Aircraft

[Steel Horse Bailey]

I'll bet it was!!

[Texas Lawdog]

SHB, We all need to remember that come November.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

SHB, We all need to remember that come November.

Indeed!

[Texas Lawdog]

The A-26 is rescheduled to arrive at Meacham Field this Sunday, if everything goes okay on the preflight. No time has been listed for the arrival.

[litl rooster]

http://www.thefirearmsforum.com/showthread.php?t=52629

ya'll recognize the first poster in that first link?


http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/AirAmerica/Best/AirAmerica.htm

Jeffi this is the link I shared with you earlier


just some highlights on some of the past couple months worth of chatter here

[Texas Lawdog]

That looks like Lawful Larry!

[Steel Horse Bailey]

... Or unLawful Rooster!

Litl Roo, old buddy, yep - I went over that one for quite a while when you messaged it to me.  I really didn't realize that Air America had so many different types there then or that MANY planes at all!

I flew in a Flying Tigers Lines 747 on my trip to Saudi.  If I heard right, they are somewhat "Left Over" from that whole operation.  It seems that Flying Tigers got their first planes FROM the CIA back in the late 60s or early 70s.

At least that is the story I got.  I've been wrong before.













Once.













Actually, I wasn't wrong, just merely mistaken.

 

 

[Texas Lawdog]

That CIA A-26 that the private group is restoring is coming along. I haven't been over to Meacham field since Christmas. I still haven't heard anymore on the arrival at Meacham field of the CAF A-26.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Those few A-26s built (by ON-Mark? I think) are to me the ultimate version.  The tip tanks for extended range, up-graded engines,  the 8 -gun (Ma Deuce) nose, with 3 more M-2s inboard on each wing and more (3 I think) M-2s in the wings outboard of the engines, PLUS, 2 or 3 pods full of nastiness hanging under EACH of the wings on hardpoints!  Whew!

I sure wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of a strafing run from one of THOSE!

And speaking of wingloads of nastiness, Litl Rooster, those Tweets could sure pack a wallop, too!  The Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio has an A37 on display that has all the bells & whistles, and hangy-down goodies on it, plus the wing tip-tanks like you posted about.   That is one cool plane!  Did you ever manage to wrangle a ride?  Cessna sure made/makes a good product!  Most folks don't realize that the company that makes the rather common, high-wing private planes that are so commonly seen in the skies over America and elsewhere also made #1) a military jet trainer, and #2) that they modified those "cute, little pocket-sized" jet trainers into a pretty successful small, bad-a$$ed attack jet that could strafe, drop bombs and/or napalm, or shoot a high-performance jet out of the sky using Sidewinders!  That's a lot of muscle rolled up and put into a tiny package!

[Texas Lawdog]

I will try and get a picture of both of the A-26s as soon as I can. The weather should be in the high 50s or low 60s for tomorrow. The temp. got up to 50 for a high today.

[Texas Lawdog]

The A-26 made it to Fort Worth sometime after 3 pm this afternoon. I wasn't able to go over to greet it today. I plan on going to visit the Museum this week and check it out. I have not seen it in several years.

[Arcey]

Be great if the folks in Dayton 'n Kitty Hawk could get tagether 'n work somethin' out. I'd give to a fund but that's kinda selfish. I'm about an hour 'n a half away from the memorial. Pass by it every time I shoot ECSASS.

http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/wright-brothers-ohio-bike-shop-may-be-demolished

[Four-Eyed Buck]

That would be preferable to just destroying it

[Texas Lawdog]

I would like for the Smithsonian Museum to aquire the property and preserve it for everyone to see enjoy a historic part of aviation history.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

I'm being a pessimist, I know, but it'll never happen.  Americans are forgetting more and more History, and caring less & less.

If that weren't true, we wouldn't have the political problems we do.  Most folks don't give a rat's a .. - uh, patootie about anything except what they can grab for themselves.

History be damned.  Honesty and right be damned.  Gimme freebies.


Yeh - the eternal optimist (Me) is sadly losing his good feelings. 


And not enough folks want to pay the kind of money involved to keep some "old property" in good shape just because the guys who owned it pioneered flight ... which most can't afford to do!

Or not ....


I wish I was wrong.

[Texas Lawdog]

True enough SHB.

[Arcey]

Most who know me have no doubt I'm an admirer of old ships. Washington, BB-56, broken up in '61. West Virginia, BB-48, broken up in '59. Both are legendary having unique, true stories of triumph in the Pacific, WWII. Both gone forever and few know of their rich history.

For the record, I'd like to see the shop preserved where it stands. Like Buck, taking it away and reassembling it in Kitty Hawk would be preferable to razing and hauling it away in dump trucks to a landfill somewhere. In my post, I did want it clear my thoughts on relocation are a bit less than objective.

[Forty Rod]

... Or unLawful Rooster!

Litl Roo, old buddy, yep - I went over that one for quite a while when you messaged it to me.  I really didn't realize that Air America had so many different types there then or that MANY planes at all!

I flew in a Flying Tigers Lines 747 on my trip to Saudi.  If I heard right, they are somewhat "Left Over" from that whole operation.  It seems that Flying Tigers got their first planes FROM the CIA back in the late 60s or early 70s.

At least that is the story I got.  I've been wrong before.

I rode a Flying Tiger 707 back in 1968 from SeaTac to Can Rahn.  Didn't know they were still around.












Once.













Actually, I wasn't wrong, just merely mistaken.

 

 

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Another scrapped that sticks in my craw was the carrier Enterprise.....

[Texas Lawdog]

Unfortunately we can't saved them all. The CAF ran into that problem with no being able to save a lot of surplus WW2 aircraft.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

The Wright's shop hit the local news tonight on Fox. Let's hope the national picks it up

[Arcey]

The word's out. According to the AP one of the Wrights' shops was moved to a Ford museum in Michigan. Perhaps what's left of this one will be salvaged.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

I've see that one, Arcey. It's at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit. Might be the one they did most of their airplane work in. Hope the national news outlets keep this one up front. Kitty Hawk would be a nice place for it

[Texas Lawdog]

The Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan has all types of historical items, not just Ford items and not just automotive items. I spent about 4 hours in there and I know I didn't see it all.  It's sorta like Ford's answer to the Smithsonian. It is worth seeing if your're around Dearborn, which is Ford's headquarters.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

I've taken a "virtual" tour of the Henry Ford Museum, and it IS cool.  I hope to actually visit it someday.  I spent a few weeks in Warren, MI courtesy of the Army.  Warren is where the main (then) tank plant was.  (Now the M1 series of tanks is made in Lima, OH, but that's another story.)

During that TDY duty to the tank plant, I had high hopes of visiting Ford's museum, but we never had enough time to go there.  (TDY in MILSPEAK = Temporary Duty, iffn ya care to know and don't already)