Warbird Information Exchange

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... "What'd you say your name was again"? ... "I didn't" ...

I'm smiling...I'm smiling.

Mudge the...well...smiling

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Land of the free because of the brave

Those are amazing! I feel stupid but what is that first pic?

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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."

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... "What'd you say your name was again"? ... "I didn't" ...

Very nice. I think the second and third shots are the same photo of a Wildcat but pasted onto different backgrounds.

August

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http://www.photo.net/photos/k5083

Either the protype or a very early MARTIN PBM 5 MARINER.

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After 40 years in aviation, I find only three reasons to run-
Fire, Free food, If someons yells 'hey, the free food's on fire'

Both the lead P-38 (a G) and the P-51 as well as the B-25H-5 are in holes in Baughers lists, the s/n's on either side of the P-38 were assigned in Italy.
0517 had it's flotation bags open in flight near Oahu, HI crew bailed out 10/31/40
0631 was SOC 10/31/44
0542 was SOC @ NAS MEMPHIS 4/19/44 after suffering as an instructional airframe.

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After 40 years in aviation, I find only three reasons to run-
Fire, Free food, If someons yells 'hey, the free food's on fire'

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... "What'd you say your name was again"? ... "I didn't" ...

What a great selection of shots, thanks for posting them Mark

Seconded!

And FWIW, most are new to me.

Such cynicism in one so young... I'm not aware of such activities by LIFE photographers in aviation subjects elsewhere, so I had a good look.

Very similar, but it's a classic pair of shots from an air to air sortie producing the result. The Wildcat angle and image does look identical, but it's not; after a good look at details, you'll note the pilot's head position (relative to the canopy frame) and contrast is different, but conclusive is the relative position of the port wing root to the sight and windscreen, which is definitely different in the two images.

Regards,

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

The P-40's @ beautiful Adak in the Aleutians cements the two in flight photos of the massed B-24's/P-40's as being on the way to bomb one of the Japanese held islands in the chain (a good sized raid, must be because of the 'Senatorial Weather', usually raids were two or three airplanes because of mechanical issues or crap weather, maybe one of the 24's is the hulk on Atka) 80 grit sandpaper material with microscopic glass particles in it wears engines out in a hurry and you can see the drifted volcanic ash, all those guys in the chain served in a real H#ll on earth.

4288623, C-75, ex TWA NC 1940/NC 19906 CHEROKEE. l/n 1996. Returned to TWA 7/44 and upgraded by TWA. Sold to French Aigle Azure Transports Aerians as F-BELU. To Air Laos in 1952 then to Airnautic (GECA) 11/59. To CITA in 1965 then sold to Cambodia Air Commercial in 1974 as WX-TFB. Conflicting reports that it was seen operating as late as 1985 or, it was B/U.

Sorry to see the officer in the dress cap standing in front of GINGER appears to be having kidney problems

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After 40 years in aviation, I find only three reasons to run-
Fire, Free food, If someons yells 'hey, the free food's on fire'

Kind of garbled the ID there, Inspector .


msn 1998, last registration XW-TFP. This is generally assumed, tho not proven, to be the one that ditched in the Mekong and the crew captured by the Laos rebels:
http://aviation-safety.net/database/rec ... 19750313-1

I'm pretty sure that by 1986 the only surviving (complete) B307 was N19903 at that time in the Pima museum, now at Udvar-Hazy.

Mark, maybe you can help me with this. I've started looking to see if I can find images on the internet of my Great Uncle's planes. I've got a few published pictures from books and pictures he's sent me, but I was kinda wondering/hoping if the LIFE archives might have one or two by chance. Does the database allow searches by the nose art/name on the airplane? That is the only way I think I'll be able to do it as he doesn't know where his logbooks are (although he's sure he still has them somewhere in storage) so I don't have tail numbers or serial numbers to make it easier.

Sorry, when I was posting that info we were having a butt kicker of a thunder storm and torrential rains (still) right over the house (rare occurrence around here), I'm tired of Juneuary!!

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After 40 years in aviation, I find only three reasons to run-
Fire, Free food, If someons yells 'hey, the free food's on fire'

Good morning all and your welcome. My pleasure to post some fun stuff. Hope you guys are liking the threads. As for LIFE searches, they do seem to be restricted as to what you can enter for a search. CAPflyer any info regarding your Great Uncle you care to share and I would be happy to help search for some images for you. I actually enjoy the search.

Mark

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... "What'd you say your name was again"? ... "I didn't" ...