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Science & Technology
Vintage Warplanes Going Airborne Again
2006-07-17
Great article about how Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, is restoring old WWI and WWII aircraft to flying specs. He has about three dozen ranging from a Jenny Curtis to a P-47, Bf 109, etc., all of which are not only in flying condition, but are taken out and flown.
Posted by:Steve White

#13  That's quite a collection. I volunteer to fly the Spitfire, the Mustang, the BF-109, the P-47, the P-38, the Haybusa, the F-6F, the F-86, the Zero and the Mosquito.

Who wants to fly the Komet?
Posted by: Parabellum   2006-07-17 17:28  

#12  Here's a link to a listing of the full collection.

Some lovely stuff in there.
Posted by: Mike   2006-07-17 16:23  

#11  Polikarpov Po-2 image here -- "flying sewing machine" is about right!
Posted by: Mike   2006-07-17 16:19  

#10  You cannot restore theose planes to flying specs because quite simply the high-octane fuel they used is no longer produced. To give an example the Hawker Tempest used 130 octane fuel. But jet planes use kerozen not gasoline, Cessnas and similiar airclub planes don't need such high octane fuel and racing cars (at least for Formula One) are restricted to commercially available fuel ie 98 octane at best.

So warbird owners have to reduce engine compression rates in order to use "civilian gasoline". It is perhaps possible for a (hefty) price to have very high octane gaoline specially manufactured for warbirds but given these are 60 year old airframes and engines I don't think it would be a good idea to fly them at top performance.
Posted by: JFM   2006-07-17 16:19  

#9  "Polikarpov U-2/PO-2"

OMFG - a "flying sewing machine"!
Posted by: mojo   2006-07-17 15:43  

#8  I went to an air show last month and saw a demo of a C-47 flying with a B-25. I think the C-47 was restored, but the B-25 was all-but-built from scratch.

It was way cool, BTW!
Posted by: Xbalanke   2006-07-17 13:59  

#7  Someone's already building replica Fw-190s in Germany.
Posted by: Mike   2006-07-17 11:49  

#6  The CAF paradox is that even with pristine restoration, a lot of those old birds just aren't safe. This costs the lives of far too many CAF pilots, and the crashed plane is gone for good.

Eventually, I hope they do what classical car buffs do and re-create those aircraft but out of much stronger materials and safer engineering. Then they can fly the reproductions for the look and feel, and keep the originals in good condition for future generations.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2006-07-17 10:45  

#5  This is cool. Now if we could get the confederate air force and Allen to have a fly in it would be The finest show ever.
Posted by: 49 Pan   2006-07-17 09:18  

#4  "Crites said a collection like Allen's reminds visitors `that freedom really isn't free. There was a price that was paid, and these planes played a very big part of that.'"

Would put money on Allen voting "AnyoneButKerry"...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2006-07-17 07:23  

#3  ``They'd fly up to the German line, shut the engine off, drop their bombs, start the engine, go back, land, rearm, refuel, go back and do it again ... up to 10 times a night,''

Now that took.... hmm hmm, well it took BALLS!
Posted by: Besoeker   2006-07-17 04:30  

#2  I thought maybe Syria was trying to get theirs off the ground ....
Posted by: AzCat   2006-07-17 03:06  

#1  Ooooh . . . cool!
Posted by: Mike   2006-07-17 01:03  

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