Warbird Information Exchange

I saw these CF-5Ds in the "flying stored" state at CFB Mountainview in July of 2007--all had received depot-level overhauls and are as good as new or better. They had been purchased by Aerovision LLC (google it)and trucked on flatbeds to the US for reactivation/resale. There was a sale pending for the majority of the 17 jets but I don't know the final outcome there. I heard a while back that Rod Lewis had bought one of them.

That's awesome! I wish I could find some video of that. I saw Fifi in 1982? when my family was in Texas for Christmas vacation. I've never seen it flying though.

They should have a class for the heavy stuff. I'd think watching some B-25's and A-26's dueling around the pylons would be fun to see.

I think it would have to be A-26's in one class and B-25's in another, otherwise it wouldn't be much of a race. The 25's would just be in the way of the A-26's!

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Mike

Don't be telling secret owners, secret suprise airplane deals out of school Mike, then it wouldn't be secret any more............except you can PM me and let me know as I am a charter member of the secret owners association insiders club and pony show. (SOAICPS)

Although it would be cool to watch, that would be extremely dangerous and unsafe to say the least, on the current course. The only way they could do it, would be to do it as a timing run, where the planes did the course separately and even then, it might still not work out. Just to stay on the course with it's tight turn radii, the bombers would have to pull at least 3 to 4 G's. I don't think any large bombers are stressed for that, not withstanding the fact of the owners not wanting to put that kind of load on their airplanes.

A 2 or 4 engine bomber race could happen, IF they significantly expanded the course and held it somewhere other than Reno. There is not enough airspace at Reno with the encroachment of civilization to make the course any bigger.

Nice thought, though!

An original nonmodified A-26 can do it Warbird, wouldn't want to see a B-25 do it though !

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

Oh, I didn't know that! What are the "G" limits on an original, unmodified A-26?

When you say, "unmodified" are you referring to a non On-Mark, or what?

I've heard a story, quite awhile ago, about someone showing someone else how to roll an A-26 even!

The B-25, if my memory serves, is only stressed about +2.8G's, and maybe -1G, if that much. It's been a while since that ground school. I do recall the Dash 1 saying that even though the B-25 has "fighter-like" response on the controls, you should refrain from flying it like one as the wings wouldn't stay on.

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Mike

Edwards Air Base would be perfect, but I'm guessing the chances of that happening are basically zero. Any other dry lakes / air fields with lots of unpopulated real estate around them?

I guess there's always flight sim's. The Unlimited B-29 / B-50 Racing League might have to live in the virtual world.

The Scandinavian Historic Flight out of Oslo loop and roll their A-26. They used to have video of it on their website, not sure if they still do. Cheers.

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real airplanes have round engines

Something like this......

Yep, unfortunately the chances of that are basically zero. A few years ago, the city of Las Vegas was very heavily courting RARA to bring the Air Races permanently to Las Vegas in place of Reno, due to all the encroachment of Stead Field. RARA asked Nellis Air Force Base, if they could host the races there. The Air Force said that basically the base could not be used for any races where money was given as a prize. I guess it has something to do with the government not having the authorization to use an active base for profit purposes. Also, the Air Force said they could not accept the liability if crashes occurred. Since there were no other suitable airports in the Las Vegas area willing to take on the Races, they did not move. So, it's still at Reno for the time being. A lot of people say that eventually commercialization and encroachment will eventually kill the races at Reno and they will HAVE to move somewhere else. There have been several cities that were experimented with in the 80's and 90's as a suitable replacement for the races, including Phoenix Arizona, Sherman Texas, and Tunica Mississippi. Unfortunately all lacked some aspect - whether it was support, infrastructure or whatever, and all failed for one reason or another. It will be interesting to see if the Races still exist in 15 years.

I certainly hope so! Haven't even had a chance to get out there and see em' in real person! Would be nice to see the races come as far East as Tunica though. Do we know what was the real problem with this field?

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Keep Em' Flying,
Christopher Soltis
Dedicated to the preservation and education of The Sikorsky Memorial Airport

CASC Blog Page: http://ctair-space.blogspot.com/
Warbird Wear: https://www.redbubble.com/people/warbirdwear/shop

Chicks Dig Warbirds.......right?

Don't quote me on this, but I seem to remember hearing that the crowd numbers never showed up as high as they were expecting. I think it was a lack of turnout plus a few other factors of which I have forgotten.

Also,

What are the numbers of people that Reno brings in Annually?

_________________
Keep Em' Flying,
Christopher Soltis
Dedicated to the preservation and education of The Sikorsky Memorial Airport

CASC Blog Page: http://ctair-space.blogspot.com/
Warbird Wear: https://www.redbubble.com/people/warbirdwear/shop

Chicks Dig Warbirds.......right?