Warbird Information Exchange

Canopys on the '51's were probably opened a bit to prevent condensation / moisture in a humid enviroment. Used to do that on our '86's, it was the lesser of two evils, if it rained, close 'em.

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This is an interesting pic of assorted planes. These PBY's look like crap. Not sure what the deal is with them. Some with light colored wings (Navy??) and others darker shaded wings. It looks like at least one maybe missing the wingtips. What's the bi-plane. I don't think it's a Duck????

Those are some tired lookin' PBY's and the bipane sure looks like a J2F DUCK to me.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

The picture of Liscombe Bay had to have been taken in 1943, not 1945, as she was sunk by a Japanese submarine in November 1943, off Tarawa, IIRC, with heavy loss of life, including Admiral Mullinix, as well as Pearl Harbor hero Doris Miller.

It's a J2F. Wings, angular notch in the aft center of the upper wing, horizontal stab and the float seen jutting out under the nose would confirm Duck.

The USS Ranger CV-4 was enroute to Africa to unload P-40's I believe. She did this a few times in her career. My Grandfather was on the Ranger for almost 4 years, torpedosman mate 2nd class. Unfortunatley he passed away when I was 2 or 3. I basically have nothing from his navy life and nobody knows anything. Other than having the Ranger book, I know of nothing he did

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" I am a nobody in aviation, but somebody to my family."

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A message to Trump…. Want to be like Hitler?…. Skip to the end!!

Seeing the P-40's being launched - probably the first and only time the USAAF pilots experienced that particular manuever......

Had to have an elevated pucker factor!

I was also interested in the catapault gear on the P-40's - I don't think those aircraft were designed for that sort of structural stress.

Dave,
I believe that there were 16 B-25s that launched a year or so before the P-40s did and I've seen pics of P-47s and P-51s taking off from carriers too.

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Cheers!

Lance Jones

The British reenforced Malta a couple times with SPITFIRES flown off U.S. and British carriers, and the opening air attacks in 'TORCH' were P-40's from U.S. carriers.
The Navy actually did test a full on modified P-51D (4414017) in the late war from a carrier as well as at least one PBJ.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

I'm well aware of the Doolittle Raiders, but they had intense training in, for lack of a better term, short-field take-offs, and the Navy pilots were also trained for carrier ops. My comment was made, and perhaps should have had more elaboration, to note that these Army pilots found themselves operating under, for them, rather unusual conditions. I would imagine that most of their instruction was given on the carrier while underway, with no chance of any 'practice runs' - and I wonder what their piloting experience was; 300/400 hrs? They climbed into the planes, pointed them towards the pointy end of the ship, and took off when they had to.

And the catapault rig - granted it was probably a 'one-shot' deal (no pun intended ) but I'm darn sure Curtiss never designed the landing gear for that loading, nor the tailwheel to have a what looks like a break-away link attached to it.

All in all it just increases my respect for the pilots and their airplanes of WWII -

1 -USS Sitkoh Bay looks to have 6 Douglas A-26's on deck.
2-33FG on Chenango show P-40's tethered at tail wheel, what is that some kind of breakaway restraint?
And to have a plank on the deck to align the R. landing gear to center the AC to the Cat's centerline,
brilliant. And what is the launching sling attached to? And the "eyes" on the launch sling look to be
taped up to close the "eye" as they look larger on deck after launch and the crewman is retreiving it.
3- On CVE-61,Manila Bay ,are those Martin B-26's, seem to "fat" to be Douglas A-26's.
4- USS Barnes CVE-20.I believe that's my ship and would you kindly bring it back to the harbor at
Michigan City, Indiana, with the cargo intact, I'll take care of off- loading it. Thank You.