The Membership Newsletter for The Military Aviation Museum Fall 2014 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Museum Visitors 2 Biplanes & Triplanes 2 One Pilot’s View 2 WWI Dawn Patrol 3 NMRA 3 Hangar Happenings 4 Skyraider 4 Pungo NAAS 5 By Jonathan R. Lichtenstein, Events & Marketing Coordinator P-64 5 Living History 6 The eight reindeer so dear to Kris Kringle are taking a In a gathering of train enthusiasts, members of the Tidewater holiday of their own, from 28-30 November, 2014. They’ll Division of the National Model Railroad Association have kick back in the sunshine of Virginia Beach, VA, as Santa collaborated to assemble an elaborate winter wonderland in Claus temporarily trades his magical, lacquered, red sleigh miniature. Throughout the weekend, they will be on hand for the seven-cylinder Continental engine of the Military to demonstrate train models of all shapes and sizes: from Aviation Museum’s vivid yellow Stearman biplane. the mighty S and O gauges, to the more modest HO and N, and even LEGO. Junior locomotive engineers are welcome St. Nicholas will rejoin us for “Planes, Trains, and Santa” aboard for a weekend full of fine model railroading! We the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving, touching down Military Aviation Museum also hope to host, as our guests, the Virginia Beach Police www.MilitaryAviationMuseum.org at 11:00am on both days. In an early dose of holiday cheer, Department’s Crime Prevention Unit, the Civil Air Patrol, as portrayed by Mr. Ric Farrow, the venerable toymaker will Virginia Beach Airport Symphonicity, and the AACA, among others, over the course relish his task of compiling the Christmas lists of visiting www.VBairport.com of the weekend. children. He’ll even pose for pictures with the tiny tots, Fighter Factory the purchase of which will benefit the Military Aviation General admission prices are applicable. Children aged www.FighterFactory.com Museum. And the proprietor of the world’s finest toyshop 12 and under receive free admission all weekend! Hours Biplanes & Triplanes will find, inside our hangars, holiday displays fit to warm the are 9:00am–5:00pm, 28-29 November, and 9:00am–3:00pm, www.VBairshow.com hearts of children young and old, alike. 30 November. q The AACA show cars found their way to the I Travel the Road: Wings and Wheels North field, whereas the “Rods and Mods” proceeded to the field adjacent to Jurassic Park, By Samuel Kern, Member of the Tidewater Region (AACA) for display and judging. For its annual meets, the Tidewater Region employs “AACA Judging Standards” in evaluating all cars for awards, the only AACA region in Virginia to do so. The goal for each restored vehicle is for it to look exactly as it did when brand new on the showroom floor. Originality is the key. However there are allowances and considerations for unrestored vehicles in basically This year, as it has done continuously for the past six 100th and 50th-anniversaries, respectively, of these original but well-maintained condition. The thrust, overall, years, the Military Aviation Museum provided its entire makes and models. Mr. Tony Scarpelli of the AACA is to keep the cars preserved and maintained to high site for the Tidewater Region, Antique Automobile Club once again served as Meet Chairman. standards of appearance and operability. From 3:00pm, of America, to conduct its annual vintage car show. This Show cars began streaming onto the property around awards were presented at a ceremony in the museum’s year was its 41st-annual meet. This event has become 8:00am. In all there were about 200 AACA antique cars Navy hangar. The awards ceremony was preceded by an a very important function for the Museum because (aged 25-years or older) and about 90 “Rods and Mods”, entertaining demonstration by the dancers of Swing Virginia. it draws substantial numbers of spectators from the comprised of modified cars of various shapes and sizes. Tidewater AACA volunteers served as members on several automotive and local communities. This year’s “Wings With the museum’s North American P-64 as the back- of the judging teams. and Wheels” was no less of a success than in previous drop, volunteers first photographed each vehicle on the years. Plus, there was plenty of flying on the day. A concrete apron. Then the cars paraded to parking in The award-winners of the “Rods and Mods”, however, selection of historic Dodge vehicles and Ford Mustangs their respective areas. Subsequently, these glamour shots were evaluated using a self-judging system, whereby participants was displayed around the flag pole, 2014 being the were processed and offered for sale throughout the day. voted for the top 40 entrants. Continued on Page 3 PAGE 2 VOLUME 7, ISSUE 4 MUSEUM VISITORS One Pilot’s View Elementary Flight: Biplanes and Triplanes 2014 Enveloped in a thin mist, the Pungo Aerodrome By Jonathan R. Lichtenstein By R.R. “Boom” Powell , Pilot became indistinct in the morning light. Was it a turf runway, somewhere west of the French salient, onto which the hangar doors opened? The absence of marching boots and thundering artillery belied the fact it was October, 2014, and not the autumn of 1914. However, just as the “Guns of August” reverberated around the world one hundred years ago, heralding the commencement of the “War to End All Wars”, the distant echo of those infamous salvos could be heard at the Military Aviation Museum, in the course of the 4th-annual “Biplanes and Triplanes” air show. What’s it like to be a pilot in the Pungo Flying Among the latest additions to the museum’s stable of Corps? Yours truly’s experience during the 2014 flying machines are the obscure Fokker D.VI and D.VIII. Biplanes and Triplanes event will give you a sense The former airframe was the result of a painstaking of why those of us lucky enough to fly these historic reconstruction by the late, Mr. Walt “Wimpy” Redfern. machines are so enthusiastic. However, in spite of efforts by the Fighter Factory to prepare the plane for its debut, certain brake problems persisted First off, for pilots most of the week before is and prevented the D.VI from participating in the program. busy. (And if pilots are busy, the Fighter Factory In between the full-scale action, we benefited by the crew is even busier, and for months, not weeks attendance of members of Tidewater R/C, Academy of before.) A typical pilot is qualified in a half-dozen of Model Aeronautics (AMA) Charter No. 641. As in years the Military Aviation Museum’s airplanes and each past, they brought along an assortment of models of all scales airplane –with exceptions—has three or four pilots to recreate some of the more daring maneuvers one might qualified to fly it so working out the show schedule Photos by Art Norfolk have observed over the Western Front. They appeared in can be complicated. (Note: German designations conjunction with the 3rd-annual “Mid-Atlantic WWI Dawn traditionally used Roman numerals but, to avoid Patrol”, about which you’ll find more information in this the confusion inherent in DVI/VII/VIII, we’ll use issue. Also on hand was a selection of fine antique Arabic numbers.) automobiles, courtesy of the Tidewater Region of the Antique For 2014, “new” aircraft included the purple Automobile Club of America (AACA), including Mr. Samuel and green Fokker D6, the refurbished Hall-Scott Kern’s 1925 Franklin, Mr. and Mrs. Kenny Roach’s 1915 powered Fokker C1 and the Bleriot XI. Because Saxon, and Mr. David Curl’s 1929 Model A “Huckster”. one of our Triplanes and the Avro 504 went away Among other guests at this year’s event were the during the “bad time”, Nelson Eskey was going to check out in the D6 and I would learn the D7. The Manhattan Dolls, the talented vocalist, Ms. Theresa R. Eaman, The second of our two Curtiss models, the JN-4D two of us made a nuisance of ourselves hanging and Mr. Charlie Chaplin, star of the stage, screen, and film, Jenny, was introduced in 1917. This was the first aircraft around the Fighter Factory eager for our familiar- in the person of Mr. Damian Blake, whose antics recalled purchased in quantity by the American military, and was ization flights. the physical comedy of an earlier era. Their ability to recreate the primary trainer of American pilots during the Great the popular culture of the period was especially welcome at War. Postwar, bought by enterprising barnstormers, the ‘Twas not to be. The Fokker D6, on its first Saturday night’s Hangar Dance, with the accompaniment surplus Jenny became a fixture in the skies of rural America. flight, gave chief pilot Mike Spalding, a very of Mr. Terry Chesson’s “Jump n’ Jive Orchestra”. Returning Daredevil pilots sold rides, thrilled spectators, and inspired exciting ride, when one brake locked up on on his third visit this year, Mr. Mark Whall, host of the young pilots-to-be. Six American companies were contracted takeoff. The builder of the replica D6 had put on Shuttleworth and Military Aviation Museum “Flying Proms” to share wartime construction of the Jenny, including the brakes best described as “weird” and even the talents rejoined Mr. Jonathan Lichtenstein as co-commentator for St. Louis Aircraft Corporation. In April, 1918, they filled an of the Fighter Factory could not make them right. the duration. Ms. Eaman was integral to these proceedings order for 450-examples. Nearly 100-years later Aerohistoric The ancient Hall-Scott engine on the D7, after a Saturday and Sunday–processing with a colour guard of Paraná, Argentina, received one of those original 450.