Ever been on a vintage plane?

[Dan R]

I am old enough to have seen the Combat! and 12 O'clock high TV shows when they were first broadcast. Always had a think about vintage planes. Strange thing is they are like vintage submarines. There isn't enough room to swing a dead rat, much less a dead cat.

At any rate, a B-17 and B-24 came to visit a while back. I, of course, were all over them. Here are two of the pics:

Here I am in a B-17 cockpit. Very cramped environment.


Here I am shooting something (I won't say what) from a side gun in a B-24.


Spending time inside these vintage crafts made me realize what sacrifice fathers and grandfathers made to free the world from fascist oppression. And if that is not your thing, they are still cool aircraft to visit and wonder at.

Dan

[Raza]

Very cool. As long as they stay on the ground, that is. I don't even like going up in modern planes.

[boatme99]

I grew up on Air Force bases from the late '50s thru the mid '70s. My father's and my time in.
Although I haven't flown in them, I've been in many "historical" aircraft.
Back in the day, flight line crew could take family right out to any aircraft that was on the tarmac with permission.
The big three I remember being able to sit in while they were run up, are the C-47, C-54, and the old EC-121 Connie.
The one I never got sit in, while running, was the C-124 Globemaster. What a freaking beast. Although, the last retired one actually stopped at CAFB on its way to Wright-Pat while I was stationed there. I was able to get next to it, but couldn't get permission to board. Damn.

Yep, the old man was in MATS, and later, I was in MAC.

Jets and rockets are great, but let me tell you, when you're a little kid and you get to sit in the right seat when maintenance is doing a run up on those BA radial engines, you'll never forget the power and vibrations those things produce just sitting on the pad.
You just know man was meant to fly.

BTW, with all the years spent around military aircraft, the only one I've actually flown in, is the C-141. Go figure.
I'm glad you enjoyed it Dan, thanks for the photos.

[Seriously]

DanR - I'm disappointed , you look nothing like your avatar

[ro63rto]

I was taken on a tour of a bomber at Brooklands a few years back. Could hardly swing a cat in there. Sat in the pilots seat.

It was parked up next to a pimped out private jet with shag carpet so deep your feet disappeared.

[Dan R]

DanR - I'm disappointed , you look nothing like your avatar

LoL! That is who I was before the hair fell out and the body fell apart!

dan

[Samanator]

I've been in a few non fighter vintage aircraft. During the summer after my freshman year in college I ran into a guy who's dad owned a local small airport. We were talking about each others cars and some how go on the subject of welding, He needed someone who could weld chromoly steel and some aluminum plates. I told him my dad had the equipment and I could do it for him. He came buy the next day and I was surprised when he showed up with the rear elevator wing from what looked like an older silk covered plane and a few aluminum floor panels and back plates. We got them welded for him and I followed him back home now curious to see what these went to. In one of several barns on the property was a completely disassembled Pitts two person open cockpit bi-plane that he was rebuilding. I was hooked and helped him when I could over the next two years completely rebuild it including building new wings from aircraft grade plywood. When we finished it we flew it together down to the shore in Ocean City MD that summer. Amazing tiny plane that is capable of going straight up vertical from take off. If you have ever been to the Air and Space Museum Anex at Dulles airport when you first walk inside and look up there is one just like it upside down over your head. Just a different color scheme. It just looks so much smaller than I remember it. Sorry these were the years long before digital cameras. I believe he still has it. I need to go get pictures the next time I'm back in PA.

He also had some other plane with a radial 5 calendar which I still saw the engine was still on a stand when I was by his place a few years ago. I guess that one did not progress so much since the 80's.

[boatme99]

Here's a c-54 my father flew out of Pepperell AFB, back in 1952.


The site is on Ellesmere Island. They were enroute to Alert Station at the northern tip of the island, on a supply run.

[shameless]

it wasnt then but might be considered so now !!-thats me on the right in the mid 70's in a RAF Jet Provost

[Dan R]

Here is one more of me, this time with a P-51 trainer. Same group that came with the B-17 and B-24.



Dan