Virginia Beach Military Aviation Museum's Zero flies

 

" The Zero has flown! Guided into the air by Museum Chief Pilot Mike Spalding, our Zero took flight today for the first time since World War II. Watch out for more images and information in the coming hours, but for the moment - join us in congratulating the team at Legend Flyers, and in celebrating a key milestone for our collection!.."

A wander around the Shuttleworth collection

To close out the year some views from recent (ish) museum visits starting with the iconic Shuttleworth collection.

Virginia Beach Military Aviation Museum visit with Kermit Weeks - Avenger, Wildcat, PBY Catalina

A 'Kermie-Cam' tour around the MAM in Virginia Beach with facility director Keegan. A single click to view here..

" ..when you're in a hangar picking up a cool airplane, a lot of times there's some other interesting stuff in there.."

Messerschmitt 'bubble' car

TBM Avenger - "..a pussy-cat to fly but I forgot how heavy the ailerons were... [..].. what's amazing about it is how big it looks and how the small the engine is..(1600 hp)

"..this is our favorite as it was stationed here during the war..although there wasn't a town in Virginia Beach at that time.."  FM-2 Wildcat  (built by General Motors).

MAM PBY has been flying consistently for some 80 years...

RAF Manston History Museum - Open cockpit Day April 16, 2023

 

..another gorgeous sunny day and a brilliant turnout as visitors flocked (yes, flocked!) to clamber on over, in and through some of the neat airframes exhibited at the RAF History Museum at Manston, Kent, England on one of the museum's regular open cockpit days. Where else in the UK can you sit in a Lightning, Buccaneer, Canberra and Victor, to name just four types? And everything in the Buccaneer works too. Heck, even the Auster is fun - pedals and stick work just as they should !  Thanks to 'johnboygtv' for the great drone shots of the museum. Not often you get to see a Lightning from this angle. 

Cessna A-37 Dragonfly walkaround on the blancolirio YT channel

 Meet the unsung hero of the Vietnam War, the A-37 Dragonfly. This nimble attack airplane flew more than 160,000 sorties during the war and proved to be a very accurate close air support aircraft or as Juan Browne refers to it .."..a bigger, heavier 'Tweet' with F-5 engines!" 

" ..these put out in MIL power and no afterburner what the T-38 puts out with afterburner ..50,000 lbs of thrust for a little over 9,000 lbs TOW so it goes like a scolded cat.. [..] ..you will melt the asphalt [..]...the fuel burn rate is super high ....350-400 gallons per hour...[..].. Three throttle settings, VISA, Mastercard and Gold card .."

"..The max indicated airspeed for the A-37 is 415 kts. When I first flew the aircraft in USAF Test Pilot school, I was initially worried that I would easily exceed that speed. Turns out that although the aircraft had plenty of thrust, the drag went up so fast that exceeding the airspeed limit wasn’t really a problem. "

Great walkaround on the blancolirio YT channel of the A-37 'Attack Jet', the only flying example in the US and a 7-year South Vietnamese combat veteran

and another museum-piece walkaround on the " Fly with Magnar" Channel

Hendon RAF Museum's 'newest' exhibit - Lysander R9125

 

Visited the RAF Museum, Colindale (Hendon) London on Sunday. What a fantastic place - shame that the collection is a bit all over the place at the moment. The Fw 190 S-8 (dual cockpit trainer) is currently dismantled awaiting a move, but apparently both the Dinah and the Ki-100 from Cosford are coming down to north London. The RAF Museum's 'newest' exhibit though is Lysander R9125. Recently restored, the Lysander is now on public display at Hendon in the corner of Hangar 5 opposite the He 162 and Vulcan. No idea why. The finished scheme is accurate down to the "inverted" paint detail on the engine cowl gills - which replicates how it actually looked in a WW2 photograph. Note how for the second photo I went over the rope to try and get a view of the cockpit..only partially successful...

Hawker Siddeley Nimrod XV 229 - the last RAF Nimrod MR.2 to fly.

 

Nimrod XV 229 was the last RAF Nimrod MR.2 to fly. The airframe was retired to Manston, Kent during late May 2010 and used for smoke evacuation training at RAF Manston Defence Fire Training and Development Centre which closed last year (2020). The local RAF Manston history Museum managed to save the front 37 feet otherwise it would have been another rare aircraft lost to the scrap yard. The cockpit section was open to the public at the 'Open Cockpit' Day held yesterday, 19/09/21. Famously developed from the DH comet airliner the Nimrod was powered by four RR Speys. The control yokes of XV 229 were/are notable for the large red 'N' button on both sticks - 'N' for 'nuclear' apparently - this aircraft type could launch/drop nuclear depth charges. 

'Meet the Blenheim Day' at the Kent Battle of Britain museum Hawkinge - F/O Reg Peacock of 235 Sqd

 The second 'Meet the Bristol Blenheim Project Day' at the Kent Battle of Britain Museum Trust at Hawkinge was held on Saturday 17th February 2018 between 10 am and 3 pm with all proceeds going to the museum 'Bristol Blenheim rebuild fund'.

The weather was crisp and clear and the Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV was laid out in the car park for visitors to see the progress being made on her rebuild to date and since the museum acquired the project in December 2017.

I took the opportunity to speak to some of the volunteers involved with her rebuild, took a few photographs of the progress and was able to get up close and personal with her.

Please note that the Museum does not re-open until Good Friday 30th March for the 2018 Season. It is hoped to rebuild the Blenheim over a five-year period with a cockpit arriving some time during 2018 from Canada.

 The restoration will be repainted in the colours of 1940 Blenheim 'ace' F/O Reg Peacock of 235 Sqd who shot down a Ju 88 over Thorney Island on 18 August 1940 at the height of the Battle of Britain in Blenheim IV L9446. 235 Sqd were based in Kent at RAF Manston.

B-29 Superfortress “Doc” first flight July 2016 - USAF F-4 Phantom final flight, 'Phantom Phinale' Holloman AF base, December 2016

First post of the New Year! FalkeEins 'Jet & Prop' blog starts its ninth year.  This blog now features over 400 separate posts. Approx average daily page views  =500. As a 'google' blog we get listed near the top of most searches. Author/blogger FalkeEins is previously published in UK aviation/modelling magazines and has credits with numerous publishers, including Kagero, Red Kite, Classic Publications, Lela Presse  (publishers of 'Avions' magazine in France) Eagle Editions, Erik Mombeek, Claes Sundin etc. See sidebar for our other blogs and more interesting aviation blogs worldwide.

To kick off 2017 two awesome aviation events from 2016 that we did not get around to covering last year!

B-29 Superfortress “Doc” flew for the first time during July 2016 after being rolled out of a former Boeing Wichita hangar on March 23, 2015, following 15 years and 300,000 hours of restoration work by scores of volunteers. The bomber, built by Boeing in Wichita in 1945, had been parked in the California Mojave desert for 42 years. The aircraft was discovered in 1987 and, in 2000, was trucked to Wichita where restoration began. The project went through a hiatus, the victim of a poor economy and lack of hangar space, when a group of Wichita business leaders and aviation enthusiasts formed a nonprofit group called Doc’s Friends and restarted the restoration. Boeing donated the hangar space. The B-29 is one of only two to be flyable. Securing a permanent home in Wichita for the aircraft and operating the aircraft as a flying museum will probably prove as problematic as the British Vulcan to the Sky project. B-29 Doc organizers estimate it will take another $7 million to $9 million to secure permanent hangar space. Below; some screen captures from the B-29 'Doc' first flight video posted below.

More at www.B-29Doc.com

This blog is a big fan of the F-4 Phantom, usually RAF and RN variants! But during 2016 I was fortunate enough to see two Greek F-4s in the air and up close in the static at the RIAT 2016 show in the UK. Elsewhere  the U.S. Air Force F-4 Phantom II made its final flight, after more than 50 years of service, at Holloman Air Force Base on 21 December 2016. Here are some screen captures from one of the best videos of the  'Phantom Phinale' “Pharewell” posted on youtube. A single click to view here. Published by Skyes 9 on youtube in December 2016. " In an attempt at documenting the last USAF F-4 Phantoms in flying service, I flew to Holloman AFB, NM. They'll be used as ground targets from now on as the QF-16 takes over. In this video you will see the start up, taxi out, and flyby of the F-4s, followed by water cannon salute and then shut down of the USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II..."