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Fourth Quarter (Oct - Dec) 2008
Volume 21, Number 4
The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum
Editorial
F
ortunately for aviation enthusiasts, the global inventory of warbirds includes flying examples of
many of the world’s most significant
combat aircraft. There are exceptions, of
course. For example, pending restoration
of the Commemorative Air Force’s B-29
Fifi, there is currently no airworthy Boeing Superfortress. Many of the more obscure German and Japanese aircraft types
used in World War II do not exist at all.
England, whose aircraft industry over the
years has built some of the most interesting aircraft ever to fly, has a regrettable
habit of cutting these historic treasures up
for scrap. Thus it is very exciting news
that, after a Herculean worldwide fundraising and restoration effort, there is today a flying example of perhaps the most
famous post-War British aircraft of all—
the Avro Vulcan.
Development of the Vulcan began in
1947 at the A.V. Roe (Avro) factory, near
Manchester, England. The Air Ministry’s
specification called for a heavy, high-altitude, high-speed, long-range bomber to
serve as Britain’s airborne nuclear deterrent. In case Avro’s radical delta-wing design failed, the Ministry at the same time
contracted with the Vickers-Armstrong
and Handley Page aircraft companies to
develop “insurance bombers.” In the end,
the Royal Air Force (RAF) put all three
aircraft into service as the world-famous
“V-bomber” force—the Vickers Valiant,
Handley Page Victor and Avro Vulcan.
Editorial (Continued on Page 8)
Featured Aircraft
H
ow does one decide how much
influence an aircraft design has
on other aircraft? When you reduce an aircraft to its most basic components—lifting surfaces, control system,
powerplant (unless it’s a glider) and a
place for the crew to work—then all aircraft are fundamentally identical. But it is
indisputable that some aeronautical innovations directly influenced the course of
aviation development worldwide. The jet
engine is one example of such an advance. Another is the swept wing.
S The Soviet Union built more than 13,100
Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15s, and many more
were made under license by Czechoslovakia,
Poland and China. In this photo from June
1989, the late John MacGuire pilots his twoseater ex-Polish Air Force MiG-15UTI Midget over the southern New Mexico desert
near the new War Eagles Air Museum.
Contents
Editorial......................................1
Featured Aircraft........................1
From the Director.......................2
Historical Perspectives ..............5
Tailspins with Parker..................6
Membership Application ............7
Featured Aircraft (Continued on Page 2)
1
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com
Plane Talk—The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum
From the Director
W
ith autumn underway, days
are cooler, the winds have diminished and the nights are
really pleasant here in the Chihuahuan
Desert. So the old excuses of “It’s too hot
to volunteer at the Museum” or “It’s too
windy to volunteer,” while they may be
valid at certain times of the year, most
definitely do not hold true now. Fall and
winter are probably the best seasons in
the area, and there is no better time for
you to come out and spend some quality
volunteer time with us.
Another reason for you to come out
is that it seems things are always busiest
for us during the last three months of the
year. The big RV Fly-In in early October
should draw more than 100 aircraft from
around the country, and up to 400 people.
We can use volunteers to staff the registration table, meet and greet visitors, conduct informal tours, guide traffic, give directions, answer questions about the Museum and the area, and so on. The Chili
Cookoff follows close behind the Fly-In,
and we can always use judges in addition
to the many other areas in which volunteers can help out. No culinary experience is required—just a desire to have a
good time and sample some great chili
(and maybe some not-so-great chili!). Be
sure to bring your own antacid tablets.
Feel free to come to the Museum any
Thursday at noon for our weekly volunteer appreciation lunch. And thanks very
much for your dedication and hard work.
We really appreciate it!
Skip Trammell
Plane Talk
Published quarterly by:
War Eagles Air Museum
8012 Airport Road
Santa Teresa, New Mexico 88008
(575) 589-2000
Author/Editor:
Chief Nitpicker:
Final Proofreader:
Terry Sunday
Frank Harrison
Kathy Sunday
[email protected]
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com
Fourth Quarter 2008
Featured Aircraft (Continued from page 1)
Practical demonstrations of both of
these innovations, as well as many others, first took place in Nazi Germany during the Third Reich. Considering conditions in the Reich late in World War II, it
is remarkable that German scientists and
engineers accomplished so much. Political alliances morphed often, with very
real risks of arrest, imprisonment and
death to those in the wrong place at the
wrong time. Demented megalomaniacal
Führer Adolf Hitler micro-managed German industry and military operations
with bizarre directives, impossible demands and ever-changing priorities. Nonstop Allied bombing forced factories to
disperse, and caused debilitating shortages of fuel, metals and other critical resources. Yet dedicated German designers
still developed and fielded innovative,
groundbreaking technological triumphs
such as the twin-jet, swept-wing Messerschmitt Me.262 Schwalbe (Swallow), the
tail-less, rocket-powered Messerschmitt
Me.163B Komet interceptor and the extraordinary Vergeltungswaffe Zwei (V-2)
long-range ballistic missile.
In the final days of the War, U.S. Army Air Corps General Henry H. “Hap”
Arnold set up a team of scientists called
the “Scientific Advisory Group,” led by
expatriate Hungarian aerodynamicist Dr.
Theodore von Kármán of the California
Institute of Technology, to examine captured German military technology. One
result of the team’s evaluation was almost immediate. The great advantages of
swept wings, based on German wind tunnel and flight test data, led Boeing Aircraft Company in 1945 to put a swept
wing on its existing straight-wing B-47
bomber design, which had been under
development since 1943. The rest, as the
saying goes, is history.
The Soviet Union also took advantage of German technology. In the ruins
of the Reichsluftministerium (German Air
Ministry) in Berlin, the Red Army found
a complete set of plans for the Ta.183, an
advanced swept-wing turbojet fighter designed by Dipl. Ing. (Diploma Engineer)
Kurt Tank (the “Ta” prefix of the aircraft
designation comes from his last name)
2
S This rendering, used without permission
from www.luft46.com, depicts Focke Wulf’s
Ta.183 in a camouflage paint scheme as it
might have appeared if it had gone into production before World War II ended.
and aerodynamicist Dipl. Ing. Hans Multhopp of Focke Wulf Flugzeugbau (Focke
Wulf Aircraft Company). The Ta.183
had been scheduled for its first flight in
June 1945 and for full production by October. None was ever actually built. If it
had been available in quantity, the
Ta.183 could have turned the tide of the
War for Germany, at least temporarily.
What the Soviet Union did with its
windfall is disputed. Some modern Russian aviation historians hold that the
Ta.183 did not influence Soviet aircraft
design at all. But the War-ravaged Soviet
aircraft industry did everything possible
to get back on its feet. For instance, Tupolev’s Tu-4 Bull bomber was a copy of
the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, supposedly even including patched bullet holes
(the Soviets had reverse-engineered three
B-29s that had made emergency landings
in Siberia during World War II). Most
historians thus believe that some of the
technology from the unbuilt Ta.183 later
emerged in one of the best-known and
most widely used aircraft of the Cold
War—the Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15.
Featured Aircraft (Continued on page 3)
Fourth Quarter 2008
Featured Aircraft (Continued from page 2)
Set up in Moscow in December 1939
by aircraft designer Artem Mikoyan, the
A. I. Mikoyan OKB (Opytnoe Konstructorskoe Byuro, or Experimental Design
Bureau) became OKB MiG in 1942 when
aeronautical engineer Mikhail Gurevich
joined the company, which added his initial to its name (the small “i” is the Russian word “and”). Over the years, OKB
MiG has produced some of the world’s
best and most significant aircraft.
Some sources report that OKB MiG
built six Ta.183s from the German plans
soon after the War, using 5,100-poundthrust British Rolls-Royce RB-41 Nene
centrifugal-flow turbojet engines rather
than the lower-thrust axial-flow Junkers
Jumo 004B or Heinkel HeS-011 turbojets
in the original design. First flight reportedly was in June 1947. Flight tests soon
revealed several aerodynamic problems.
OKB MiG made some design changes to
fix these problems, and the resulting aircraft, designated I-310 but actually the
prototype MiG-15, first flew on December 30, 1947, in the skilled hands of test
pilot Viktor N. Yuganov. Production deliveries started five months later.
Regardless of whether or not the Soviet Union really built Ta.183s, there are
many similarities, and also some key differences, between Tank’s design and the
MiG-15. For example, the Ta.183’s cockpit was placed entirely above the engine
air intake duct, while the MiG-15’s bifurMikoyan Gurevich MiG-15bis
General Characteristics
Powerplant
One 5,950-pound-static-thrust Klimov VK-1
turbojet
Cruise Speed
525 miles per hour
Maximum Speed
650 miles per hour
Service Ceiling
~50,000 feet
Length
33 feet 4 inches
Wingspan
33 feet 3 inches
Range
~1,250 miles
Weight (empty)
8,115 pounds
Weight (maximum) 12,300 pounds
Plane Talk—The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum
cated duct passed on
both sides of the cockpit. The MiG-15’s horizontal stabilizer was
midway up the vertical
tail, not at the top, and
the main landing gear
retracted into the wing
instead of the fuselage.
The wings of the two
aircraft were very similar. Even if the Soviets
did not really copy the
Ta.183 (as they did the
B-29), the MiG-15 obviously benefited from
the Germans’ work.
The first production MiG-15 flew on
December 31, 1948,
and the new jet entered
service with the VVS
(Voenno-Vozdushnye
Sily, or Soviet Air
Force) the next year.
NATO (North Atlantic
Treaty Organization)
assigned it the reporting name Fagot, with
the “F” meaning “fighter” and the two syllables denoting jet power. Early production
examples had some unpleasant handling vices, such as a tendency
to roll that ground
crews had to laboriously correct by manually
bending trim tabs. Most of the vices went
away with the MiG-15bis1 variant, which
also had an upgraded Klimov VK-1 engine (essentially an improved Nene).
The origins of the 50-year-long Cold
War are too complex to cover here. But,
to grossly oversimplify, Soviet leaders
after World War II, still reeling from Hitler’s brutal attacks that had killed millions of Soviet citizens, harbored a real
(to them) fear of a similar U.S. strike, but
with nuclear weapons rather than con1 The suffix “bis” means “repeat” in Old Latin. Interestingly, the same suffix is sometimes used today in computer
modem protocol standards—a protocol designation ending
with “bis” is the second version of that protocol.
3
ventional bombs. Thus, the main mission
of the VVS’s MiG-15 units was to shoot
down invading American bombers. To do
this, the diminutive jets had a heavy armament package of three cannons, two of
23mm calibre and one 37mm, that had a
tremendous destructive punch. But their
low rates of fire and slow muzzle velocities made them less effective against the
agile American and British fighters that
the MiG-15 eventually faced in combat.
When the Korean War broke out in
June 1950, it quickly became much more
than a border dispute between communist
Featured Aircraft (Continued on page 4)
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com
Plane Talk—The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum
Fourth Quarter 2008
air-superiority fighter,
the F-86 was a bit more
maneuverable than the
North Korea and democratic South KorMig-15, in general, and
ea. In fact, it became a “proxy war” init performed far better
volving the three major global powers of
at low altitudes. Its six
the day (the U.S., the Soviet Union and
reliable Browning .50the Peoples’ Republic of China). In the
calibre machine guns
frigid air high over the Korean peninsula,
gave it a good punch in
American Lockheed F-80 Shooting Stars,
dogfights.
Republic F-84 Thunderjets and British
By the end of the
Gloster Meteors of the Royal Australian
War, American pilots
Air Force, met up with the MiG-15 for
had earned a kill ratio
the first time. It was an eye-opening exas high as 8 to 1 against
perience. The tiny Soviet fighter left the
their communist adverWestern aircraft in the dust.
saries. While the airThe U.S. and the Soviet Union both
craft of the two sides S Dan Taylor (l.), Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) mechanic, Muclaimed victory in the world’s first jetwere amazingly well- seum founder John MacGuire (in cockpit) and Gary Hill (r.) run
vs.-jet aerial dogfight on November 8,
matched, the Ameri- up a MiG-15 at Santa Teresa Airport. This photo was taken in front
1950. Either an F-80 downed a MiG-15,
cans were much better of the maintenance shop in 1988, before the Museum was built.
or a MiG-15 shot down an F-80, or notrained. They also had
body shot down anybody. Records dislonger combat assignments, which gave
agree, and there are strong arguments for
orbit the earth, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin,
them more experience than the North
all viewpoints. But there is little diswas killed, along with his co-pilot VladiKorean and Chinese pilots, who rotated
agreement that the MiG-15 outperformed
mir Seregin, in a crash in bad weather on
in and out of combat on short, rigid
American and British aircraft early in the
March 27, 1968.
schedules. Soviet MiG-15 pilots, who
war, and the mismatch was not corrected
War Eagles Air Museum has on dishad been withdrawn early in the War,
until North American F-86 Sabre jets beplay two examples of this early Soviet
later admitted that most North Korean
gan arriving in Korea in December 1950.
fighter—a “standard” MiG-15bis Fagot
and Chinese pilots did little more than
The capabilities of the MiG-15 and
and a MiG-15UTI Midget, the latter with
give the Americans “aerial targets.”
F-86 reflected the different missions for
its cockpit canopy open and a ladder set
The Soviet Union exported its firstwhich each was designed. The Soviet airup so that you can see inside. Note the
generation jet fighter to nearly all of the
craft had a higher rate of climb, better
DYMO label-maker tapes all over the inWarsaw Pact nations, where they served
high-altitude performance and heavier arstrument panel and on the switches, levfor many years. Albania, as an example,
mament, the better to intercept and shoot
ers and controls. This aircraft was built in
flew a handful of MiG-15s at least until
down attacking bombers. Intended as an
Poland, and thus had Polish markings
late 2005—good lonand placards when Museum founder John
gevity for a 60-yearMacGuire acquired it. Early-day volunold design! The Soviet
teers and friends of the nascent Museum,
Union also licensed
armed with a general knowledge of aeroproduction to China,
nautics and a Polish-English dictionary,
Poland and Czechoslolaboriously translated all of the markings
vakia. About 18,000
into English and glued on the tape labels.
MiG-15s, in 10 differJohn MacGuire purchased several
ent variants, rolled out
Polish-built MiGs, a mixture of one- and
of Soviet and foreign
two-seaters, from a private owner in Lonfactories by the time
don in 1988—when the Museum was just
production ended. One
a gleam in his eye. A restoration facility
of the variants was the
in Reno, Nevada, made some of the airtwo-seater MiG-15UTI
craft flyable, complete with registrations
Midget trainer, which
and airworthiness certificates, and put the
others in static display condition. Of the
S The West’s first close-up look at the Soviet Union’s front-line is of special signififighter came on September 21, 1953, when 21-year-old North Kor- cance to War Eagles
four Fagots and one Midget that Macean pilot Lt. Kum Sok No defected and flew his fully armed, com- Air Museum. It is also
Guire purchased, only the Midget ever
bat-ready MiG-15bis to Kimpo Air Force Base, in Seoul, South the type of aircraft in
flew after arrival in the U.S., as seen in
Korea. His aircraft, number 2057, is now on display as seen here at which the first man to
the 1989 photograph on Page 1.
Featured Aircraft (Continued from page 3)
the Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com
4
Fourth Quarter 2008
Historical
Perspectives
by Robert Haynes
O
n Sunday, September 12, 1943,
a German Fieseler Fi-156C-3
Storch (Stork), coded SJ+LL
and adorned on its tail with the sinister
swastika markings of the Third Reich,
landed on an alpine meadow near the
Campo Imperatore hotel in Gran Sasso in
the Abruzzi Mountains of Italy, 75 miles
north of Rome. Its pilot was Luftwaffe
Hauptmann (Captain) Heinrich Gerlach.
His mission was to pick up a very special
passenger—none other than Il Duce himself, Benito Mussolini, the Fascist leader
of Italy for the last 23 years. The strutting, brutal dictator had been ousted from
power in a bloodless coup on July 24 by
Field Marshall Pietro Badoglio, and was
now a prisoner in his own country. But,
thanks to his ally Adolf Hitler, Mussolini
was given a chance to escape punishment
at the hands of the anarchists who had taken over the Italian government.
Following a plan devised by notorious SS-Hauptsturmführer (Captain) Otto
Skorzeny, 90 Fallschirmjäger (parachute
commandos) landed in 12 transport gliders and freed Mussolini from his Alpine
prison. The erstwhile Italian dictator and
Skorzeny climbed into Gerlach’s waiting
Editor’s Note
B
ecause of a temporary transfer
to Beaumont, Texas, to help
out with recovery operations
from Hurricane Ike, Robert Haynes
could not finish the second part of his
article on MiG-21s in Viet Nam. So
we are re-running a slightly expanded
version of one of his earlier columns
in this issue. We look forward to the
rest of his MiG-21 story as soon as he
can finish it. Good luck, Robert!
Plane Talk—The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum
Storch as it idled on
the deposed Mussolini that the Axis’
the meadow. After a
string of battlefield defeats, capped with
dramatic short-field
Italy’s surrender a few days earlier,
takeoff from the high
would end when his new “wonder weapplateau, the world’s
ons” entered the fray. This was easy to
premier (at the time)
believe—the Germans were indeed deSTOL (short takeoff
veloping new weapons. The V-1 “cruise
and landing) aircraft,
missile” (like the Storch, built by Gerits prominent spindly
hard Fieseler Werke GmbH) became oplanding gear suggesterational in June 1944. The Messering its avian namesake, carried Mussolini
schmitt Me-262 jet fighter first appeared
to temporary “freedom” to Berlin by way
in the embattled skies over Europe that
of Rome as a pawn of der Führer.
August, and V-2 rockets began raining
What thoughts may have been going
down on Antwerp and London in Sepon in Mussolini’s mind, and what altertember. These weapons were not operanatives may he have had, when he boardtional when Mussolini was “rescued,”
ed the Storch and began a journey that he
and in fact did not have much effect on
could not know was to ultimately lead to
the conduct of the War. But they were all
his execution by Italian
partisans in Milan less
than two years later?
We can easily say
today that Mussolini
“should have known,”
on that September day,
that the war was all but
over. We can ask how
he could have thought
the Axis could still defeat the Allies. It is
easy for us to think this
today. We know how it S Benito Mussolini boards Fieseler Storch at Campo Imperatore
turned out. Mussolini resort hotel, Italy, on September 12, 1943. Photo from Fieseler
obviously did not. The Fi.156 Storch im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Used without permission.
Allied landings in northern France on D-Day, a major turning
well along in their test programs, and
point in the War, were still nine months
Hitler no doubt enthusiastically extolled
in the future. True, the Allies, staging out
their virtues to the Italian ex-dictator.
of bases in North Africa, had recently
Another anxiety that drove Mussocaptured Sicily, and had just the week belini’s decision was the fear of Italy’s total
fore landed in the “toe” of Italy and were
destruction. There is no question that he
moving smartly up the peninsula. But
was a brutal dictator, but he was also a
Mussolini could easily—and correctly—
passionate Italian who had no desire to
have felt that stiffer resistance and more
see his homeland destroyed. Archives
difficult terrain would slow the Americlearly reveal Mussolini’s concern that
can, British and Canadian forces as they
moved North. He had to make up his
Perspectives (Continued on page 7)
mind whether to return to his old ally or
to accept isolation, and he had only his
experience on which to base his decision.
Plane Talk on the Web
Many people in Mussolini’s position, forced to choose among equally unrchives of Plane Talk from
pleasant options without a “crystal ball”
the current issue back to the
to see the future, would probably make
first quarter of 2003 are now
the same decision. Hitler had persuaded
available in full color on our website.
A
5
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com
Plane Talk—The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum
T
he other day out in the hangar, I
got to talking with Geronimo and
George about our experiences in
renting airplanes away from our own local friendly neighborhood Fixed Base
Operator (FBO). Of course, we all understood the need for checkout flights before
FBOs let you rent their airplanes. And we
understood the need to have all your paperwork in order—pilots license, medical
certificate, proof of renters insurance, log
book and all that stuff.
Then we got to discussing issues of
aircraft type, availability and cost, such
as whether the hourly price is dry or wet
(including fuel, that is). Each FBO seems
to have slightly different policies for letting people rent their airplanes.
“Yeah,” said Geronimo, “and don’t
forget the maintenance of the airplane. I
rented a little Cessna 172 one time and
the danged throttle came right out of the
instrument panel and ended up danglin’
Another Editor’s Note
B
ecause of the demands on his
time from other activities, including publishing his second
book, Jim Parker’s Tailspins column
has been AWOL from Plane Talk for
a while. We were very pleased to receive a new one from him recently.
We hope you enjoy reading this latest
tale in his ongoing series of perceptive, amusing vignettes of some of aviation’s more colorful characters.
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com
Fourth Quarter 2008
down by my leg. I was
chance to retort, “let me tell you about a
lucky it happened durrental experience I had recently. As you
in’ my run up. Someguys know, I like to check out different
thin’ like that happenFBOs during my travels, kinda like a
in’ on final would’ve
hobby. So last week, I visited a little airgotten my attention
port down in Central Texas to get cleared
real quick.”
to fly a 172. That place was somethin’
Most FBOs make
else. The runway was plenty long but real
you take a checkout
narrow. The old 172 that I rented was in
flight before they’ll
good mechanical condition, but on the inrent you an airplane.
side I’d give it about a two on a scale of
Smaller places might
10. It was sorta like steppin’ into a really
do their own, while
old redneck’s car. I got the key from a
others have a Certified
little box with a combination lock at the
Flight Instructor (CFI)
tiedown spot. Durin’ the pre-flight, since
on staff whose job it is
I couldn’t find a ladder, I had to climb up
to check you out. Some even have a couon the nacelle and wing steps to check
ple of CFIs, in which case, you have to
the fuel level. I was surprised my old
call in advance if you want to have your
knees would even let me do that.
checkout with a certain CFI. That usually
“Anyway, I had a good flight checktakes a day or two to get set up. All of
out. After we landed, I taxied over to the
this calling and scheduling was way more
gas pumps and shut ’er down. Then I atthan Geronimo wanted to deal with.
tached the ground wire to the nose gear,
“I’ve had bad luck whenever there
unwound the heavy fuel hose with a big
was several CFIs and I hadda pick one of
heavy nozzle on the end of it, carried a
’em,” he said. “Hell, I never know whetall step ladder that I finally found over to
ther the CFI’s gonna match my personalthe airplane, went back to the pumps,
ity or not. I’ve picked out some real tyturned ’em on, selected the amount of
rants in my time. You know the kind. Ya
fuel to pump (always estimate more than
can’t satisfy ’em, and they’re hypercritiyou think you’ll use) and slid my credit
cal about everything ya do. By the end of
card through. That gave me two minutes
the checkout, sometimes I’ve wanted to
to begin pumpin’. So back up the ladder I
punch the guy out.”
“I bet that feelin’ was mutual,” obTailspins (Continued on page 7)
served George dryly.
Geronimo grunted
noncommittally and
went on, undeterred.
“At the other extreme,
what about them CFIs
who make ya do a couple of maneuvers and
then just sort of rear
back and take a nap?
It’s really hard for me
to write out a check to
pay somebody good
money for doin’ nothin’ but sleepin’.”
“It beats me how
anyone could go to
sleep the way you fly,”
S Although it’s not exactly a tiny grass strip in the middle of noGeorge quipped.
where, Truth or Consequences Airport is one of the many smaller
“Hey,” I said be- fields that Jim has flown from in his travels around the Southwest.
fore Geronimo had a Photo by Jim Parker.
6
Fourth Quarter 2008
Plane Talk—The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum
Membership Application
War Eagles Air Museum
War Eagles Air Museum memberships are available in six categories. All memberships include the following privileges:
Free admission to the Museum and all exhibits.
Free admission to all special events.
10% general admission discounts for all guests of a current Member.
10% discount on all Member purchases in the Gift Shop.
To become a Member of the War Eagles Air Museum, please fill in the information requested below and note the category of membership you desire. Mail this form, along with a check payable to “War Eagles Air Museum” for the annual fee shown, to:
War Eagles Air Museum
8012 Airport Road
Santa Teresa, NM 88008
Membership Categories
Individual
$15
Family
$25
STREET ____________________________________________________________
Participating
$50
CITY ______________________________ STATE _____ ZIP _________—______
Supporting
$100
TELEPHONE (Optional) _____—_____—____________
Benefactor
$1,000
E-MAIL ADDRESS (Optional) ___________________________________________
Life
$5,000
NAME (Please print)___________________________________________________
Will be kept private and used only for War Eagles Air Museum mailings.
Tailspins (Continued from page 6)
went, haulin’ the fuel nozzle. After openin’ the gas cap on the wing, I finally got
to start pumpin’ fuel. Whew!
“We’d used seven gallons for our 1.3
hour flight. I’d selected 10 on the pump,
so I was safe. When I was done fuelin’, I
put everything around the pumps back in
order. Then I hopped back into the 172,
started ’er up, taxied over to the parkin’
pad, shut down, pushed ‘er back into position, set the chocks and tied ’er down.
Then I wrote out a check for the rental
time and left it in the logbook, and put
the key back into the little combination
lock box contraption. But I wasn’t done
yet. Next I got out the cleanin’ spray and
some rags and wiped the dead bugs off
the leadin’ edges of the wings and the
struts and the windshield. In central
Texas, there sure was a lot of ’em to wipe
off. Lastly, I tidied up the interior and
made sure the control lock was firmly
secured in place. Then, all sweaty and
tired and wore plumb out, I finally got
into my car and headed fer home—four
hours after I got to that little airport.
“But the best part of the whole experience was the checkout. That ol’ CFI
really put me through my paces. I didn’t
know if I was comin’ or goin’ sometimes. He had me doin’ landin’ and full
power stalls with and without flaps, 60degree steep turns in full circles left and
right, with me havin’ to stay within only
100 feet of my entry altitude, slow flight
down to minimum controllable airspeed,
with and without flaps, landin’s with and
without flaps, then short field takeoffs
and landin’s. That workout sure made me
sweat, but it got me back in the groove.
He worked my butt off, that’s for sure.
“And after all that I got signed off to
fly their little 172. I look forward to doin’
just that next time I travel there…”
“Hell,” George snorted, “I wouldn’t
work that hard even for sex.”
“Sex?” Geronimo pondered for a
minute with a wistful look on his face.
Then he had a question. “What is this sex
of which you speak?” he deadpanned.
7
Perspectives (Continued from page 5)
all he had built would be annihilated. He
realized that not only the Allies, but the
Germans as well, threatened Italy’s existence. Mussolini believed Hitler would
not allow Italy to be a base for Allied operations against Germany. Thus, he reasoned, it was better for Italy to seek German protection rather than risk the possibility of “scorched-earth” combat utterly
destroying his beloved country.
Some people today may see this reasoning as naïve, and think that Mussolini
should have known the Germans would
sacrifice Italy anyway. But, had the Italian forces been better defenders, Rome
might not have fallen when it did and the
War could have lasted much longer.
Imagine yourself as Mussolini on
that Alpine meadow, standing next to the
idling Storch with its flaps set for a shortfield take-off. Do you climb aboard and
strap in, or do you stay behind and watch
your last hope climb away and vanish
over the distant horizon?
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com
War Eagles Air Museum
Doña Ana County Airport at Santa Teresa
8012 Airport Road
Santa Teresa, New Mexico 88008
(575) 589-2000
Editorial (Continued from page 1)
Renowned test pilot Roly Falk took
the Vulcan prototype into the air for the
first time on August 30, 1952. Early testing showed that the pure delta wing had a
problem with severe buffeting under load
at high speeds. Avro ran an extensive series of flight tests and developed the solution of fitting a “kinked” leading edge on
the wing. Aircraft with this modification
were designated Vulcan B.2, and all earlier production versions were eventually
retrofitted with the new wing.
Vulcans entered RAF service in September 1956 with the delivery of XA897.
The very next month, that aircraft was
destroyed on landing at London’s Heathrow airport in bad weather, after an impressive around-the-world, show-the-flag
tour. By the end of production, Avro had
built 134 Vulcans, the last of which was
delivered in January 1965.
The only time Vulcans saw combat
was in the 1982 Falklands War with Argentina. Five Vulcans, refueled in the air
www.war-eagles-air-museum.com
by Victor tankers, flew
from England to bomb
the Falklands’ main
airfield at Stanley. At
the time, these were the
longest-range combat
missions ever flown.
The RAF’s last Vulcan
squadron was disbanded in March 1984, at
which time the curtain
seemed to have fallen
for good on the era of
Avro’s big delta.
S The Avro Vulcan was one of the most distinctive aircraft ever to
But today, thanks fly. In October 2007, Vulcan B.2 XH558, seen here climbing out at
to the dedicated efforts a recent airshow demonstration in England, became the only flying
of a small army of fin- example of this superb Cold War aircraft in the world.
ancial sponsors, volunteers and enthusiastic public contributors,
flight, a 34-minute local hop, took place
one of these magnificent aircraft is flying
on October 18, 2007, and it was soon
again. Vulcan B.2 XH558, the 12th B.2
“cleared to fly” after a further series of
produced and the last Vulcan in RAF sertest flights proved its airworthiness. Tovice, was painstakingly restored at Brunday, the only flying example of this histingthorpe Aerodrome, about 75 miles
toric Cold War aircraft enthralls cheering
north of London—a project that spanned
crowds at its dramatic air show appearnearly 15 years. Its first post-restoration
ances throughout England.
8