Warbird Information Exchange

Got good news from JR today. The brake housing and rotors are cleaned up and waiting on Magnaflux. The guys at Aviall's brake shop do nice work. Many thanks to those folks over there for helping us out with the overhaul. The Other JR

This is how the rotors looked today. Came out really nice considering how rusted everything looked inside the brake housing. TA DAH... JR

David Horn sent us this shot of his beautiful model of the K. He said he is going to put the same markings on it soon so that it will be the same as ours. As soon as WE have that figured out..... golly, that time is coming fast. Right now, I am not thinking there will be any nose art in the WWII traditional sense, but won't rule it out entirely until we all sit down and discuss it. The NKP birds had very few with nose art. Can't find any reference to the training bases at England and Hurlburt having any on their aircraft. I would like to have the insignia of the Air Commando Wing, Squadron and Special Ops Squadron on the side of the fuselage somewhere, but not necessarily nose art size. It would be to help tell the story of the Special Operations guys at NKP. Anyway, can't wait to see David's finished model. Thanks, David.... We appreciate the interest. JR

Besides the following names on the A-26K's, I have a few non PC nose art ones I could send you if you want. Please send me a private e mail. Here is the list of well know names:
Might Mouse
The Flying Six Pack
Mother Trucker
Sweet Therese
Leaping Lena
Brendz Breeze

I like Mother Trucker! Suits the Invader

_________________
Magister Aviation
www.fougamagister.be

The Mouse was named by Don Vogler's dad, Charles. Those are interesting. Hadn't seen all on the list. Thanks... JR

PS We are pleased to report that Randy R and wife Karen arrived safely today to see K. We had a grand time looking her over. He will be back this weekend so if you want to talk to an original "gunplumber" who loaded for Red Kittinger, come out on Saturday and meet him. He drove all the way out from Virginia so you know he is a dedicated troop!!

The brake housing came out clean and the Bendix trademark was nice to finally see. The guys at Aviall are doing a magnificent job on the overhaul. They report it should start going together tomorrow. Sweeeeeeet..... JR

So what goes on the inside of the brake assembly? This is all the new stuff all sorted and ready for the install tomorrow. Can hardly wait as this looks like a piece of art work that we will hate to have to cover up in the wheel, but a pilot gotta do what a pilot gotta do.... make the airplane behave and brakes are a big player in that. JR

Man, that's a lot of stuff. I sure liked the brake setup on Spirit of Waco. About as easy as it gets.

Wonder why they didn't change the K models to something like that? Maybe the single discs couldn't handle the heavier weights...?

Actually, the set up on the Texas Special nee Spirit of Waco is much better than the WWII version. The Spirit predates On Mark but Robert Denny was at Grand Central which converted the airplane to the executive version with the new DC-6 brakes and then he moved to start On Mark. When the AF was talking about super sizing the weights carried on the K, they needed more brake than what the DC-6 had in order to handle relatively short fields. The K's brakes were much beefier and had anti-skid which was a very important feature on PSP or unprepared dirt strips especially with the higher landing speeds. Recall they were originally built to go anywhere in the world and did.. besides NKP. The also had reversing props to really help get stopped in a hurry. Anyway, the antiskid etc make for more parts to go into the assembly. Lots of progress on them today. Hope to have the assembly back from the shop next week. One more part from plating is still out on the left gear and then it can all go back together. Yay!! JR

Work on the oil cooler actuators and other things topside was just a blurr of activity yesterday. The real JR came up with another landing light for the right wing so we are anxious for our electrical genius's to try it out next weekend. We had lots of visitors over the weekend, in part, due to the FAAST TEAM holding three days of classes along with the high altitude training chamber. The museum was pleased to be able to host this event. The CAMI folks from Oklahoma City put on a fine show and it appears some pilots got some very good lessons on the effects of hypoxia first hand. We saw some pretty woosey looking people in there really enjoying themselves until the instructor had to put the oxygen mask back on them. There are times when being a HE-MAN just isn't wise like when trying to show everybody else how long you can go on low oxygen!! I don't think our guys up on the wing were in danger of hypoxia though. We had baked taters and chili for lunch so maybe there were other dangers involved. Maybe I shouldn't have put beans in the chili?? Anyway, we were also pleased to have the O2 Lady drop by to join us for chili and another special guest which we have been anticipating for several weeks. More in the next post about that. The other JR

Our special guest, Randy, got his picture taken with his picture.....we had posted it on the nose under the gun bay from back in the day when he was a gunplumber at NKP, England and Hurlburt AFB's. He kids about that was him 65 lbs ago, but we took him and wife Karen out to Ponder to the steakhouse last night and made sure they were fed good on steak, grilled cactus and homemade coconut pie. Oh yum... makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Anyway, we want to welcome Randy and Karen to Ft Worth and we hope the rest of their drive from VA to NM's Carlsbad Caverns goes smoothly. My dad installed the first telephone in the Caverns for a live broadcast of Ripley's Believe it or Not radio show. He also installed most of the lines and phones at Carlsbad Army Air Field when it was opened. So I hope the Caverns are still the great place to visit that I remember from the 90's. JR

PS.. anybody else having trouble with Photobucket? My edit function only works half the time. The photo above was in the normal position but now is rotated to the right?? any fixes?? anyone?? So I removed it to try and fix. JR

My granddog, JJ, is modeling the latest A-26 shirt for us. Who says we don't like animals? We just don't like pigs. Heck, we have a momma fox and her kits living under the hangar next door. Then there is the bar... well, I won't go there. Anyway, we are pleased with the way Don redid the logo on the back to our very own K. Thanks! JR

Some of our electrical genius's designed and built a tester for all of our circuit breakers. When they told me about it, I said, "Breaker, Breaker one nine". They all looked at me in disgust. Guess CB lingo was before their time. Anyway, they are making great progess checking out the circuitry. Seems we do have a little problem getting power out to one of the oil cooler door actuators, but nothing our guys can't fix with time and money, right?? JR

Here is another try for Randy's picture to be right side up. We enjoyed the visit with him and wife. We put him to work in the bomb bay checking and oiling up all of the bomb release mechanisms. He reported that all were now free and working. Look out pigs!!! Randy was very pleased to have A-26 grit under his nails again. He thought he might not wash them out for awhile!! JR