Checked out some warbirds over the Independence Day weekend

[ptrthgr8]

Hi, all!

We made the trip to the Fargo Air Museum to see a few of the Wings of Freedom warbirds that were in town for the Independence Day weekend. We saw nice examples of a B-24J, B-17G, and a P-51C, along with some of the other aircraft normally on display at the museum. 30 min rides were available on the B-24J and B-17G for $450 per person. Flights on the P-51C (the two-seat version), where you would actually get to control the plane for a bit, were also available... $2200 for 30 mins or $3200 for a full hour. Ouch! I never seriously considered taking a hop in the P-51C (just too much money for something like that), but we did consider going up in one of the bombers. After checking them out from the inside while they were on the tarmac and seeing the arrangement of the rumble seats for the passengers (up to 10 at a time), we opted to not go - if we could have sat in one of the crew spots (other than the pilot and co-pilot, of course!) I think we would have gone up, but being stuck on a seat against the wall aft of the bomb bay and not being allowed to actually move around while in the air made it seem less enticing.

Still, it was really cool getting the chance to check out some of these warbirds up close and in person. Check out http://www.collingsfoundation.org/menu.htm for more info on these planes! The expense and effort these folks go to for the restoration and preservation of flying/living history is pretty amazing and certainly admirable.

On to the photos! I took hundreds of pics that day, but will just show a few choice ones from each plane.

B-17G "Nine O Nine"

This particular plane never saw combat in WW2 (delivered too late in the war), but it went on to have quite a life - used as an equipment station/lab during three separate nuclear tests, sold as scrap after a 13 year "cool down" period following the nuke testing, restored to flying condition by a private owner, then used for nearly 20 years as a fire bomber dropping water and borate on forest fires, and then sold again in 1986 to the current owners (link above) who restored her back to the original wartime configuration and painted in honor the "Nine O Nine" of the 91st Bomb Group, 323rd Squadron - the original "Nine O Nine" made 18 trips to Berlin, dropped 562,000 lbs. of bombs, flew 1129 hours, and successfully completed 140 missions without an abort or the loss of a single crewman. Pretty impressive resume.

B-24J "Witchcraft"

From their site: "The Collings Foundation’s B-24J is the only restored flying B-24J in the world. Initially, when we restored it in 1989, we honored the 15th A.F. in Italy with the selection of the ALL AMERICAN-a very distinguished A/C with a record of having shot down 14 enemy fighters on a single mission (only two B-24’s came back out of a squadron of 19). Then we selected the DRAGON & HIS TAIL, probably WWII’s most extensive nose art, to honor and represent the WWII veterans who served in the Pacific.

Now, it’s time to honor the 8th Air Force and all who served in England and in the ETO. We have selected “WITCHCRAFT”, a B-24 assigned to the 467BG, 790BS that compiled an amazing record of 130 combat missions. WITCHCRAFT is an olive drab aircraft, with red and white nose bowls, red and white rudders, 130 bomb markings and a cartoonish witch flying a machine gun as nose art. All the names of our Dedicated Crew, Lead Crew, Plane Sponsors and DFC Members will be proudly displayed on the co-pilot’s side of the aircraft. Honor Crew and aircraft names will continue to be on the bomb bay doors."

P-51C "Betty Jane"

This Mustang is actually painted up to look like a P-51B-10 (per the stenciling on the left side of the plane anyhow). According to the current owners (see site linked above) there are less than 5 of the early B/C models still flying in the world today and this P-51C is the only dual control example in the world. I didn't get a lot of info on this one, other than its ID is based upon airframe components of S/N 43-103293, which crashed in England in 1944.

F4U-4B

This Corsair wasn't part of the "Wings of Freedom" tour that visited the air museum, but is actually on static display at that location. There wasn't a lot of info available for this specific plane - the placard that was there really only talked about Corsairs in general... so I'm not sure if this is an historically accurate plane or not. But what I can tell you is that I was really surprised by the size of this fighter. I had seen P-51s, B-17s, B-25s, P-47s, Spitfires, and some others in person at other museums and air shows in the past, but I had never seen a Corsair in person before. This thing is huge! Would have been nice to be able to get into the cockpit, but for some strange reason they didn't want people climbing all over their planes.

All in all it was a great day. I hope you enjoyed the pics as much as I enjoyed taking them!

Cheers,

~ Greg ~

[Stanislaw]

Wow, absolutely great read and pics, thanks so much for sharing!!

[CUBANO]

Very cool, Thanks for posting

[JPS72]

Great photos - thanks for sharing!

[Squarehead]

I did the same here in Hamilton,On. in the Heritage warplane museum with a good friend who was here on vacation

[bradbrennan]

Awesome! For $3,200 you could probably get a good start on your own pilot's license, or maybe you already have it? I started mine years ago when I lived in Minneapolis but didn't finish, but I bet it's pretty cool up in the nose of those beauties!

[Duxnutz]

Neat pics! If you ever get a chance to have a burn in a mustang I highly recommend it. Didn't touch anything but was really cool. Dunno just how these pilots in WWII etc managed to fly these things with such limited instruments/Nav equipment!

[Skyfall]

nice Greg!

[Wil]

Awesome photos.

[Drguano]

Here are a couple of shots of Yankee Lady when she visited FCM a few years back. Love the sound of those radial engines.

[liger930]

Beautiful photos. Thank you for sharing

[camachoman]

Love the old warbirds! Thanks for sharing!

[poorman]

The F4U gained some notoriety due to the show Baa Baa Black Sheep.

It centered around Greg "Pappy" Boyington and his Black Sheep squadron.

Pappy's brother used to frequent my place of work.

The stories he would tell about his brother Pappy were always interesting.

[Pedro2486]

Great pics and story mate. Reminds me of the trips to air shows with my Dad (not many in WA) best thing I saw was a Caribou that took my dad back from Nui Dat to Saigon on his way out of Vietnam in 1970. He said that it was the best plane he ever saw

[fokker4me]

Great pics and read thanks for sharing you experience with us. I see so of these every year in Reading PA for World War Two Weekend. It is a great time in early June.

[ogus]

We have this here in NC as well. Dr Droessler did the Mustang flight in WI and said it was orgasmic. He rants about it years later.

[Skyfall]

Great Pics & Great Read Greg!