Milsurp After Hours

I shot these images at the Duxford Flying Legends Airshow

in Cambridge last weekend. As usual there was a stunning

variety of Warbirds attending the event.

Here are just a few of them,

Joe

Curtiss Hawk in early war French colours,

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This one i particularly liked, a French Morane D-3801,

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A Griffon engined MK XVIII Spitfire taxi`s in,

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FW 190D and HA-1112-M1L Buchon. The Spanish built version

of the Me 109 with Merlin engine,

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A hand built replica of the Swedish "Tummelisa",

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As usual a good gathering of heavy American metal,

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My friend paid a £1000 for a half hour flight in the Mustang

at far right of this pic. Money well spent!

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The re-enactors add a nice touch to the aircraft,

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The uniform & kit look authentic enough to me,

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It amazes me that so many people want to preserve history this way and I am most grateful that they do. A serious question though, why do you think it it only in the 20/21st C that we do this. (I am probably wrong but it seems as though it is just since WW2 that we started to do this)

Maybe there just wasn't much cool stuff before that.

Before the 20th century, no one had the time or money for hobbies and collecting, except maybe the rich. With horses as the main propulsion, it was hard to keep them after they died, except maybe Trigger.

Am sure there are better reasons, just IMHO.

Vern.

Good pics Joe, thanks. I have to say that I still think the Spitfire is one of the best.

Ian

A Finnish Curtis Hawk.

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That's a BIG tripod you have there

mosu wrote:A Finnish Curtis Hawk.
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Nice pic Mosu, i got this info on the Finnish Hawks from Wikipedia.

Interesting stuff...

Hawk in Finland

After the fall of France, Germany agreed to sell captured

Curtiss Hawk fighters to Finland in October 1940. In total,

44 captured aircraft were sold to Finland with three

deliveries from 23 June 1941 to 5 January 1944. Not all

were from the French stocks, but some were initially

sold to Norway and captured in their wooden crates when

the Germans conquered the country. The aircraft were

given serial codes CU-551 to CU-585.

In Finnish service, the Hawk was well-liked, affectionately

called Sussu ("Sweetheart"). The Finnish Air Force

enjoyed success with the type, credited with 190 1/3 kills

by 58 pilots, from 1941-44. Finnish ace Kyösti Karhila

scored 13 1/4 of his 32 victories in the Hawk, while the

top Hawk ace K. Tervo scored 15 3/4 victories.

The Hawks were flown by Lentolaivue 32 throughout their wartime operational service.

The Finnish Hawks were initially armed with either

four or six 7.5 mm machine guns. While sufficient

during the early phase of Continuation War, the

increasing speeds and armour of Soviet planes

soon showed this armament was not powerful enough.

From 1942 the State Aircraft Factory replaced the fuselage

machine guns with either one or two 12.7 mm Colt

machine guns and installed two 7.7 mm Browning machine

guns to each wing. The 12.7 mm Berezin UB or LKk/42

heavy machine guns were also used. The installation of

heavier armament did not cause changes to the very

good flying characteristics of the fighter but the

armament was much more powerful against Soviet planes.

The Finnish Hawks were also equipped with Revi 3D

or C/12D gunsight.

Surviving Finnish aircraft remained in service until 1948

love those old birds

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/bo_num/th_p-39Q.jpg[/pic]

Thanks! Here a Soviet ”lend & lease” P-39Q in Keski-Suomen Ilmailumuseo (Aviation Museum of Central Finland) in Tikkakoski, Finland. This plane was put together of two planes which lost their way in large areal operations during the great soviet summer offensive in 1944 in Karelian Isthmus. They run out of fuel and made a belly landing, in formation , behind Finnish lines. The wings are from one and the rest from the other plane. The camouflage is original. Notice the red star in the rear of the fuselage. It is simply painted over the US white star and the US blue roundel under it can be seen. Also the unit number ’26’ was painted freehand. This is the only P-39Q in Western Europe if the Russians have not found and delivered one more to West. Click the picture bigger.

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And a finnish Morane-Saulnier M.S. 406 over the skyes in Eastern Karelia in Continuation War.