Liberty Belle

[Flyby PC 23]

Bit slow to respond, but I've not been keeping up with world events this week.

 

Just heard the vintage B17 Liberty Belle caught fire in flight earlier in the week, and was forced to make an emergency landing in a corn field. The crew got out safe and well, but the fire spread and consumed the aircraft, completely destroying it. What a shocker. 5 miles from the airfield with fire tenders. Fate at its cruellest I think.

 

I remember how I felt when the last air worthy Mosquito crashed back in 96. It was just horrible, absolutely horrible, and claimed the pilot & co-pilot too.

 

I don't know these days, I'm torn down the middle. These machines were built to be in the air, but they are just too valuable to lose. If I was at an air show, I wouldn't know the difference between a good replica and the real thing, and even if I did, I'd still be ok provided it was ahalf decent replica. As far as I know the Liberty Belle wasn't the last airworthy B-17, but RR299 was the last air worthy Mosquito and now there aren't any. Surely once these veteran aircraft number in the 1's and 2's, the time has come to stop flying them for entertainment and start flying replicas. We owe it to future generations don't we? I'm thinking in particular about one certain Lancaster.... 65 is the retirement age in the UK. Whatever a replica might cost we can build as many as we need, but the last original of anything is priceless and irreplaceable.

 

I feel for your loss USA.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

I remember having a long discussion about this very subject at Sim-outhouse, when the Spitfire crashed at Biggin Hill, claiming the pilots life.

 

At the time, I argued the point that these old girls shouldn't fly anymore...but I have since changed my opinion somewhat.

 

This incident however could easily have claimed 7 lives.

 

Time for another rethink I guess

[Shiloh 12]

Here's a photo...very sad. I can't say I've thought much about this type of thing but my initial reaction is to let them fly. I agree that 1-2 of them should be museum pieces to lessen the chance that they are ever destroyed but there could just as easily be a fire in a museum that destroys them as well.

 

[Olham 164]

I wouldn't go so far as to say, these old birds shouldn't fly no more.

But they would have to be owned and serviced by some people who have the monitary

and technical resources and knowledge to keep these birds in perfect conditions.

 

The Bf109 owned and restored by MBB (Messerschmidt-Bölkow-Blohm) got all this.

Still though it crahsed twice.

This was due to her tricky start and landing behaviours. Her powerful engine and prop

cause a spiral airflow, which needs to get parried with good right rudder.

So, these old birds also need very good pilots - pilots who know the not always very

modern-style behaviour of their warbirds.

[Hasse Wind 46]

I think they shouldn't be flown any more. An original is an original, and when it's lost, that's it. It may be rebuilt, but then it's not the same machine as it used to be.

[Flyby PC 23]

I support them flying 100%, - until there are only 1 or 2 left. Then I switch sides.

 

There's also flying, and there's flying. I recall comments that towards the end the Mosquito's routine at airshows was getting more and more aerobatic in nature. Who needs aerobatics? Flat, fast, and low, guns blazing, = 1 exceedingly happy customer.

[Olham 164]

Yer right there, flyby - they should reduce the show-part in the word Airshow to just showing us the plane flying.

 

Now that there are no real Mosquitos anymore, here are the CGI generated ones again, with the Rolls Royce sound.

I know I posted it twice, but it's so quiet in here - let's make some noise!

Short, but shu-weet!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNJ8rIEPLOo