Warbird Information Exchange

Since B29FltEng said it first, I guess we have to give him the prize this week, although Randy's technical explanation went a long ways to explaining how it works. Thanks to both. Maybe that one was too easy?? Will have to find something else to stump the experts!! BTW, we had 13 volunteers pounding on the 26 yesterday. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them due to another thing I had to attend. No, it wasn't my parole officer this time. No, it wasn't my therapist although I might need to go see her about my hair falling out. It has become follically challenged by mean ol Mr. Gravity. I am quickly learning what it means to get old. You can almost measure it this way. See how many young guys can come into the men's room at the airport or office, finish and leave before you do. When the count reaches 3, you are old. I am up to 2 and half. Anyway, I will trundle out to the hangar this afternoon and see what the gang got done. I have a good report from JR so will get back to yall later. Cheers, Jim R

...................... I wasn't one of them due to another thing I had to attend.

You're not foolin' us Jim, we know where you were yesterday-you were out buying more prize ponies!!!!!!!!!!

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Randy, you mean like this little ol switch that says nose and tail in this pic when you were talking about the nose and tail fuses.... And no I wasn't out looking for any prize horses. Sorry to disappoint you and Muddyboots.. oh and the Lady Duck Driver, too. JR

Yep, that's it. Guess it says "Tail arm" instead of "Tail only", like I thought it said. Been a few years!

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Do I get a pony?

Unfortunately, no ponies. As stated before, they are not in the budget... probably for either of us!! But you do get the Distinguished Aviator Award and the admiration of all the WIXer's on this thread who participate in these Mystery Parts contests. The competition is stiff... no, not dead.. I mean very tough. You have to watch how you phrase things on here or the flak fills the air. BTW, got to watch Bob R fly Jerry M's T-6 today. First time it has been up in years. It has New Zealand colors and connections. Sounded good. As far as the 26 is concerned, looks like JR has done it again with a repair scheme for the vertical spar. Made a lot of headway on it yesterday. I brought back the rudder boost trim tab after a nice welding job was done on it so maybe the rudder can start going back together. If we can get her back on her feet by the Spring Fling that is tentatively scheduled for March 31st at Meacham, maybe we can tow her out in the sun and let everybody have a look at her. Need to blow the dust off. Back to our regularly scheduled program.. Jim R

I was recently asked about K's WWII history and number. She did make it to England before the end and has a combat record even though it was rather short. The number was 4-34198. If you look at this production picture with all the sequential tail numbers, she would be about two miles in the distant glow at the end of the line in Long Beach. Maybe that is a little too far?? Maybe she was outside being fitted out at this stage, but it is interesting to see how Douglas had the line set up and fuselages moving right along. Wouldn't it be sweet to have all the machine tools still around? I can't for the life of me see why the people back then couldn't see that they would be needed 70 years later and so preserve them??? Makes me wonder about what we are throwing away today!! If you want the full history, visit our website at http://www.a26k.org and click on the History button. Should have both the WWII history up to 1964 and then the new number 64-17679 when she was rebuilt by On Mark for Uncle Sam's Night Flying Club for smog control in the Laotian Mountains. Jim R

That is an awesome photo!!!!!!!!!! I thought that at least one of them might be one of the eventual On-Mark conversions, but according to the book, not so. These were (according to the book) A-26B-55-DL

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Yep, and 679 was an A26B-45DL which was the first model to have the Ford built PW R-2800-79 with water methanol injection which boosted war emergency power to about 2350 hp for a little bit.

purdy shiny planes.......I checked our B/N and it's not one in that line. Good find, JimR

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Just to the right of the bomb fuse selector are the other arming switches with my fave being the rocket ones. I can just see a lil piggy lined up in the gunsight while I'm waiting for the swoosh. Hey Randy, what size rocket did you say you had in your leftovers closet? We need a launcher I guess to go with it. Any ideas?? BTW, who was it that mounted rockets on the inboard pylons for Joe Kittinger? Are you still denying it was you? If not, who dun it? That will be something we will have to watch out for and be sure to hang them on the outer pylons to stay out of the way of the props. I suppose the Lady Duck Driver will want to FAC them for us.. the pigs, that is!! Later, Jim R

This is the baby I have right here. 2.75" FFAR (Folding Fin Aircraft Rocket). Has an inert "HEAT" head, or WP, they both used the same casing. You would need either a LAU-32 or LAU-3 launcher. these are old desiginations, don't know what they are referred to now. LAU-32 is what our FACS used on their Bird Dog 0-1's. They held 7 rockets. LAU-3's held 19. Course, if you could find the launchers with the fairings, you wouldn't need any rockets, as they wouldn't show with the fairing on.
It was a "collective" group of us that hung the launchers inboard. That was quite funny, and most coincidentally, Special K was the actual plane.
Speaking of the 0-1 fACs, (23rd TASS Crickets), they were located down the ramp from us. Couple of them came up one day and wanted an empty nape canister. We couldn't figure what they wanted an empty for, but had one brought up from the dump.
Later on, we looked down there and they had hung it on one side of the Bird Dog and they were taking their pics with the thing. I always kind of felt sorry for them, they got to be the sitting ducks and find the targets and marke them, then let someone else have all the fun. Pic below

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Well, I screwed that up, wrong pic. This should be the right one!!!

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Randy... I knew you were among the guilty!! Ol Red thought somebody was not liking him when he looked at those inboard launchers. We have the pictures to prove it!! And you are right, our airplane, 679, was indeed the one so loaded!! BUSTED!! LOL Well, now, that is very interesting about the rocket you have. I wonder how hard it would be to builld a few real// I mean mock up ones? How do you erase on this dadblamed thing? So you were saying if we could find which launcher, we wouldn't be showing much of the rockets? LAU-3? What is on the airplane at Hurlburt? I have pics of that somewhere. Now about the 23rd TASS fellas, you know that the O2Lady Driver has one of their airplanes that was actually at NKP. She will get the big head for mentioning that. Been wearing one of their caps around the hangar. But I have to admit, having flown Bird Dogs, that the nape canister looks plum awesome and I am wondering why I didn't think of that? I know the story of how some of the F4 guys used to load up nape canisters with beer on maintenance hops, or atleast that is what they called them, and run the thing up to 40,000 ft to cool the suds down good. Would still be cold if they made a less than leisurely descent on the way down. Party on!! JR

This is the best pic of a LAU-32 I can find at the moment. The white "thingy" on the stand. That's the 7 tube version. The white cone on the ground with the red dot is the "Frangible Fairing" that just made the pod a little more aerodynamic in transit. The rear cone was open. They were basically just a pressed, impregnated cardboard cone that disentegrated at rocket launch. The LAU-3 launcher was just bigger, with 19 holes. A fake launcher could probably be built fairly easy, without the holes. in it. If you could find a couple launchers, Fake rockets could also be easily made. (and I have a perfect pattern to use!)
Joe Kittinger was really fond of any forward firing ordnance. I remember at one of the all night parties we had, he made a statement, some of which I will not repeat here, but in conclusion, he said, "I will give anyone fifty dollars that can guarantee me that I will find some trucks out in the open when I am flying rockets."

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm