Birds of Prey: War Bird Alley

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Classic and Vintage Aircraft

Black Waco Biplane

As I thought about how best to organize my postings I had first thought I would do it chronologically but after giving it some thought I have decided to go with categories. One of the areas that I really enjoyed was the collection of vintage or classic aircraft from the 1920's through the 1930's, the golden age of flying just prior to WWII.

This was an age of rapid development of aircraft and the era of the old time barnstormers who flew from one small town to another in canvas covered wooden planes making a few dollars giving demonstrations, airshows and rides for the population who may have never seen an airplane up close. Flying was seen as an exotic activity only for the brave and foolhardy. This was the time when new companies were being formed to produce a long list of new developments and new names that have since become famous in the industry. The Wright Brothers may have discovered the secrets of controlled powered flight but people like Glen Curtis were making great strides and improvements in the field.

I had hoped we would see a few examples of the very early examples such as the the famous Curtiss "Jenny" JN-4 which was a favorite of the old time barnstormers. It was used as a trainer during WWI and after the war thousands were surplussed by the army and bought cheaply by the pilots who flew them during the war. These men then used them for the barnstorming and new airmail system being developed by the postal system. Unfortunately I saw few of this era. There were a few examples pictured below of very early designs.

French Morane Saulnier Type L

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Morane was a very early French monoplane and the first equipped with a machine gun that fired through the propeller using steal wedges to avoid damage to itself. It was the original fighter aircraft in 1914. This development set off a great arms race as everyone then worked out how best to make a fighting aircraft capable of inflicting damage on the enemy. The model on display was used in the movie "Amelia" depicting when she first began her flying career. The Type L seen here used wing warping for lateral control but a later model the LA was converted to use ailerons to control the lateral axis. This model saw action early in the war and was the first aircraft to actually shoot down an enemy plane as well as destroy a Zeppelin Airship. As others improved on the idea of a fighter aircraft such as the German Fokker and British Sopwith it was relegated to simple observation and scouting roles. As I looked on this very small aircraft my thoughts were drawn to the fact that this is the mother, "Eve," of the F-18 Tomcat and the F-35 being flown today at supersonic speeds able to destroy an enemy miles away and out of sight. To think this progress has taken place in just 100 years is mind blowing. It also begs the question of what will develop over the next 100 years? 

Bleriot 13

An even earlier aircraft the Bleriot 13 of 1909 was present in two examples. The Model 13 seen above is a replica of the aircraft Louis Bleriot designed, built and flew across the channel to claim the 1000 Pound prize offered by the London Daily Mail to the first person to fly across the channel. His airspeed on the venture was clocked at a sizzling 40 mph with the engine running at a wild 1200 RPM's.  I spoke with the pilot who built the plane from scratch and he told me the original used wing warping following the Wright brothers example and it was very difficult to control. His plans were of the later vintage that had converted to ailerons and he first built it with the aileron and it actually was a nice flying aircraft. He then decided he wanted it as originally designed by Bleriot and rebuilt it to use the wing warping approach. Big mistake, he said as all he accomplished was to turn a very nice airplane into a very difficult one to fly. The other model on display was of the same vintage but marked up a little differently with some cosmetic differences as seen in the photos below.

Above is a view of the second Bleriot from the rear showing the elevator and rudder section. To the right a view of the cockpit. Notice the Steel bracing at the top with cables going toward the wings. This was the apparatus used to warp the wings causing the aircraft to bank left or right. Wing warping worked as first demonstrated by the Wright Flyer but it was very difficult to control and maintain level flight as the plane had a tendency to continue to roll in the direction of the turn allowing wind to get under the wing causing an uncontrolled side slip.

1911 Curtiss Pusher

 At the left is one of the first aircraft obtained by the Navy for experimental purposes. This is what is called a pusher aircraft as the prop faces the rear and pushes the aircraft forward rather than the more familiar pull configuration seen in later aircraft design in which the engine and prop face forward. This is one of the early aircraft to use ailerons to control the turning of the craft. The Wright brothers first designs which were copied by almost everyone else used a technique called wing warping which actually used cables to change to angle of the wing in the direction you wanted to turn. Although this approach worked it took a very skilled pilot to maintain level flight in a turn causing many of the early craft to crash or suffer damage striking the ground. In the image below notice the flat section protruding between the top and lower wings.

Aileron detail

This is one of the earliest designs using this form of control and made the craft much easier to control. The Navy was far from impressed with aircraft in general and could see no real need to experiment with the new invention. The Navy was actually drug into the aircraft business very reluctantly and primarily to use them for scouting and observation devices. This stance was held through WWI until Gen. Billy Mitchell demonstrated the bombing of a great battleship. This feat was hard for the brass to accept and Billy was so dedicated to the idea that due to his constant badgering of the brass, he found himself court marshaled and reduced in rank over the affair. He was eventually driven fro the service due to his forcing of the issue. He was of course later proven right during WWII and since as the aircraft carrier and naval airpower came into it's own with the carrier becoming the linch pin of sea and military power. Today the U. S. Navy has no battleships at sea or in commission but relies on the carrier and it's aircraft to protect and defend.

A Line of Stinson Reliants

 Above is a picture of a line of excellent examples of the 1930's era of Stinson aircraft. These are some of the most beautiful aircraft of that classic era. You can see the streamline look so popular during those years. The lines are very similar to the Streamliner Railroad engines that were produced at the time. I think they are beautiful aircraft and the owners of these aircraft have lovingly restored these examples to perfection. These pilots fly their privately owned planes into the fly in and set up tents camping beside the planes. They are all very friendly and are all anxious to talk about their prized possessions. The interior of the planes are as beautiful as the outside. The Oshkosh EAA holds a judging and awards trophies in various categories culminating with a "Grand Champion" which is then invited back to be displayed along the flight line with signs designating them as "Past Grand Champion." It is amazing to see so many of these planes still flying and being lovingly maintained by their owners. The area cover several acres covered in classic aircraft with tents sprinkled among them. Some merely cover a wing with a tarp tied to the ground and camp under this.

Staggerwing Beech

Shown here is a Staggerwing Beech aircraft produced in the early 1930's. Walter Beech and a designer friend Ted Wells had the foolhardy idea of producing a fast "executive" type aircraft at the height of the Great Depression. The Staggerwing came out of their collaboration and the Beechcraft Aircraft Company was born. It was very slow going selling only 13 aircraft in 1933 the first year of production. Gradually sales picked up and the Staggerwing became the standard for passenger aircraft at the time. They were very luxurious and were seen as a true status symbol of the day as the Gulfstream is today for the top executives. Some of these aircraft were even pressed into service as bombers during the Spanish Civil War of the "30's. They were equipped with large radial engines and even entered into the popular air races of the time until protests from other entrants over safety concerns eliminated them form competition. The models we saw were cared for and restored to the same degree as the other classics of the day.

The picture at the top of this post is of a Waco 17 produced in the early 30's. At first glance it may seem to look like the Staggerwing Beech but notice the lower wing of this biplane is set to the rear of the top wing while the Stagger wing has the lower wing forward of the top wing. The Waco name is not taken from the Texas city but named for Waco Field in Ohio. It is pronounced Wah-co and is mispronounced by many to the irritation of the owners of these planes. They were a very rugged aircraft and were used for everything from polar exploration to airmail services in their day. I tried to get a good picture of the instrument panel of this plane but unfortunately did not get good results. the instruments were set into a hand rubbed wood panel that looked like a fine piece of the best furniture you could imagine.This is just an example of the care and attention to detail the owners lavish on these planes. There are still many of these planes flying today even though the company went out of business in the late 40's when the post war boom in aircraft sales did not materialize.

As I said earlier there were literally hundreds of these classic and vintage aircraft on display filling many acres of parking. This was a fascinating area for me and I returned a couple of times to just stroll among them in awe and admiration. I wonder what Wilbur and Orville Wright and all those other early pioneers would think if they could walk this field today with me. Did they ever imagine that man would conquer the sky and space based on the ideas and dreams they made come true. Man has dreamed of flying ever since he first saw birds moving through the air and now using their ideas we can fly around the world nonstop and fly faster than sound can travel. Put hundreds of people into a single aircraft and move them from any spot on earth to another in a matter of hours. Most of us take the idea of flying so casually today but I am still amazed by it. I hope by reading these posts you too will catch some of the excitement of flight.

The Story Continues

A Portion of ConocoPhillips Square

I must begin by apologizing for the gap in posting last week. I had great plans to post each night during the week I was at Oshkosh but like the best laid plans they went astray. One issue I faced was the great barrier to all good intentions - lack of time. The days would start around 6:00 in the morning as we woke from our slumbers to greet the new day. Coffee and breakfast were foremost on our mind and usually took more time than one would think as we had to drag everything out of the back of the truck since we had lost our canopy/shelter on the first night there. Once the stove was unpacked, lit and coffee making, we could start the cooking of bacon, eggs and toast. My friend Andy is a great cook by the way. Eating the food did not take long as we were usually famished from the activities and walking of the day before. Next we had to clean up and wash the dishes by heating water on the two burner stove and packing everything away when done. The showers were next and this took some time to walk to the bath house, wait in line for an empty stall, shave without a mirror, walk back to camp and dress for the day.

As an aside I need to tell you about the number of campers and people. The campground would be measured in square miles as the estimated attendance was between 200,000 and 300,000 people and 15,000 airplanes. This creates some difficulties in getting anywhere or doing anything. We were a considerable distance out in a very large field that was divided up into squares with room to drive between the areas. These were not really roads, just lanes in the grass and after the rains they became muddy quagmires. At the worst times it was almost impossible to get from one side to the other and to the showers. I don't mean this as a complaint as everyone was considerate and helpful and the staff did an amazing job of keeping everything under control and running smoothly. You just need to understand that everything took longer than I thought it would before I got there.

To continue the outline of our typical day, we would then walk to one of the main hard roads to catch a bus to the flight line for the day. They ran the school buses very well and a number of them running but sometimes the bus would be full and you would have to wait for the next one to come by. Once on the bus it was anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes to the flight line as the bus had to meander through the entire campsite while dodging bicycles, four wheelers, walkers and every other device known to man to carry people. We saw some amazing home made motorized transportation devices such as bicycles with small lawnmower engines mounted and pulling all sorts of devices behind them. The ingenuity of these folks is absolutely amazing and is a show in itself. It was usually around 9:00 when we got off the bus to begin our day at the flight line and display areas. When I say flight line and display area I am speaking of a VERY large chunk of land. It runs for miles in two directions along both runways and a huge hanger area, all centered around Conoco Square. The square is a concrete pad large enough to park the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a B-29, sn Airforce tanker, several fighter aircraft from WWII, a Blackhawk helicopter and an F18 with space left for people to walk about and see the displays. This is surrounded by large tents and buildings with displays from vendors, food services and the like. Then to the far north end of the runway area is Warbird Alley where all the WWII aircraft are parked along with the acres of home built aircraft. To get to this end you have to catch a tram and ride as the walk is at least a mile. Going another mile to the south on a different tram is the vintage aircraft parking and the very end is the ultra lite area.  To the west of the square lie four huge hangers filled with vendors of all kinds surrounded by more tents and flea markets for tools and used aircraft parts.

Map of the area: http://www.airventure.org/images/av11_visitormap.jpg

We would spend the next 3-4 hours of the day gawking at all the planes and strolling through the displays before heading back to the tent site to smear on the suntan lotion, fill our water bottles, pick up our chairs and get back to the flight line in time for the airshow that began daily at around 3:00 running until 6:00. You wanted to get to the airshow early to get a good location as close to the runway as possible with good view in both directions. Then we would fight the crowds to catch the bus back to camp for cooking dinner before darkness fell. Normally we would finish cooking, eating and cleaning up around 8:30 or 9:00. By this time we are so tired we button up the tent and collapse into slumber for the night.

Wireless access points were a few blocks away but were always busy and I just did not have the energy to walk there and post to the blog. All this to explain a little of the situation and my decision to just take some notes during the day and wait until I returned home to write the posts.

Please understand the comments above are not complaints as the entire event was very well ran and the volunteer staff  were amazing and very patient and considerate of everyone. I just did not realize the scale of Airventure and am still amazed at how well it is conducted. It is just the size and magnitude of it all that made it difficult to post as I intended. I beg your understanding of my departure from the announced plan but do hope you will follow the rest as I post as time permits.

And So It Begins

All the waiting is over, the time is here to leave for Oshkosh. Friday night, July 22nd we loaded the truck to prepare for an early departure in the morning. We plan to leave at 6:00 am and try to get to Oshkosh in time to set up camp before dark. We did depart right on time with only one stop before hitting the road. We filled the ice chests and left Murray at 6:15.
The Google maps indicated around 10 hours of drive time which for the first two-thirds of the way was right on target. We chose a route to take a bypass around most of Chicago, hoping it would save us time. That plan may have been better than the direct route through the city but we hit construction and a lot of traffic delays costing us about an hour. We also had some bad luck choosing a place for lunch and lost another  hour trying to eat. We finally made it in to Oshkosh around 5:45 and hit another line of campers registering. We finally got registered and were told that all the  good camping spots were taken leaving us with a spot a lot farther away from the flight line than we wanted but we did get fairly close to a shower facility and water supply. We were able to get the tent and camp sight set up before dark and just ate a ham and cheese sandwich before bedding down for the night.

Campsite

Sometime during the night we were awakened by huge gusts of wind and rain.We thought we were going to lose everything  and looked out to see our canopy being destroyed. We ran out to try to save it but it was too late as the frame was broken and not repairable so we would have no shelter other than the tent from the sun during the day. When we woke on Sunday morning we saw we were not the only ones who suffered damages. A number of canopies were down and several Porta-Potties were turned over so we were fortunate not have lost the tent also.


Woke this morning, Sunday, to better weather and Andy cooked us a great breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast. Got the camp site straightened up, showered and headed out for the flight line. We did find they were running shuttle buses from the campground to the activity centers which saved us a lot of walking.
Getting off the bus we headed down to the vintage aircraft area to see what was already here as the show doesn't really start until Monday.

Bleriot 1909 Flyer

Fairchild FC-2W AirmailPlane for Mail & Passengers

Another early airmail craft

The first thing we saw was a tribute to the airmail service with numerous aircraft on display. Several of the images here are of those aircraft with the oldest being  from 1909. moving further down the area we saw aircraft of every type and vintage. I am sure we will return to this area later in the week so look for more pictures then. Also walked through the ultra-lite area. The guys who fly these things are a lot braver than I as it is like flying beneath a big kite on a lawn chair.
Leaving here we rode a shuttle that took us to the Warbird area and I was astonished at the number already here with more to come later. Most impressive to me was the sheer number of the old WWII fighter aircraft that have been restored to better shape than when they left the factories in the 1940's. We saw a beautiful Corsair come in and move to it's display area followed by a P-51 Mustang.  We also saw a British Spitfire which was the hottest plane the British had to protect England during the 1940 battle of Britain. Just down from it sat a FW-190 Luftwaffe fighter that fought against the Spitfires during this crucial time before the US entered the war. As a matter of fact when we did enter the war in 1941, many American flyers had joined the RAF  flying the Spitifires and were merely transferred to the US Army Air Force with their British Spitfires until the US could get enough aircraft produced and delivered to our guys.

Below are a few of the early arrivals in the Warbird Alley

A line of P-51 Mustangs

A P-40 of the famed Flying Tigers

British Spitfire

Folke-Wolfe FW-190 German Fighter

Me at the famous Brown Arch - Gateway to the EAA Flightline

Made our pictures in front of the Famous EAA Arch above. I was just overwhelmed with the size of this event and even after after only one quick day we have seen very little. Anyone who loves flying and aircraft should make it a point to come to this event at least once. Nothing else even comes close to what will be seen here. The event staff are great. Everyone is helpful and the attendees are very friendly and helpful. I cannot imagine the total attendance at this even but I have never seen or been to anything this large.
I will try to get this posted to the blog tonight and add more later.

Three Weeks and Counting

Mt ticket has been purchased! The time is slowly passing to our start date of Saturday, July 23rd. I am really starting to get fired up about it with all the new announcements coming out as to the planes that will be there. I am really excited to hear that "Glacier Girl" will be there. If you are not familiar with historic WWII aircraft, this is a P-38 fighter/pursuit aircraft that was one of the fastest fighters in the European Theater of Operations prior to the arrival of the P-51 Mustang.
The aircraft was very unique in its design with twin engines and dual tail booms with the cockpit centered on the wing.
It was a great advance in aircraft design of the time with incredible speed and range. The 8th Air Force bomber command was thrilled to finally have a fighter aircraft that could do escort duty on long range bombing runs almost to the German border. Prior to the arrival of the P-38, the B-17's and B-24's were escorted by the available fighters as far as their fuel would last while allowing the fighters to return to England. Once the fighters had to turn back the Luftwaffe would attack the bombers who were sitting ducks. The loss rate of the bombers was terribly high with only 17% of the airmen manning these heavy bombers surviving the initial 25 missions that were required before being reassigned back to the states or a safer assignment.
In 1942 a flight of these aircraft were flying back to the United States but were forced by the weather to make an emergency landing on the Greenland icecap. The crews were later rescued but the aircraft were left where they made the emergency landings and were eventually covered by the ice. When they were located in 1992 by search teams the planes were buried under 200 feet of ice. The team melted a shaft down to one plane and by continuing to melt out a cavern the team was able to disassemble and bring the historic aircraft to the surface piece by piece. After 10 years of restoration the aircraft is flying again. This is the only true wartime example of this aircraft in the world and is priceless. The twin Allison engines are said to have a very distinctive sound that I look forward to hearing and seeing it actually approach and land.
This is just one of the many historic aircraft we will see in Oshkosh. As time allows I will post more of these tidbits about the event.

Gearing Up for the EAA AirAdventure 2011

Only forty days until the big show at Oshkosh. This will be my first time to attend but has always been a dream of mine to go. I am already getting excited about the aircraft that will be there this year and am following the announcements of events and aircraft the will be either on static display or flying that week.
I will be going with my friend Andy Batts of Murray and we will drive up and camp for the week on the grounds. We plan to leave on Saturday, July 23 and return on Saturday, July 29. It will be a long drive in a pickup truck loaded with a tent and all our camping gear but well worth it. It is around 600 miles which we plan to drive in one day. Our plans are to leave around 6:00 AM and get there in time to get our camp site set up before dark. The actual events do not really begin until Monday but I am sure there will be lots to see and do on Sunday.
It was announced today that the new Boeing Dreamliner will be on display and open for tours. That will be an awesome sight and opportunity for aircraft buffs. Details can be seen at:
http://www.airventure.org/news/2011/110615_dreamliner.html
More to follow as the date approaches.