Warbird Information Exchange

This morning, I caught the last 10 minutes of an episode of The Great Planes on the Military (ex-Discovery Wings) Channel. As so many of those shows do, it rubbed me the wrong way because they are so darn sloppy with their use of archival film stock. The episode was, as I mentioned, supposedly about the Bell P-39 Aircobra. As I tuned in, they were discussing some spin problems the plane had because of its aft CG and they said that the "pilots" went back to Bell for help. As if that weren't bad enough in terms of glossing over a subject - and I don't even know what they said about it next because - they went right into some stock footage of a P-40 making a low pass over a runway and THEN they showed two P-47's being launched off of a carrier. HELLO! WHAT? While showing that footage, the narration is talking about the contribution of the P-39's in the island hopping campaigns in the Pacific and the Battle of the Bismark Sea in March 1943 during which the US Navy sank 8 Japanese transports, thus cutting off outside supplies to Japanese forces and forcing them to "live off of the land."

OK, so now go look up the meaning of NON SEQUITUR and then come back and please tell me what the one thing has to do with the others!

And THEN, please tell me more about the freakin' P-47's being launched off of the aircraft carrier!

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“To invent the airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything!” - Otto Lilienthal

Natasha: "You got plan, darling?"
Boris: "I always got plan. They don't ever work, but I always got one!"

Remember, any dummy can be a dumb-ass...
In order to be a smart-ass, you first have to be "smart"
and to be a wise-ass, you actually have to be "wise"

Agreed that they are sloppy on words used, film clips used, assumptions jumped to, history glossed over, but they are showing pics of planes! The P-47s off the carrier were being delivered by USS Manilla Bay and USS Natoma Bay to Saipan for the 318th

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Aviation Illustration Website
http://shepartstudio.com/illustration/

I hate sloppy editing!

Maybe the editor heard the words "in the Pacific" and decided to use shots of aircraft launching off carriers to represent "the Pacific"? Oh, sorry, they weren't Navy planes they were launching off the carrier, but who cares, nobody's gonna complain!

They also launched P-40's off the Ranger in North Africa.
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

Rajay, bravo sierra like that is why I gave my television to Goodwill. The dumbing down of America.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I haven't gone THAT far yet, but I certainly don't watch the Military Channel as much as I used to watch when it was just the Wings channel. I don't have anything against the host of Great Planes in particular, but the show as a whole $ucks in direct comparison to the shows that Phil Osborne produced for Wings - although many years ago, before he died in the P-38 crash in Oregon, author, historian, and frequent guest expert on Osborne's shows Jeff Ethell told me that working for Phil was no picnic either.

I don't know -maybe it's like the recent thread about fictional pilots and the posts about how the old televison shows we watched and loved as kids now make us cringe when we see them again.

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“To invent the airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything!” - Otto Lilienthal

Natasha: "You got plan, darling?"
Boris: "I always got plan. They don't ever work, but I always got one!"

Remember, any dummy can be a dumb-ass...
In order to be a smart-ass, you first have to be "smart"
and to be a wise-ass, you actually have to be "wise"

Rajay...don't have to look up "non-sequitur". And yes...with painfully few exceptions, every military history show is full of them. Mrs. Mudge gets pi$$ed when I keep pointing them out.

Mudge the pedant

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Land of the free because of the brave

Don't feel bad about the Military Channel...There are instructors here that are including the TR-1 in the current AF inventory...

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Bob

"and the Battle of the Bismark Sea in March 1943 during which the US Navy sank 8 Japanese transports, thus cutting off outside supplies to Japanese forces and forcing them to "live off of the land."

Now THAT would definitely "irritate" some 3rd BG people I know who participated in that mission!!

Bill

89th Sqdn participants ( 8th Sqdn crews flew with the 89th on this mission)



13th Sqdn participants: photo courtesy of Jack Heyn 3rd Photo Section



90th Sqdn participants

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Natural law. Sons are put on this earth to trouble their fathers.

The P-40 episode had shots of early P-51's on the production line, or vice versa.

Best quote I've seen lately is:

"Kill your TV it is lying to you"

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Always looking for WW2 Half-Tracks and Parts.