Warbird Information Exchange

Not the first to ask that question....................loosley translated equal to our Lance Corporal.

Game time! What is this, specifically. The clue is in the pic.

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

[quote="NImrodA26"]Game time! What is this, specifically. The clue is in the pic.

After sending this to a committee of knowledgable people, their conclusion is that this is a picture. Or were you wanting to be more specific about the contents of said picture?? Instrument panel seems to be the focal point of it. More?? Are you wanting us to identify the type aircraft that it came out of at some point?? Is that the question? JR

OK, thanks, but then a Lance Corporal only exists in the Marines if I remember correctly. Does this mean you are expressing a fondness for the Marine Corps? I suppose that could happen. Reminds me of a time when there was a gaggle of us moving some old T-41A's out of the boneyard to be refurbished back in the 70's. One of the guys brought his parachute and was severely kidded about that. We had 3 flights of 4 in a loose formation. As it happened just north of the El Paso area, the guy who was leading one 4 ship suddenly started descending. The rest of the flight followed... all with quizzical looks on their faces. As it turned out, Lead (callsign Nuts) was the worst one about kidding the guy with the parachute (callsign Flake) who happened to be flying on his right wing. Lead announced that the SOB just quit and he was looking for a place out there in the mountains to put it down. No sooner than he unkeyed the mike, the guy with the parachute said... Hey Nuts, you wanna buy a parachute? The rest of us had a good laugh. Nuts, not so much. He finally got down to about a 1000 ft and the dumb thing started back up. He limped back to some podunk airport close to Salt Flat I think it was and waited for the truck to come fix it. The rest of us ... well, we circled like vultures for a bit and then start following our new Lead (Flake). We had quite a laugh when we all got together again.... and Flake was never kidded again about bringing his parachute along. Now where was I going with that?? Oh yes... we got 3 parachutes donated by a very generous gentleman for the A26. Thank you kindly. NOW, we might be wearing them if we have to do the duck walk thru the bomb bay on the doors from the aft doghouse to the cockpit for some reason in flight. It was designed to be able to do that, but .... I like a little insurance after having been raised around a B-17 whose doors are designed to open with any good weight on them. So the moral of the story is, always have insurance, whether it is a parachute or a Marine!! Good for the country!! JR

It's obviously a Stuka dashboard.

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

Mud, you are probably very close, but you see there are a couple of instruments there that might not be seen on a Stuka unless the Germans built a 4 engine version?? And the PDI thingee kinda indicates it was more of a level bomber instead of a dive bomber. I think Randy was just funnin us with what looks like B17 forward hatch doors with the word Stuka written on one. Trying to throw us off track or something?? Doing a good job at it.

Then it's a Gmeinder class 478.6 locomotive dashboard.

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

Want to remind all of the planes, cars and motorcycle fans that Spring Fling will start at 9 am in the morning, Saturday, at Meacham and will run until 6 pm. The P-51, Stearman, and 1929 Travelair are already in place. The DC3 is up and running so will be giving rides as well. Same with helicopters. We expect the clouds to be a little low in the morning, but improving rapidly before long so all the vintage planes will be there. Going to be an excellent day to be out in the sun and enjoying all these things we like. See you there. Be sure to say hi. I will probably be over at the B25 part of the day doing tours. Don't forget to drop by the hangar and see the A26 too. Cheers, JR

It's a panel off a quad engined something which has a tail wheel......that's as far as my guesses can go at the moment. The thing that confuses me if the chromated door thingie on the left looks like one we have that came off of somewhere on the other A-26

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The aviation gods were workng with me today, I got on the tour to go to the restoration hanger here at the Air Force Museum. They had a lot of "No shows" so had extra seating.
That instrument panel was a set up. The instrument panel is out of the Memphis Belle. It is the crew hatch that "Stuka" is painted on. The new one is beside it. "Stuka" was Morgans dog mascot, and he had his name painted on the door. We got about a 2 1/2 hour tour of the restoration shops. Amazing place. How they reproduce some of that stuff is increredible.

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

That's the whole instrument panel? It hardly seems wide enough! Thanks for the lesson!

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

I was just about to say Memphis Belle and you beat me to it. What a coincidence... my house guest tonight was the Best Man at Col. Robert Morgan's second wedding. We got a chuckle out of looking at the panel out of his old airplane!. Bob would have been pleased to see the airplane being restored and taking it's rightful place among the stars. Glad you were there!! Keep em coming!! JR

The cockpit of the B17 is not all that big. You would be surprised at how tight the airplane is inside when trying to move around. I certainly wonder how in the world they managed to bail out of the thing as hard as it is to reach a hatch just in level flight. Can you imagine what that must have been like in a spin or the airplane breaking up around you as it goes like a yard dart toward the ground? Whoa... lots of respect for those guys! The success rate of A-26 bail outs was even worse. If ever an airplane needed an ejection seat.... JR

Here's something interesting. They have increased the information about the A-26's role in Thailand. This is a pic of 671, taken early in the program I'm guessing as they were still carrying their own flares. This should make you guys proud of what you're doing in Ft. Worth.

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

[quote="NImrodA26"]Here's something interesting. They have increased the information about the A-26's role in Thailand. This is a pic of 671, taken early in the program I'm guessing as they were still carrying their own flares. This should make you guys proud of what you're doing in Ft. Worth.

Oh heck yeah, it does!! Thanks for the picture. Love the caption. It is about time that some recognition of the A-26 accomplishments is finally given by Uncle Sam. That is what we are really trying to do. Could you send me a copy of your shot via personal email so that I can get a clearer image to show the team? That will make a heck of a little poster for them. BTW, I was showing my house guest around the hangar this afternoon and stopped at the picture you sent of 679 in green and cream with the Kittinger special loading yall did. I mentioned that Joe had been part of the squadron and had trained in our airplane. We both blinked and remembered we met Joe at the same conference back in the 80's when he was there to talk about his big balloon jump. If only we had known about his connection to our airplane then!! Wow... funny how things intersect like that. My guest was also instrumental in obtaining the other (CAF) A-26 in our hangar when it was abandoned in Amarillo. We both had dealings with it then. Nice to see old friends! Thanks again... JR