Here's some shots from the airshow at Reading held over the weekend:

P-40 on final, long shot but I love the P-40 when she's all dirty

 

Even had some British tin





SNJ




P-47 Thunderbolt




Oh my.......the girls in period costume were to die for



Corsairs, in US markings but she was perfected by the Royal Navy

 

One of my favorite birds...ready to start engine..."Clear Prop ! "




P-51D Mustang....."Chick plane" ? maybe




Beautiful Fairchild in WWII CAP markings




B-17 touchdown



B-25's taxi


B-25

 

Here's my office this past Monday....wow it was nice to get back in the air !

 

From the model field this evening

My Mustang MkIII returns to the sky after over a year of sitting in the hanger ! Here come the Poles !







Gary's Nieuport 28

 

Nice shots Mike ! I wish I could have been there. I still remember when I was there a couple of years ago and they had a US Air (?) flight come in right in the middle of a battle re-enactment that was taking place on the field... smoke, flares, soldiers everywhere. Imagine seeing THAT from your window seat !

Cheers.

 

Great pictures indeed.

 

What show was this?

Perhaps we could do a group run out to Bealeton to the old fashioned flying circus. Any interest? I went about 15 years ago, bought a ride in a steerman trainer (open cockpit biplane).

http://www.flyingcircusairshow.com/

 

Beautiful shots Mike!

I was planning on going, but after delivering mail in the extreme heat, I really didn't want to spend my day off in the hot sun.

 

I always wonder about the German / SS re-enactors....makes me think of the Blues Brothers.


That's a for the flying circus !

Here's the link for the show http://www.maam.org/maamwwii.html Its a nice day trip, there's a great Pizza joint just out of Reading that we always hit. Great food, service and amazingly inexpensive ! "Paolo's Restaurant"

 

The P-51 a "chick" plane? Them's fighting words..

 

Put 'em up !

One thing I hate is how US airshows make it out that the P-51 won the war. That's crap, the Spit could out perform the P-51 in every way except range, and they covered the bombers on the way out and back in, leaving the P-51s to make the most of their fuel so they could engage over Germany. There were so many planes that made a difference, the P-47, the Typhoon, the Beaufighter, the Mosquito, even the P-40 in the Mediterranean, so you can't say it was the one reason. I'm not saying it sucked, just that it wasn't what they make it out to be.

A few facts airshow announcers miss:

1) The P-51 was designed for the British as a replacement for the P-40, the US had no real interest in it.

2) The P-51A/Mustang I with its Allison 1710 V12 would out perform the Merlin versions at altitudes below 10,000 feet, in fact it had one of the highest sea level speeds of any WWII fighter. It easily out performed the P-40 which it was designed to replace.

3) It was the Brits who came up with the idea to put the Rolls Royce Merlin engine into the Mustang airframe. Impressed with the low altitude performance, the Brits figured it would be even better with the two-stage supercharged Merlin at high altitude, they couldn't believe how much better !

There is no doubt the Mustang played its part on the team, and it sure is beautiful to see in the sky, not to mention that distinct sound !

A veteran once said:

"If you wanted to take a picture of youself to send to your girl, you stood in front of a P-51, if you wanted to go home to your girl, you flew a P-47 ! "

 

Oh yeah? How many Me-262s did the Spitfire shoot down?

 

Nice try

" On 5 October, the first Me-262 jet fighter to be shot down was credited to the Spitfires of No 401 Squadron"

 

Oh Oh ! Someone challenged Mike on his knowledge of Spitfires !!!!

>>>> I'm taking cover !!!

 

Not challenging the Spitfire, awesome plane. But I just love the Corsair F4U. Big honkin' radial engine, and love the reverse gull wing layout.

 

The P-51 was a scalpel, but the P-47 was flying sledge-hammer.

 

Great photo's. My dad (and his 2nd wife) went to the show. He said it was way too hot to enjoy the show for long. He's a huge B24 fan, and has more models in his house than he knows what to do with (these are the finished ones). His shed is full of UNMADE models, some of which he has had since I was 10.

I love P-51's, but my favorite since I was knee-high to a grasshopper is the Corsair , while my brother still loves the DeHavilland Mosquito (especially the night-fighter version).


I have a friend/co-worker who is a Wermacht re-enactor (Doug could not make it to Reading). He's restoring an original motorcycle for his re-enacting. The Wermacht re-enactors think they are normal and that the SS re-enactors are the crazy ones who take it way too seriously.

 

Oh WOW...I wish I could have gone! Love Corsairs and Spitfires! and I LOVE swing era clothes and this woman who dressed for the day!

 

Ahem, Mike, here ya go : http://www.spitfireaircraftco.com/kits.html

Also, when i was there, I always liked the way that the female partisans looked.... something like this one from a re-anacment of the the Warsaw uprising (in Warsaw of course) last year :



Or the one in this picture :

 

That's another airshow beef, the guy made it out like the Marines perfected the Corsair when it was the Brits that got her straightend out for carrier ops ! I too love the bentwing bird though I've only had two models. I'm waiting on someone to put out a giant scale "almost ready to fly"

Here's a Fleet Air Arm Corsair, notice the clipped wing tips so they would fit under the deck with the wings folded.




Great shots Derek, not sure I should say anything about "dirty girls"

Reading is a great experience, if you like history, like the time period and love airplanes....make plans to go next year !

 

But tell me / us when you're getting a kit from the Spitfire Aircraft Company. We can all show up to help you build it !

 

$320K for the full kit....minus the engine. The engine, if you can find a fully operational Merlin or Alison V-12, will run you at least that much more.

 

Wooooah, that would be nice but since the PPL is still too much (and getting worse as our gas prices soar) I think I'll just play with my models.

I have these two Spit kits to build at home....

My favorite spit, the MkIa

http://www.vicrc.com/product_spitfire.htm

to be painted as a 603 Squadron A/C XT-M





and the Griffin MkXIV

http://www.yellowaircraft.com/props/spitfire.htm

though I'm considering this conversion to the MkXIV Bubble canopy

http://www.spychallaaircraft.com/spy...-12-06_003.htm

then paint her like NH749, the Spit I got to sit in out in Cali.

 

Well done...!!!! really enjoyed.....& appreciate all the great pics....Had to tell you.........................Ross