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Antique Pllanes and Cars do mix

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I have a great picture of my TR3 in front of a WWII P-51 Mustang
 
Yeah, gotta love old airplanes.
Here's my favorite CAR / PLANE picture.

I was at the Naval Air Station Wildwood Museum (NASW) at Cape May AIrport, NJ last week.
Some great stuff there including plenty of roundy-round motors. I got chatting with one guy there who had a real nice Stearman (with a P&W radial). His previous plane was an Aeronca like mine. Eventually he started the thing up for me....glorious sound!
We have two radial-powered Ag-Cats at my airport (12N) as well as another Stearman....you can always tell when they're in the air from the sound.

NASW SIte:
https://www.usnasw.org/
 
Ah the ubiquitous gooney bird, that plane most be the most widespread aircraft ever built. Amazing how so many are still in the air in regular service. There was one parked on the apron at the local airport near me (Somerset airport, Manville NJ). I was driving by and stopped in to look at the plane. Someone told me that two guys had split to buy the plane and had it restored and fitted with a luxury interior, and they then spent most of their time just flying around the country in the thing.

Hey Nial, I was down at NAS wildwood last summer while we were spending a week of vacation in Cape May. Isn't that a great little museum? I loved the hangar itself, really gives you the feel of stepping back in time. I went there on a blistering hot mid-week afternoon and literally had the whole place to myself. I loved the propeller balancing shop, with the massive doors, always wondered how they did that.

A few snaps from the trip there.

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Interesting historical tidbit, one of the locals there told me that right down the road from the NAS airport used to be a POW camp during WWII. Mostly German prisoners were shipped back over from Europe and interned there, and they spent most of their time clearing swampland around the area. He told me that a few of the buildings from the camp are still standing, now being used for various things, but if you look at the old photos and then drive over to where it was you can see some of the same features.
 
That TBM is now all painted and finished.
The yellow Stearman is the one that the guy started for me.
That MIG is one of the few civilian-registered MIG-15s in the US. It's flyable but the museum director told me it uses 500 gallons an hour.
My favorite was the Viet Nam-era Cessna L-19 Birdog (which is a liaison "L-Bird", like my Aeronca).
The Cobra gunship is pretty fierce-looking from the front.
They had a nice, twin-row P&W Cyclone radial engine on display (1820 cu. in. and 18 cylinders).

nasw.jpg
 
Nice photos, and I love the sound of round engines too. A couple years ago the CAF brought their B-29 to the Cleveland airshow. I shudder to think what it must cost to operate that beast, but hearing 8,800 horsepower drowning out everything else including the running fire truck I was standing next to is impressive.
 
Here's the picture of my TR3 with the P-51

triumphmustang.jpg
 
I remeber when I was in grade school, my grandfather (who was an F4U crew chief in Korea) took me out of school to go see the CAF when they brought their B-17 and B-24 to town. The sound the engines made when they started the planes up was astounding. I don't remeber the name of the museum, but about 8 years ago, my father and I went to the Grand Canyon, and outside of Phoneix was an airplane museum, with a couple of Migs, A super Saber, a Mustang, FW190, and a few others I can't remeber off the top of my head. I wish I could find the snaps I took there. Honestly I enjoyed the museum better than the grand canyon, not so many tourist spoiling the day there.
 
[ QUOTE ]
A couple years ago the CAF brought their B-29 to the Cleveland airshow. I shudder to think what it must cost to operate that beast, but hearing 8,800 horsepower drowning out everything else including the running fire truck I was standing next to is impressive.

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe the B-29 that the CAF operates is the only flying example in the world today, says "FIFI" on the side of the fuselage if I remember correctly. There have been a few groups over the last few years that have tried to restore B-29's to flying condition but as you can guess, the cost is daunting. I'm sure we'll see another in the air before to long.
 
The museum in Olympia,WA (where the pic of my TR3 was taken) has a replica of a Japanese Zero. It's really fun to watch the Mustang and the Zero go after each other in the air from time to time. The Zero just looks so cool flying overhead.
 
I think I enjoyed the T-28's more than the T-33's when USAF was trying to make me a pilot. Maybe it's because they used oil faster than a LBC...or maybe I like LBC's because they leak less oil than the 28.
 
Re: Antique Planes and Cars do mix

Actually from my memory, it's positively spacious inside a Triumph compared to inside a P-51. Nice picture though.
 
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