Before it was the NMUSAF...

Shay · **Posted:** Thu Mar 11, 2010 7:29 pm

It was WRIGHT FIELD and it was ALL Bidness...........well actually Area B still is full speed ahead with the Air Force Reseach Laboratories. But the airfield itself is no longer active. (with a few annual exceptions). I drive by all the time and everytime I wonder bout all the aircraft that must have been flying around 60 years earlier and since

Pretty sure this film is earlier than the 1945 title due to the markings and aircraft depicted. It definately was a hub of activity back then.

Any guesses as to what the aircraft at 00:31 sec is? (in the center between the P-39 and camera)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzqvFsvOSgs

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

Holedigger · **Posted:** Thu Mar 11, 2010 8:02 pm

Cool. How about the XB-19 at 145 sec. Rare beast, I don't recall ever seeing a video of one flying before...cool.

The Inspector · **Posted:** Fri Mar 12, 2010 1:05 am

Holedigger,
There's film of the B-19 landing @ March Field and bouncing the nose wheel the length of the runway, a quick GOOGLE should find it-

JDK · **Posted:** Fri Mar 12, 2010 2:33 am

Neat find, Shay!

Shay wrote:

Pretty sure this film is earlier than the 1945 title due to the markings and aircraft depicted. It definately was a hub of activity back then.

Certainly. I'd agree that it's around 1943, going by the mention of Rommel (in N Africa?) and the lack of later versions of the types depicted. An obsessive could work out the 'window' it could be made from when the aircraft mentioned arrived at Wright. The other end would be harder, as it could miss 'secret' new types and be released a while after filming.

Quote:

Any guesses as to what the aircraft at 00:31 sec is? (in the center between the P-39 and camera)

Mmm. No idea at all. S'a toughie!

airnutz · **Posted:** Fri Mar 12, 2010 2:48 pm

Shay wrote:

Any guesses as to what the aircraft at 00:31 sec is? (in the center between the P-39 and camera)

Probably a Fletcher YCQ-1A drone controller or somesuch permutation. Fahey's US Army Aircraft 1908-1946 has
it as unmanned, but this book is pretty much a photo and basic ID booklet..tho very handy. Not a terribly well
known design and there are cloudy details. Plywood construction.
Aerofiles under Fletcher CQ-1A photo...
http://www.aerofiles.com/fletch-CQ1A.jpg

A later derivative XBG-1 glide bomb photo here at bottom...
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusr ... -html#_BG1

Also see Fletcher PQ-11.

Holedigger · **Posted:** Fri Mar 12, 2010 3:24 pm

Great find! I was thinking P-47 with the tail jacked up for some reason, but it just didn't look fat enough and the cockpit area was too indistinct. That is one funky looking plane.

Chris Brame · **Posted:** Sat Mar 13, 2010 12:03 am

...and is that the tail of a Northrop A-17 in the lower right corner of the same shot? I see some B-23s as well!

Markings vary enough that it's probably an assemblage of stock footage from various flight tests - probably put together no later than the summer of '43.

hercules130 · **Posted:** Sat Mar 13, 2010 12:46 am

Curtis Shrike (A-12) at 37 seconds past the Douglas machines?

airnutz · **Posted:** Sat Mar 13, 2010 12:48 pm

hercules130 wrote:

Curtis Shrike (A-12) at 37 seconds past the Douglas machines?

Hard to tell, looks like another B-23 to me.

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