My son is an A&P and he has seen plenty of metal fatigue on newer airplanes. At some point in my lifetime I imagine all the WW2 planes will become static displays only. I am glad there was no loss of life.
Famous B-17 Liberty Belle crashed this morning in Illinois
by james_woods 21 Replies latest social entertainment
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poppers
In fact, I am working on a fighter aircraft which will be a static display,
What kind of fighter, hubert?
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hubert
F-4 Phantom. (See my avatar).
Vietnam era fighter.
Hubert
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hubert
"At some point in my lifetime I imagine all the WW2 planes will become static displays only. I am glad there was no loss of life".
Moshe, there are still WW1 aircraft out there flying, unless I am wrong and they are newer copies.
I suppose the planes are inspected for cracks, Moshe. Perhaps we'll find out if your theory is right in a few years. I'm happy to hear your son is an A&P man. It must be rewarding to do that. Me, I'm just a tape and wire guy. LOL !!
Hubert
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sizemik
Thanks for posting the article james . . . I've been looking for an article on this since a short news article appeared on national telly here last night. As a pilot with an aviation mad son . . . this is a sad loss. My son knows the names of just about every WW2 veteran still flying (no kidding). He knows this aircraft and has shown me pictures of it from his collection.
New Zealand has a large classic aircraft following inspired by Sir Tim Wallis, and the avid interest of the film producer Sir Peter Jackson. An irrecoverable loss like this is felt by all classic enthusiasts.
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sizemik
F-4 Phantom. (See my avatar).
Vietnam era fighter.
Hubert
Hubert . . . we are very proud owners down here in NZ of our 1956 NA T-28C c/n 226-140, ex N583GH It's now operated by a Warbirds Association syndicate as ZK-JGS. The aircraft is operated in a USN trainer scheme of VA122 with the original Bu.No.140563.
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JeffT
It is sad to loose another one. We built 12,000 of them and now there are only a few left. I've seen both a B-29 and a B-17 in the air. The -29 is an impressive plane, but I think the -17 is better looking.
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sizemik
Liberty Belle . . . in all her glory
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Black Sheep
I thought I recognised those engines.
A quick Google and I find that I have been hauled aloft several times by planes with a slightly larger version of the same engine. Nice.
One of them fell out of the sky after a door opened in mid-air. I wasn't on it, but the pilot of one of my flights was.
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james_woods
Great photo, sizemik.
Better than what we had on the aviation forum where I got the original story, in fact.
To continue Hubert's point, yes - these planes are restored to a very solid airworthy state. But things can still happen - after all, we probably lost more B-29s to engine fires than to japanese enemy fire when they were new and in service.
As to the WW1 fighters still around, even the so-called "originals" seem to me to be more of a modern reconstruction than a true restoration.
Please not that I was not saying we should ground all the flying warbirds - just that we should be very careful with them and that suitable static displays should be assured so that generations ahead can see these historical planes.
James
