WWII War Birds - pics and video

Dark Alley Dan said:
Hope to hell a hurricane doesn't get her. Florida's a hard place for airplanes sometimes.

Here's an oldie - Mail's arrived, thanks to the Junkers.

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Markings look Finnish and appears to be a W33. Probably very early in WWII or even before the war as a/c pressed into service like this would probably have succumbed quickly to action.
 
Hi,

Thanks to you tootall. Your pictures are fantastic and will serve as "aide memoire" for my recent B17 tour in Allentown PA for my 68th BD.

Upon my annual pilgrimage back to QC from FL, we stopped in Pooler GA to visit the Mighty 8 Air museum. We had a great half-day in there and enjoyed quite a few very instructive displays and paintings and war birds in great condition. The B17 was featured and a real attraction to me and others. I managed to get some info on the possibility to take a pay ride on one of these.

I made arrangements for my son and I to fly the Overcast Aluminum that would be on a country tour with stop in Allentown PA on May 16-17th.

We had the chance to get on first flight of the day and went through pre flight briefing and AC overview including the engine pre start 9 blade run procedure required for each of the 4 engines every morning to ensure proper oïl distribution into each of the 9 radial arrangement cylinders.

We had a great time and the whole crew was very friendly and helpful especialy with my son who has some mobility restrictions.

We were both (son and I) euphoric and felt like kids in candy store. I managed the catwalk crfossing the bomb bay to the cockpit area and was allowed a nice crawl under pilot seats to the nose gunner position. Quite a view from there on peace time flight but probably death scaring when facing an ennemy warbird coming for you....

Would also love to fly the B25 if possible.....

The two videos should be ok now.

[video]http://vid50.photobucket.com/albums/f329/cd30-06/IMG_0642_zpsmp2jhkew.mp4[/video]

[video]http://vid50.photobucket.com/albums/f329/cd30-06/IMG_0645_zpsr0ae5fxr.mp4[/video]

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BB

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Was outside this morning at the farm and the Lancaster flew directly overhead at about 2000 ft (my WAG) flying north from St Catharines airport to Lake Ontario. Clear day and I got the full effect of 4 Merlins (I presume)... I could hear something big coming from behind the house... then directly overhead ... then away to the North... watched it disappear. I am always impressed!
 
I did ask the same question about the aiming system on the .50. I was told that it is a tracking system that takes over after initial target acquisition.

I thought that all aiming was manual/visual with lead and compensation.

BB
 
Boom-Boom said:
Hi,

Thanks to you tootall. Your pictures are fantastic and will serve as "aide memoire" for my recent B17 tour in Allentown PA for my 68th BD.


BB
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You are welcome!
I am envious of your ride. That must have been a great experience.

I finally got this video assembled of my B-17 walk-thru.
I was going to do one video for both the 17 and the 24, but it got too long.
So I will make a separate one for the B-24 Liberator soon.

Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/6idwf9jYqOA

[youtube]6idwf9jYqOA[/youtube]
 
I mentioned before that the Collings Foundation had a B-25 Mitchell at Bellingham, but it was not open for walk-thru's.
A few weeks after that, there was another event in WA state, the Arlington Fly-In.
http://www.arlingtonflyin.org/
At this event was a different B-25, owned by the Historic Flight Foundation.
http://historicflight.org/hf/
Their Mitchell is called Grumpy, and is now painted in RAF colours.
http://historicflight.org/hf/collection/grumpy/
This particular plane was once owned by the RCAF.

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There are two stepladders, one just behind the nosewheel, forward of the bomb bay. The other is behind the bomb bay, below the roundel.

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Access to cockpit.

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Same access hatch, photo viewpoint slightly left of centreline, looking to right. Starboard engine visible.

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Looking up into cockpit, backs of pilots seats just visible.

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I am part way in now, so closer view towards cockpit.

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This is the one and only way to the bombardier area! Bloody tight! I crawled on hands and knees on the way in, then a crew-member suggested lying on my back and sliding out. I wouldn't want to do that when it is on fire and dropping fast, nose down!
This tunnel is on the port side, directly below the pilot.

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Great view once you get up front.

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Looking rearward, directly behind cockpit.

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Rear section, behind bomb bay. Unlike other bombers, there is no passage from up front to the rear.
This plane has been stripped of a lot of gear, to make room for flight customers.
The large hole above is for a gun turret.

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Upper turret.

This aircraft will be at Abbotsford Airshow Aug 7,8,9
I plan to attend, so perhaps I'll make a video tour.
 
Last summer I took a ride in the CAF's fully restored B-25 "Maid in the Shade" when it was here in Penticton. It was quite a contrast with my experience in the CAF's restored B-17 "Sentimental Journey" which I rode in this past week. The B-17 is bigger and more sedate in maneuvering and a lot quieter in spite of the 4 engines. The B-25 is light, more agile and very loud as it does not have the exhaust collector rings on the engines which act as a muffler to some extent.

It was a hoot to be in the B-25 as it wound up for takeoff with the engines popping and banging away at high RPM and the plane vibrating like hell. Once airborne it was very smooth and nimble on the turns, but still very noisy in comparison to the B-17. I rode the tail gunner's position for most of my flight in the B-25 which was really nice, even though you had to slither thru a bit of a tunnel to get there. When I was a kid I used to see B-25s being flown by the RCAF reserves out of Saskatoon and always wanted to know what it was like. I'm glad that I finally got the opportunity to experience it.
 
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Boom-Boom said:
I did ask the same question about the aiming system on the .50. I was told that it is a tracking system that takes over after initial target acquisition.

I thought that all aiming was manual/visual with lead and compensation.

BB
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its called a K13 sight, it adjusts the sight picture to account for the movement of the gunners aircraft, so that the gun is fired as if its stationary. the altitude and airspeed are programmed in with the dials and the mount adjusts the sight as the gun moves. this way, you always shot in front of the enemy plane regardless of its flight path, whereas without it, you would shoot directly at a plane traveling the same speed/direction as you, but need twice the normal lead if it was going the otherway. the lead would get more complex as the gun traversed because the bullets don't travel perpendicular to the aircraft anymore.

it is a late war invention, as almost all period photos show the old ring and post sights
 
scott585 said:
its called a K13 sight, it adjusts the sight picture to account for the movement of the gunners aircraft, so that the gun is fired as if its stationary. the altitude and airspeed are programmed in with the dials and the mount adjusts the sight as the gun moves. this way, you always shot in front of the enemy plane regardless of its flight path, whereas without it, you would shoot directly at a plane traveling the same speed/direction as you, but need twice the normal lead if it was going the otherway. the lead would get more complex as the gun traversed because the bullets don't travel perpendicular to the aircraft anymore.

it is a late war invention, as almost all period photos show the old ring and post sights
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Thank you for this. I was wondering what the gizmo was and did not see that it was actually a sight.

Did it work? Did it make a difference in hits?
 
Ganderite said:
Thank you for this. I was wondering what the gizmo was and did not see that it was actually a sight.

Did it work? Did it make a difference in hits?
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i dont know, it came about in november of 44 so the luftwaffles were losing already. i think K-13 refers to the sight, and then the various mounts and such for each position and aircraft have different numbers. it had a weathervane that corrected for crosswind and used gears and cables to determine the angle of the gun.

i suspect if you were well practiced at using the old sights it might be a bit of a brain exercise to switch over, but i bet it would turn a good duck/goose hunter or AA gunner into a good air to air gunner.

they were only used on waist guns to my knowledge and the waist guns were not a big help to killing fighters, they were single guns with very limited traverse. the ball and upper covered much the same areas with alot more firepower. add to this the tiny bomb bay the b-17 had and i feel that extra weight (2 crew at ~220 each with kit, 2 guns at 80 lbs each, the added holes and drag in the airframe, the 100 pounds of mounts) would have been better spent on bombload and would not have reduced the protection of the group much.
 
FHC has a 109 E3. They should see about getting those old girls together. Take 'em up to Victoria and do low passes over an old folks home so the British grannies can shake their fists at 'em. :)
 
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Cool shots Tootall! I have some of the very same aircraft from last year! it was quite a bit more crowded, so it was hard to get good interior pics, but same plane and I went inside it as well. I got some good pics of it starting up and taxiing as well as flying, and some video of startup and taxiing.
 
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