WWII Birds and the Goose

[rebelgtp]

hi guys just thought i would say hi and for my first post share a few pics taken from the air museum here in oregon when i was there not to long ago. hope you enjoy them.

this pic really doesn't do the goose that much justice it needs to be seen in person to really grasp how large it really is.

yes that is a sr-71 blackbird tucked under the wing of the goose.

mmm mustang

i have more if you guys would like to see more. there are truly some beautiful planes in this museum.

 

[PADDY]

What a Golden Goose of a thread...!!!

WELCOME to the WWII section of the Lounge! What a golden goose of a thread and the pics are great!! love to see some more. Old Howard knew what he was about when it came to planes!! Look forward to more contributions from you. Have a great time here!!

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

It is actually funny how the Goose was really a victim of American military success. It was conceived with the idea that England might fall or U-boat packs might make Atlantic crossings too dangerous, but quickly both of those predictions proved untrue.

Oddly enough the B-36 Peacemaker was conceived for a similar reason but it was useful postwar because of its nuclear capacity.

 

[Hondo]

It is actually funny how the Goose was really a victim of American military success. It was conceived with the idea that England might fall or U-boat packs might make Atlantic crossings too dangerous, but quickly both of those predictions proved untrue.

Oddly enough the B-36 Peacemaker was conceived for a similar reason but it was useful postwar because of its nuclear capacity.

Very good comrade

Very nice photos Rebelgtp and welcome as well, were these in San Diego,CA? Love the nose art, I prefer B-17's (okay throw in P51's and the rest) its just an interest I had since childhood, those babes on her

 

[jake431]

I've always been a B-24 man myself, for familial reasons, but the B-17's grown on me. My "favorite" WW2 bomber is the B-26 though.

Here's a wartime shot:

 

[PADDY]

Favourite war birds...

I just love the P-51 Mustang, truely the 'cadillac of the skies!' But there is also a soft spot for the B-17 (we're obviously talking North American war birds here). As for Brit war birds, well there's another story altogether...

 

[jake431]

If we're talking fighters, I gotta go with the P-47.

Here's a nice B-17 pic for you, Paddy.

As far as British planes go, I've always liked the Typhoon/Tempest, sort of the British P-47.

-Jake

 

[rebelgtp]

Thanks for the welcome guys here are a few more pics. These were actually taken at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville Oregon the current resting place of the spruce goose. The website for the museum is at www.sprucegoose.org.

here are a few more pics from my last trip ( I normaly go every few months to see the new planes rotating in)

some of the art from around the building

an old Ford Tri-Motor (I never understood the corigated skin on these)

DC-10 under the wing of the goose

those are what I have sized down so far. the originals are huge

 

[The Wingnut]

DC-10? That's a DC-3.

I've got a bunch of photos from that museum, myself. I should post them.

 

[Jake]

Oshkosh

Hi guys, just flew home from the E.A.A. airshow in Oshkosh, WI. I only live 30min. away by air or 60 min. driving. There must be 10 acres of warbirds there. I met a friend up there who has a WWII jeep on the grounds and he drove me anywhere I wanted to go in the show. Saw it all including Spaceship One, a Dornneir seaplane, Glacier Girl (P38) flying with a Mustang,a F-4 and a F16 all in formation together. They called it a heritage flight. Met Chuck Yeager and several W.A.S.P.s who where being honered this week. Saw 25 mustangs, 30 T-6s 28 T-34s 3 B-17s, 3 Bearcats, 2 Corsairs, on and on. It was a great day, I am fortunate to live so close the the worlds' greatest airshow......Jake

 

[BellyTank]

I'm with Jake on the P-47 T-Bolt, it's the HotRod of the skies. Massive!
Tempests and Typhoons are up there too in my book.

For those interested, there's a website dedicated to George Rarey, WW2 T-Bolt Pilot and cartoonist of the 379th Ftr. Sqn- some great images and artwork, including George's illustrated diaries.

http://www.rareybird.com/

My Dad was in the RNZAF in the '50s- met my Mum at the Airbase which was the Auckland (NZ)Airport for the New Zealand National Airways Corporation Airport at the time. My Mum was working for the NAC at the time, who were flying DC-3/C-47s, or Dak's as they called them.

B
T

 

[PZ93C]

Most excellent photo's. Thanks for sharing.

Always did like the P 61, myself. That Black Widow was something else.

Brian

 

[PADDY]

Oh to be living in the age of Howard Hughes...

What a golden age for aviation. Just wish I could have been involved in it. That Goose is lovely. Some cracking pics in this thread too guys, keep it up, you just cannot get enough pics of vintage planes!

 

[airfrogusmc]

Great photos everone. Heres a 3 of the eight B-17 taxing that grant took at Thunder Over Michigan last weekend.

 

[rebelgtp]

i'll see about adding a few more pics here soon. i'm planning another trip down to that museum as well as the one in the blimp hanger on the coast. hmmm i need to get a night shot of the build aswell so you can see the whole plane lit up behind the glass.

 

[Zach R.]

BTW, do they let you tour the inside of the Goose or is it off-limits? I saw some of the planes had stepladders for you to get up to the cockpit or a porthole(is that the right word?) and peer into them.

 

[rebelgtp]

they have a sealed off section inside the goose that you can get into. last time i was there i got friendly with one of the ladies that worked there and she mentioned one of the perks of working there is you can get into the cockpits of all the planes including the goose and you can get others into them so who knows maybe i can talk my way into the cockpit but it would be a long shot lol.

 

[Corey]

I think I've been inside the Goose ...

It could be my memory playing tricks on me, but I seem to remember that when I was a kid and I visited the Spruce Goose at its old home in Long Beach (next to the Queen Mary), we were allowed to go up and look inside the fuselage. I have a vague memory of a tour guide telling us the fuselage was filled with beach balls during its one and only flight.

Did anyone visit the Goose when it was in Long Beach and get such a tour? I was only 8 or 9, so I could be mistaken.

 

[jake431]

It could be my memory playing tricks on me, but I seem to remember that when I was a kid and I visited the Spruce Goose at its old home in Long Beach (next to the Queen Mary), we were allowed to go up and look inside the fuselage. I have a vague memory of a tour guide telling us the fuselage was filled with beach balls during its one and only flight.

Did anyone visit the Goose when it was in Long Beach and get such a tour? I was only 8 or 9, so I could be mistaken.

I saw the Goose when I was in jr high, and yes there was that tour. I also bought to plastic spruce goose mugs, one red, one blue, that I kept for years until the logo wore off. It was cool to see the Queen Mary and the Spruce Goose together like that. But the new museum home for the Spruce Goose seems pretty damned cool too.

-Jake

 

[MikeyB17]

Well no prizes for guessing my favourite aircraft, but if we're talking fighters, my favourite is the Corsair. Here are a few pics from my last, somewhat less than successful visit to Duxford, Cambridgeshire (the plan was to meet up with Paddy and some other jacket nuts at the Battle of Britain Air show, but due to circumstances beyond my control I got there a day late. The weather was lousy and I didn't get to see any flying. ) It occurs to me that there are a few Mosquito lovers on this forum, so I've included a couple of shots from the De Havilland Air Museum near London, which I visited en route to Duxford, including one of the Mosquito prototype. The Corsair pic was taken at Duxford a couple of years before, when the weather was nicer!

MB17