To the guy in the P-51 Mustang who gave me a personal air show this morning...

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BuckNaked

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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I was camped out in Nevada about 50 miles south and east of Carson City, when I heard a distincive drone of an approaching aircraft, I looked up at it but couldn't make out what it was... as he passed overhead he did what appeared to be part barrel role and part loop-de-loop... he continued to do another couple of maneuvers and then came around and did another pass, doing full barrel roles and a full loop-de-loop... I grabbed my binocs and was able to get a good look at the plane... P-51 Mustang! He did one more pass over me, then headed west towards I guess the bay area...

It was completely silver except for the top of the fuselage around the canopy was painted black. It looked very dull, like it had been sanded rather than polished... The sound of that thing when he came out of a dive was like part jet and part prop, quite a different sound than any other prop driven plane I have heard...

Who ever you are, thanks for the show!
 
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LordMorpheus

Diamond Member
Aug 14, 2002
6,871
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Originally posted by: Buck_Naked
I was camped out in Nevada about 50 miles south and east of Carson City, when I heard a distincive drone of an approaching aircraft, I looked up at it but couldn't make out what it was... as he passed overhead he did what appeared to be part barrel role and part loop-de-loop... he continued to do another couple of maneuvers and then came around and did another pass, doing full barrel roles and a full loop-de-loop... I grabbed my binocs and was able to get a good look at the plane... P-51 Mustang! He did one more pass over me, then headed west towards I guess the bay area...

It was completely silver except for the top of the fuselage around the canopy was painted black. It looked very dull, like it had been sanded rather than polished... The sound of that thing when he came out of a dive was like part jet and part prop, quite a different sound than any other prop driven plane I have heard...

Who ever you are, thanks for the show!
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You were hearing the turbo. High power piston engines with turbos have a great whine to them. The Db 601 especially (Bf-109, 110, Fw-190 long nose, etc.) has a fantastic whine, also.

P-38 has the same engine as the P-51, but it has two of them so its twice the great noise. Spitfires up through the Mk.IX also (maybe later marks, but by XIV, they had a different powerplant).
 
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Deleted member 4644

WWII planes are great. I hope they preserve them through the ages..
 
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dugweb

Diamond Member
Oct 17, 2002
3,935
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ya, you're welcome.

I was just practicing for the Reno Air race comin up
 
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Mik3y

Banned
Mar 2, 2004
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how awesome would it be to just see a WWII style dogfight. ah, the good ol days where it took a lot more skill.
 
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gooseman

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2000
4,853
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P-51 is one sexy aircraft. I believe that sound you were hearing was the distinctive sound of the rolls-royce engine.
 
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dugweb

Diamond Member
Oct 17, 2002
3,935
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In our town there is a guy that flies his yellow P-51 in the Reno Air Races. For his practice he uses the farm that I work at as one of the pylons to fly around. Every once in a while he has his mechanic fly around one of his other planes (not sure what it is) with him.

Usually we will be in the shop working than a massive bang will come flying by, and we'll all run out (I'll usually climb onto the roof) to watch him. You really can't describe how amazing it is seeing these huge planes flying at 3-400 MPH within 50-100 ft. (no excageration!) of you. In-frikken-credible


(oh and incase you hadn't guessed, it wasn't really me that was flying that P-51 you saw today :p ;))
 
MasterAndCommander

MasterAndCommander

Diamond Member
Feb 1, 2004
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P-51 = damn sexy. I remember hearing an interview with a WWII pilot on Discovery Channel - he said the P51 is the plane you took a picture with to send to your girl back home, but the P-47 Thunderbolt was the one that brought you home alive. Had to do with all the plumbing lines in the liquid-cooled engine that the P-51 had...made it very vulnerable. The big Thunderbolt had an air-cooled radial engine that could take punishment.
 
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Kenazo

Lifer
Sep 15, 2000
10,429
1
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Originally posted by: MasterAndCommander
P-51 = damn sexy. I remember hearing an interview with a WWII pilot on Discovery Channel - he said the P51 is the plane you took a picture with to send to your girl back home, but the P-47 Thunderbolt was the one that brought you home alive. Had to do with all the plumbing lines in the liquid-cooled engine that the P-51 had...made it very vulnerable. The big Thunderbolt had an air-cooled radial engine that could take punishment.
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Yeah, my understanding is that the p-47 was WWII's A-10.
 
Zenmervolt

Zenmervolt

Elite member
Oct 22, 2000
24,514
43
91
Originally posted by: Kenazo
Originally posted by: MasterAndCommander
P-51 = damn sexy. I remember hearing an interview with a WWII pilot on Discovery Channel - he said the P51 is the plane you took a picture with to send to your girl back home, but the P-47 Thunderbolt was the one that brought you home alive. Had to do with all the plumbing lines in the liquid-cooled engine that the P-51 had...made it very vulnerable. The big Thunderbolt had an air-cooled radial engine that could take punishment.
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Yeah, my understanding is that the p-47 was WWII's A-10.
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A-10 can't dogfight.

P-47's were dogfighters, bomber escorts, ground attack, anti-shipping... They did everything.

Interesting tidbit about the P-47; the turbochargers are located in the tail of the airplane.

ZV
 
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CVSiN

Diamond Member
Jul 19, 2004
9,289
1
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Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Originally posted by: Kenazo
Originally posted by: MasterAndCommander
P-51 = damn sexy. I remember hearing an interview with a WWII pilot on Discovery Channel - he said the P51 is the plane you took a picture with to send to your girl back home, but the P-47 Thunderbolt was the one that brought you home alive. Had to do with all the plumbing lines in the liquid-cooled engine that the P-51 had...made it very vulnerable. The big Thunderbolt had an air-cooled radial engine that could take punishment.
Click to expand...
Yeah, my understanding is that the p-47 was WWII's A-10.
Click to expand...
A-10 can't dogfight.

P-47's were dogfighters, bomber escorts, ground attack, anti-shipping... They did everything.

Interesting tidbit about the P-47; the turbochargers are located in the tail of the airplane.

ZV
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he was referring to the survivablilty of the P47... not its role..
the A-10 is very much like the P47 becasue of its design of survivability.
 
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AmigaMan

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
3,644
1
0
Originally posted by: Kenazo
Originally posted by: MasterAndCommander
P-51 = damn sexy. I remember hearing an interview with a WWII pilot on Discovery Channel - he said the P51 is the plane you took a picture with to send to your girl back home, but the P-47 Thunderbolt was the one that brought you home alive. Had to do with all the plumbing lines in the liquid-cooled engine that the P-51 had...made it very vulnerable. The big Thunderbolt had an air-cooled radial engine that could take punishment.
Click to expand...

Yeah, my understanding is that the p-47 was WWII's A-10.
Click to expand...


isn't one of the nicknames for the A-10 the Thunderbolt II?
 
AnyMal

AnyMal

Lifer
Nov 21, 2001
15,780
0
76
Originally posted by: AmigaMan
Originally posted by: Kenazo
Originally posted by: MasterAndCommander
P-51 = damn sexy. I remember hearing an interview with a WWII pilot on Discovery Channel - he said the P51 is the plane you took a picture with to send to your girl back home, but the P-47 Thunderbolt was the one that brought you home alive. Had to do with all the plumbing lines in the liquid-cooled engine that the P-51 had...made it very vulnerable. The big Thunderbolt had an air-cooled radial engine that could take punishment.
Click to expand...

Yeah, my understanding is that the p-47 was WWII's A-10.
Click to expand...


isn't one of the nicknames for the A-10 the Thunderbolt II?
Click to expand...

As a matter of fact it is. Also true that most American planes from WWII could fill in ground attack roles. It was possible to fit most of them with bombs and rocktets. Only Germany and USSR had dedicated ground attack planes (Ju-87 and IL-2 respectively)
 
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acemcmac

Lifer
Mar 31, 2003
13,712
1
0
The A-10 can indeed dogfight.... It can take up to two sidewinders.... That's all you need....

A-10 Attack!
A-10 Cuba Attack! FTW
 
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