Dude that kicked ass!!!
Two things.
Firstly, there was an item last Friday on ABC Evening News about a flight of airplanes that was headed to the UK from the US in 1942. They made it to Iceland before foul weather forced them back. The ended up having to do a belly landing on the Greenland ice cap. Nobody was even injured, and they were all rescued but had to leave the planes behind.
10 years ago a team of aircraft fanatics melted a hole 268 feet deep in the ice cap, and retrieved a P-38 Lightning. They had to bring it to the surface in sections, but it was in pretty good condition.
They spent the next decade restoring it, and last week if took off from an airfield in New Jersey to fly to the UK for the purpose of completing her original mission. On CBS News they showed footage of it flying, as well as it's takeoff for the flight to the UK.
They interviewed the pilot, who said Glacier Girl was one of only 3 P-38s left in the world that were in flying condition.
Here is the website for "Glacier Girl" with all the details:
http://www.thelostsquadron.com/
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Item #2: Back in 1983 I was living in Dallas, Texas, and was working in the construction biz. There was a MASSIVE building boom going on around the North edge of Dallas.
So anyway, I was working at a job site that was a condo complex just off of LBJ Freeway. That weekend there was an airshow at Love Field.
So about 4 in the afternoon, I was sitting on the hood of my car, waiting to get paid, and suddenly from the sky I heard this HUGE roar.
I looked up in the sky, and I shit you not there was a loose formation of about 25 WWII aircraft! The centerpiece of the formation was a B-17, and it was surrounded by a large flock of P-51s, and ME-109, a couple of Zeros, a P-40, an F$-U Corsair, a B-25, a P-38, and a bunch of other planes.
I was blown away! That is the kinda thing you only see in the movies or on TV.
There was a B-17 at Smyra Airport just a few weeks ago.
If you coughed up 480 bucks you could actually go for a ride in it!
I had other things to do, and I have already seen B-17s up close and personal, so I did not go.
Fascinating piece of aviation history though.
My fave plane of all WWII aircraft is the P-51 Mustang.
:cool: