and orange livery) I didnt think there were any of them left flying

[gweimer]

Very cool!  There was a B-24 here at the local airport last year, so I went over and took a look.  Those bombers were designed for 18 y.o. kids about the size of a horse jockey.  I couldn't even make it through the plane - those kids had to walk a 6" beam between a narrow pairs of support struts through bomb bay area to get to the rear of the plane.  I decided after looking at the plane that I didn't really want to pay $400 to sit on a hard bench.

They are wonderful to look at,  and take pictures from the ground.

[Highlander]

Roshina and I were at RIAT at the beginning of July, which is the UK's biggest show. The Squadron I write the newsletter for (230) had a static HC2 commemorating a Sunderland lost in WWII, all in black with SEAC roundels. Several stars of the show - 50th anniversary of the Red Arrows and Patrouile Swiss (flying Hawks and T5's respectively) and a stack of F16's with several displaying for the 40th anniversary of the type (saw one of the prototypes display at RAF Alconbury in the first year, so got to see them go up against an EE Lightning). Nice to see the Polish displaying a couple of SU22's and the last active Corsairs (Greek AF). a couple of displays by Spanish and British Typhoon's.
Big shame was the world-wide grounding of the F35 so didn't get to see the first non-USofA display, although the Marines were happy to see the shirts...
Loads of exotics and fascinating to see the demo of the Airbus A400 transport throwing itself about like a fighter... the quick-stop landing and reverse was also quite impressive, as was the rate of climb - this is part of it...


Anyone care to guess what I'm sitting in below...

[TBird1958]

 Great shots of the B-25, especially with your kiddos!

That's such a cool, badass plane.

[clankenstein]

catalina?

[Hörnisse]

There was a B-17 in town a few weeks ago.  While out on my route I heard a lovely rumble sound coming from above and got to watch it fly over the neighborhood where I was.  I just love the sound of those radial engines.  Great photo's of all the aircraft!

[patman]

only thing with better bass response than a Harley.

[wellREDman]

the waist observation bubble 0f a PBY or  Catalina, sadly the cat that used to display down my neck of the woods  crashed a couple of years ago

[Highlander]

catalina?

The only operational one based in the UK... run by a co called Plane Sailing...

... sadly the cat that used to display down my neck of the woods  crashed a couple of years ago

Where was that...?

Later this month we will have a very rare treat - the sound of eight Merlins on two aircraft, flying together for the first time in decades... one Canuck, one Brit, and I think there was talk of running up a third that is not yet airworthy, so that might make 12x3...         

Forgot to add... nice to see a Seabee, Daan...

[wellREDman]

Where was that...?

Portsmouth or Southampton, cant remember the details, it was a dark blue one, thinking about it was probably more like 10 years ago.

[wellREDman]

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They had a bunch of home built experimental planes there. I don't know why this one was sitting on it's nose

thats a Rutan VariEze, a cool 80's kit built design from Bert Rutan , the guy who designed SpaceShipOne (and two) the nose wheel is buried in the nose , its meant to sit like that
they are really awesome bits of kit, that revolutionised the home build Pane market, when I went to Oshkosh as a kid there were hundreds of em
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutan_VariEze

[wellREDman]

Later this month we will have a very rare treat - the sound of eight Merlins on two aircraft, flying together for the first time in decades... one Canuck, one Brit, and I think there was talk of running up a third that is not yet airworthy, so that might make 12x3...         

yeah following this story with interest, really looking forward to seeing them display together when they get to the south Coast this weekend,

Hoping the BBMF will fly them with as many little freinds as possible so we can hear 10+ merlins at the same time, the closest I've heard to that so far was a 9 spitfire tailchase at Shoreham a few years ago

[Highlander]

There were 9+ (a Hurricane sneaked in) Merlins flying for the the Spitfire 60th at Duxford, and that Cat you saw was the same company - this one's the replacement...