Recent meeting. Pics

[sged]

Zeus, have you tried photobucket.com yet?

It's a free hosting site for pics, bin using it for more then a year now, and no problems with it yet....

[Enforcer57]

:shock: Wow, these are great pix. Does that Pheonix have a D engine?

Beepops mod of that shot is ripping my guts up. So much great stuff on here!

Anyway, Last time I was at the USAF museum was in 89...lots changed since then. I cant believe the missle gallery and the diaramas. One display that may not be exhibited now (youd have noticed it) was the Kettering scratch built model collection, in long display cases down 2 walls of a large hallway as you exited. Im hoping these reduced scans are big enough for you to dnload and magnify the pix to check out these planes. They are made of paper, wood, plastic, string etc. SCATCH built to his own scale-a bit smaller than 1/72. Bigger planes are in a smaller scale i think.

See how many of these planes you can ID. Some famous stuff in there. Note the Barling

bomber and the NC-4.

Heres some luftwaffe and ohter ww2 stuff. Note the Baka on the bottom shelf.

Some more ww2...note the B-17 variants. The detail is amazing. Ive got some real close ups

somewhere of the ww1 planes, complete with bracing and (get this) some wheels with spokes in

them. This guy had way too much time on his hands. Note the B-18.

Some jets and civil stuff. These are slides (400 iso Agfha) and are hard to scan properly, even

with my new scanner....especially when the light is low. You should see these things

projected on a screen....you can stick your nose on them and see all the detail. Check out the

Skycrane. Cant lick'em though Dub.

Most of one wall of these things. Very hard to photograph thru the cases-these

dont do them justice. They were getting bit of wear on them, cracking on some

larger ones etc. A cop I knew used to live there when he was in HS, and worked on

restoring these things in the early 80s. They are probably being restored again i guess.

[Enforcer57]

As you can see, I was fascinated by those models. I took 2 rolls of slides of those things.

Anyway, photography is a pain in there.....gotta set your cams to high iso, and take a

pretty powerful external flash, especially in the primary hangar, as its so dark. The ohter

bldg was much better lit. They didnt have the storch and the machi there then, but they

did have the A-36. I also got this P-63, freshly donated, in the annex bldg. Sort of like

a storage area back then with stuff htey hadnt got to yet or didnt have room for in the

main bldgs.

And then there's this wood sculpture honoring WW1 aviators.....I though this

was cool. I got more....just gotta find the most interesting stuff.

[Dubbo]

Cool Stuff Enforcer. :thumbright:

[Enforcer57]

This is Major Fisher's A-1E that he won the MOH in for rescuing another spad pilot

under fire. He actually landed at an overrun forward field where the other A-1 had

bellied in and taxied toward the guy (who was running like hell firing his Browning

9mm at hordes of approaching Charlie). The ohter pilot was climing in (huge 8 man

canopy on the E model) while Fisher was firewalling the throttle with mortor rds dropping

around him and under heavy fire from at least a company of the bad guys. The ohter

officer's Browning P-35 sidearm was also on display, having been used extensively as

the guy fired from cover of his A-1 wreck. Those 14 rd magazines sure came in handy

that day. The tail of The B-36 is in the background.

this is Robin Olds' F-4C that he scored 2 of his 4 mig kills in. He commanded the

4th fighter wing and baited the NVAF up by flying the F-105 route, using thier

call signs, even breaking redar contact at Thud ridge for a time. Mig-21s in large numbers

intercepted expecting to find heavily loaded F-105s......as Gomer would say "SURPRISE

SURPRISE SURPRISE.....SHEZAMM!" The score was 7 zip, 2 nailed by Olds. this is the

mount he flew that day. They did the same thing a few days later and nailed 4 of them.

Bob Hope called them "the world's largest distrubutor of Mig parts". Olds had scored

20 kills in WW2 against the luftwaffe in 51s and 38s. A mean motor scooter.

[Dubbo]

Certainly brave pilots Enforcer. Nice pics too. (That F-4 looks REALLY mean) The museum has certainly changed. You need to take another trip.........