Warbird Information Exchange

PhantomAce08;
I agree with you on that. from a few people that I had talked to that have family in Japan they consider it a very big embarassment . Also what I think is ironic is how Jeep the vehilce that carried our troops into Berlin among a million other places around globe is now owned by the Germans .
Scott....

I have a buddy of mine who is half Japanese. He goes back and forth from the US and Japan to teach english in Japan. We got to talking about this subject. He said that the attrocities committed by the Japanese simply aren't taught in school. Basically the history of WW2 taught in Japanese school books consists of: We went to war to defend the Emperor and the U.S. burned our cities and dropped 2 Nuclear bombs on us.

There was a big out cry from Japan when the Enola Gay first went on display. And this is because this is all they know. They don't discuss the raping, slaughtering of children, beheadings, canabalism to name a few attrocites. It's a shame we had a double standard, where we pursued and prosecuted the Nazis for the Holocost but not the Japanese for the thousands if not millions of people they killed.

Shay
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Semper Fortis

Shay:
I tell people that all the time, especially young people! The Germans were not near as bad as the Japanese. It is really sad how the Chinese, Vietnamese, Koreans etc,, were treated during the war. I think that the youth of Japan should see what kind of atrocities their forefathers did.
Scott....

BRISTOL BEAUFIGHTER

SHORT STIRLING

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Never drive faster than your Guardian Angel can fly!!

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Trae

Why would a Spitfire be expensive to build? I thought the Brits had dozens of small companies cranking out subassemblies during the war. Doesn't sound too high tech to me, but I'm not a Spitfire expert.

Also, with lower fuel consumption than a T-28, I'm not so sure the operating costs are much higher either. Granted the engine overhaul is more pricey, but you probably save the difference in lower oil consumption!

So what make a Spitfire a more daunting task to manufacture compared to a Mustang, FW-190, or a 109 for instance?

I go for a Hanriot H 232.2



I have not been able to find any plans of decent quality of it..not three views ..but I did get 33 photos of it from 3 sources.

There is a Azur 1/72 scale plastic model kit..which looks pretty ok. Cover of the package is a spitting image of the plane though.

yes the japanese were bad and i'm not defending what was done in the name of the old emperor .
but a lot less than 6 million people were killed by the japanese.
the education of japanese youth is improving with vetrans that were there finally comming out and telling the truth.
a special that was shown on sbs (in australia)told the story of the horror the happened in china as told by those that were there and did these horrific things ,after the war they were tried in china and after many years were returned to japan where they were treated as traitors to there own people.
they now vist schools around the country telling the young people what they did so that it wont happen again.
back to the thread .
along with whirlwinds and ca15s we also should have ki46-11 dinah's and maybe a ki45 as well.
paul

Another one I'd love to see built would be the Vought XF5U-1:





Shay
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Semper Fortis

japanese.... betty, a tojo, an irving, a tony, a nell bomber, a judy & a myrt as well as a dinah. u.s. ......... a grumman seagull, a coronado, & yes, a seamew!!!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

The Spitfire required about three times the amount of man hours to build as the Hurricane, IIRC It was based on some of Supermarines handbuilt racers of the 1930's. The Hurricane isn't nearly as simplistic on the inside as you might guess by looking at it's fabric fuselage and early first flight date. The P-51 had lots of improvements along the way and N.A.A. changed things even between block numbers of the D model, making it better and easier to build.
Respectfully, you can't really compare costs of Spitfire operation to a big engine T-28. The small shops have sprung up on the absence of spare Spitfire airworthy parts. T-28 parts are still plentiful, and you can get on the phone Monday a.m. and have your needed part Fedex'd to you in 24 hours! There are still lots of T-28's laying around in various condition.
My prediction on the warbird movement, in the next 30 years , is that it will continue to grow and remain strong, even as viable restoration candidates dries up. Wouldn't surprise me to see small shops that have the mantra "we do metal airplanes" ie, they raise investors and build 10 of whatever you want, P-51D, Spitfire MK 9, Buffalo, or FW-190, less firewall forward and cockpit completion, and flight testing. All components being built to airworthy standards.
The purchasers, then make the decision ($$) to take their unit to static display status, flight status with either some concessions towards safety, say better powerplants and fibreglass cowlings, or to make it a 100 point replica with the exact DB 601 or merlin engine and props etc.
If we could fast forward, my money would go towards buying airworthy components of popular warbirds, as an investment, or something built with reliable, engines, updated cockpit, autopilot, etc,. that would make a great airshow bird.

DON'T YOU WISH THEY HAD FLOWN IT AT LEAST ONCE!!!!
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

experimental types would be nice, but there would be as gray an area of feasibility to operation as there was during the war. at least with a rare proven type that gray are wouldn't exist, thus making it more practical & realistic in it's nature.

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

There have been those who have built scale R/C models of the XF5U-1 and have shown that the design would have performed well.

Not to mention that the "FlapJack currently being restored at Vought has flight time and performed well. So with regards to the XF5U-1 I think there was less gray area than you would imagine.



You bet.

I'm just waiting for the big news one day to hear that one of the former Vought employees had one of the 2 prototypes squirreled away in his barn.

Shay
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Semper Fortis

I'll probably get some flak for these, but what the heck:

1. Brewster F2A Buffalo
2. Hawker Tempest II (Centaurus power)
3. More Douglas Skyraiders!
4. More P-47 Thunderbolts!
5. Commonwealth CA-12/CA-13 Boomerang
6. More F4F/FM-2 Wildcats!
7. Nakajima Type 97 Ki-27
8. More Fw-190s!

And the wish list could go on and on...

Anybody seeing a theme here?
Lots of round engines!!!

Cheers,
Mike

I would have expected the engines and drivetrain to give them fits with those long propshafts and gearboxes. The V-173 had very small engines and wooden prop blades. I can't imagine how much trouble they would have with that kind of system scaled up.