Lucky13
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Would start off with a Dora-9 I think, with the correct engine!
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That I was not aware of. I would love to see a flying Zero though. I have only seen static displays.
There is also a BF110 in Denmark. It is in a private collection, but they show it to groups. Night-fighter version, complete, but not airworthy.
I agree with the sentiment that very rare planes should not be flown. The risk of loosing them is too great, and indeed several rare vintage birds have been lost to accidents over time. It is a little different with automobiles, since, if driven with care, accidents are rarely catastrophic.
MRC_Hans
View attachment 368888
Intersting. I had not heard of this one.
I myself would consider it real, but from what I get (reading about it on the internet now) it is still considered a replica since it was made from so many different aircraft parts, and extensive new built structures. For instance only one wing is original from what I get. That is why they say there are only two original 110's left, and consider this a replica.
Still very very nice.
But many WW2 airplanes were rebuilt from other airplanes during the war.
DerAdler,
The P-61 that's getting rebuilt and quite a few others I have seen are what appears to be almost a complete "reproduction" yet they are considered the "real McCoy". The Bf-110 might have been built to look like the real thing, but internally it's just a shell, where as the planes that fly are correct structurally as well as in appearance. I do not know either way, just thinking out loud.
I have a 66 Mustang GT, and one of the forums I go on has had some huge discussions about what is considered authentic or numbers matching versus what isn't. Re-bodied cars, owners stamping the VIN into the block vice the factory, date codes, etc.? It seems to be two different standards with aviation being the far larger "tolerance" of the two.
As far as flying a rare plane, I'm in the owner gets to decide camp. They bought it and as such get to decide in my opine. Yes, it might be the last of it's kind, 1 of 2 made, flown by all the top aces back in the day, was used to shoot down Eric Hartmann twice and Marseille once, however the decision to fly or not to fly still resides with the owner. If I were the owner, I would make sure it was in absolutely great flying condition, that I was trained / prepared to fly it, and the weather or field conditions were all way into the safe zone prior to powering up for take off, and what I asked the plane to do would be well with in it's limits.
Cheers,
Biff
It might have more to do with Gillelejegruppen not being an official museum. AFAIK, their '110 is reasonably complete. And more importantly, all parts are genuine WW2 parts.
As for "owner gets to decide", well of course. That is not the discussion. The discussion is wether ir is reasonable. Another point is that to make such an old plane flyable, you will need to replace a lot of parts. In effect, it often ends up with only some 20% being from the original aircraft.
Anyway, the cost of restoring a 70* year old warbird, especially a rare one where little or no spares are available, to flyable condition is quickly getting so high that the problem is getting marginal.
Hans
It is tragic that in the dog days of the war no one saw fit to ensure some things were preserved. The imperial War Museum was started in 1917 when WW1 was still ongoing, but nothing similar was done in WW2. Maybe there were just so many aircraft no one ever thought that a situation would come where there were no examples of really iconic aircraft left to preserve. Even the Enola Gay, which was slated to be preserved ended up stored outside and stripped by trophy hunters and so is a sort of re built replica itself. What a person does with his own property is obviously his own affair, however none were originally anyones property, iconic aircraft flown by aces or on major missions should have been preserved for static display, but werent. The aircraft that remain flying are in the main replicas, much was made of a Spitfire recovered from Dunkirk being restored and put back in the air, does anyone really believe it is not a new plane with the old frame number.
I think it's more that it is a replica. A very well done one. Just like the replica 190 in Sinsheim. You can't tell it is a replica, and has original parts in it, but it is not restoration of an actual 190 with a Werk Nummer.
Therefore it is not included in the registry of original aircraft.
An acft does not have to be in an official museum to be counted as original. There are dozens of original warbirds all over the US and Europe in private collections.
Here is a list of known original Bf 110's around the world, including the two restored complete ones in England and Germany.
Preserved Axis Aircraft
In the case of that Spitfire which spent 40+ years in the sea I suspect the data tag has the same numbers/letters as the original but is also brand new, the planes identity, history and pilot were always known.I guess if it has an original data tag, it is real...
Perhaps. Although the list you link to contains aircraft that are very incomplete. But how does a plane get on the lists? Presumably someone has to report it, then someone has to go and check out if it's the real thing. In some ways, Gillelejegruppen are a bit secretive (even though they take in tours). Maybe they simply haven't done the paperwork.
Hans