Warbird Information Exchange

A-10 Warthog nose gun parts? How on earth did they end up in there??

Are the military vehicle parts modern or old stuff???

John

Albert, I didn’t realize you had some later model stuff. I noticed some B-45 hydraulic components in one of the parts catalogs I have.

I’ll take a look over the weekend to see if there’s anything in there that may help you out.

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Commemorative Air Force
Experimental Aircraft Association
Warbirds of America

What are you waiting for? Join us!

Best way to contact me- email my last name @gmail.com

Where do I begin?

Albert: You are DA' MAN!!

WIXers: What Mr. Stix has failed to mention is that he is also turning up Emerson turret parts for the TBY (along with all the other turret types previously mentioned). You must understand that this is like finding the proverbial hen's teeth. Bit-by-bit (ever-so-slowly) I am collecting and piecing together what remains of the extinct TBY.

Tom: Very interesting about your involvment with Queen City/Convair Field. I'm assuming you're acquainted with people from Allentown involved with the TBY's history like Rae Klahr and Bob Marsh. Bob sent me a copy of the TBY rollout of which you wrote (and is working on a DVD version). I've been told a website devoted to the TBY is in the works as well, but...

The cockpit project continues to move forward (slowly). I'm close to cutting metal on the first frames and bulkheads, and I hope to begin posting pics once the process begins (and the results aren't too embarrassing).

Remember WIXers: If the part number begins with "VS2" or "VS-2", it came off a Sea Wolf. Call me!

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Dan-

I'm quite familar with them, when the group first began to research the airport history and didn't even know what airplane was built there I shared my photos and film with them, and briefed them on the Vought/Convair story. The original core of their material is from my collection, they seem to have a very short memory..................however I am glad the story is being told.

The plant, Mack 5C, is still standing, Mack quit using it 20 years ago, plant engineering is now essentially an indoor flea market, the plant security building was a paper outlet, the hangar is now the Municpal Garage, and the covered boresighting shed and firing butt is now road salt storage.

In 1994 I spent an afternoon in SAN with Phil Profitt (Experimental Test Pilot sent from SAN), Bill Chana (Flight Test Engineer sent from SAN), and Ed Reynolds (Plant Engineer, also from SAN). Interesting stories, I made notes but still had many unanswered questions due to time and so many subsequent interesting projects they were involved in.

I managed the airport, for Reading Aviation Service, from 1975-1981, my photos and film came from the personal collection of the Chief Photographer, Jerry Snyder, who I used to fly for aerial photos. During that time I spoke briefly with a former Production Test Pilot who spoke of having great fun doing formation takeoffs and buzzing the countryside building time debugging the new planes. The former head of Field Service, Paul Knepper (now deceased), was a friend and had a grass strip nearby. My mentor had worked on the floor early in the plant history when they were doing post-production mods to (I believe) A-25's to get the staff trained before TBY-2 production began. Ed Reynolds felt that the original Seawolf contract was given to Consolidated prior to the formation of C-V.

I asked many questions BUT never enough, my mentor shared many stories from his excellent memory but he died in 1972 and I have many questions I wish I had known enough to ask still unanswered.

From the late 60's thru the mid-70's the XC-35 was a resident, we had a contract to work on it at a reduced shop rate (for the NASM) when our shop was slow, unfortunately (or fortunately given the changing standards for restorations) we weren't often able to put a mechanic on it.

Tom-

Okay, here they are.

These came out of AN 03-30CX-2, rev 5-1-57, a sort of “catch-all” for NAA hydraulic cylinders. I thought there was more in there, but I guess not.

147-58067 Cylinder Assy, Hyd tail gunners spoiler actuating



180-58034 Cylinder Assy, Hyd gun purge door operating actuator



Being for a B-45 is just a guess on my part. I only have the manual for T-28 stuff in it, LOL.

_________________

Commemorative Air Force
Experimental Aircraft Association
Warbirds of America

What are you waiting for? Join us!

Best way to contact me- email my last name @gmail.com

Eric,
Very interesting. I guess I need to go look at a B-45 Tornado or at least find a manual for the Emerson built Tornado rear turret. Do any B-45s actually still exist?

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

I think there's one at Castle, one at SAC, and one at NMUSAF.

kevin

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FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!

Hi Al -

The B-45C at the AF Museum has a faired tail cone and no turret. I have some print photos of the one at the SAC museum - will pull those out this weekend and see if I shot the tail on that one and let you know the results.

The one at SAC is an RB-45C and there's also one at Pima - a B-45A but in my two visits, I did not take a photo of it. I cannot explain that!

I have a couple of Tornado pics and this is the only one with a clear view (sort of) of a turret...



and here's an RB-45C - guess most of the RB-45s were unarmed - take your photos and run like H$%#!



Enjoy the Day! Mark

Greetings All -

I had a chance over lunch to do some googling and came across this good photo that clearly shows the tail turret:

http://www.47thbombwing.org/gallery/pag ... 4a_jpg.htm

Another interesting site with a photo gallery is:

http://www.47thbombwing.org/b-45/factSheet.htm

Enjoy the Day! Mark