Warbird Information Exchange

I understand the Zero's engine was cr*p to begin with.

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Don't touch my junk!!

The guy telling Lefty not to fly it was Marine Ace Archie Donahue. If Archie told me not to fly something, I think I'd take his advice. Wasn't all this happening around the same time that Rutan was building the Vari-eze's? Seems to be a slight difference in methodology and engineering.

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The more I learn about aircraft, the more I realize I still have to learn.

Watching this at work has inspired one of my co-workers to build an R.C. model of the Defender.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

Is he going to build a miniature "wind tunnel" and "high speed platform" to test his "radical new wing design" before he just decides on using a Cessna wing?

Gary

Ha ha I am not sure

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

I stopped by Diemert's place back in the 80's,stuff all over the place.

An RCAF air force fighter pilot buddy of mine mentioned how many pilots would go fly the Defender on the second day after a few hundred Defenders were shot down on the first day...the Defenders may have been cheap but pilots aren't.

I saw the Defender in the hangar, the main wheel was off a farm harrow cart.

Speaking of Diemert's work, does anyone here know how many flights the OTHER Zero made - the one with the B-25 QEC - the one now at Pensacola?

Anyone have pictures of it while it had the B-25 engine on it?

Also, did the Diemert Val just make one flight in it's post "wreckstoration" status?

I hope I have a better set of wings when I go to the the Big Airfield in the Sky.

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PAPPY ch-46 phrog,endangerd species 40 years and still flying

Thanks for posting that link!
I've been promised a copy of that film for years and still hadn't seen it!
It was pretty interesting and everything everyone has told me it was!
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."

No problem man. I am glad that you are enjoying it.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

Didn't Diemert rebuild the one that was at the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, now at the Liberal Air Museum in Kansas?
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."

Acquired my the Marine Corps Air-Ground Museum at Quantico, Virginia, in 1976, the A6M-2 was displayed there and for a time at the Liberal Air Museum in Kansas before being placed on loan to the National Museum of Naval Aviation in 1991. It was transferred by the Marine Corps to the museum ten years later.
Via the NAM Website

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Don't touch my junk!!

As Jack said, that is the one at Pensacola now. Diemert did the initial "rebuild", if that's what you call it, but Black Shadow Aviation did the final "rebuild" to it, as it appears today, undoing a lot of the Diemert damage that was done to it.

What an interesting character this Diemert guy is, but I'm holdin out for his young partner. That dude just looks like he's gonna invent something. I'll bet he's workin on a "Shorter root to India" right now!

Lefty could or would fly anything and I'm a believer.

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tracers work both ways

According to a neighbor of Diemert, posted on an old thread, the Defender was dismanteled with its
bits going into other projects. The Defender spirit may be thriving in the environment it could never achieve
when it was complete.

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He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF