May the Bird Sheet. News: The Bremerton Aviation Education Center almost there!

Transcription

1 EAA Chapter 406 Newsletter May 2017 the Bird Sheet News: The Bremerton Aviation Education Center almost there! This month's article: A report from the Chino airshow in California

2 EAA 406! Website: President: Mike Friend telephone: Vice President: Jeremy Wilson! Treasurer: Joel Mapes! Secretary: Terry Donison! Newsletter editor: Mike Friend! Young Eagles coordinator: Susan Shaw! Monthly meeting: Wednesday, May 24 in the Bremerton Airport conference room. 7PM! This month's program John Sandvig, a retired Boeing executive and current Bonanza pilot, will give a presentation about his work on the RQ-3 Dark Star UAV.

3 All the news! At last month's meeting, all of the members present voted to authorize the president to sign a lease for the KPWT firehouse, dependant on getting a commitment of support from the CAP squadron. The CAP leadership will be meeting Monday May 15 to discuss. President Mike Friend met with Jim Posner, head of the Bremerton Pilots Association, and agreed that we can find common ground for use of the facility. Mike Friend is drawing up a one page draft agreement specifying how we would all use the facility.! Treasurer Joel Mapes has been hard at work on the new EAA 406 website. It can be found at: Members have been signing up for access, so don't hesitate, do it today!! Captain Susan Shaw will be flying a Young Eagles flight at KPWT on Sunday May 21, 10AM. Mike Friend may also fly some Kitsap middle school kids at the same time.

4 Fun stuff from the Web Another Swiss electric airplane has taken to the skies. The Solar Stratos aims to fly to 90,000 feet using solar cells on the wing and a lithium ion battery pack. The pilot will be wearing a space suit as the airplane is not pressurized. Why anybody would want to do this is a mystery to me...

5 Feature article! Rarities in the Air by Michael Friend Photos by Sherwin Eng! Published this month in Flying China magazine! The annual Planes of Fame airshow was held at the Chino airport east of Los Angeles in early May, despite a legal challenge from some airport tenants complaining that the show was too successful and blocked their use of the airport! Planes of Fame is a museum started in 1957 committed to keeping their rare exhibits in flying condition, a difficult task undertaken by their small staff of mostly volunteer workers. A young aviation enthusiast by the name of Ed Maloney saved many of their airplanes from destruction. In the years after World War 2, many combat aircraft were left to rot in fields or were scrapped for their metal. Maloney died last year after a long career restoring these relics back to flying status. This 60 th anniversary show, dedicated to Maloney s memory, was a big success, with close to 35,000 visitors coming from all corners of the planet to see a wonderful flying display of one-of-a-kind airplanes.

6 Feature article page 2! A prime example of the unusual nature of the flying displays was the 1942 Northrop N-9M Flying Wing, a one-third scale, 60-ft span all-wing aircraft used for the development of the Northrop XB-35 and YB-35 flying wing long-range, heavy bomber. The successful test flights of the N9M proved that is was practical and efficient configuration for a manned airplane, and that it could be safely controlled. This beautiful airplane is, however, a difficult craft to fly, and only a small number of pilots are qualified to handle the controls.!!! The N9M is powered by two Franklin six-cylinder 300 horsepower (224 kw) piston engines, and is capable of 258 mph (415 km/h) top speed. Made of welded steel tube and plywood, the airplane was about to be scrapped in 1982 when Planes of Fame was able to acquire it from Northrop. For ten years, a group of Northrop employees and other volunteers worked to restore the N9M to flying condition. Ever since 1993 it has been making occasional exhibition flights, one of which resulted in an onboard fire in 2006 that necessitated another restoration back to flight status. As the N9M made several high speed passes, it made an unusual low noise, as the disturbed air from the wing passed through the two pusher propellers. The success of the flight testing of the N9M made it possible for Northrop to later build the giant B-35 prototypes in the 1950, and later the B-2 stealth bomber in the 1990s.

7 Feature article page 3 The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk was well represented by the museum's Kittyhawk IV. It is painted in the markings of the United States Army Air Corps 325 th Fighter Group, with the characteristic tiger s mouth painted under the propeller. The Curtiss P-40 was a development of the radial engine P-36/Hawk 75. The prototype XP-40 was a converted P-36A with the R-1830 replaced with an Allison V liquid cooled V-12. The P-40 achieved fame in service in China early in World War 2, serving with the American Volunteer Group (AVG). It was recognized as a sturdy and effective fighter but was held back by its single stage supercharger, which limited performance at higher altitudes. This airplane, one of over 13,000 built from 1938 to 1944 in Buffalo, New York, originally served in the Royal Canadian Air Force in western Canada. It was sold to a private individual at the end of World War 2 at later to the Planes of Fame museum.

8 Feature article page 4! The Boeing P-26 displayed at the show is the only one left in flying condition in the world today. The first Boeing P-26 to experience major combat operation was the Chinese Model 281, in The Chinese Boeing fighters had a good record in shooting down Japanese bombers, and participated in the first aerial dogfights between allmetal monoplane fighter aircraft. Like many of the airplanes in the Planes of Fame collection, this airplane was saved from destruction when museum founder Ed Maloney bought it, and restored it back to new condition. Its previous owner was the Guatemalan government, where the aging fighter had been in service as recently as 1954! The airplane s 600hp (450 kw) Pratt & Whitney R1340 Wasp 9-cylinder aircooled radial is capable of pushing the all-metal aircraft to a top speed of 234 miles per hour. The distinctive tall headrest behind the pilot s head was added to production airplanes after an early example turned over on landing, killing the pilot. The narrow fixed landing gear caused the ground handling of the airplane to be very challenging. The P-26 was a trend-setting airplane when introduced, at a time when almost all fighter planes were old-fashioned biplanes.

9 Feature article page 5 A unique feature of the Chino airshow is the large number of vintage airplanes flying around the crowd at one time. The display of World War 2 vintage airplanes was a riot of wonderful engine sounds, with up to twenty airplanes circling around the audience at low altitude at one time! It was a wonderful opportunity for aviation photographers as the airplanes passed close by, banking their wings steeply to show off the sleek lines of these rare birds. A highlight this year was the appearance of five Vought F4U Corsairs, sometimes known as the bent-wing birds due to their distinctive gull wings. The wing shape allowed the airplane s designers to keep the landing gear short and strong for use onboard aircraft carriers, and for folding up the outer wings for storage below decks.! The US Marines operated many of the Corsairs from land bases in the Pacific, where they served as a very effective opponent to the Japanese Zeros. All five Corsairs at Chino made a formation flight over the crowd, something not seen for decades anywhere in the world. The high operating cost of these airplanes, with their huge 2,000 hp (1,500 kw) 18-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engines, makes a gathering such as this a rare event indeed. The engine noise from these brutes is a basso profondo rumble, distinctly different from the hypnotic ripping noise made by the Rolls Royce Merlin-powered P51s and Spitfires.!

10 Feature article page 6 The show was not just fighter planes and prototypes, but also included a number of rare bombers and transport airplanes. Two B-25 Mitchell bombers flew along with the uniquely airworthy PB4Y-2 Privateer. The Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer is a World War II and Korean War era patrol bomber of the United States Navy, derived from the Consolidated B-24 Liberator. The Privateer is identified by its large single tail, compared to the twin tails of the more famous B-24. My father flew the Privateer in US Navy service after the end of World War 2, in support of the nuclear bomb testing at Bikini Atoll. The Privateer displayed at Chino was flown enthusiastically, with the pilot taking great joy in swooping low over the crowd and banking the airplane to 60 degrees at times to show off its unique profile

11 Feature article page 7! For the finale of the show, a United States Air Force F-35 Lightning II flew a formation flight along with 2 North American P-51 Mustangs. Known as the Heritage Flight, the formation usually includes a Lockheed P-38 Lightning, but on this day the P-38 had a mechanical problem that made it miss the show. The Heritage Flight shows off the capabilities of the F-35 to the people of the US who have paid for its development. The afterburner noise, and agility of the F-35, served as a comparison point to the parade of vintage fighters and bombers the audience had seen surrounding them for the rest of the day.! The Chino show has been an annual event for many years. It is hoped that the legal difficulties it is facing can be resolved in a positive way that allows these rare aircraft to be seen in their natural element for many years to come. With luck, visitors can come to Chino in 2018 for an even better show!