Some planes I saw at the Imperial War Museum................

[armyjunk2]

Tom, Photograph number 2 is Gondola that was lowered though the clouds from a Zeppelin so that they could see what was going on below. Anyone know if that is the correct term? Gondolier?

Last edited by armyjunk2 on Wed Oct 31, 2007 4:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[n5151ts]

it doesnt change much and I can't help but feel that is criminal to hang those machines in the air and not allow them to fly....

Criminal!!! You must be joking. These aircraft are incredibly original airframes. You need to have some of them preserved like that. Not everything should be made to fly again. Don't get me wrong, I love flyers, but you would have to replace so much on these birds to get them flying again. I'd much rather have a mostly non-original flyer come from a bad wreck, than one of these aircraft.

The spitfire even has its original WWII paint on it. It's a Battle of Britain survivor too. Why would you want to get rid of all that history just so that it flies again? The zero has it original markings as well.

As far as not changing much, that's a load of rubbish too. True, the museum doesn't move its big exhibits that often, but the rest of the museum is constantly changing with different, highly detailed and interesting displays and themes. There's a great one in there at them moment on the Blitz. Honestly, there really is no pleasing some people.

Richard

load of rubbish ! LOL!

[JDK]

Tom, Photograph number 2 is gondolier that was lowered though the clouds from a Zeppelin so that they could see what was going on below. Anyone know if that is the correct term? Gondolier?

Gondola is the craft, a Goldolier is the person who makes the boat version go.

Going by the size of the holes, that's a gondol..

[Firebird]

Spitfire Mk.I. One of the most historic and original Spitfires left, including its 1944 paint, and with combat history from the Battle of Britain. A rebuild to fly would dispose of much of the original metal, most of those rivets and all of the historic paint (irreplaceable to future researchers in all cases).

Actually, I was thinking.....which in itself is pretty dangerous, but...a question for the restoration/paint guru's..?

That 1944 paint on the Spit........if as remarked in the recent FP article on it, the sky fuse band is it's original one, then the green/grey MU applied paint is a blow over job. So, could after all these years, that be carefully removed to reveal it's original 1940 green/earth Battle of Britain paint beneath......?

Now that would truely special.......

[JDK]

Now that would truely special.......

It would, but the smart money's against it.

As I said on the Flypast thread:

I doubt they would have had the time to strip the green/brown paint off, surely the later scheme would have been done later "in the field"

There's two assumptions there, both of which may be correct, or not. My guess is that whether the original scheme was stripped or not, the latter scheme was applied properly; either keying the old scheme (which damages the paint significantly) or applying a primer and key over it, or quite possibly stripping it back. My other guess is that whatever is under the current scheme would be hard to get to, and won't look very nice, certainly not a full 1940 green and brown coat.

Destroying a 1944 scheme to get to a 1940 scheme on such a historic artefact is something the IWM may not feel mandated to do. It's a very different scenario from removing a inaccurate 1960s or 70s museum bodge paint.

[Steve Nelson]

I wonder if the IWM could do the same with the Spit that the FAA Museum did with their "time capsule" corsair. That would be awsome!

SN

[JDK]

I wonder if the IWM could do the same with the Spit that the FAA Museum did with their "time capsule" corsair. That would be awsome!

It would, but it won't. See above, and bear in mind the FAAM removed a post-war museum applied static over-paint, not a wartime properly applied airworthy paint scheme.

Would be interesting though.

[Steve Nelson]

I see...thanks for the clarification.

SN

[armyjunk2]

JDK, Thank you

[Robbo]

James, the original crumpled rear fuselage section of Black 6 is up on the wall at Shoreham Museum (Kent).

[JDK]

Thanks, Dave & Robbo.

[Chris Brame]

James:

V-1 & V-2. Gee. What are we waiting for? Should be a blast at shows.

Me, on the CF-TCY thread:

I've always hoped I'd live to see one of Earl Reinert's aircraft flying again.

Well, maybe not the Ohka

Great minds think alike