Aviation BS and Photo Thread

Are the prop tips on that 172 curled in too?

 

Yup.
https://youtu.be/hzSCzlXBmgM?si=-3bJ0zDiSKXc8rWO

There was a seperate wing strike accudent:

 

Dang. I didn’t know they had a boneyard at that ice runway

 

Just got new photos from Germany yesterday. It is looking very presentable now!

Dad piloting a B-17, Deputy Lead (#2 position), target was Me-262s, in Rechlin (north of Berlin) on 25Aug44.
Immediately after bomb release, right wing tip removed by 88mm flak. He sounded bail-out alarm and started to attach his chute. 2nd 88mm hit took off whole right wing and aircraft started spinning. Ultimately the aircraft exploded (3rd 88 or fuel cell??) which ejected dad, a waist gunner, and tail gunner. Tail gunner (actually dad's co-pilot, but that's another story) failed to fasten his harness thigh straps and fell out of his perfectly deployed chute - he is still MIA today. (Nose gunner saw the empty cute floating below him.) Dad & NG picked up out of the lake, and both PoW until end of the war. All debris (except TG) hit Lake Muritz and 8 bodies washed up on various shores in the weeks to follow.
Engine & prop discovered by a diver and recovered in Feb 2024. Diver was an officer of the Aviation Museum in Rechlin. I visited the museum for the 80th anniversary of the event on 25Aug24. I was given a piece of the engine. Amazing group of people running the museum!!
See post #12115 for photo of actual mission.

Home - Luftfahrttechnische Museum Rechlin e.V.

How the eng looked coming out of the lake 27Feb24:


How it looked when I saw it 25Aug24:


The photos I received 26Feb25:

I think the marrying up of the prop & engine -again- 80 years later requires champagne!


Engine, a Wright Cyclone R-1820 was made by Studebaker. The piece they gave me was the magneto drive gear & shaft.

The museum is working on a display case for the personal articles of my father that I donated to them. Once that is built and the display area inside the museum is complete, I'll submit another photo or two.

(Dad was one of the rare ones who got shot down twice. Once in a B-24 and later in a B-17. B-24 was in May '44 over France. Dad kept the aircraft flying until over UK and all bailed out safely there. See photo of THAT engine in post #12001.)

 

Wow. Amazing story.

 

Cheers. He did have some very exciting tales.
Can't emphasis enough how I wish I had recorded him telling them! I do have a video of the Nose Gunner telling his part of all the same events (they were original crew, almost from the beginning).

 

Wow. Thanks for sharing. I finally got around to watching Masters of the Air so that his how your story is playing in my mind right now. Very viscerally.

 

Bringing an old 1967 185E back to flight.

 

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...^^^... Thanks for sharing this fantastic story ...

 

There is SO MUCH MORE to the story. I will try to find a way to insert some of the already created & published write-ups so I don't have to rewrite it all. Truly neat stories, human aspects, aircraft related, KIA & MIA attributes, etc. Need to find a way and the time to get it all to TW.

 

Amazing story about your dad. Have you ever considered writing a short book about him? I have found that my dad, just turned 87, is telling more and more stories from back in his day of flying. My mom too….she even has all her past family heirlooms. One day she sat down and got them out and gave us a family history lesson. Wish I’d have thought quick enough to record it.

 

Good luck with your dad! Try very hard to capture it ALL and directly from him (w/ any back-ups you can find).
We have. We had a pro interviewer scheduled to record him. The pro had all of the right recording equipment (voice & image) and we thought he would be better at asking all of the right & varied questions. Where as, we would ask ones that would lead dad into the stories we knew. (Might miss many other good ones in that process.) Dad backed out of each appointment - usually copping out with some crap about his throat hurt too much to talk. Grrrr

Currently, I am working (well, was) with a skilled writer (active duty USAF Maj & pilot) who knows how to put the book together and correlate the details. We are not in the same state and have not connected in many, many months. I even sent him the latest photos and got no reply.

City historian in Chichester, England was a 10 year old boy who watch the B-24 go down. He ended up putting together a pretty nice wee pamphlet:



(Ken died this last April at 91 yo.)

Also just found this looking for that^: The Death of a Young Girl remembered 11 May 2024 - Chichester Local History Society It happend last May (80th anniversary. I was there on the 75th.)

I put together a 25 page MSWord document about my dad (mostly because the Museum in Germany was asking for so very much detail, the emails got rediculous!!) and my daughter suggested that I submit it to WW2 book/magazine/etc. type organizations. I've yet to do that.

His career starting w/ USAAF hunting Nazi subs (USN didn't have the planes early on), to missions over Europe, to PoW, to Aircraft Maintenace Officer post war, to SAC B-47 & B-52 Command Pilot, to EAFB & surrounding missile sites Safety Officer, to Air America (CIA) in Laos & Vietnam (10 yrs), to last flying for Nat Geo at wavetop height looking for turtles along the Mexico shore lines. (He'd deny any involvement with arms supply to the Contras in El Salvado, like many ex-AAm pilots did.)
He was ATP rated, multi, turbine, and type certified in so very many diff birds. I have a page out of his mil records and I have his one of his log books from AAm. Caribou, C-123, C-47, Twin Otter, Twin Beech, Porter, Helio, C-130, and Vopar in AAm. PT-13, AT-6, B-18, A-29, B-25, B-24, B-17, C-47, B-47, and B-52 called out but I think he also test flew everything that came out of heavy maintenance when he was Maint Officer (just not type rated for each).
He tried to help out during an "Airlift" once (I always thought it was the Berlin Airlift, but... ??) when fixed wing pilots were asked to co-pilot for rotary wing guys (who were becoming exhausted from relentless need of flights). He was happy to do so, to help relieve the PIC during cruise to let him rest a bit, until dad got into some PIO. His first reaction was to let go of the controls so the bird would stabilize on it's own (as most fixed wing do). The PIC jumped on the sticks and chewed him out, yelling "don't ever let go in helo!!". Dad never really tried to earn his rotary wing rating after that...
He said the STOL bush flying in AAm (all seat-of-the-pants, clock & compass) was the most fun he'd ever done! (even tho he got shot at all day, everyday)

 

Sounded like he flew for Air America)

 

If you’ve never read it or heard of it, read Beyond Fighter Escort by James Bruno. It’s about the B-17 group in North Africa during the war. One of the guys in the book lived up the street from me growing up, used to play golf with him often.

 

Or go old school and read Cecil Lewis book Sagittarius Rising.

 

Night flying was always my favorite! Did most of my IFR rating after sun down.

 

Not so much fun when there's no lights on the ground, just the black.