Warbird Information Exchange

...some more real warbirding from a two-ship formation I flew last week. WHF maintenance and flight crew kick a$$!

Paul, did they get the A-4 electrical issue sorted out ?

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

Last I heard (Wed), they'd found the part they needed but as of today I don't know if it's ready to fly. Their working hard to have it ready for Oshkosh.

Derrick sent me these today...feels just like a T-6...in fact it is 100 times easier to taxi.
jim

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Jim: Oh- come on......don't let the cat out of the bag!! It is NOT easier than the T-6!! Its a Manly-man airplane!! (Mustang pilot secrets are not public domain!!)
VL

The Mustang truly makes a fine trainer for the T-6.

Passed the MEI Checkride today and had the B-25 VFR only restriction taken off my license. If anybody wants some B-25 dual come on down to Kissimmee!!! Bill and Tim got our new engine hung and we are back in business.

jim

heading back to Kissimmee from Ft. Pierce where did the checkride.
John flying the 25 over some lovely Florida swamp land
The 4oclock thunderstorm was early today...in the overhead for 24, Kissimmee

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Too funny Vlado!! Its all new territory for me!

So you asked about the floating ribs. I am not sure that is the technical term for it but that is what the guys at "White 1" call them. Most wing airfoils are shaped by a single rib. The FW has a curious system of a split rib that attaches to the top and bottom wing skins. The "wrecked" wing shows the original construction and is pretty self explanitory...kinda sorta.

jim

both top skins are in the jig.

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Well, I'm not quite prepared to profess a solid understanding of the 'floating rib' just yet (thanks for the picture, I'll study some more), but I will say this without equivocation: your photos are superb, and I hope you'll keep posting lots more! The CF has some of the coolest A/C on the planet, never get tired of looking at them!

-- And congrats on the Scooter prize, y'all!

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Cheers,
Kurt Maurer
League City, Texas

PIC, Ford 6600 pulling Rhino batwing up and down the runway

Hey Jim,

Congrats on the MEI in the B-25. See ya on the tour soon....

If I have interperated the photo correctly, I think I see the "floating ribs" that are being discussed. From the picture that shows the wing in the jig with the original wing in the foreground the second, third and fourth(lower portion of rib missing in original wing section) ribs outboard of the center section are the floating ribs. I cannot tell if there are more, but it would appear the first, fifth and sixth ribs are single piece.
Each rib is in two pieces, an upper and a lower which attach to each other with some rivets.
The ribs are attached to the spar and the skin of the wing.
The ribs are not attached to the longerons that pass perpendicular to them.
Is it called the floating rib because the longerons are not connected to them or because the rib is in two pieces?

The purpose of this style of construction is a little baffling to me...

Derick

i would love to hear the engineering logic behinf this rib style the germans were famous for thinking outside of the box(ever seen one of theyre non concentric aeroplane prototypes?

Instead of starting another Thunder thread I thought I would post photos here. It was a spectacular weekend that cannot be adequately put into words. From a crew standpoint it was one of the best organized and well run shows we have been to...hats off to all the people that made the effort to make this event happen. The only dissappointment was leaking oil cooler on #2 engine Saturday. Our mechanic busted his a@@ and got it fixed for the evening flight and we were good to go in the show Sunday. It was a very emotional hour of my life to be able to fly in that show, with all that hardware in the air around us...quite the privilege.

arrival...B-24 style

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more...


this sky really got me thinking about my dad...

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few more...

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Ball turrets...

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