Flying Heritage Collection - photo and video

[Fight2FlyPhoto]

This thread is going to be where I post news, photos, and videos involving Paul Allen's Flying Heritage Collection located at the south end of Paine Field in Everett, Washington. I try to visit at least once a week and am always there when they run or fly their aircraft for maintenance/training as well as scheduled displays.

In addition, I will be taking requests for close up detail shots. FHC does not allow visitors to get too close to the aircraft so cockpit shots are unavailable. However, most other details are accessible.

First off, for those unfamiliar, here's a quick overview of FHC and all it has to offer, both now, and in the future. From Flyingheritage.com:

The planes within the Flying Heritage Collection were created at a time when aeronautical discovery had evolved to aviation mastery. Finely crafted by distinguished design bureaus with leading technologies of the 1930s and 1940s, the main emphasis of the collection includes combat aircraft from World War II.

Examples include U.S., British, German, Russian and Japanese types, which were often pitted against each other in great air battles. These rare survivors were researched, hunted down and sometimes recovered from former battlegrounds and airfields. While a few specimens were rebuilt by previous owners, the majority on display have received restoration of the highest authenticity.

In 1998, Paul G. Allen began acquiring and preserving these iconic warriors and workhorses, many of which are the last of their kind. Allen's passion for aviation and history, and his awareness of the increasing rarity of original WWII aircraft, motivated him to restore these artifacts to the highest standard of authenticity and share them with the public.

THE COLLECTION
Britain
Hawker Hurricane Mk.XIIA
Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vc

Germany
Fieseler Fi 156 C-2 Storch
Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-5
Focke-Wulf Fw 190 D-13 (Dora) not flown - only surviving example
Messerschmitt 163 B Komet
Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3 (Emil)

Japan
Mitsubishi A6M3-22 Reisen (Zero)
Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (Oscar) not flown - only surviving example

Russia
Ilyushin II-2M3 Shturmovik
Mikoyan MiG-29UB Fulcrum
Polikarpov I-16 Type 24 (Rata)
Polikarpov U-2/Po-2

United States
Curtiss JN-4D Jenny
Curtiss P-40C Tomahawk
Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat
North American B-25J Mitchell
North American P-51D Mustang
Republic P-47D Thunderbolt

Artifacts
Avro Lancaster B. Mk.I nose section
Fieseler Fi 103 V-1
Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg
Flak 37 88mm Gun
Jagdpanzer 38(t) (Hetzer)
KMDB (Main Design Bureau) T-34/85
M4A1 Sherman Medium Tank
Scale Composites SpaceShipOne

This Winter FHC finished construction on a much-needed second hangar of approximately 26,000 square feet, about half the size of its original hangar. There is now enough room again for continued expansion. Under the parent company Vulcan Warbirds, inc. FHC has many other extremely rare aircraft under restoration, including an original Me-262, rumored to have a Stuka somewhere, Fw-189, P-38, a pair of A6M5-52's, F-8's, Corsair, MiG-21's and many more.

This photo was taken returning to Paine Field following a gorgeous air-to-air photo flight with friends over the San Juan Islands in April and you can clearly see Hangar 1 (right) and Hangar 2 (left).

image by fight2flyphoto, on Flickr

 

[Fight2FlyPhoto]

With that information out of the way, now I can get to the fun stuff... Photos and videos!! I'll try to put a little history with each aircraft/artifact as I go along. Please feel free to ask questions along the way, either about the photograph or subject.

I'll start by going through each item as listed above, so first I will show some photos of their RCAF Hawker Hurricane Mk. XIIa.

From FlyingHeritage.com:
This aircraft: Manufactured in Canada and delivered to the Royal Canadian Air Force on January 22, 1942, this plane did not see combat. It was recovered from a farm in Ontario, Canada. The Hurricane is an "in-betweener:" a single-winged aircraft that used biplane technologies, including very tight engineering tolerances, relatively exotic materials and long-forgotten construction techniques. In order to restore this airplane, Hawker restorations had to manufacture specialized steels and tooling.

The Flying Heritage Collection's Hurricane carries an image of a bulldog, wearing pilot's helmet and boxing gloves, duking it out with the viewer as the opponent—the symbol of the Royal Canadian Air Force's No. 135 Squadron. Perhaps it was a natural that the unit would pick the bulldog. The beast was "tenacious, dogged, and sturdy, like a Hurricane fighter plane." Some of the veteran members had just come back from overseas, fighting with the RAF in the Battle of Britain. There, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was often characterized as a bulldog by the press. The flyers "borrowed" the artistic layout of the cartoon dog from a Disney-produced emblem made for the United States' 62nd Fighter Squadron.

Soon enough, it seemed only right for the squadron to have a real English Bulldog as a mascot. "King" was purchased in Saskatchewan in August of 1942. King made the trip with his new squadron mates to Patricia Bay, British Columbia soon after. Unfortunately, he didn't last long. Kidney troubles claimed King just two months after he'd joined the squadron. The saddened flyers had no choice but to get another bulldog mascot for their "Bulldog Squadron," this one they named, "Queen."


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Qnj9fIStw

And a highlight reel from 2012's flying season:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEDn1pKnQ_A

Up next, Supermarine Spitfire Mk. Vc.

 

[Fight2FlyPhoto]

Now to the Supermarine Spitfire Mk. Vc.

This aircraft: Allocated to the British-based Czech 312 Squadron on September 11, 1942, it was piloted by Squadron Leader Tomas Vybiral. On May 14, 1943, Vybiral led his squadron on a daring wave-top raid against enemy shipping at St. Peters Port, Guernsey. AR 614 was heavily damaged by flak, killing its wingman and narrowly missing Vybiral in the cockpit, but he was able to lead his squadron safely back to England.

The inarguably beautiful Supermarine Spitfire Mk.VC carries a trio of unsightly scoops on its underside. Each one of the mismatched three serves its own purpose. Front and center, just aft of the plane's Merlin engine, is a scoop to move air up to the carburetor. The big box under the starboard wing (to the left in this picture) holds the radiator for the fighter's liquid-cooled engine. The long cylindrical scoop under the port wing (to the right in this photo) carries the Spitfire's oil cooler. The scoops may not be pretty, but they are functional features that help keep the Spitfire buzzing through the skies!

The Flying Heritage Collection's Supermarine Spitfire Mk.VC was equipped with four Browning .303-inch machine guns and two 20 mm cannons. A complex rocker switch mounted on the control stick fired the guns. In the excitement of battle, it was quite easy to hit the wrong part of the "trigger," thus activating the wrong weaponry. Spitfire pilots came up with a simple solution to memorize the tricky switch; they turned a common acronym into a mnemonic device. "BBC" became their key to good gunnery. An acronym known by most to mean the British Broadcasting Corporation, to Spitfire pilots BBC meant Brownings, Both, Cannon. If a flyer hit the top of the switch, he would get machine guns only (Brownings), press the middle and all guns fired, and the bottom part of the switch activated the cannons alone.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwVt26fvbzk

 

[Gixxerman]

Fabulous, beautiful shots.
If you can, keep 'em coming!

 

[GregP]

Great shots! I'd love to see the Fw 190 airborne.

 

[Gnomey]

Good shots!

 

[Crimea_River]

Need to make out there some day.

 

[Fight2FlyPhoto]

Now on to the German aircraft!

First we have the Fieseler Storch, always a fun aircraft to watch takeoff and land in only a few feet!

This aircraft: This is a true combat veteran, one of the few airworthy Storches in existence. It was manufactured in Germany in 1943 was used by the Luftwaffe in Occupied Europe and on the Russian Front. It was found in derelict condition in East Germany in the late 1980s and restored to a very high standard. It displays the Summer, 1943 Luftwaffe markings: a medium and dark green splinter pattern on its upper surfaces, with a light blue underside. The fuselage and wings carry the Balkenkreuz (black crosses), with the tail carrying the Hackenkreuz (swastika).

The Flying Heritage Collection's Fieseler Storch has folding wings. The slow-flying liaison plane cruises at around 90 miles an hour—much less if it's windy. The plane was equipped with wings that swing and lock aft. It reduced the width of the 46-foot-plus plane to 15 feet. That allowed it to be loaded on a train car and shuttled from place to place, regardless of how hard the wind is blowing!


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAru10LHV8o

 

[Fight2FlyPhoto]

I really did have good intentions to get through the list in order, but just couldn't do it... I'm way too excited for the up-coming FHC Fly Day this Saturday, "Flying Tigers Day" showcasing their Curtiss P-40C Tomahawk and Mitsubishi A6M3-22 Zero.

So I'll go ahead and show off some recent photos of both aircraft during maintenance and training flights...


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfI0Cb9hVEg
P-40 engine run


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfEBU1yGHJQ
Zero engine run

Enjoy! And here's hoping for more practice flights tomorrow!
Jason