Warbirds over Washington

Here they are, in all of their (mostly) radial-engined glory.

Some L-4 and O-1 observation birds led the way.

Then came a flight of Stearmans.

Then a pair of Fairchild PT-19 trainers. (Harrison Ford was not in evidence today.)

T-6 Texan time...and SNJs, for you Navy types.

A pair of P-40s put in an appearance, one dcked out in AVG colors.

And three B-25 Mitchells came over low enough to set off a couple of car alarms. Because RADIAL ENGINES!

Next came a beautiful PBY Catalina flying boat.

And a Grumman F4F Wildcat (lower left) escorts a Douglas Dauntless dive-bomber (upper right).

Another pair of Wildcats made a low pass.

Then a Lockheed P-38 Lightning flew past almost to fast to capture.

A B-24 came next, escorted by three little friends of the P-51 Mustang variety.

And four more very photogenic Mustangs followed.

They were clearing the way for two Boeing B-17 bombers.

Then it was a couple of Douglas DC-3s, better known in military parlance as C-47s.

Next, a Curtis SB2C Helldiver came over.

He was leading a flight and had a Grumman TBM Avenger on each wing.

Then came a Douglas A-26 Invader, my favorite attack bomber of all time.

Followed up by my favorite fighter in the form of a pair of Chance-Vought (of Goodyear) Corsairs.

Then Fifi the B-29 made a low pass over Arlington and came on across the river into the District.

Last, but certainly not least, the "Missing Man" flight, composed of (left to right) a P-40, a Corsair, a TBM Avenger and a P-51D.

I got these from the back side of the Lincoln Memorial, and it was well worth the effort to get down there to see this half-hour long parade of aircraft goodness. A special thanks is due to the men and women who made this event happen, because it could not have been easy to coordinate this event and make it come off as smoothly as it did. Out of all of the participating aircraft, only one, a TBM Avenger, had mechanical problems. That one made an emergency landing at Reagan International Airport just south of the District, and it'll be ok.

Up, up and away!

So this morning, I turned the Lair and it's canine denizens over to the house/dog sitter, gathered up Proud Hillbilly, and flew off to the northwest. We both have family up in the Detroit area so it made sense to travel up together to visit them.

The flight usually goes as smooth as pie, but this time, the gremlins came out right after take-off. First I lost my airspeed indicator, and then, despite talking to my departure airport on both radios without difficulty, I noticed after a bit that it was suspiciously quiet out over the mountains, even for a week-day. The intercom between us was working, but I couldn't hear any other traffic, not even AWOS or ASOS broadcasts. So I set down at the closest airport that looked like it had a shop--the Joseph A. Hardy Airport in Connellsville, PA--and enlisted the help of the field mechanic to troubleshoot the problems. Fortunately he was willing to help me out despite having a plane up on jacks in his hangar already, and it took us about ten minutes to trace down a loose plug on the radio where the headset jacks linked in. I was broadcasting just fine, but I couldn't hear anything until we found and fixed that. The airspeed indicator came back right and proper after a bit of pitot tube probing with a length of wire; something probably got lodged in there on take-off because it's never been the least bit troublesome before. So we were back on course, albeit running even later than we had been.

A windmill ridge, west of Cumberland, MD.

Somewhere in Pennsylvania: Cool quarry with a massive portal to what is probably a fascinating underground space.

Here's a towboat on the Monongahela River.

Interesting old building complex in Fremont, OH.

Bridges across the Maumee River, south of Toledo.

Maumee River in Toledo, looking out onto Lake Erie.

Back in 1835-36, the State of Ohio and Michigan Territory staged a nearly bloodless war over the strip of land between this river and the present-day Michigan border. Ohio was granted the land by President Andrew Jackson (likely because Ohio was a state and had voting delegates and Michigan, a territory, did not) and Michigan was given the Upper Peninsula as a "consolation prize". My take is that Michigan actually won, both because Ohio had to keep that worthless chunk of Toledo and because the Upper Peninsula was soon discovered to be rich in timber, iron and copper. Suck on that, Ohio!

Here's downtown Toledo, and the stadium where their famous minor-league team plays. Anyone care to guess the team?

That's right, M*A*S*H fans--the Toledo Mudhens!

I shot landings at both Toledo Express Airport and Suburban Toledo Airport (actually in Michigan, just across the border) and then it was north towards our destination airport, with just a quick flight over Willow Run Airport, location for an airshow this week-end. (Coincidence? NOT!!!)

Look--A C-17 is already there.

And here's a B-24 Liberator and a Beechcraft AT-11 bomber.

Let's zoom in a bit on that B-24, "Diamond Lil", of the Commemorative Air Force.

Look, Ma--no top turret!

And last but not least, a lone two-seat F-16 belonging to the Thunderbirds is already there.

The rest of the team will be in this week-end.

A few minutes later, we were on the ground and the day's fun was done. It wasn't my quickest flight, at almost 4.5 hours, but it beats driving or waiting around at the commercial airports for TSA to feel you up while anything valuable gets swiped out of your luggage. Plus, PH and I both flew armed so muslim terrorists with bombs in their underwear were no threat to this aircraft.

It was a good day.

Here's something you don't see every day: B-24 deliberately ditched in the river

NACA test of the B-24 on the James River, 1944.

B-24J Walk-Around

As promised, here are the pics of the Collings Foundation B-24J Liberator bomber "Witchcraft".

18,482 B-24 Liberators were made during the war. This is the sole surviving flying J Model left in the world.

She carried a crew of eleven (as opposed to the B-17's ten), could cruise at 215mph, and had a range of 2,100 miles.

Henry Ford built a massive factory to build these at Willow Run, just outside Ypsilanti, MI. At the war's end, Ford just abandoned the pace, lock, stock and barrel. The plant's gone now but the airfield remains. I can't fly over or through it without imagining the B-24s that once covered the field.

Here's the powered chin turret with it's twin .50 machine guns. Below it is the window used by the bombardier when he was plotting the target and flying the aircraft on the bomb run.

The B-24 uses the Pratt & Whitney R-1830-35 or -41 turbosupercharged radial engines @ 1,200 hp. Below is a close-up of one of the turbosuperchargers.

Actor and great American James Stewart flew these over Germany during World War Two.

Not even any plexiglas between the waist gunner and the outside. Just a wind deflector. It got awfully cold up at 35,000 feet, which is why they wore electrically-heated flight suits (and why they died when those suits shorted out, or when their oxygen mask quit working.)

The powered tail gun position. Much more sophisticated than the tail station on the B-17.

The massive twin tail that made the Liberator so distinctive.

The Liberator had two connected bomb bays instead of one and the doors rolled up and down vertically instead of hinging open like on the B-17.

Simply beautiful. It's such a shame that we didn't save more of them.

Taxiing out. Destination Tokyo or Berlin.