Warbird Information Exchange

Lope's Hope...the race is on.

https://www.facebook.com/aircorpslibrar ... =3&theater

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Just saw a photo taken over the weekend of "Lope's Hope 3rd" showing most of the cowl panels attached (the engine still removed) and work being done on completing the wing-fuselage fillets and the horizontal tail-fuselage fillets. Like on "SSII", they'll have to remove the wing from the fuselage again in order to do the profiling and painting of the wing to original spec. The markings will be a bit plain, as the original was, but still it will be pretty unique to have a Mustang with a big flat-black painted tail/squadron markings we haven't seen on a flying Mustang before. It is also the first Mustang that has ever been restored to the original/correct CBI Theatre configuration, with all of the original, correct CBI radios, antennas, and related equipment/hardware installed throughout the fuselage and cockpit.

(With regard to "Dottie Mae", it has been mentioned by Allied Fighters on Facebook that it won't be attending Oshkosh this year, but instead will be attending the Warhawk Air Museum's Warbird Roundup, in Nampa, Idaho on August 26th and 27th, with some hinting that the nose art may be painted on the aircraft, and/or unveiled at this event.)

The May/June update was posted earlier today.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/aircorpsavi ... 9101714335

I'd like to see it at Oshkosh just as much as everyone else, but that looks like a lot of work to be done in an extremely short amount of time.

The latest schedule of the daily airshows: https://www.eaa.org/en/airventure/featu ... w-schedule

From today's webinar on the highlights of Airventure 2017: http://eaavideo.org/channel.aspx?ch=ch_webinars

-75th Doolittle Raid Anniversary: "just under 16 B-25s confirmed" still hoping to get 16. Sun-Mon arrival, fly Tuesday will land and be lined up as if on the Hornet in Warbird Alley. Wed night will launch (7:45pm) as if on the Hornet in rapid succession. I assume no 500ft take-offs. At 8pm the B-25s will "light up the skies," with 96 shots of pyro!

-75th anniversary of 8th Air Force/70th anniversary USAF: Saturday B-1, B-2, & B-52 formation pass at 3:30pm, the B-1, B-2, B-52 will also make single ship passes. Followed closely by 2 B-29s, 2 B-17s, B-24("we may have a B-24 on board now"), flight of B-25s, & A-20. Collings are in Chicago that weekend.

-The B-1B that is static for the week will also be the one flying during the week. Arrival Monday at 2:30pm, will fly during the Wed night show, then fly again during "Bomber day" Sat. B-2 is flyover only Sat. Two B-52s - one static, one for the Sat. flyover.

-Two F-22s will arrive Friday will stay the weekend. KC-135 arrives Tue. will be static rest of the week. Two Navy P-8s, one on display early in the week and open for tours Tue-Wed. This P-8 departs Thurs morning with another P-8 arriving Thurs afternoon.

-F-35 Heritage Flight arrival Mon., none static, several A-10s Heritage Flight and static. Composite Heritage Flight F-35, A-10 and 2 P-51s. Wed. & Sat. 122nd FW Indiana ANG two A-10s demo with pyro.

-RAF A-400M arrives morning and departs during airshow on Wed. will do a couple of flybys on departure.

Mystery flyover Wed. and maybe Tue as well at the start of the airshow. "Lots of moving parts required." Requires a tanker with people coming from far away. "If it works it's gonna be awesome."

-F-18s, F-16s Wisconsin ANG, Army Chinooks and Apaches.

-"Cool aircraft": B-29s (Doc/Fifi) flying Tue, Fri & Sat., Doc on the plaza all week, Fifi on the plaza and selling rides in Appleton. YL-15 on the plaza, Scaled Composites Proteus, F-86A oldest flying jet, 2 P-47s from TN, Collings Mark IX Spitfire w/116 combat missions, recently restored SBD, CAF P-63, A-20, C-123 used as a stage for the honor flight/veteran parade.

-Blue Origin will have a space flown booster rocket on display as well as the capsule (open for tours) they plan to use for space tourism.

-Wed 30m warbird airshow display "fighters," Thurs. jet warbirds, Fri. 60m warbird show w/B-29s, A-20 is flying in Tue., Fri., and Sat. warbird show.

-Sun. NASA T-38 and CAF P-63 in NACA scheme will fly together.

Thanks for sharing this!

Just curious if anybody could please provide the tail number of the NASA T-38.

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

Sucks that the A400 is leaving Wednesday as I am only able to make it for Friday/Saturday. I was hoping to get 3 different A400s this year, got the French at Sun N Fun, hoping to get this RAF bird and then the German one at Thunder Over Michigan

I'm far from a restoration expert, but Lope's Hope looks a little more than 8-9 days away from flying. I'd be glad to be proven wrong though.

Nice to see that the A-20 will be flying multiple times during the week. I was afraid I was going to miss that.

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Matt

Me too, I picked Tuesday about a month or two ago based on the info that both B-29s were scheduled to fly that day. I'm glad the A-20 will too!

Tuesday looks like the premier day up there this year to get the most "bang for your buck."

A little insight to the work required to bring the A-20 to OSH and a sneak peak of what it looks like and sounds like in the air-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaTSjvt ... e=youtu.be

Every day at Oshkosh is a premier day.


For me personally, I'm also really looking forward to the planned multi-P-63 experience. I just hope the CAF understands that they assume all risk participating this way at an airport named after Steve Wittman. Word is he never sawed a P-63 he didn't like.

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Well I had wanted to spend the whole week at OSH but being I had to move and that I had to pay double rent for a month the month before plus double utilities canceled my trip to OSH briefly. Fortunately I was able to find a cheap motel in Green Bay and get a long weekend that allowed me to only miss one day of work I am able to attend Friday and Saturday. I mainly am going for that bomber parade Saturday with the modern bombers as well as all the classics going up. I am hoping that a lot of the warbirds and vintage civilian stick around all week at least until Saturday night or Friday.

The ATC feeds are up.

https://www.liveatc.net/search/?icao=KOSH

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Warbird Hertiage Foundation has pulled all of their aircraft (F86, A4, L39, and Skyraider) from Oshkosh, as well as the remainder of the 2017 airshow season (as per their Facebook page)

The EAA - Spirit of Aviation Facebook page also shows that Tim Savage's A-26 is on the Airventure grounds today. Does anyone have an update? It looks ready to go... minus some of the colorful noseart.