Picture of the day
- Thread starter jwhc
- Start date
Just got this book off Amazon.ca - for just over $5.00. Some pretty cool pictures, including of some aircraft I had never heard of. Well worth the price in my opinion.
https://www.amazon.ca/Picture-History-American-Aircraft-Production/dp/048627618X
From the 5000th B-17 built (which was unsuccessfully saved from scrapping) to the final ignominy of being cut up and melted down:
https://www.amazon.ca/Picture-History-American-Aircraft-Production/dp/048627618X
From the 5000th B-17 built (which was unsuccessfully saved from scrapping) to the final ignominy of being cut up and melted down:
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
True, but it's even more wasteful than that. The '17 carried ten crewmen:
- pilot
- copilot
- bombardier
- radio operator / engineer
- navigator
- upper turret gunner / engineer
- ball turret gunner
- left waist
- right waist
- tail gunner
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
Chas mentioned "5 Grand", a.k.a. 43-37716, the 5000th B17 to be manufactured by Boeing in their Renton, WA plant.
Signed by every person who played a hand in her manufacture, some thirty-five thousand individual signatures. Those dang kids and their graffiti...
Cruise speed was 8 MPH slower than an unpainted B-17 due to the weight and drag of the paint. Fuel consumption was worse, too.
When the war ended, she became one more unwanted bird. She was offered to Seattle for free as a memorial. Seattle refused after considering the cost of housing such a thing. Imagine what she would have been like sitting in the Museum of Flight.
Sent to Kingman, cut up and fed to the smelter.
So goes all flesh.
Signed by every person who played a hand in her manufacture, some thirty-five thousand individual signatures. Those dang kids and their graffiti...
Cruise speed was 8 MPH slower than an unpainted B-17 due to the weight and drag of the paint. Fuel consumption was worse, too.
When the war ended, she became one more unwanted bird. She was offered to Seattle for free as a memorial. Seattle refused after considering the cost of housing such a thing. Imagine what she would have been like sitting in the Museum of Flight.
Sent to Kingman, cut up and fed to the smelter.
So goes all flesh.
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Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
Adolf Galland on the right. Who's the other gentleman? Stanford Tuck? This looks like it was taken during the filming of Battle of Britain.
One imagines them making "NEEEEEEOW! TAKKATAKKATAKKA" noises...
One imagines them making "NEEEEEEOW! TAKKATAKKATAKKA" noises...
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
Before they were friends:
They were both damned lucky - and talented - to survive to be old buddies.
They were both damned lucky - and talented - to survive to be old buddies.
fat tony
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Story behind a famous pic.
https://www.ww2research.com/hit-blast/
It's crazy to think those white dots trailing water vapour were superheated metals travelling at stupid fast mph.
Similar incident, different result:
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/history/p-47-thunderbolt-utm_sourcepenultimate.html
I also recall the story of a poor RAF pilot whose Thunderbolt crashed in combat in Burma. The Army personnel had recovered his remains and strapped them to their jeep. The stench in the jungle heat was pretty noissome according to the soldiers involved.
The gallant crew of Wee Willie
Shot down April 8 1945.
https://www.ww2research.com/wee-willie-b-17-91st-bomber-group
Lest We Forget
https://www.ww2research.com/hit-blast/
It's crazy to think those white dots trailing water vapour were superheated metals travelling at stupid fast mph.
Similar incident, different result:
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/history/p-47-thunderbolt-utm_sourcepenultimate.html
I also recall the story of a poor RAF pilot whose Thunderbolt crashed in combat in Burma. The Army personnel had recovered his remains and strapped them to their jeep. The stench in the jungle heat was pretty noissome according to the soldiers involved.
The gallant crew of Wee Willie
Shot down April 8 1945.
https://www.ww2research.com/wee-willie-b-17-91st-bomber-group
Lest We Forget
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Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
Excellent post, mate. Lots of detail and a recognition of the humanity of those involved. Poor buggers.
And let's spare a thought for the men who did the soul-destroying work of filling out what may have been hundreds of forms documenting the deaths of people they knew. A young life summed up by some pencilled notes on a stock form.
And let's spare a thought for the men who did the soul-destroying work of filling out what may have been hundreds of forms documenting the deaths of people they knew. A young life summed up by some pencilled notes on a stock form.
ojo de aguila
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Alberta
In the 1940s, CPR’s Ogden Shops in Calgary produced some 3,000 naval guns and 1,650 gun mounts during the war, including 12-pounder guns and gun-mounts for Canada, and 105-mm Howitzers for the US Army.
