Warbird Information Exchange

"Air Aces" a new series on the Military channel debuts tonight at 9pm EDT. Two episodes will be shown back to back tonight one on George Beurling and another on Douglas Bader. The show is an update of the old Dogfights series using CGI, real footage, and reenactments.
http://military.discovery.com/tv-shows/ ... hedule.htm

Looks like it should be pretty decent. I'll be watching it!

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A&P/I.A., A.A.S./Aviation Maintenance technology
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One day I'll get that P-40!

Cool! Thanks for the heads up. I'll be watching/recording

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Some people are like slinkys, good for nothing but bring a smile to your face when pushed down stairs.

the show is absolutely kick ass!! great content, rare interviews, excellent computer imagery.

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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!!

I started watching it last night. It's far better than all the "reality" shows out there.

This has been running on the History Channel for a while. Great stuff. The George "Buzz" Beurling episode was of special interest to me as my dad met him during the war. Beurling was home after his Malta stint and doing a speaking tour to sell Victory bonds. When he stopped in Moncton, NB, he requested the use of an a/c to go for a "tilt" and my dad, who was an aero-mechanic, signed him out on a Harvard. When I asked him what he thought of the man, my dad said he was immediately struck by the look of his eyes. In his words, "he had the eyes of a killer". My dad, who turns 95 this year, has never said a mean word about anyone in my presence, and for him to even remember that meeting, let alone make a comment like that, speaks volumes.

Don

I was intrigued by what you said about Beurling so I cruised over to Wikipedia...I think I can see what your Dad meant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Georg ... r_1943.jpg

-Brandon

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ATC: "Oscar 2, cleared to engage wildlife at your discretion..."

Not to be picky (having served in SEA): The episode on Robin Olds contains discrepancies. Scenes of an actor portrying him in flying gear, is wearing late 1950s issue equipment--the wrong type of helmet with exposed visor, and oxygen mask (note it is too small) for SEA operations. Compare this to Olds wearing his flying equipment in actual newsfilm scenes.

When Olds had to report to 7th AF HQ in Saigon, the actor portraying him is wearing a 1950s USMC-type coat uniform, tie and hat! In SEA, Olds would have worn his blue service hat with visor braids--not a khaki hat--and regular USAF summer khaki shirt and pants with no tie. The USAF did not issue khaki summer service coats as worn by the actor--this style was dicontinued in the early 1950 period.

USAF officers wore their garrison hat straight over their head and not canted at a sharp angle to one side like the RAF.

Norman Malayney

Yeah.... it's not hard to pick out exactly where the budget falls short. I'm not knocking it, just saying what I see. But I do hate the CG stuff. Some of those rivets must be the size of basketball!

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Christopher Soltis
Dedicated to the preservation and education of The Sikorsky Memorial Airport

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Good, but not as good as Dogfights.

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A man's got to know his limitations.

Agreed!

I DVR'd the latest episode Sunday and the Bader one from last week and will watch them tonight. MC was billing these as new. When were they on History? I NEVER saw them plugged if so, only Ice Road Numbnuts, Axeholes and Swamp things. That channel is utterly useless.

I did catch on PBS (NJ channel 23) the NOVA episode "3D Spies of WW2". If you haven't caught this one, check PBS.ORG and go to the NOVA page. They said you could watch it online there. Very well done and some beautiful air to air footage of a PR Spitfire, with interviews by the pilots (both US and RAF). Anyone know which Spit it was?

That was Peter Teichman's Spitfire PR Mk.XI (part of his "Hangar 11 Collection"), the only one of its kind currently flying - its painted in its original operational markings, and is the only Spitfire flying today powered by its original in-service WWII engine. http://hangar11.co.uk/spitfire.html

Add this to the ever-expanding list of things I'll never see as my cable provider doesn't carry military channel as an option at all...

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

Maybe as far as disecting the details of the specific dogfights, but the CGI was light years ahead. This was the first time I saw CGI airplanes lit properly. Your not supposed to see all the details all the time, some just get washed out in shadows and they got it. Those JU88's and 109's were amazing on the Bader episode. Seeing what a job they did on the details, I can't believe Lucasfilm botched the CGI on Red Tails so bad.