Saturday, June 25, 2016

More National Museum of World War Two pics

Their Boeing building looks like my room when I was a kid--airplanes hanging from ther ceiling everywhere. Only there aren't models.

Four levels of airplanes hung from cables, with observation decks so you can see 'em fairly close.

Above, this Douglas Dauntless looks like it's about to dive-bomb some Toyotas out in the parking lot.

And this Corsair--an F4U-4 variant--is coming in for a landing.

There's a beautiful Grumman TBM Avenger here, too.


You can look right down and into it's cockpit.
There's a gun-nose B-25 Mitchell here.
And a whole B-17.
The B-17, an E model, was one that crash-landed in Greenand during the war. It was recovered in the 90's and brought here for restoration. Story here.

And last but not least--a P-51D Mustang.

Head back into their other building--the main one--and they've got this C-47 on dispay that actually flew in here to be preserved after more than sixty years of flying military and civilian cargo.
This engine is ready to turn over again any time.
And it'g got a Spitfire Mk. V to keep it company.

And yes, all day long I was calculating the tensile strength of those cables...(My weight * xft of drop / long fall to hard floor if performed incorrectly...)

Great day...and just fifteen minutes by bike from my house now.

9 comments:

  1. Careful, or you will end up on a, "Do Not Let Look" list.

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  2. Your photo of the Avenger (#2172) made me realize that the single M2 was offset to allow the gunner to fire directly to the rear, while clearing the vertical tail.
    I don't recall any historical photos showing that offset. I'm thinking that I would have wanted to stack two of them for more punch, if I was aircrew on one.

    Do you know if the turret had a travel limiter/interrupter to keep him from sawing off his own tailfeathers? I suspect that the pilot would be quick acting on the gunner's commands to swing left or right for more tailward shooting clearance when attacked from near level positions.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, indeed it did! Avengers were expensive, and cutting the tail off is hard on them!

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  3. Go here to see a story about the pilot of the TBM.

    http://peripateticengineer.blogspot.com/2008/10/battle-off-samar.html

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  4. Grumman Avengers are TBFs. TBMs are General Motors. GM made Avengers (TBMs) and Wildcats (FM-2s) from 1943 on, after Grumman went all Hellcat all the time. The F means "made by Grumman," the M means "made by GM."
    Yes, the Sperry ball turret on the Avenger had a cutout to avoid putting holes in the empennage. It also had a design flaw: It could be rotated to where the gun was pointed straight up, and would then lose power. The egress to the turret was blocked by the fuselage at that point, and the gunner could only exit the turret by having the side hatch removed from the outside.
    I know all this because my late father flew 76 combat missions in that ball turret. He had the turret trap thing happen to him in combat, and needless to say, the subsequent carrier landing was quite a nail-biter for him.
    Fun fact: The life expectancy of an Avenger gunner was 19 seconds, measured in time on the trigger.

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  5. B-25s sure look like PBJs, don't they?

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  6. Beautiful pics! I really need to get down there and see that place!

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  7. Anonymous10:59 AM

    Great pictures

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  8. Here's a link that will tell you a little bit about the TBM and the pilot's name painted on it.

    http://peripateticengineer.blogspot.com/2008/10/battle-off-samar.html

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