Warbird Information Exchange

From Liberators post on WW2 photos. Nice find, interesting formations.









Any idea what the aircraft is in the forground? Looks like the nose of a C-47



Big interesting airplane, nice look to it though





Various others, thanks Liberator, some I haven't seen before.

The aircraft in the foreground of the first pic is an Illushin IL-14 and the bomber is a Petlyakov Pe-8

Most of these are delivery flight shots taken along the ALSIB route, not on ops, hence the formations of P-63s with an escorting B-25

EDIT: Didn't see the reply above the quoted photos.

Interesting set, thanks for posting!

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Matt

Correct you are, "ops" being the wrong choice of word there.

Also interesting to see a glazed FAIRFAX side window in that shot of Larry, Moe, and Curly next to the B-25.
The Fairfax was earlier and different in overall shape from J waist side mounts, look very closely @ the shapes of the metal fairings top and bottom

The Il-14 was the Soviet Convairski, and not at all loved by the folks tasked with herding it around the skies, but it stayed in military and commercial use for years and was exported (possibly @ the point of a gun?) all over the Soviet sphere of influence. And being a typical Soviet design, probably had a flight crew of 27 so 'everyone has job'.

NATO code name was 'Crate' it seated 24-36 pax and screamed along @ a blistering 190 kts max cruise, max range w/full load was 215 NM max range w/ full fuel 945 NM

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

While called the "Convairski", it was actually closer to a modified Li-2 (hence the similar nose to the C-47). The Il-12, from which the Il-14 was developed look much more unique, but after structural problems with it, they redesigned the airplane into the Il-14 and outwardly, the airplane's design "devolved" into a more direct Li-2 replacement with a bigger tail, redesigned boat tail, and a reshaped nose that probably was directly from the Li-2 tooling (the Soviets loved to reuse things that worked and have as many "standard" structures and parts as possible)

The PE-8 also had rear defense turrets in the trailing ends of engine nacelles #1 and #4.
And as far as reusing stuff, the TU-95 BEARs granddaddy was a B-29 and they bult GAZ limos for beeg shotskis' from modified old PACKARD tooling clear into the late 60's/early 70's

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

[quote="vernicator"]The aircraft in the foreground of the first pic is an Illushin IL-14 and the bomber is a Petlyakov Pe-8



I am think that is an Il-12 in the photo, as the Il-14 did not fly until 1954. Scopes on nose also seem to point to the 12. Both good looking machines.

Gary

Most likely delivery flights, as the planes are carrying the delivery markings. The white surround was painted out with dark green before the planes went into service. I've read differing accounts about the white circle..some say it was intentional for high visibility during the delivery flights, others say is was a misinterpretation of a tech order calling for a red star with a white border.

Great pics!

SN

that one c-47 in the closeup looks like it's on steroids!!! looks nicer than the japanese tabby. the tricycle gear is definetely a twist!!







forgot to add great pics!!! i've never seen any of them!! thanks!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Good eye! I missed the 2 scoops just below and aft of the the flightdeck windows which makes it an Il-12.

I found the following interesting document about the Il-12 and Il-14 and thought others might enjoy it.
http://www.oldwings.nl/st/il12_14.pdf
The site contains info on other older Soviet transports and some interesting articles, including this one about whether the 1954 change to the tail number prefix for "obsolete" planes was a zero or "oh".
http://www.oldwings.nl/content/o0/not_oh.htm

Randy

Nice info Randy! Thanks for all the digging, especially on a pretty obscure Soviet airliner to most people

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

My grandfather, who was a flight test engineer out of Wright-Pat, was stationed at Fairbanks in 1944 to do cold-weather testing on a number of planes, including the P-59.

He had quite a few stories about the Russians. Apparently the Russian transports were always having hydraulic issues when they showed up. He said the hydraulic fluid looked strange, so, wondering what the Russians were up to, they took a sample and sent it back to a lab at Wright-Pat for analysis. When the results came back, he said it contained traces of nearly every liquid known to man, including measurable quantities of human urine!

He also said the P-39s would show up in Fairbanks, nice and clean. The next morning, each would have a pool of red hydraulic fluid under the nose (in the snow) where the nosegear strut leaked out and compressed, looking like they had bled to death. The joke was that the P-39s would always try to commit mass suicide instead of having to go to Russia.