The Air & Space Reader Scrapbook has some great images that have been added by the public. Sadly they are only available at low res, but there's a lot of gems there. Here's a few that caught my eye. (Link to the page below the image.)
Very exciting for Defiant aficionados like myself - a photo of one of the very rare USAAF marked target tugs.
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Phil Gioia of Corte Madera, California writes, "My father served in OSS in Europe, 1943-45. From summer 1943 to early spring 1944 he was based near Peterborough, in England. "In the collected memorabilia from his OSS service in England and later in Italy as an operational agent, there is the attached snap of what appears to be some sort of fighter or fighter-bomber with either a turret or blister behind the cockpit. "The aircraft has ID letters on the fuselage in the British fashion. They appear to be either JV - U or JW - U. On the vertical stabilizer there also appears what may be the British vertical tricolor. Yet the aircraft wears what appears to be the early 'barred' version of the USAAF insignia. Can you help me out on this?" The aircraft in Phil's photo is a Boulton Paul Defiant T.T.1 (with American markings)
http://www.airspacemag.com/reader-scrap ... rt=133&c=ySome of the sequence the following shot is from are well known, but sobering nonetheless.
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Jack Davey (Lt. Col., USAF, ret.) of Phoenix, Arizona, writes: "These photos are a selection from three albums my uncle, Merit Christopher, assembled during his tours as a crew chief on B-26s in North Africa, Sardinia, Italy, and France during WWII. As a small boy during the war, I was influenced by this uncle and three cousins to make the USAF my career. The cousins and I are of mixed Sioux Indian parentage and continue a family warrior tradition. The photo captions are taken directly from my uncle's comments in the albums. This one is captioned "Direct hit by 105 mm flak clipped the wing."
http://www.airspacemag.com/reader-scrap ... rt=241&c=yAnd I believe we discussed this very 'Zero' (Oscar) recently here.
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William Caudry of Simi Valley, CA sent in a collection of photos from the albums of his father-in-law, Ray Nelson. Ray was a USAF World War II veteran who flew in missions in China, Burma and India. Ray was in the 7th Bomb Group, 436th Squadron, 9th Squadron based in Assam, India where he flew My Assam Wagon. In this photo, a captured Japanese Ki-43 plane is placed on display at Clark Field in Clark Air Base in the Philippines.
http://www.airspacemag.com/reader-scrap ... rt=193&c=yAnd, while a bit of a squeeze, this one fits in the W.W.II era. Looks to me even more like the stillborn Fairey airliner which was itself spookily similar to the later Connie.
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Will Hawkins of Menlo Park, California writes, "The following photos are from the camera of Willis Hawkins, who...was responsible for much of the Constellation's design, including the distinctive triple-tail. Along with his principle design work, Hawkins was the lead on all of Lockheed's early wind tunnel work (assuming the responsibilities during the design of the Model 14 Super Electra). He often took his camera along with him, not so much for historical documentation, as for creating reference aids for his design work...The fuselage used for these tests was from the last version of the L-044 Excalibur, an earlier 4 engine design..." Martin adds, "More airflow: Note the high-tech set-up [and] cutting-edge equipment behind the observation window."
http://www.airspacemag.com/reader-scrap ... art=85&c=y
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