Me 109, Spitfire, Zero or Mustang

Which plane would you fly in a dogfight?

  • Total voters
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Oh to have that kind of money! From what I understand that is bargain basement for a Zero. The price tag I was talking about was for a fully restored flying one, at least thats what I have read. Still I would love to see one flying, I have only seen the Zero at Pensacola and the one NASM. THey may have had thier faults but from what I have read in Sakai's autobio, they were a dream to fly and it is a gorgeous plane.

:{)
 
I found out on saturday that the zero has been sold. It will be going to a new museum at Ford Island in Hawaii. They have a new Pacific War museum opening up in 2006. I have seen the plans for the new museum and it will be incredible. The Zero will be hung from the ceiling as part of the exhibit. I am hoping to go see it someday.
 
Cool. At that price I am not suprised that someone gobbled it up. My plan is to be in Hawaii in 07 for a second honeymoon so hopefully I will see it too. Still I hope that more Japanese planes make it to museums. There is only a smattering of fighters in museums. I know that there are several Bettys in pieces in storage in the US. I hope that the curators and the restorers can get over the financial hurdles.

:{)
 
Unfortunately, it would be very expensive to restore it to flyable status. When it flew in to CMA and underwent it's first inspection, it was discovered that during the recovery process, the wings were hacked off the airplane to get it out. When they put it back together, they basically welded the wing root back together! Needless to say, that is what grounded it for good.
 

That's incredible! Without knowing anything about the original recovery situation, it seems that some folks think some aircraft are put together like a model airplane where you could just remove a wing and cut the thing apart and glue it back together later. I wish it was that easy!
 
You ain't kidding! See - it goes back to the comment Doug made that I posted on the other thread!

It makes it worse when you got some idiot putting the thing back together!
 
evangilder said:
I know. The worse part was that the CAF bought it before they knew about the spar. It actually flew for awhile with the welded spar! Lucky no one was killed.
Click to expand...

Eeeeek!!! Ay dios mio! Those crazy Texans!

:{)
 
evangilder said:
I know. The worse part was that the CAF bought it before they knew about the spar. It actually flew for awhile with the welded spar! Lucky no one was killed.
Click to expand...

The CAF or whatever its called today, has been known for thier somewhat crazy antics. Back in the 80s they often used to crash land a Hispano version of the He-111 on one wheel in thier airshows. From what I uderstand it was one of thier B-17s that did the crash landing in Tora Tora Tora! Even in the 60s, I would not be going around crash landing 20 year old warbirds. I love what the CAF, or what ever they are called now, has done for historical preservation but I still think some of thier acts are a little quirky.

:{)
 
The crash landing in Tora Tora Tora was domne by Paul Mantz and it was an aircraft that was taken from a reclamation facility. It was not a CAF aircraft. I don't know what you are referring to about "crashing" he-111s. There was one in the inventory that crashed a couple of years ago due to pilot error.

The CAF preserves warbirds in flyable condition and I think they do one hell of a good job. I have been a member of the organization for 5 years and your description of them is inaccurate. They are not reckless cowboys. It is an all volunteer organization the does meticulous, time consuming restorations of rare warbirds that fly at shows on a regular basis.

If the CAF had not been formed, there would be far fewer warbirds in the US today.
 
Even,

Are you sure about Paul Mantz, It was my understanding he was killed in filming The Flight of the Pheonix in the early 60s?

Your certainly right about the CAF, I hope they keep it up for a very long time.

wmaxt
 
Sorry, you may be correct on that. Paul Mantz crashed a bird from the reclamation yard for 12 o'clock high. The story with the Tora Tora Tora crash was as follows:

The B-17 "Flying Fortress" that lands with one wheel up is no film-trick. The plane got problems with its landing-gear and the pilot was asked to circle until the film-crew got cameras in position to film the crash-landing. The B-17 was not badly damaged, it flew again but was lost in a fatal crash while water-bombing a forest-fire some years later.
 
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