An unexpected item has appeared in the Buchon department

[bomberflight]

Buy one ~ get one free ?







It might have been just another day in the office for John Romain and Cliff Spink but guys ~ you were AWESOME today !

I wish I could figure out why the desert scheme keeps defeating the autofocus on my camera
Truth is these aren't really that crisp as I hoped and I had to resort the autosharpening them after I'd reduced the file size.

I thought I'd share them anyway

[Dave Lindauer]

Remarkable photos -- Even the prop blades are in synch!

[Speedy]

Well, I don't care what anyone says about how ugly Buchons are, or how wrong it is to have them in Luftwaffe paint schemes....

That is AWESOME! And the clarity and symmetry of your photos is boggling! Nice job!

[bdk]

I'd like to see those shooting up "the movie" Memphis Belle!

Love those photos!!!!

[John Dupre]

Great photos. Interesting how the desert machine has the little lower forward triangle windows that were prevalent on E's and F's.

[whistlingdeath77]

those are great photos!

[Franklin]

Although they look pretty cool and I'm as happy as anyone the two are up and flying, I just cannot warm up to the schemes, why is it such a stretch to consider authentic Buchon schemes? The Spanish had some great looking schemes. Example of today's marketing and historical authenticity not seeing eye to eye ... Just my 2 cents. Great shots

[Mike]

Although they look pretty cool and I'm as happy as anyone the two are up and flying, I just cannot warm up to the schemes, why is it such a stretch to consider authentic Buchon schemes? The Spanish had some great looking schemes. Example of today's marketing and historical authenticity not seeing eye to eye ... Just my 2 cents. Great shots

The camouflaged one is in an authentic Buchon scheme, as worn by this particular airframe for filming 'The Battle of Britain' in 1968. As much a part of the Buchon's history as its Spanish military service.

And IMHO, there are far worse 'fake schemes' being perpetrated here in the US, the myriad of 'US Navy' schemes on everything from L-39s to Strikemasters to Fouga Magisters, as an example. Not to mention the endless military Navions, mostly with ghastly nose art.

[Franklin]

The camouflaged one is in an authentic Buchon scheme, as worn by this particular airframe for filming 'The Battle of Britain' in 1968. As much a part of the Buchon's history as its Spanish military service.

Yes I do know that, but still doesn't do it for me, and that's just me ...

And IMHO, there are far worse 'fake schemes' being perpetrated here in the US, the myriad of 'US Navy' schemes on everything from L-39s to Strikemasters to Fouga Magisters, as an example. Not to mention the endless military Navions, mostly with ghastly nose art.

Yes I'm aware of this too, but still ... I was just speaking of Buchon's. Apples and Oranges I guess. Don't get me wrong, I think they look great and I'm very happy to see them in the air, I'm just one of those hard headed dudes who likes his planes (in his dreams) a certain way.

[JohnH]

All normal Buchon negatives thought of aside...these pics and schemes are truly awesome. Thanks.

JH

[Franklin]

Your right, my bad ... I guess I did come across as a bit critical ... oops! not mean't to be, back to our normal station

[Ryan Keough]

Here's a silly question to kind-of side track this conversation... have any Buchon's been successfully reconfigured with a DB601 in place of the Merlin? I know there were some efforts to do such a thing in the 90's, but I never really heard if any of them were successful. It seems to me that I heard somewhere that the airframe design was changed a bit by Hispano to accommodate the Merlin and would require a lot of aerodynamic tweaking to convert back. Any insight?

Thanks,
Ryan

[DaveM2]

Ryan

DB605s -Yes several. Some static but some flying-those of the Meserschmitt Foundation come to mind.
http://www.touchdown-aviation.com/flyin ... iftung.php

Jerry Yagen has an example (ex NMUSAF) being converted to DB power also.

No insight to hand on the difficulties

Dave

[JDK]

Here's a silly question to kind-of side track this conversation... have any Buchon's been successfully reconfigured with a DB601 in place of the Merlin?

Yes, as Dave's confirmed, mostly by Messerschmitt's successor company. Also numerous static 'Messerschmitt 109Gs' in museums are actually Hispano Buchons with a new nose. Oddest of these is the ex-Champlin '109E' at Seattle, which is a 109E firewall forward and a Buchon (109G) firewall aft, with incorrectly cropped wingtips for any mark.

It seems to me that I heard somewhere that the airframe design was changed a bit by Hispano to accommodate the Merlin and would require a lot of aerodynamic tweaking to convert back. Any insight?

Firewall aft (with one exception) the 109G and Buchon are the same aircraft, apart from, obviously, changes in instrumentation and through firewall systems. The exception was the fin and rudder. Much has been written about the Messerschmitt's aerofoil section fin and rudder arrangement, appropriate for the DB's turn, changed for the Hispano engine setup, and making it 'wrong' for the Merlin which turns like the DB. There was a previous discussion here on WIX on this - Gary A had provided some images, this one here:

Via Second Air Force, who said: "Here is the photo that Gary sent me last summer. The cleaned-up fin on the left of the photo is from an original Bf109G. The one on the right came from an HA-1112."

From the discussion in this thread here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=36920 which provides a good deal of useful insight to the surrounding data to Ryan's question.

The main difficulty was getting a viable DB engine, followed by the second difficulty of convincing everyone that you had an actual Messerschmitt rather than a Hispano, the latter task exercising minds that should have been used on more credible tasks. Certainly some Buchons were built up using German built fuselages - but not all, nor all the survivors.

Regards,

[bdk]

Jerry Yagen has an example (ex NMUSAF) being converted to DB power also.

Is that the one that was up for tender a few years back directly from the NMUSAF? Did Yagen trade for it directly or was there an intermediate deal (i.e. what did the NMUSAF get)?