Old NFO
Member
You got it, foward visibility was pretty much nil- like many other taildraggers (F4U Corsair/A1E Skyraider), the PC rode the wing otherwise they had to S-turn constantly (which didn't work well on a crowded ramp or a carrier deck).
P-47 In action video clip (Well worth watching)
- Thread starter Rockrivr1
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sfhogman
Member
Thanks. I just got home from work and you made my day!
Jeff
Jeff
RNB65
Member
True story -- a few years back I arrived home from work one evening and as I was standing at the mailbox I heard a deep humming sound that was clearly heading in my direction. I stood there to see what it was. Suddenly, over the trees there appeared both a B-17 Flying Fort and a B-24 Liberator flying at no more than about 2500 feet. They flew almost directly over me and then began a long, slow turn east towards downtown Richmond.
I was SHOCKED! Speechless! Never in my wildest dreams had I expected to look up in the sky and see two such magnificant beasts passing overhead. I immediately jumped onto the internet and discovered that they were in town for a weekend airshow (which I knew nothing about) at the nearby county airport. I spent all day Saturday at the airshow along with many thousands of others who came out to see the old warbirds.
You simply cannot appreciate the courage of the young men who flew those planes in combat until you've actually been inside them. The are TINY on the inside, especially the B-17. Barely enough room to move and certainly no place to hide when the bullets and flak start flying. Being inside those old airplanes was an amazing and humbling experience.
I was SHOCKED! Speechless! Never in my wildest dreams had I expected to look up in the sky and see two such magnificant beasts passing overhead. I immediately jumped onto the internet and discovered that they were in town for a weekend airshow (which I knew nothing about) at the nearby county airport. I spent all day Saturday at the airshow along with many thousands of others who came out to see the old warbirds.
You simply cannot appreciate the courage of the young men who flew those planes in combat until you've actually been inside them. The are TINY on the inside, especially the B-17. Barely enough room to move and certainly no place to hide when the bullets and flak start flying. Being inside those old airplanes was an amazing and humbling experience.
limamike55
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- Joined
- Sep 23, 2006
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- 10
Excellent clip!
Thanks,
lloyd
Thanks,
lloyd
Bob R
Member
Tim L
Member
A second B-29 is being restored to fly, see http://www.360wichita.com/Attractions/DocB-29SuperfortressRestoration.html for the info.
I urge everyone to take a look at those bombers when they fly into their town. Try to get a ride if you can, it isn't cheap but they can get 8 or 9 people in one so it's cheaper than a ride in a P-51 Mustang. as cramped and tiny as the B-17 appears to be when on the ground it is amazing how much smaller they feel when you try walking aound in it at 1000 feet when the airplane is bouncing up and down and side to side. that said it is amazing how long that walk is from the waist gunners position to the cockpit. the day I took my ride it was overcast, 1500 foot ceiling, a little turbulent and about 50 degrees. I've got a lot of respect for someone who can do that at 15k-20k feet, -40 degrees and wearing a thick flightsuit with turbulance/flak bouncing the plane around.
Tim
I urge everyone to take a look at those bombers when they fly into their town. Try to get a ride if you can, it isn't cheap but they can get 8 or 9 people in one so it's cheaper than a ride in a P-51 Mustang. as cramped and tiny as the B-17 appears to be when on the ground it is amazing how much smaller they feel when you try walking aound in it at 1000 feet when the airplane is bouncing up and down and side to side. that said it is amazing how long that walk is from the waist gunners position to the cockpit. the day I took my ride it was overcast, 1500 foot ceiling, a little turbulent and about 50 degrees. I've got a lot of respect for someone who can do that at 15k-20k feet, -40 degrees and wearing a thick flightsuit with turbulance/flak bouncing the plane around.
Tim
Sunray
Member
Slick as hell but it's a Hollywood propaganda film using a compilation of gun camera footage and staged footage.
Recently read an autobiography written by a real Jug pilot. 'Ace' by Melvyn Paisley DSC, et al. ISBN 0-8283-1943-x. Brannden Publishing Inc. 17 Station St., Box 843 Brookline Village, Boston MA. 02147
It's a very good read about a very young buck(turned 21 while flying in France) who went to war in the air. Highly recommended.
Recently read an autobiography written by a real Jug pilot. 'Ace' by Melvyn Paisley DSC, et al. ISBN 0-8283-1943-x. Brannden Publishing Inc. 17 Station St., Box 843 Brookline Village, Boston MA. 02147
It's a very good read about a very young buck(turned 21 while flying in France) who went to war in the air. Highly recommended.
Recommended reading
Zemke's Wolfpack (P47s in Europe)
1000 Destroyed (P51s in Europe, including Don Blakslee and Don Gentile)
Had an old fella as patient ten years ago. He flew P47s over Europe. He asked me to imagine being 20 and turned loose over Europe with all that firepower to shoot up whatever needed shooting. Said you cuold roll a locomotive off the tracks with just your .50s, and in a steep dive if you opened up with all eeight guns you lost about 100 mph!
What a WEAPONS PLATFORM.
Zemke's Wolfpack (P47s in Europe)
1000 Destroyed (P51s in Europe, including Don Blakslee and Don Gentile)
Had an old fella as patient ten years ago. He flew P47s over Europe. He asked me to imagine being 20 and turned loose over Europe with all that firepower to shoot up whatever needed shooting. Said you cuold roll a locomotive off the tracks with just your .50s, and in a steep dive if you opened up with all eeight guns you lost about 100 mph!
What a WEAPONS PLATFORM.
Baba Louie
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- Joined
- Dec 26, 2002
- Messages
- 3,831
In '97 Nellis AFB hosted one of the USAF's 50th anniversary airshows. I took my son. Had a great day. We were looking over the sole P47 kinda all alone save for one elderly gentleman who was standing back admiring it as well. My son (who was 14 at the time) was crawling all around, under, up on the wingroot so I stood back near the old geezer and sorta took it all in.
Got to talkin' with him (old guy), told him what little I knew about the Jug, how I read, as a kid, Martin Caiden's book "Thunderbolt" about Robert Johnson and how much punishment one of these old birds could take.
Old guy was smallish, grey hair and mustache... kinda smiled when I told him the story... introduced himself to me. Bob Johnson. 28 noted kills. The Air Force had flown in all kinds of famous pilots for their gala. I met one of my childhood hero's that day.
He died in '99.
Got to talkin' with him (old guy), told him what little I knew about the Jug, how I read, as a kid, Martin Caiden's book "Thunderbolt" about Robert Johnson and how much punishment one of these old birds could take.
Old guy was smallish, grey hair and mustache... kinda smiled when I told him the story... introduced himself to me. Bob Johnson. 28 noted kills. The Air Force had flown in all kinds of famous pilots for their gala. I met one of my childhood hero's that day.
He died in '99.
ScottsGT
Member
FiFi is undergoing some major corrosion repairs right now since it was grounded by the FAA. Something about corrosion in the wing spars. Have not heard aboutthe fuel tank issue, but at her age, wouldn't doubt it. I did sit in the left seat of FiFi when she came to town about 13 years back. Had a nice conversation with an older gentleman that was on the crew. Later on I learned that I was talking with the General Paul Tibbets after I was looking at the book I bought at the show and it had his photo in it. If I had only knew, I would have had him autograph the book for me. :banghead: 
Oh, and there is a P-47 flying. Had one here in our town visit a few years back at an airshow.
Oh, and there is a P-47 flying. Had one here in our town visit a few years back at an airshow.
mrtgbnkr
Member
My wife recently had a patient who is one of the Tuskeegee Airmen...I'm not sure she really understands why I got so excited about it, but I know she passed it along the next time she saw him. Too bad patient privacy laws are so strict...I'd love the chance to meet him and shake his hand and listen to any stories he would be willing to share.
NORTEXED
Member
We have a large Joint NATO flight training base here, and every 2 years, the command changes. At command change, one of the wealthy landowners just South of here gets the CAF to stage a reenactment of "TORA, TORA, TORA" for the base commander. A few years ago, I was picking up visiting VIP's from Austin at the municipal airport as 2 Zeros and a Kate torpedo bomber were leaving the field from refueling. It was an amazing site to see 2 zeros escorting a Kate with torpedo slung underneath doing a roll away after takeoff. The VIP's ask if those were Japanese planes, and I said "They've come back again, sound the air raid sirens". 
NORTEXED
Member
ps: I have a friend that did fly a SB2B for the CAF untill a couple of years ago, (the plane scared him one daywith mechanical problems, and he decided either he or the plane one was too old to be flying together). The plane was kept in a hangar just South of here in Graham, and I got to check it out several times. It's amazing how mechanically complex those things are, and just how big they are up close.
Tom C.
Member.
A local guy in Bethesda, MD, looking around at all the guys he flew with dying off, thought it would be a good idea to put together a movie on what he did as a P-47 guy. 3 hrs. long. Shown on PBS. Great flick, but it is a horror story. That ground attack mission shown in the clip was as dangerous as anything anyone did during the war. The bottom line, from May ’44 to Mar ’45 his group of 125 planes and men lost 125 planes and 90+ men.
Dirty Bob
Member
Great video!
I know of one flyable P-47: in Galveston, TX, at the Lone Star Flight Museum. I got to see it take off a few weeks ago, in preparation for an air show the next day. The roar of that big radial engine is amazing!
That particular museum seems to have more flyable aircraft than many, and they have air shows a few times a year. I don't know their Web address, but I'm sure they can be Googled.
The Thunderbolt was an awesome aircraft. It exhibited several of the qualities that seemed to be common on many U.S. fighters in WWII: firepower, reliability, and the ability to take punishment and keep flying. One .50 M-2 is a lot of firepower. I don't want to think about what the receiving end of 8 .50s was like! I've read about Mitsubishi Zeros coming completely apart after one well-placed burst.
Regarding heroes: one of mine was Marion Carl, the USMC ace who died protecting his wife in a home invasion in Oregon several years ago. A hero to the end.
Regards,
Dirty Bob
I know of one flyable P-47: in Galveston, TX, at the Lone Star Flight Museum. I got to see it take off a few weeks ago, in preparation for an air show the next day. The roar of that big radial engine is amazing!
That particular museum seems to have more flyable aircraft than many, and they have air shows a few times a year. I don't know their Web address, but I'm sure they can be Googled.
The Thunderbolt was an awesome aircraft. It exhibited several of the qualities that seemed to be common on many U.S. fighters in WWII: firepower, reliability, and the ability to take punishment and keep flying. One .50 M-2 is a lot of firepower. I don't want to think about what the receiving end of 8 .50s was like! I've read about Mitsubishi Zeros coming completely apart after one well-placed burst.
Regarding heroes: one of mine was Marion Carl, the USMC ace who died protecting his wife in a home invasion in Oregon several years ago. A hero to the end.
Regards,
Dirty Bob
I attended a small, local airshow about a month ago. There was a P-47D on display, that I very nearly missed getting to see. Did manage to get a couple of shots as the pilot did a flyby on his way home. Quite an awesome sight and sound!
oweno
Member
I grew up in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, home of what was then called "Westover Army Air Base". During the War, it was a training field for P-47s, we'd be outside our school at recess and they'd fly overhead in formation, we'd all cheer and wave at them as they went by.
Reading a history of the air base, I was saddened to learn that 2 or so pilots would be lost each month in training accidents.
We'd also see B-17s and B-24s staging for their trip to England. After the war, loads of B-29s and we even once saw 'The Flying Wing' and wicked cool that was, too.
In the 50s, we'd see B-36s, B-47s, and finally the B-52s. I suppose that's why I still think that all airplanes are really neat.
Reading a history of the air base, I was saddened to learn that 2 or so pilots would be lost each month in training accidents.
We'd also see B-17s and B-24s staging for their trip to England. After the war, loads of B-29s and we even once saw 'The Flying Wing' and wicked cool that was, too.
In the 50s, we'd see B-36s, B-47s, and finally the B-52s. I suppose that's why I still think that all airplanes are really neat.
Brad Johnson
Member
Pretty much the ultimate old warbird airshow is put on every year by the CAF, which is headquartered out of Midland, TX.
It's usually the first weekend in October. Definitely worth the drive, and I highly recommend getting there a day or two before so you can watch all the planes coming in. Fewer people, and more plane action.
Something magical about watching these old birds being fired up on a cold morning. The grunting, mechanical zzhing.. zzhing.. zhhing.. of the starter followed by pop.......... pop..... spit pop..... poppoppop .... cough *backfire!* sputter sputter, then the hesitant hope as the pilot dances with the engine controls in an effort to keep the stubborn beast alive long enough to warm it up.
Be it the rumbling stagger of a big old Prat & Whitney radial or the gutterral poppity-pop of the high-strung Rolls-Royce Merlin, there's a certain surreal quality to sitting there, surrounded by the smell of avgas and oil, watching these beautiful creatures of the air idle by, lit from behind by a crisp fall sunrise.
Brad
It's usually the first weekend in October. Definitely worth the drive, and I highly recommend getting there a day or two before so you can watch all the planes coming in. Fewer people, and more plane action.
Something magical about watching these old birds being fired up on a cold morning. The grunting, mechanical zzhing.. zzhing.. zhhing.. of the starter followed by pop.......... pop..... spit pop..... poppoppop .... cough *backfire!* sputter sputter, then the hesitant hope as the pilot dances with the engine controls in an effort to keep the stubborn beast alive long enough to warm it up.
Be it the rumbling stagger of a big old Prat & Whitney radial or the gutterral poppity-pop of the high-strung Rolls-Royce Merlin, there's a certain surreal quality to sitting there, surrounded by the smell of avgas and oil, watching these beautiful creatures of the air idle by, lit from behind by a crisp fall sunrise.
Brad
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