Warbird Information Exchange

Hello,

I wanted to let you know about the PBS TV series Warplanes that aired last night but will be on again soon. This is a two part series that chronicles the development of technology in military aviation from the Wright Brothers to the present day.

We were honored to have participated in this series by helping out with the WWII technology section. One of our Norden bomb sights was used by two great bombardiers (Bill Blair and Jack Valenty) to perform a present day bombing demonstration of the Norden’s capabilities. Joe Davis was kind enough to let us use his historic Eagle Field for the flight operations. John Hannigan provided his C-45H for the camera platform and he and Wally Macdonald did a masterful job of flying the camera plane. Many people volunteered to help rig the B-25 and prepare the equipment used for the filming to which we are very grateful. Thanks for your help!

Our ball turret and B-29 Central Station Fire Control turret system were also put into operation for the Warplane series.

The first episode aired last night but will be running again several more times on PBS so “check your local listings”. There were four separate series that were produced but they have been combined into two, two hour shows. Our WWII segment was in the second hour of the first episode which was labeled Part Two Air Force to Air Power.

More information about the Warplane series can be seen on the PBS web site at: http://www.pbs.org/ or you can go directly to the Warplane web page at: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/warplane/

It is a very interesting series that takes a fresh look the technological development of the aircraft in military aviation. It is well worth a look.

Thanks,

Taigh

Taigh Ramey
Proprietor, Vintage Aircraft
7432 C.E.Dixon Street
Stockton, California 95206
(209) 982-0273
(209) 982-4832 Fax
www.twinbeech.com

KEEP 'EM FLYING...FOR HISTORY!

I saw this show,what I saw was good but full of holes.
They talk about aircraft leading up to the F-22 and WWII but never talk about the P-51,F4U,P-47,P-40 and more
The B-25 stuff was great but I don't think "Raptor" when I see one.

I watched most of Part 1 and a good part of Part 2. It does have some good segments and some good photography, but it does represent a lot of frustration to an aviation history enthusiast becaue of the impossible task of focusing on a large enough sample of too many specific aircraft covering over 100 years in under 4 hours.

An example of frustration to me was the segment on the F-102 and the development of the "area rule" concept which allowed fighter aircraft to exceed Mach 1 and go to Mach 2 and above. It was very interesting, but no specific mention was made of the "ultimate interceptor" - the F-106 which followed the F-102 seemed .

The second 2 hour segment seemed to overly dwell on the Eurofighter, the F-22 and other current and developing aircraft to the detriment of giving a somewat more comrehensive picture of the aircaft in between during the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s that got us to where we are.

Jim C.