Photo of the week
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This weeks photo, another favourite of mine,an F6F-3 Hellcat landing on Tarawa airstrip. A wrecked Japanese zero is in the foreground.
Regards Duggy -
One Ju 388 survives today. The Ju 388L-1 reconnaissance version with construction number (Werknummer) 560049 was the eighth of the series manufactured at Weser Flugzeugbau's Nordenham plant. Parts of the airframe were also built at ATG in Altenburg and at Nieders?chsische Metallwerke Brinckmann & Mergell in Hamburg-Harburg. The aircraft was completed early in 1945. It was captured by U.S. troops in May 1945 at the Junkers plant in Merseburg, then flown to Kassel/Waldau.
The aircraft was examined and test flown by "Watson's Whizzers", led by United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Colonel Harold E. Watson, as part of Operation Lusty and it is believed that Watson himself flew in the aircraft in preparation for flying it directly back to the U.S. Instead, on 17 June 1945 the aircraft was flown to Cherbourg, France where it was shipped to the United States aboard the Royal Navy escort carrier HMS Reaper together with other captured German aircraft for detailed evaluation in the U.S.
The aircraft was flown to Freeman Field in Indiana for evaluation, and in September 1945 made a flight demonstration for the press. The Ju 388 was flown for 10 hours of flight tests at Wright Field near Dayton, Ohio with the "foreign evaluation" registration FE-4010 (later changed to T2-4010). Following these tests the aircraft was displayed at the Dayton Air Show in 1946 along with other captured German aircraft.
On 26 September 1946, Ju 388 Werk-Nr. 560049 was transferred to Orchard Place Airport in Park Ridge, Illinois, near the present O'Hare International Airport. This temporary storage facility was a vacant U.S. Government-owned factory previously used by the Chrysler Corporation to build the Douglas C-54. Ju 388 Werk-Nr. 560049 was donated to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air Museum on 3 January 1949. The aircraft arrived at Silver Hill, Maryland, for storage in November 1954.
Today the aircraft is disassembled and remains in generally good condition, having never been stored outside. The cockpit area is in particularly good condition and complete with all instruments. Ju 388L-1 Werk-Nr. 560049 is just one of several unique German aircraft still awaiting restoration at the National Air and Space Museum's Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Silver Hill, Maryland.
(Nicked from Wikki) Below at Dayton
Regards Duggy -
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Three this week
QUOTE "The R-3350 got its real "test and development" in combat, where engine problems brought down more B-29s than the Japanese. "
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Reminds me of an old Bob Stevens cartoon about B-29 pilots in Korea revving the engines and d(r)owning pursuing Migs with the blast of oil it produced.
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A well known shot indeed and one of my all time FAA favourites, it's a great photo.
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The Bristol Bulldog was a British Royal Air Force single-seat biplane fighter designed during the 1920s by Bristol Aeroplane Company. The U S Navy bought a Bulldog IIA ( A8485) for evaulation in November 1929, but it crashed on the first flight. A second Bulldog IIA ( A 8607) was purchased in April 1930.
Below A 8607
