Golden Era Planes of Fame

[Twitch]

Well the stripped replica 262 were some 2 million when for sale. http://www.stormbirds.com/project/index.html I figure the 1st cost 5 Mil.

Glacier Girl, the P-38 raised from the Greenland ice ultimately cost about 7 million when it flew.

 

[SamMarlowPI]

I'm keen on revitalizing a P-51, a P-40 and a Spitfire...not in the near future however...maybe a B-17 too...call it "Memphis Belle Returns"

 

[The Wingnut]

P-51: It's been done. Numerous times.(I believe by Pioneer Aero Service in Chino) Ditto the Spit. P-40, possibly. B-17....uhhh. You'd better have an inexhaustible source of disposable income.

A local company(Aerocrafters) is building new Corsairs, one at a time. They're building jigs as well.

 

[Diamondback]

go for it Diamondback

Yeah, too bad his social circle and mine are mutually exclusive... Although I do have something of an in with one of the Museum of Flight's trustees--the guy was impressed enough by a research paper (this was the one on the "SuperBUFF") I wrote to forward it into the Museum library... Maybe if I work through him, ask him to ask Dr. Dunbar (yes, astronaut Bonnie Dunbar, the Museum's CEO) to consider putting a couple words in on my behalf... and since I am the son of a Founding Member...

I'm starting to think scratchbuilding a clone of "Col. Norm"'s old F-106 would be easier, though. OTOH, there is always what JFK said about "easy"...

 

[SamMarlowPI]

P-51: It's been done. Numerous times.(I believe by Pioneer Aero Service in Chino) Ditto the Spit. P-40, possibly. B-17....uhhh. You'd better have an inexhaustible source of disposable income.

oh of course they've been done before. i'd like to rebuild them for my personal collection...maybe a P-47 too...if it's possible for citizens to privately own such aircraft...[huh]

 

[SamMarlowPI]

Yeah, too bad his social circle and mine are mutually exclusive... Although I do have something of an in with one of the Museum of Flight's trustees--the guy was impressed enough by a research paper (this was the one on the "SuperBUFF") I wrote to forward it into the Museum library... Maybe if I work through him, ask him to ask Dr. Dunbar (yes, astronaut Bonnie Dunbar, the Museum's CEO) to consider putting a couple words in on my behalf... and since I am the son of a Founding Member...

I'm starting to think scratchbuilding a clone of "Col. Norm"'s old F-106 would be easier, though. OTOH, there is always what JFK said about "easy"...

seems like you have more of a shot at it than most...the 106 is gettin' into jets...don't know about that route[huh]

 

[SamMarlowPI]

B-25 was/is a pretty neat plane...a small B-24...

 

[Luddite]

Golden era raceplanes, there's no choice IMHO.....

 

[SamMarlowPI]

that's pretty neat. like a Spitfire/P-40 type of deal...cool!

 

[Mike K.]

For me the list of favorites is long, but certainly the P-51D Mustang and F4U Corsair top the list.

However here are two of my other favorites.
The first is a true Golden Era aircraft - the lovely Curtis P-36A.

...and who can forget the beautiful F-86A Sabre? Sure I know it's not a golden era plane, but my grandfather flew these in Korea and it's also one of my favorites.

 

[Mike K.]

Also, since the famous Gee Bee racers were brought up earlier, what about the incredible 'Z' model? Who couldn't like that fat black & yellow racer?

 

[SamMarlowPI]

love the GeeBee just like Bill Campbells in "The Rocketeer"

 

[Mojave Jack]

Also, since the famous Gee Bee racers were brought up earlier, what about the incredible 'Z' model? Who couldn't like that fat black & yellow racer?

Love the Gee Bees! It's also the only one of the Hallmark Planes of Fame Christmas ornaments I don't have. I thought I had dropped enough hints to the wife that year, but apparently not! lol

 

[Jerekson]

Golden era raceplanes, there's no choice IMHO.....

Looks vaguely Russian in design. May I inquire what model it is?

 

[Mike K.]

I recently read that the Gee Bee racers were the first lifting bodies ever flown. Because of the shape of the fuselage and the fact that a lot of pylon racing was done at a 90 degree bank (or close to it), the fuselage itself provided some degree of lift to the aircraft.

 

[Luddite]

Looks vaguely Russian in design. May I inquire what model it is?

Gosh, apologies! I could have sworn I typed something in there.....

It's the Napier Heston Racer from 1939, a British attempt at recapturing the world absolute speed record from the Germans. Potentially able to fly at a calculated 500 mph, and verh high-tech in its day, the attempt was thwarted by a poor runway surface damaging the aircraft, then the war put paid to the whole thing.

I know of at least two re-creation projects (and have done a little work on the Sabre engine of one of them myself).

 

[Fletch]

Cockpit aft racer x P-36 Hawk = (more or less) the P-37, Curtiss-Wright's first attempt to put the Allison V-12 into the Hawk airframe. It looked fast and powerful, but was very much a work in progress.

The AAC took 13 of these planes in 1938 despite poor visibility and serious overheating problems from the turbocharger. The reason was that they could do over 300mph in level flight. (Curtiss promised 340mph, which didn't work out.)
The next step in development was of course the P-40, which won its first Army contract in 1939.