Warbirds Over the Beach - 2013 by Boom Powell When Is Warbirds Over the Ly New, but After Missing Last Year’S Beach? Show, Her Return Is Most Welcome
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Membership Newsletter for The Military Aviation Museum Spring 2013 Warbirds Over the Beach - 2013 By Boom Powell When is Warbirds Over the ly new, but after missing last year’s Beach? show, her return is most welcome. May 17-19. The air shows are And lastly, the Polikarpov PO-2 from 1 pm to 3:30 on Saturday (Night Witches). and Sunday. Both days have live entertainment throughout. What other new airplanes are in the Saturday there is a steak dinner MAM collection? and hangar dance. In the Cottbus Hangar is a FW- Military Aviation Museum 190D “Dora.” Originally fi tted with What new aircraft will fl y this a 2,000 horsepower Jumo 213 en- www.MilitaryAviationMuseum.org year? gine the Dora’s performance bested The DeHavilland Mosquito that of the P-51. The Messerschmitt Virginia Beach Airport will make its highly anticipat- Me108 won sport fl ying contests in www.VBairport.com ed, premier performance. Her the 1930’s resulting in Willi Mess- fl ights in New Zealand were erschmitt designing the Me 109. Fighter Factory so popular the roads to the air- www.FighterFactory.com port were jammed. The FW 44 Will the Me 262 jet fi ghter fl y? Stieglitz “Goldfi nch” is a fully Yes, the world’s fi rst jet fi ghter aerobatic Luftwaffe trainer. will again do impressive fl y-bys. The Avro Lancaster is not real- Continued on page 2 Inside this Issue: Albatros D.Va 2 Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines: Return of the Wooden Flying Proms 2013 Wonder: Mosquito Flies By Jonathan R. Lichtenstein, Air Show Commentator Again 3 The setting sun glinting off Flying Proms holds the prospect of a few Flying the Fokker Dr.1 polished brasses, richly var- surprises, on and off the stage, in keep- Triplane 4 nished hardwoods, fi nely ten- ing with the spectacle’s British heritage. Spring Break at First sioned strings, and expertly Imported from the UK in 2011, ours is Landing State Park 4 tuned instruments heralds the fi rst and, so far, only authentic Fly- one thing: the return of the ing Proms in North America, inspired by “Warbirds & Wings” constituent members of the the Shuttleworth Collection’s archetypal Aviation Summer Camp 5 Virginia Symphony Orches- event. Lending an air of authenticity, Museum’s NAS Oceana tra to the Military Aviation Mark Whall, commentator for Shuttle- Bus Tours 5 Museum in Virginia Beach. worth’s Proms, will once more lend his As dusk settles over the aero- voice to the proceedings. Himself in his Second Annual Plane Pull 5 drome on 1 June, 2013, we third season as Associate Conductor of Speaker: WWII Veteran, all shall be expectant of an- the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Ben- Hans Meyer 6 other evening’s entertainment jamin Rous will again oversee the pro- by the Museum’s collection gram’s musical component. Surmounted Hangar Happenings 7 of piston-engined thorough- by some of the latest additions to the Mu- Event Calendar 7 breds, in concert with the Vir- seum, the consonant chords of our newly ginia Arts Festival. Now in its restored de Havilland Mosquito will have Seventh Glide-in a Success 8 third installment, this year’s Fireworks above the Virginia Symphony Orchestra Continued on page 2 PAGE 2 VOLUME 6, ISSUE 2 Albatros D. Va Warbirds..Continued from page 1 By Felix Usis Albatros-Flugzeugwerke was a German air- tional support was added to the wing struc- Will the 262 takeoff and land at the VB craft manufacturer for the Luftstreitkräfte ture. Even after the alterations, pilots were Airport? (Imperial German Air Service) during the advised not to dive too steeply, which hard- No, the jet is based at the Suffolk Great War (1914-1918). One family of ly raised their morale. Manfred von Rich- Airport. Arrangements are being aircraft manufactured was the Albatros se- thofen was particularly critical of the new made to watch the 262 fl y at Suffolk. ries of fi ghters. The Albatros D.V traces its aircraft. In a July 1917 letter, he described Another way to get a close look at lineage back through the D.I, D.II, and the the D.V as "so obsolete and so ridiculously the Me 262, and other aircraft in our D.III models and was generally regarded as inferior to the English that one can't do any- collection, is to visit the Festival of the best of the series. thing with this aircraft." British tests of a Flight at Suffolk May 4-5. captured D.V revealed that the aircraft was The Albatros fi ghter family was beautiful- slow to maneuver, heavy on the controls, What else is new? ly streamlined. It has a semi-monocoque and tiring to fl y. The Luftwaffe Hangar from Cottbus plywood fuselage, consisting of a single- is complete, battle damage and graf- layered outer shell, Deliveries of an fi ti left by a Polish worker are vis- supported by a improved Alba- ible. Two buildings have been added minimal internal tros, the D.Va, to store parts which were scattered in structure. It con- began in October temporary storage places. The bricks sisted of plywood 1917. The struc- near the WWI Hangar are a control frames and spruce tural problems of tower from the former RAF base at beams on which the Fokker Dr.I Goxhill. were attached and the mediocre molded plywood performance of Any advice for attending the airshow? panels. This was the Pfalz D.III left As airshow fans know, come early, lighter and stron- The museum’s Albatros the Luftstreitkräfte stay late. Come on Friday also--the ger than the fabric- with no viable al- three day package is a bargain. Go skinned box-type fuselage then in common ternative to the D.Va until the Fokker D.VII to www.VBAirshow.com and save use, as well being easier to give an aerody- entered service in the summer of 1918. money by ordering tickets in ad- namically clean shape. vance. Despite its well-known shortcomings and By late 1916, the D.III was showing signs general obsolescence, before production that it had become outclassed by newer Al- ceased in April 1918, 900 examples of the Flying Proms..Continued from page 1 lied types, such as the SPAD, Sopwith Pup, D.V and 1,612 of the D.Va were built. As Sopwith Triplane, and Royal Aircraft Fac- of May 1918, 131 of the D.V and 928 of the the last word, before ceding center-stage to tory S.E.5 fi ghters. Development of the D.Va aircraft were in service on the West- the Virginia Symphony, for a twilight con- Albatros D.V began and by early spring ern Front. Numbers declined as production cert performance. Surely music to the ears 1917 the prototype fl ew. It entered service ended, but the D.Va remained in use until of all in attendance, by your patronage, we in May 1917. It retained the twin 7.92mm the Armistice (11 November 1918). trust the Flying Proms shall endure as one synchronized Spandau machine guns that of the Arts Festival’s best and brightest. fi red through the propeller disk. The engine Military Aviation was the 180 hp Mercedes (a 160 hp Mer- Museum’s Albatros D.Va cedes with an increased compression ratio). The D.V immediately began experiencing The Military Aviation Museum’s Albatros side several other Great War replicas. Un- structural failures of the lower wing, too D.Va was originally built in the mid-1970s til recently it was displayed at the Fleet many fatal. These crashes were caused by by master craftsman Art Williams and his Air Arm Museum (FAAM) in Yeovilton, a tendency for the lower wing to fl utter and team at Williams Flugzeugbau at Guenz- Somerset, England. Although its airworthi- disintegrate during sustained dives from burg, 35 miles east of Augsburg in southern ness certifi cate has not been renewed since high altitude. It proved diffi cult to remedy. Germany. Williams Flugzeugbau was one of 1990, it is expected to be fl ying again soon Structural testing of the aircraft revealed the fi rst companies to build highly accurate at the MAM. nothing. It was not until a more detailed Great War reproductions, and go to the ex- aerodynamic analysis was conducted that it pense of making quantity runs of the Ger- The Museum’s Albatros D.Va is painted was found that the lower wing’s single spar man lozenge fabric. in the markings of D.Va D5397/17, fl own was positioned too far aft, thus permitting during December 1917-January 1918 by Lt the manifestation of the fl utter symptoms. Our Ranger-engine Albatros D.Va was reg- Hans Joachim Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel istered to the Surrey-based Leisure Sport of Jasta 5. In order to prevent the twisting of the single company in August 1978, and fl ew along- spar of the lower wing under stress, addi- VOLUME 6, ISSUE 2 PAGE 3 Return of the Wooden Wonder: The Mosquito Flies Again By Gavin Conroy After nearly eight years and thousands of Warren saw a great opportunity to take up ther weather damage. Moving the airplane hours of restoration by AvSpecs, De Havil- that challenge and the Museum was delight- from Alberta to Vancouver was not that land FB 26 Mosquito KA114 spent a few ed to be able to make it all possible. The fi rst straightforward, and due to deterioration, months fl ying in New Zealand before head- task was fi nding an original restoration proj- the aircraft broke in half whilst being loaded ing to its new home at the Virginia Beach ect.