Doolittle Raid Reunion and Largest B-25 Gathering

[the330thbg]

That is going to be so darn cool!!!

[Jack Cook]

The Rabbit should be flying again by then.
Would be nice to see it head east for that before it goes down under!

[Karpis]

I, too would love to see this happen, especially since I live close. But I'm not going to hold my breath waiting to see if it actually does. More power to them, though.
I already have a bad feeling about it, probably because it's scheduled for the same weekend as one of my favorite shows---Thunder Over Louisville.

[Pathfinder]

This would be fantastic! There are several problems however.

Previous "fly-ins" have always been staged at the active runway over on the base. Not at the Museum. Doing something like that post 9-11 is a stretch.

The "runway" at the Museum is in gawd-awful condition. The last landing I actually saw there was the SR-71. I believe the Hanoi POW plane landed there more recently but I didn't see it. I drove past the Museum the other day and was surprised to see them laying new asphalt at the west end of the runway. I could not guess why--maybe this is the reason!

The USAF has some sort of bizarre agreement with the Dayton (Cleveland Jr.) Airshow regarding fly-in's and static displays. I overheard a discussion about this while setting up the DZ for the parachute drop at this years Tattoo. But on the other hand they do host the WW1 Great War fly-in every other year.

No aircraft landed during the Tattoo. All were fly overs and they staged at the active base if they were RON.
The base has created a crowd access point on the south perimeter of the Museum grounds. This is how they stage the Tattoo program. However, the runway is "dead ground" and the fly-overs are done over the grass strip between the runway and the Museum. FAA regs have requirements for flight line and crowd line set backs. I just don't see how they would accommodate active landings, and static display, with a crowd present.

Approaches and landing have to be made west to east. The reason for this is that if a plane lands heading west, and runs away, it will exit the AFM property and hit either Wendy's or McDonalds off the west end of the field. If they have a malfunction landing west to east they would hit government property and that presents "less" of a problem. This was made very obvious during the return of SHOO SHOO SHOO BABY. There were THOUSANDS of people awaiting her return and landing. She circled the Museum field several times when it was apparent that the winds were wrong for the west to east approach. The CG of the base was flying in the plane at the time and he made the call to land it east to west while in the air. So she came in "over the hill" and rolled out facing the burger joints. That was a gutsy call.

April is regrettably the worst month of the year in Ohio for predicting weather. We have these little disturbances called Tornadoes....Google search Xenia, Ohio and April. Lightening DOES strike twice in the same place and nearly on the same date!

All that taken together I think they SHOULD pull out all the stops and cut all the red tape and make this thing happen.

Dave

[ww2John]

These are also the dates for Sun n Fun...

[mustangdriver]

THe Convair NC-131 landed there a few months ago. As for the dates w2John, the NMUSAF didn't pick the dates, Doolittle did in 1942.

[ww2John]

Ah Chris,
"As for the dates w2John, the NMUSAF didn't pick the dates, Doolittle did in 1942."
Don't be so touchy. I'm not a NMUSAF basher.
I knew why the dates were chosen, just pointing out the conflict with Sun n Fun that so many warbirds, warbird enthusiasts AND warbird volunteers attend.

[bluehawk15]

Too bad the Sun N Fun people didn't choose a non-conflicting date. Last year was great, it being the weekend after the Doolittle Reunion. We had plans to take the Yellow Rose from the Reunion, down to Sun N Fun. If only she had been ready to fly.

As much as we would like to go to Sun N Fun, I think the Rose will go to support our good friends, the Raiders.

[mustangdriver]

Ah Chris,
"As for the dates w2John, the NMUSAF didn't pick the dates, Doolittle did in 1942."
Don't be so touchy. I'm not a NMUSAF basher.
I knew why the dates were chosen, just pointing out the conflict with Sun n Fun that so many warbirds, warbird enthusiasts AND warbird volunteers attend.

I wasn't being touchy pal. I was writting that on my phone, so I was a bit short. Still learning my iphone. Sorry if it came off that way.

[Baldeagle]

At the WW1 fly-in in September we were told that they were going to re-pave the runway for the Raider reunion
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=32395

And so that they could land the 747/Space Shuttle on it.....




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[Misterg97]

The museum runway has been repaved.

[gary1954]

I sent this, and mailed a copy to Shell Oil Company, granted, I left a "few" things out, I did this because 1. I was at work
2. There probably isn't anyone working at Shell Oil that would have a Clue as to who The Great James H. Doolittle is, so I didn't want to "Overload" them. Just hoping someone there will see this as a great opportunity at marketing and bring Warbirds to prime time television through advertising.
Feel free to contact Shell with the Reference number.


-----Original Message-----
From: Shell Foundation Website [mailto:info@shellfoundation.org]
Sent: 25 November 2009 14:44
To: feedback@shellfoundation.org
Subject: Feedback.


Email Address:
gmlewis@mindspring.com

Feedback:
Reference # 1-3078765813)
Greetings, Please forward to Public Relations/ Sponsorship consideration and the CEO or please provide me with an email address for the point of contact of the Sponsorship program.
During the 1930s James H. Doolittle was in charge of the Aviation Department of Shell Oil.
His accomplishments in Aviation and his contributions to the Shell Oil Company cannot be listed here.
As a Colonel in the Army Air Corp, Jimmy Doolittle took 16 North American B-25B land Based Medium Bombers off the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, and flew into fame on April 18, 1942 as the leader of the Tokyo Raid, and his flight crews from that day forward were known as the "Tokyo Raiders".
He led 80 brave men on what was essentially could have been a suicide mission. Doolittle was promoted from Colonel to Brigadier General, and awarded the Congressional Medal Of Honor, and was the Commander of the 12th Air Force in Africa.
10 May 1946 he reverted to inactive reserve status and returned to Shell Oil as a Vice President and later a Director.
Today only 9 of these brave Tokyo Raiders survive.
The National Museum of the United States Air Force, at Wright Patterson AFB/Dayton Ohio, is honoring the Tokyo Raiders 16-18 April 2010 for their 68th Reunion.
The Museum has expressed a desire to bring in 25 North American B-25 Mitchell’s in for the reunion.
The Museum is looking for sponsors, as the US Air Force does NOT fund the museum.
Would Shell Oil Company, be willing to honor its most famous former employee, the late great Lt. General James H. Doolittle - and the Tokyo Raiders, by becoming a Sponsor for fuel, oil, and hydraulic fluids for this event?
Please check out the website below for details on how Shell Oil can support aviation history. http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/news/s ... =123177923 Kind Regards, Gary Lewis (address and phone number was deleted where prohibited by law)

So, with the above, I don't expect to go down like a B-17 over Schweinfurt . Just looking to get some support - peace out

[mustangdriver]

That is an awesome letter.

[gary1954]

That is an awesome letter.

Think it'll work?

[corsair166b]

One can only hope......in this age of 'we don't want to be responsible', some companies won't touch it, while others still (to their credit) jump on the bandwagon here and there, and god bless 'em for it.

It sure seems written right.....let's hope they go for it.

Mark