Only 2 in flying condition left in the world!
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/07/17...cmp=latestnews
Only 2 in flying condition left in the world!
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/07/17...cmp=latestnews
"The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation ... forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of." -- James Madison (1788)
That is great news. 14 years in the making, I sure would love to see the maiden flight.
I wonder if there are any Tupolev TU-4's left. Since it is an EXACT copy of the B29, I'd be interested in seeing if there are any flying.
Google search turned up nothing.
I love those old planes. It's sad that there are only 2 left in flying condition. I had a ride on a B-17 once. It was scary as hell but worth it. Maybe one day a ride in a B-29 will happen?
!
I'd love to ride on a B-17. It's just amazing how despite so many of those being built, along with P-38s, and so few flight-worthy remain.
In my worthless opinion, planes just got uglier after the propeller era.
On a side note, I volunteered on a JPAC recovery effort about 6 miles from my house in Germany. A B-24 that crashed near Bettenfeld was being excavated to try and find the remains of the pilots. We were pulling up chains of .50 cal rounds and bits and pieces of just about anything on a plane you can think of. Supposedly they found a 1911, but I never saw it. It's amazing what's still sitting in the woods and just below the surface all over Germany. About 40 mins north of me a downed fighter ( possibly a P-47) was found buried in a field not more than 1000 feet from Bitburg.
Speaking of B-24's...here's a pic of me, much younger, behind a waist gun in the B-24 "All-American". The smirk on my face was the result of aiming at a fuel truck a short distance away.
"Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."
I couldn't imagine what it must have been like to be sanding there firing that beast on a plane that's shaking violently from flak, a pilot maneuvering to miss flak/other planes, AND German fighters shooting at you..and thats if you weren't already hit or there wasn't smoke billowing inside the cabin. Truly amazing.
Not to mention the deafening noise and freezing temperatures.
Just going to say that when i read your message..I read on many a wounded airman actually freezing in the plane..Anytime i watch the movies it is really chilling to watch the tracers...Flash back to Basic when we had reall M-60's hammering away as we crawled beneth the wire in Infiltration course.. A lot different than my firing the ar at 800 yards and watching them burn all the way, now....
cool beans!!! Peace jeremy