Registered: Jul 2000
Location: zanzibar
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This weekend there was an airshow at Willow Run, which is now an airport but used to be the location of a B-24 plant.

My dad wanted to go check it out, so I went with him. Some of these might not have a comment because I don't know what kind of plane it is.



Four B-17s, (l to r) Yankee Lady, Memphis Belle, Sentimental Journey, Nine-O-Nine


Yankee Lady nose art


Yankee Lady preparing to take off and fly some people around.


Yankee Lady airborne, seen over the tail of the Nine-O-Nine.


Memphis Belle nose art (not the original Memphis Belle)


Sentimental Journey nose art

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: zanzibar
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B-25 Breifing Time and crew. I am not sure if this was the actual crew, there were a bunch of WWII 'reenactors' about. In fact...


Some WWII reenactors camped out under the wing of a B-52 that is permanently displayed at Willow Run.


Active duty Canadians


And proud of it.


Old school Canadians.

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Registered: Jul 2000
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B-24 Dragon and His Tail taxiing in.


Looks like owning an old plane is a lot like owning an old anything else. Lots of fixing.


Hun Hunter.




P-51D Mustang Old Crow, owned by auto/racing magnate Jack Roush (will fix size later)

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Registered: Jul 2000
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planes.


This woman just landed her P-51.




The British.


A bomber on permenant display.

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Replica Japanese dive bomber (I think the pilot said it was built for Tora Tora Tora along with the Zero that was there.




An Intruder being... assembled?



Four WWII aces, including Gunther Rall, 275 aerial victories with the Luftwaffe.


Chuck Yeager

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Registered: Jul 2001
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Schweeeet!

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Registered: Jul 2000
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Very cool, I wish I had taken pics of all the airshows I went to.

but you got to fly in one of them, you bastard!

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Registered: Aug 2000
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holy shit it's chuck yeager!

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Registered: Sep 2000
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WP said my words for me.

Neat stuff, DMoon. You guys should write a song about it.

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Chuck Yeager was the guest of honor at a dinner they had the night before. I left his photo for last, because it was cool to see him. I took that picture shortly after he started signing things and he was still going when I walked by a few hours later.

I really just knew of him as a crazy test pilot and the guy that broke the sound barrier, but I didn't realize he had done quite a lot before that.

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The "bomber on permanent display" (silver with 876 on the nose) is a PB4Y, which is a variant of the B-24 used by the Navy. Compare it to the Dragon and His Tail B-24, the bigest difference is the tail section. Its kind of weird to see planes on static display next to fully functional planes though. Makes you wonder if they will ever fly again.

The pilot of one of the B-17s said that the FAA is trying to ground all of these planes anyways. He is not sure how long they will be allowed to fly. I told him that I heard the FAA was requiring the owners of some of these planes to undergo an inspection of the structure that includes removing the wings before they will be certified as airworthy. That is not something most people have the money to do. He said that they have tried many different things, but what really concerns them is legislation that the US Government can reclaim anything that was military hardware without any sort of compensation and then scrap it. It was defeated the last time that it was up, but he said everyone is worried that it will be tacked on to the end of another bill. He said warbirds websites have all of the information about possible government moves to ground the planes.

A person asked him if they specifically were targeting old military aircraft. He said that they were, that was the whole point of the legislation. The person said, "Why in the hell would they do that? These planes are magnificent, it is history." He said nobody was really sure why.

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Registered: Jan 2002
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just kind of a wild guess here, but they might be a bit worried with the fact that, while not up to modern standards, they are still warplanes, and as such could concievably be renovated back to their old purpose (dropping explosives). and we all know how much the government hates having competition in that arena.

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Registered: Jan 2001
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Naw, it wouldn't be that hard to modify a lot of commercial type planes to drop explosives. For that matter one could chuck grenades from the seat of an ultra-light.

-m

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That Aircobra is awesome. I didn't think those flew anymore, I thought they were all dead (Thats the OD one with the engine in the middle, 219597 right before the P-51). That P-38 is also really ultra super awesome I've yet to see one of those fly, even though I have seen many flying P-38s that were just grounded, or not flying that day. Total disappointment. Anyone know what that blue one is? The one with thy guy sticking his face into the prop? 279? Is that a Brewster Buffalo?

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The Yankee Air Museum at Willow Run Airport is engulfed in
flames Saturday night. Fire swept through an aviation museum
hangar that housed vintage aircraft, destroying the building and
the planes inside

quote:

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Fire destroys vintage planes at Yankee Air Museum

Saturday, October 9, 2004

ASSOCIATED PRESS

VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP -- A massive fire Saturday evening destroyed a hangar containing vintage aircraft at an airport built by Henry Ford to produce World War II bombers on assembly lines like those used at his automotive plants.

No injuries were reported at the Yankee Air Museum at Willow Run Airport, said Devin Parks, a dispatcher with the Van Buren Township Fire Department in western Wayne County.

The fire at the hangar used by the museum was reported at 6:28 p.m. and was burning out of control more than an hour later, Parks said. Firefighters from a half-dozen local departments were assisting the airport fire department in trying to control the blaze.

A number of Yankee Air Museum-owned aircraft parked near the hangar were not damaged.

The cause of the fire was not known.

The airport 25 miles west of Detroit is owned and operated by the Wayne County Airport Authority. Spokesman Mike Conway did not immediately return a telephone message.

The Yankee Air Museum was founded in 1981 and includes functioning historic aircraft, fixed displays and historic artifacts, according to the museum's Web site. Its focal point was the 1941 hangar that burned Saturday night.

Construction of the Ford-owned Willow Run plant was completed in September 1941; by the end of 1944 it was producing a bomber an hour. By the end of World War II, Willow Run produced 8,685 B-24 Liberator bombers, the Web site said.

Willow Run Airport is used primarily by cargo, charter and private aircraft.

---

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Registered: Jul 2000
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The YAF museum is where this airshow was held. In the photo you can see their static display B-52 in front of the burning hangar. TV reports said the YAF B-17, B-25 and C-47 survived the fire. The hangar/museum and all of the contents were a total loss. Volunteers who rushed to the scene reportedly pushed the C-47 out of the burning hangar. I don't know what planes were lost, but the TV report said four planes were destroyed.

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location: Houston
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Man, that really sucks.

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Registered: May 2002
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nice pics.

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Registered: Oct 2001
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the C-47 was a pretty common plane, so it wouldn't have been a tremendous loss - could've likely been replaced more easily than most. Still, that's a damn shame and some damn nice pics, Dmoon.

I was havin fun identifyin the planes. I used to build model airplanes obsessively as a kid, and I got to be very familiar with various designs. That's about the only thing it did for me other'n keepin me off the streets for a little extra time. Dad used to fly in B-25's right after the war.

I'm still jealous of the flight in the B-17.

What were the planes destroyed in the fire?

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man, how did I manage to turn that into somethin about me? I need to get outside more. sorry.

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Registered: Jan 2001
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heh, go for a walk muggie.

Fuck, that sucks, I hate to see planes destroyed.

-m

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Registered: Feb 2002
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Seen it!

(but b-17s are sexy)

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Registered: Sep 2000
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Ugh, that bites.

DMoon, I've prolly asked before, but do you do much processing of your D.Rebel shots?

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Registered: Jul 2000
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Seems an OV-10 Bronco and a plane on loan from a museum in Ohio were destroyed. A statement on the YAF site says that all the planes destroyed were being restored and were not flyable.

quote:

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Richard Rice a volunteer of the museum has spent 9 years restoring the Bronco. Considering what Rich started with it was an amazing job as well as a labor of love. This aircraft was used by NASA for engine and "boundry layer air" experiments. It had some unusual features, shorten wings, hydraulic rollers mounted at the top of the wings to increase lift and larger engines.

---

Nute, these pictures were taken with an old Kodak Dc265 digital. I am not sure what I did other than resize (maybe auto levels in photoshop), but the Dc265 actually seems to take pictures with much richer color than the Rebel.

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