Lancaster Bomber

[Sandy G]

I recall the last airworthy B-29 "FiFi" has just been cleared to fly again. It's been undergoing engine work for several years.

Yeah, I got to sit in "Fifi" when it was up at Tri-Cities Airport one Sunday morning after it had been in an airshow on Saturday...Got to talk to the crew-a bunch of old guys who flew it as a labor of love-& they let me sit in the pilot's seat. It was reasonably comfortable, & again, the 29 didn't seem nearly as small & cramped as the 17. Interestingly, what finally may ground Fifi is the lack of nosewheel tires-they were specific to B-29s & B-50s-And were never used on another plane. The main gear tires were the same size as a 737 or something, & were no trouble to get. B-29s were pressurised-it was one of the 1st planes that was, & the system was pretty crude & troublesome, & had been deactivated on Fifi. I do remember them griping about the old gal's thirst for gas. And sparkplugs-Each engine had 18 cylinders w/2 sparkplugs per jug...

 

[dokblues]

She`s a True Beauty!! I have been Fortunate enough to have seen a Lot of WII aircraft and have never seen a Lancaster fly. That would be a Real treat!! Get lots of pic`s Mike!!!

 

[Tarl Of Gor]

I love WWII aircraft. The engines on the Lancaster look like the same ones that were used on the P38 Lightnings.

 

[avionic]

I'll bet those synchronized merlins sounded awesome... I once heard 42 Pratt n whitney F100 turbofan jet engines fly-by in a 21 bird formation (F-15 A's & B's ) about 1500 feet over head. Fly over was at Eglin AFB(33rd TFW's flightline back in the very early 80's)..Awesome display of air power..

 

[DonQuixote99]

:yes:

A telephoto lens probably doesn't hurt, either.

FWIW, when that Lanc is on display in its hangar in Hamilton, you can walk right up to it. All of the displays at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum are very accessible.

As for size... the B-25 seems positively miniature.

The USAF has it's museum here in Dayton. You can get as close to the planes as you want. You aren't supposed to touch but of course some people do, and they aren't arrested.

The work, the brainpower, the resources that went into WWII machines is staggering to contemplate--as is the realization that it was all being poured down a destructive rathole, along with countless lives. Could we do such a thing again? Sure. It would be different, we'd use tens of thousands of drones this time. But the ultimate effects would be the same. Gotta hope it never happens--and hope we win again if it does. And that we're the good guys again.

 

[JohnVF]

About 25 years ago (lordy, time flies) my dad and I went to see a B-17 at the local airport (by the Goodyear Zeppelin hangar in Akron). While there, my dad remembered he had a pair of headphones from a B-17, so we went home and got them and gave them to the pilot. This got us a private, detailed, tour of an airworthy B-17 and many thanks (and some iron-on patches that I still have), something I'll never forget.

Fifi was another one we saw. I was surprised that it wasn't bigger...you grow up thinking these things will be huge. Even the B-52 was smaller than I thought it would be. The C-5 wasn't, and the upstairs of a 747 I flew on was smaller but cooler than I'd imagined.

This all makes me want to take the flying lessons I always said I'd take when I was older. Well, now I'm getting there (older).

 

[Scuzzer]

I'll bet those synchronized merlins sounded awesome.

Loudest plane I ever heard was an F-4 flying low near Ramstein when me and dad were cycling around Europe in the early 80s. My ears actually hurt for a few minutes after it streaked by a few hundred feet off the ground. Not surprising since the F-4 was so heavy they had massive engines in them but I forget which ones now.

you grow up thinking these things will be huge.

Exactly. It's not that they weren't big planes for their day it was the idea that they must have been huge that was probably planted in our heads as kids. Although they are a pretty big target, when you see one flying low you can imagine how easy it must have been to blow them out of the sky.

 

[Sandy G]

The LOUDEST plane I think I ever heard was at that Hickory show...It was a Russian single engine biplane transport from 1973-Antonov AN-2, IIRC. It had a radial engine that put out 700 HP, they said-And 699 of 'em did nothin' but made racket. Slow as next Christmas comin', they were givin' rides in it, too, & it took all day long to lumber down the runway, struggle into the air, putt-putt-putt around the patch, & then float back down. The good thing was, it looked like if you were about to crash, you coulda just jumped outta it & rolled-not much worse than wreckin' yr bicycle. Sure was BIG, though-supposedly had a larger wingspan than a 737.

 

[Arkay]

What a cool thing! Nice pics, too: thanks for sharing those. :thmbsp:

I love those old WWII planes. Perhaps my Dad's having been a bombadier in WW II, and having some of the pictures taken through his bombsight on my bedroom wall as a kid, has something to do with it?

I picked up some old books (1950s vintage) a few years back, all about WWII aircraft. Until I read those, I never realized how MANY (dozens and dozens and dozens) of DIFFERENT aircraft were actually manufactured during/for WW II. Some of them were experimental prototypes, but many were manufactured in smaller production runs and put into active service for a year or so, only to be replaced as soon as something better/different was found, or pulled from service as soon as it was learned that they weren't sufficiently up to their tasks.

These days, we hear and thing about the famed B17s, B29s, etc... mentioned in this thread --and a few others-- but the number of planes being developed by a huge number of people is amazing, when you dig into it a little. Weird, even bizarre special-purpose craft, too... most of them quickly lost and forgotten, obscure footnotes of history. I think it is wonderful that ANY of the WWII aircraft still fly, and that there are museums dedicated to them.

It's funny how quickly the world changes... We have some WWII bunkers still standing in HK, but most of them are now little more than ruins, and one can see a few museums and things like the "Cabinet War Rooms" in London, etc... WW II was one of those overwhelming, dominant events that shape world history in huge and long-lasting ways, but most youngsters today have only vague ideas about what WWII was actually like, or even about.

If there is a WWIII, it will be an entirely different kind of thing. Missiles and things like electronic warfare will matter much more than planes. It's outcome will actually probably have been pre-determined by steps taken years before most people realized the war was coming. There will never be another war like WWII, although another World War is certainly not impossible, by any means.

 

[electronjohn]

A rich dude hangars his P-51 at the airport here...and flys it regularly. Always sweet to hear him climbing out after takeoff...the pattern puts him right over our building. Shameless plug: my brother-in-law Max is Official Photographer for the Minnesota Wing of the Commemorative Air Force. Drop by his website www.maxair2air.com for some outstanding photography. You'll also probably enjoy his "flog" chronicling his journey through flight instruction.

 

[Rodzilla]

I'll bet those synchronized merlins sounded awesome... ..

YUP They sure do...using four of the same RR merlins it's a sound of raw power thats about four times as cool as a spitfire or mustang,the merlin makes a sound like no other...

no a lanc is not big,there was one on permanent static display on a base i lived on as a kid back in the 70's...imagine our delight as kids to find that the hatches were not locked!i was about 9-10 and much smaller,the interior was gutted of almost all equipment and my memory is STILL not what i would call spacious!

 

[modge]

Iv seen a Lancaster and Spitfire fly over at shows not aircraft shows always but a few flower shows believe it or not. I was once working in a garden outside of town here and a Hurricane and Japanese Zero flew right over my head. They were heading north somewhere to a show I suppose. there's an air force base At Middle Wallop in Hampshire that has a museum, its also the largest grassed air filed in Europe. Once a month I would meet up with a few blokes to fly our vintage free flight models. The clubs called 1066 and has members all over the world. In the summer a few Americans would come over to the European championship to fly thire planes.Summer days, Larks singing over head and the sight of model aircraft taking to the air. Pure bliss.

 

[JohnVF]

It's funny how quickly the world changes... We have some WWII bunkers still standing in HK,

One of the stranger things I've seen was the bunker HQ where the British holed up and finally surrendered in Singapore. It was filled with animatronic 'robots' to act out the parts, kind of like the "Hall of Presidents" at Disney World. It was really interesting and brought a sort of humanity to it, but the gut reaction to it made it feel like the war was fought by Cyborgs. Interesting, and really creepy.

 

[Sam Cogley]

What amazed me when I first visited London about 20 years ago is that there were buildings damaged by WWII that hadn't had much in the way of repairs, 40 years later.

Growing up flying in and out of an international airport which housed an Air National Guard unit, I got used to looking at modern jet fighters. Looking at the puny size of the WWII warbirds never ceases to dumbfound me. It's hard to imagine anything that small carrying guns and ammo.

 

[BroonsBane]

Growing up flying in and out of an international airport which housed an Air National Guard unit, I got used to looking at modern jet fighters. Looking at the puny size of the WWII warbirds never ceases to dumbfound me. It's hard to imagine anything that small carrying guns and ammo.

The Lancaster sported 34ft bomb-bay doors! Impressive for an airplane of its size diminutive size, by today's standards at least.

 

[JohnVF]

The cockpit of an Me-109 was the one that really surprised me how cramped and tiny those things were. Even though I built models of all of these planes as a kid, it never seemed to translate into a real sense of scale for how super tiny they are.

My elementary school principal had been a ball-turret gunner on the B-17s...really short guy, which made total sense the first time I saw a real ball turret.

 

[N9JCQ]

I saw the Lanc last year when it flew south to the Experimental Aircraft Association Fly In in Oshkosh, WI. The EAA always has a large amount of warbirds that show up. Happens that the Fly In is going on this week. I am heading up there for the show on Friday. It's one of the only times you can can see hear and "feel" a dozen P-51 in formation at one time.

They usually have aircraft from WWII, Korea, and the Viet Nam war represented, including privately owned and airworthy A-4s, and MiGs I might add. I'll take some pics and post them for you guys next week.

 

[Robie]

Been cleaning up my boat on the trailer in my driveway for a forthcoming trip, when I heard something unusual. I live 2-3 miles south of Chicago Executive Airport (formerly Palwaukee Airport) and about 10 miles north of O'Hare Airport so I'm used to plane noise but this was different. It got progressively louder and was obviously multiple radial engines. It soon it came into view over the big trees in my neighborhood. A huge lumbering B-24 was approaching very low into a banking turn to the north. It had been on static display at Chicago Executive Airport all weekend (with a B-17). Wish I had my camera but couldn't get to it soon enough.

 

[N9JCQ]

Rob, they are at DuPage this weekend if you want to take some pictures.

 

[Sandy G]

STILL makes me wince & my chin starts to quiver in sorrow when I see 'em "Guillotining" the wings offa a B-52...They could give ME a Buff...I PROMISE I wouldn't cause Armageddon on anybody around here...Unless they REALLY teed me off...Those bad boys are just as important in their way as the WW2 warbirds are...And how long have they been in service now, 55 years ?!? If the Lancasters & B-17s had put in the same length of service, SO FAR, they'd been flying front-line duty til something like 1995 or 2000....Unreal...And I read somewhere the Buffs could see their 100th anniversaries...The C-130 Hercules is the same vintage, & THEY show no signs of slowing down, either...And I'm sure somewhere in the world, a tired old DC-3 is hauling cancelled checks from one backwater to another...