Warbird Information Exchange

Was it this one?

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p51registry/p51-4472483.html

If it was, the guy was probably Ray Stutsman. I'm not sure about the P-51 gun camera pics, but Ray told me Walter Beckham had given him a copy of his gun camera footage from the original P-47 "Little Demon".

The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago's Spitfire has 5 kills
and we all know the Stuka is a combat vet. EVG's FG 67HP flew in the Soccer War.

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Don't touch my junk!!

If only we knew for sure. We're very sure that she was a PFF ship, but did she serve in combat or did she serve as a stateside training ship? I've read that most Vega-built Block 70 aircraft were sent to England for combat. I've seen B-17G's with serial numbers only a few digits away from ours listed amongst the combat aircraft on various bomb units' web sites. There are a number of patches on Chuckie's skin which cover small, jagged, irregularly-shaped holes that were clearly punched from the outside by jagged objects... perhaps by flak fragments? We just don't know. The military service records of my big aluminum mistress (at least that's what my wife thinks!) are still sealed, from the time she entered USAAF service until some time in 1946. A fellow that I met at the museum recently told me that he had written to our US Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison, to ask her to find some way to get Chuckie's service records released to us. Sen. Hutchison is from Fort Worth, has seen the airplane, and is a supporter of the Museum. Man, wouldn't it be cool if she could make that happen. . .

Dean the Hopeful

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

I still have some .30-06 shells and links from inside the cockpit of the SBD I dug out from the mud/grime in the bottom of the fuselage.

The Kalamazoo Air Zoo's SBD-3 BuNo 06624 flew combat missions in Operation Torch with VS-14 of USS Ranger, and according to Navy records scored a bomb hit on the French battleship Jean Bart in Casablanca Harbor. She later flew U-boat patrols in the Carribean, before being assigned to a training unit at NAS Great Lakes. She was lost in Lake Michigan while attempting to land on USS Wolverine in September of 1943, and recovered almost exactly 50 years later.

What boggles my mind is that she was sent to a training unit because she was considered obsolete and worn out..and she was only a year old!

SN


Before Restoration...




And After...

Hans Lauridsens TBM, A-26 and PBY are all combat vets
The TBM flew 11 missions of the Yorktown with VT-88.
The A-26 flew in Korea
the PBY attacked a U-boat while in the Candian Costal command

My Spitfire XIV RM-797 has four kills including -

1 x Me262
1 x Ar234
1 x Fw190
1 x Ju52

Saw service with 41 Sqn RAF from 1944. Flown by Australian/Canadian and NZ pilots.

Aircraft being rebuilt right now to fly by late 2009.

IIRC the Mustang that Jim Shuttleworth was killed in a few years ago (SCATVI ? ) was flown in combat by Gen Robin Olds who had I believe 3 1/2 kills in it? No idea where the remains of that Mustang went.

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Earn my respect and never lose it.
Demand my respect and never gain it. -Me

...just another plane dreamer.

My 0-1G Bird Dog "Little Puff" 0-11976 spent 20 years in Vietnam. My 0-2A Skymaster only spent 5 years there. All combat time.

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..defeat is never an option!

The P-39Q-15, 44-2911, which was recovered from Russia by Jim Pearce and Mike Walton in 2004 had all of its logbooks and maintenance records on board. Documentation was from the factory and the way to the day it began its last flight.

That is quite a record! What an interesting variety of kills. Good luck with the restoration!

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Share your story: Rutgers Oral History Archive http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/

Pretty sure the MAAM P-61 went down on an orientation flight/check ride before the turret was even installed.

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"Anyway, the throat feels a bit rough...the legs have gone...but I'm still able to chant, so let's get going."

Joe Strummer, 1999

The CAF's R4D-6S has combat time, but the Navy's record keeping was different from the USAAF's - they destroyed the records after 60 days, so we'll probably never know for sure how much combat flying she did during her patrols across the Gulf, Carribean, and Atlantic during the war.

Doesn't the CAF's Avenger have some Combat Time as well?

The flying Fighter Factory Hurricane isn't a BoB or combat vet. It was a RCAF homefront aircraft that never left Canada until it was sold to civilian ownership. The Fighter Factory has/had a second Hurricane project that was a Russian recovery. It was shot down, so it is a vet, but not a BoB vet.

Jim

MAAM's P-61 doesn't really have any combat history. It only had 10? or so hours ( I think).

And your right, it didn't have turret.