on another note... WW2 aircraft still flying

[shadowcat1313]

this may better belong in the NGD board, but here goes

 

its almost amazing how many ww2 and earlier aircraft are still flying

 

I was looking at the results from the Reno Air Races.. the unlimited class are the really interesting ones

 

P-51D mustang

F8F Bearcat

F7F Tigercat

F2G Corsair

Yak-3

Yak-11

Hawker Sea Fury

 

theres also a B-25J and a P-40K flying in the airshow but not racing

 

the bearcat and the sea fury being really common at reno

 

but if you really want to see warbirds, nothing beats the EAA flyin at Oshkosh

I went last year and it was amazing, got to see the only Dornier DO-24 flying boat left in the world, I missed speeches by Paul Tibbets and Tex Hill unfortunately

 

http://www.airrace.org/indexJS.php

 

http://www.eaa.org/

[Barton]

Re: on another note... WW2 aircraft still flying

 

Old aircraft are still in service!

 

DC-3 is STILL flying passengers in the Yukon!!!

 

DC-3 (AKA C-47, or Dakota) is still flying cargo (about 1,000 still in operation) worldwide.

 

A modified DC-3 (a turboprop tri-motor version) is in use by the US Forest Service.

 

DC-4 (C-54) is still flying cargo to this day.

 

The Ford TriMotor is still flying sight seeing passengers in Grand Canyon.

 

Some aircraft from the Pulp era were over enginneered and may be in commerical service for a long time.

[LordGhee]

Re: on another note... WW2 aircraft still flying

 

About ten years ago a group of business men where touring the yak plant and talking to the head of the company. he found out that the russian could build anything that they built in the past. A quick call and an order for yak 11 came through. seem the racing market was running out of WW II planes.

 

last year the FW 190 line was restarted and fly again.

 

Lord Ghee

[LordGhee]

Re: on another note... WW2 aircraft still flying

 

Every week day I know it is about 7 pm as I see the DC 3 in the sky, a company uses it to fly betweem EL Paso Tx and Albuqueque (sorry spell) NM it has a daily route.

 

Lord Ghee

[Toadmaster]

Re: on another note... WW2 aircraft still flying

 

Old aircraft are still in service!

 

 

A modified DC-3 (a turboprop tri-motor version) is in use by the US Forest Service.

 

 

The USFS DC-3 is a turbo prop conversion but its not a tri-motor, it is primarily used to drop smoke jumpers.

 

Here is a photo of it (top pic)

 

http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/people/smokejumpers/aircraft.html

 

 

Until 2002 there were a number of WW2 era aircraft still flying as air tankers (also popularly known as fire bombers or borate bombers).

 

Canada still uses A-26 (B-26) Invaders and Martin Mars flying boats, TBM Avengers were quite popular but I believe the last ended their careers in 2000.

 

The US Forest Service has used PBY Catalina flying boats, F7F Tigercats, TBM Avengers, B-25 Mitchells, A-26 (B-26) Invaders, B-17 Flying Fortresses, and PB4Y2 (Naval version of the B-24 Liberator). Most of these went out of service in the 80's but the PB4Y2 was still flying in 2002. The P2V Neptune is a WW2 design that entered service in the late 40's, they are still in service as air tankers.

 

Some aircraft from the Pulp era were over enginneered and may be in commerical service for a long time.

 

 

The DC-4 (C-54) and later DC-6, DC-7 are still flying as Airtanker's. After 2 spectacular fatal tanker crashes in 2002 (C-130 Hercules & PB4Y2) the use of the older aircraft was severely questioned, in a knee jerk reaction the political appointees overseeing the air tanker program cancelled contracts for all except the P-3 Orion (it is seen as more modern since it has turbo-props, but ironically some are older than piston powered P2V's). One of the requirements to get a new contract is documentaion from the manufacturer on life expectancy, for the Navy planes (P-3 Orion and P2V Neptune, the crash in 2002 was the end of service for the PB4Y2's) this was harder to do since the Navy doesn't keep good records apparently. However the Douglas DC series (3,4,6,7) have been given a clean bill of health by Douglas, the company (Mcdonnell Douglas now) has stated they built those planes to fly forever, they have no service life. Aviation experts pretty much agree saying the Douglas DC series from the 30-50's are some of the toughest over engineered aircraft ever built. So its no wonder so many are still flying.

[Edsel]

Re: on another note... WW2 aircraft still flying

 

Here are some good pictures of a PBY Catalina that is still flying. As near as I can determine there are still about 30 of these airworthy in the world. Some are still working planes, being used as aerial firefighting tankers and with various small puddle jumper airlines. It is an odd looking plane but one that always appealed to me somehow.

[Barton]

Re: on another note... WW2 aircraft still flying

 

The USFS DC-3 is a turbo prop conversion but its not a tri-motor, it is primarily used to drop smoke jumpers.

 

Here is a photo of it (top pic)

 

http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/people/smokejumpers/aircraft.html

The US Forest Service did have a tri-motor DC-3 (pre-DOUG). It was given a writeup in AOPA magazine about 10 years ago. I forgot about the DOUG program.

 

The DC-4 (C-54) and later DC-6, DC-7 are still flying as Airtanker's. After 2 spectacular fatal tanker crashes in 2002 (C-130 Hercules & PB4Y2) the use of the older aircraft was severely questioned, in a knee jerk reaction the political appointees overseeing the air tanker program cancelled contracts for all except the P-3 Orion (it is seen as more modern since it has turbo-props, but ironically some are older than piston powered P2V's). One of the requirements to get a new contract is documentaion from the manufacturer on life expectancy, for the Navy planes (P-3 Orion and P2V Neptune, the crash in 2002 was the end of service for the PB4Y2's) this was harder to do since the Navy doesn't keep good records apparently. However the Douglas DC series (3,4,6,7) have been given a clean bill of health by Douglas, the company (Mcdonnell Douglas now) has stated they built those planes to fly forever, they have no service life. Aviation experts pretty much agree saying the Douglas DC series from the 30-50's are some of the toughest over engineered aircraft ever built. So its no wonder so many are still flying.

 

Agreed about airtankers, a shame about the politics in this issue. Canada is even producing new flying boats that are designed for fire fighting.

 

Agreed, good catch about the DC series (DC stands for Douglas Commerical).

With proper maintainence the DC-3 should fly forever. It is speculated that the DC-3 will celebrate its 100th birthday with COMMERICAL in-service aircraft doing the flyover.

 

FOR GM's: The DC-3 (or as the military calls them the C-47) has had skies, floats, and even jet assisted take off units. If your players wish to "modify" a Pulp-era aircraft the DC-2 and DC-3 should have the strength for wierd science additions. My characters are thinking of JATO (jet assisted take off) for there DC-2. I have told them that super science turbo chargers/super chargers would increase its speed. The air frame is VERY strong.

 

Also the DC-3 can tow gliders. If your players need a quiet way to get into somewhere, this is an idea.

 

Other modifications to the DC-3 were its use as a airborne radio/TV station. Purdue University operated a DC-3 in the post WW2 era that was a flying TV/radio station. With a large trailing antenna it could broadcast hundreds of miles.

[Barton]

Re: on another note... WW2 aircraft still flying

 

Here are some good pictures of a PBY Catalina that is still flying. As near as I can determine there are still about 30 of these airworthy in the world. Some are still working planes' date=' being used as aerial firefighting tankers and with various small [i']puddle jumper[/i] airlines. It is an odd looking plane but one that always appealed to me somehow.

 

The PBY Catalina went into service for the US NAVY in the mid 30's (I want to say 1935??).

GM's: A great plane for your players to have, it can land in water (and a slightly later version like the one in the photo in the link above) and on land. This would make much of the world accessable to them.

 

Trivia: it got the name Catalina from the Brits, who when they used them in WW2 for anti-sub patrol and air/sea rescue. The US Navy then adopted the name. A rare case of a US warplane getting a name from a foreign source.

 

FYI: the DC-3 or C-47 was called the Dakota by the British and my great aunt (Silver Star winner in WW2 as a Army Air Corps flying nurse) still calls the C-47 a Dakota.

[McCoy]

Re: on another note... WW2 aircraft still flying

 

Every week day I know it is about 7 pm as I see the DC 3 in the sky, a company uses it to fly betweem EL Paso Tx and Albuqueque (sorry spell) NM it has a daily route.

 

Lord Ghee

Don't apologize, you got a lot closer than I usually do. AlbuqueRque. And don't forget that left turn!

[BoneDaddy]

Re: on another note... WW2 aircraft still flying

 

The PBY Catalina went into service for the US NAVY in the mid 30's (I want to say 1935??).

GM's: A great plane for your players to have, it can land in water (and a slightly later version like the one in the photo in the link above) and on land. This would make much of the world accessable to them.

The soviets built millions of 'em, literally. There's probably quite a few still alive and kicking in Siberia.

 

A squadron of them defended the Aleutian chain from the Japanese during WWII. Riveting story.

[LordGhee]

Re: on another note... WW2 aircraft still flying

 

BoneDaddy which plane are you talking about?

 

the soviets built a copy of the B-29 (much to the horror of the soviet designer in charge)

 

In fact on anther thread I pointed out that the DC3 was the only weapon built by every belligerent (Germany built like 7, japan had a license and built a few dozen to hundred range, Italy built a few dozen and Russia copy it and built hundreds (NATO name coot) Britain bought a lot and built a few.

(pre war sales men where busy!) oh and china built some under license also.

 

Lord Ghee

[shadowcat1313]

Re: on another note... WW2 aircraft still flying

 

http://www.warbirdalley.com

 

this site has a list of most of the private warbirds still flying

 

2 flying zeroes, although with pratt and whitney engines

 

 

somebody has homebuilt from original plans a P-51A mustang

 

 

project to build flying ME-163 komet replicas... these folks were one of the contenders for the X-Prize

http://www.xcor.com/me163-content.html

 

also a project to build full flying ME-262 aircraft, these will use J-85 engines like used in the T-38

and 2 are now flying, one in the US, and one in germany

 

interesting note Michael Dorn of Star Trek fame is a qualified pilot, and owner of an F86 Sabre

[Kaeto]

Re: on another note... WW2 aircraft still flying

 

Under FAA rules an aircraft can only have so many flight hours on it's airframe and when that number is reached the aircraft is permanently grounded. The lone exception to this rule is the DC-3.

 

The FAA has ruled that so long as the airframe keeps passing it's annual inspection the DC-3 can fly forever. When they designed the DC-3 Douglas Aircraft Corp created the perfect aircraft.