A6M5 Model 52 Zero

[GregP]

Here's a few more shots. A few years back I got a ride in our B-25 Mitchell. Here is the look back on takeoff from Chino as we lifted off from the top turret.

Here is the cockpit with John Maloney in left seat.

Here is turning final at Chino from the nose seat.

Next Post ...

 

[GregP]

At Palm Springs Air Museum, here is the cockpit of their beautiful Grumman F8F Bearcat.

And here is a Luftwaffe forward field aircraft tug that has been restored and runs great!

And here is the cockpit of the Bell YP-59A Airacomet before disassembly.

The red lever on the right is actually a Snap-On ratchet that serves as the emergency gear extension handle ... takes a LOT of pumps by hand and I had to change hands 3 - 4 times to get the gear down and locked. Not for the weak of arm!

All for now.

 

[BiffF15]

I'm glad to see that Bearcat's had vanity mirrors for the pilots to check "their look" prior to getting out...

 

[BiffF15]

GregP,
In post #56 the inside of the aircraft looks brand new bare metal. Is that also done with the high pressure steam / water? Also will the Auqa-109 be restored to flying condition?
Great pics by the way, keep bringing them on!
Cheers,
Biff

 

[GregP]

The inside was cleaned with high pressure hot water and some paint stripper when things got a little too sticky. We tried not to use stripper unless it was necessary and then went to great lengths to make sure it was all cleaned out. We also had to replace a few pieces of sheet metal. Some of the structure was 0.025" Aluminum ... Very light, to say the least.

The Bf 109 that was pulled frrom the bottom of the lake will be restored to flying condition for the owner. The Daimler Benz was in good shape except for the nose case (Magnesium), and a new gear reduction unit is being designed by Ross Engineering. The rest of the DB is being overhauled, I think by Mike Nixon, but am not sure. This 109 is a bit down on the priority list, but will be addressed after a few other projects have been done.

Right now, Steve's crew is finishing up an F7F Tigercat for a private owner.

 

[davparlr]

I'm glad to see that Bearcat's had vanity mirrors for the pilots to check "their look" prior to getting out...

Mandatory equipment for Navy Pilots!

 

[nuuumannn]

Fantastic thread and info, Greg, loving the detailed shots of the Zero strip down. In Posts #49 and #56 you can see on the left of the fuselage wall one of the spring loaded pilot's hand holds with its mushroom head on the inside, so as not to damage floatation gear behind the seat. The proliferation of litening holes is obvious.

The J8M engine is a real cracker; having examined at close quarters the Walter HWK 109-509A motor from the Me 163 before, seeing that is gold. Thanks for posting. Have some well deserved bacon for that.

It has a slightly different configuration to the German built unit, but the essential components are the same. The red lines are hydrazine hydrate mixture fuel or C-Stoff and the yellow lines are the HTP or hydrogen peroxide (T Stoff). The part with the three red hexes on it is the propellant flow regulating valve with the fuel filter sticking up diagonally from it. Below it is the turbo pump. The big bowl with the fuel line to it is a steam generator and of course the thrust chamber is at the very aft of the motor with HTP line entering it and the fuel being pumped around the entire cone for cooling purposes.

 

[Gixxerman]

I think I saw some of your kit there recently GregP, Planes TV, Legends in the Air.
Excellent stuff.

 

[GregP]

Thanks guys. Since Nuuumannn likes the rocket engine, I'll get some more detailed pics next weekend or next time I am there. I have no difficulty getting detailed shots of the engine. Also interesting ... we have the original landing gear truck, too, along with a second Japanese J8M truck. The plane itself is hanging from the ceiling, so I can't really get decent shots, but maybe in the future I can getb a ladder and get a cockpit shot. Tome will tell.

The F7F Tigercat they are restoring for a private owner has been mated to the rear fuselage minus the vertical tail since it won't fit in the restoration shop with the vertical tail attached. It will go on last when everything else is done and it is wheeled out into the sunshine.

We're also starting to put the Yak-3 back together and it should be flying again next weekend or so.

Yesterday we had an event about the Reno Air Races, Winning Gold, and I'm working on a post about it. The board members who discussed it icnluded 5 Reno Gold winners, including the current US National Champion, and one of the chief aeronautical engineers behind the scenes who has been largely responsible for the ever-increasing speeds around the Reno course.

Meanwhile here is a Curtiss P-40C in beautiful polished Aluminum natural finish. It belongs to Stephen Gray of the UK and was restored in Rancho Cucamonga, California, where I live, by Matt Nightengale's shop. Matt is a Planes of Fame pilot on a regular basis.

Here is our Tora, Tora, Tora Val that still flies regularly. It started life as Vultee BT-13. This is a Museum aircraft.

And here is our Yak-3 with all the cowlings on, ready for flight. This plane belongs to Ed Maloney, our museum founder. It is Allison -powered.

 

[Gnomey]

Great stuff!

 

[Aozora]

Excellent thread. Now, How many rashers of bacon do you want?

 

[GregP]

As much as I like bacon, I just wantred to share some of these pics. Here's one you won't see almost anywhere else.

This is the cockpit of our Northrop N9M-B FLying Wing. If you don't see it from one of the Planes of Fame people, you won't see it at all since this is the only example in the world, and it still flies regularly.

Here is a closeup of the control yoke. This is the same yoke used in the XB-35 and YB-49.

That fact alone makes it worthy of inclusion as one of the good museum shots. I got these shots in 2007, when taking these was OK.

Here's Skyraider Bob in April 2008 starting up his Skyraider at the Museum.

Here is the Palm Springs Air Museum's Bell P-63 that flies at our annual airshow most years.

All for now, - Greg


Somebody please delete those last two shots! I tried and failed. Thanks!

 

[nuuumannn]

Since Nuuumannn likes the rock engine, I'll get some more detained pics next weekend or next time I am there. I have no difficulty getting detailed shouts of the engine. Also interesting ... we have the original landing gear truck, too, along woith a second Kapanese J8M truck. The plane itself is hangind from teh ceiling, so I can'r really get decent shots, but maybe in the future I can geta ladder and get a cockpit shot.

Gambatte Kudasai, Guregu San...

That P-40C is goregous; they really look the business in polished metal and the Northrop pics are a real treat!

 

[GregP]

Sorry about the bad typing ... I fixed it. I think this is due to poor toilet training as a kid ... it seems to follow me around if I don't proof read the posts ...

 

[GregP]

Here is the WWII pulseejet we restored. This time I was one of 3 guys who got it running. In 2009 the Planes of Fame let us run it at the annual airshow.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTv7dfs_Mlc

In this video we are pushing ny pickup truck down the runway. The guy driving (Bob Velker) accelerated to about 10 mph and then put the truck in neutral for the rest of the run. We got to about 35 mph and the thrust was about 900 pounds per our hydraulic thrust dial. The combined wieght of the truck, trailer, and engine stand was right about 10,000 pounds.

 

[GregP]

Here is a very rare night run. We only did one.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4hBwCDRwK0

Apparently the leak in the gasoline line was there all the time, but we never saw it during the day. Go figure ...

 

[GregP]

Here is a video my friend Bob Velker took while I was sitting in the bed of my pickup about 8 feet in front of the pulsejet. We scared the crap out of the poor woman in the Cessna! The camera was about 20 feet in front of the truck before the zoom. I'm the guy in the pickup bed on the right and I am running the controller to start and stop the engine. Robin Scott is the guy on the ground and he moved it from idle to full power and watched the temperature gauge and stopped the run when we reached our arbitrary limit of 1,100°F.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-xlttsfWn4

You can see the pulses. The sound can be heard for about 10 miles and the fire department from a few miles away showed up thinking a disaster had happened.

 

[Gixxerman]

Great vids as per GregP.
I never realised almost the entire 'tube' ended up cherry-red at night....must have helped the NF force quite a bit in trying to counter the V1 air-launches.

 

[tyrodtom]

I wouldn't think that the tailpipe would get that hot with the missile moving thru the air at about 400 mph.

 

[GregP]

We are fairly sure it would get pretty hot, but I do not know if it would glow or not. I think so, but we've only had our engine up to about 35 mph behind my truck and we only ran it at night once. It glowed enough during the day that you can see it clearly.

One thing we did find out was thrust change with configuration change. Before we made the cowling the intrake was just square. In that configuration it made about 520 pound of thrust. When we added the cowling it went up to about 650 pounds. We thought that was probably due to the cowling smoothing out the airflow into the intake. It is the first time I watched metal spinning. That was interesting.

Once we got onto the runway and started moving, Robin said the thrust kept climbing with speed until it was around 880 - 900 lbs at our top speed, which Bob later told me was about 35 mph. We ran the engine for about 1 minute and 15 second and covered about 3,500 feet of the 5,000 foot runway. I think that at 380 - 400 mph or so, the general speed range of a V-1, the thrust would have peaked at something around 1,100 - 1,200 pounds. Of course, I have no way to check this estimate since we obviously will never fly it.

The engine test stand is now in a corner of one of our hangars and the fuel pump needs to be overhauiled. The Museum won't pay for that and we, the team who restored it, have put all the money into it we will, so the future is a bit uncertain as fas as more engine runs go. But the valves are in good shape ... and we have two sets of valves.

We limited the heat by monitoring temperature and further controlled heat by fitting only a 3.5 US gallon gas tank, so it can't run too long. Fuel burn at idle is 2.2 gallons per minute and at full power is 3.3 gallong per minute. So we feel the valves could run a long time before suffering catastrophic failure since we didn't let it get too hot and only ran it about a monute and some change per run.

Who knows? Maybe the museum will allow us to overhaul the fuel pump in the future. We all hope so. If nothing else, it was fun. You can hear it run for 10 miles!