Warbird Information Exchange

Mike,
I have photos of the FW-189 as well. I remember the helicopter pilots trying to translate the German name of the FW-189, I think it was an Owl, into Russian. My Russian was worse than my German, which was really bad so we went through all the names of common birds until I finally realized what type they were talking about. I do recall thinking how rare this plane was but I also remember approaching it from the air and seeing the landing gear sticking up in the air. I thought it might be in the same condition as the P-40C. What ever became of that FW-189? I only saw photos of the Hampden after it was recovered. That sure was a rare one also. Send me your email in a PM and I'll dig up some old photos and email them to you. You would be welcome to post them on the boards.

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

Thanks for the offer Albert, PM sent.

The Fw189 is in a slow-time, on-off restoration to fly in the UK. The Hampden is under a partial restoration (one side to be restored, one side to remain unrestored) by the RAF Museum.

Still waiting on the pics of the p-40. some of the stuff that is comming out is absolutly amazing. Maybe someday the Doolittle B-25 will surface too.

_________________
Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

Boy do I remember chasing that one. Like everything else that needs to get "lost" in Russia, I was told it was at the bottom of Lake Baikal. Given everything else the Russians say is in there, I'll bet Jimmy Hoffa is there as well.

I had a long talk with one of the pilots of the interned B-25 from the Doolittle raid back in 1990 or maybe 91'. He was certain that it would have been pressed into service along with all the other Lend Lease B-25 but not until the engines were replaced or repaired. He said that they had run the engines on that B-25 so lean in an attempt to extend the range, that the engines were "toast" by the time they landed near Vlad. I had at least one Russina guy tell me the plane had gone down into Lake Baikal and another tell me it just "crashed" after they tried to fly it themselves. Who knows, maybe it's on the Moon, in the crater next to the one with the B-32 in it. You just never know.

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

Guys

According to my Russian sources it was destroyed in the 50s in a hangar fire at a Russian Far Eastern airfield, posted detail info on it somewhere, either here or the old board.

Dave

It has been close to 20 years since that picture of the B-32 was on the front of whatever rag it was on. Amazing that we all remember it, how I wanted to go to the moon and fly it back. Could not have taken more than a couple of cases of homebrew and a few 100 gallons of purple av gas, or vice versa.

I remember being at Duxford the day that the P-40C rolled up in Russian trucks. I was astounded to see it being off-loaded, as it was clearly an early model P-40, which I knew at the time to be technically extinct... I got some great photos of it being unloaded, as well as some video at the time. You could clearly make out the former USAAC markings. I was astounded at what amazing condition it was in. Very exciting day! Sad that it never really did fly after the rebuild.

Cheers,
Richard

It's still listed as flying every month or two on the FHC website.

http://www.flyingheritage.com/TemplateT ... ntentId=39

A hangar fire in the 1950s is at least as much of a possibility as the other stories I heard. It's seems reasonable to assume that somewhere in Russia, somebody alive today, knows what became of that B-25.

I still have a copy of the tabloid that ran the B-32 story. From a technical standpoint, I guess you could get a B-32 into orbit, but you would need a powerful booster. Four R-3350s would generate lots of HP but probably not enough to get it even into a low earth orbit. Did the B-32 have PRTs? It's amazing that reaching escape velocity did not rip the wings and tail off. I guess the hardest part would be re-entry in earth's atmosphere, even with full flaps, it would probably melt on the way down. That's probably why they left it on the Moon.

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

I was at FHC on June 18th and our guide said that, of the aircraft on display, the P-40C was flown the most often.

Dennis

Bud Granley has flown it twice this year.

Well, that is good news. I'd never seen this reported before. After the first flight pics, the trail seemed to go dead. I'd never seen any pictures of her flying in FHC hands, and don't recall reading this on their website. Is she flown publicly?

Cheers,
Richard

Richard,

If you follow the link from my post above, you'll see a list of dates for public demonstrations of the P-40C. Hope this helps.

The Fw-189 along with the Bf-109E and P-39Q we recovered are at Jim Pearce's in Worthing, England. The Fw-189 has had quite a bit of restoration work done, but there is still much to go. The Bf-109 and P-39 are for sale

Many thanks Mike... that's really great news, I appreciate your help.

Cheers,
Richard