http://www.caffrenchwing.fr AIRSHOW http://www.lecharpeblanche.fr CAF FRENCH WING - BULLETIN MENSUEL - MONTHLY NEWSLETTER http://www.worldwarbirdnews.com Volume 19 - N° 1 - January 2014 EDITORIAL would like to thank all of I the members who voted. These elections were quite sad, given that the post of Unit Leader was empty following the death of our friend Bernard Delfino. obody will ever be able N to replace Bernard but he led the way and the new P.4: RAYMOND DANIEL, AIR FORCE CADET board of the French Wing has a mind to pursue his work for the French Wing. P.8: DASSAULT DIGITALLY RECREATES congratulate Bertrand and THE BLOCH MB-152 Jean-Yves for their election I working on a new mode to the positions of Executive y wish is also to see the of sponsorship and other Officer and Finance Officer, French Wing get closer solutions to allow our Piper M and wish to thank Claude to the Commemorative Air Cub "Spirit of Lewis" to fly Gascon for his work on our Force, even though we might more often. finances during the last be skeptical or disapproving three years. Of course, Gaël of some of the HQ's strategic e will also be asking for is still the Adjutant Officer decisions. However, most of your help in preparing and his services will soon be W the Squadrons and Wings our annual fly-in, which will required! are still working with the take place on Saturday May original CAF goals and spirit 24th. You can already save the e will need, now more in mind. I therefore invite date and invite your friends than ever, the support all of our members who are W and warbird or vintage aircraft and involvement of our current CAF Colonels to owners that you may know. members to keep the French renew their membership, Wing's activities and projects those who were Colonels in e will also need you alive. You can be of service the past to sign up again, to help in attending in many ways, including by W and those who never were to the various airshows of the contributing to the Newsletter. become so. Of course, given season, and in particular that I would like to mention the the state of the economy and of La Ferté-Alais if we are excellent work done on the annual cost of $200, this invited. The tasks involved the Newsletter by our XO is not mandatory and will not are setting up and manning Bertrand Brown over the past be imposed to our members. few months, requiring long the PX as well as greeting and informing the public. Bernard hours of writing, translating e will be programming and Fumiko too often found and laying out. one or several outings themselves doing this on their W and visits and I would like to own in the past. e recently began relying submit the idea of a French more on emails, our Wing visit to the 2015 CAF W f we are to proceed with the website and Facebook to Airsho in the United States. communicate about activities I restoration of the Sportster, we will also be in need of at the hangar, so don't inally, I would like to helping hands, whether you hesitate to join in and give us wish you all a happy new are a gifted mechanic or not, F a hand. year! just as I am! There will always be plenty of tidy work and easy ean-Yves Cercy and Stéphane Duchemin Michel Baloche are jobs to do. J 1 Airshow - Public Edition Airshow is the monthly newsletter of the CAF French Wing. This "public" edition is meant for people who are not members of the association. Content which is for members only may have been removed from this edi- tion. To subscribe to the public edition of Airshow, go to our website and fill in the subscription form: Subscribe to the public edition of Airshow NB: Subscription to the public edition of Airshow is completely free and can be cancelled at any time. Your personal data is solely used for the purpose of managing your subscription and will remain strictly confidential. 2 NEWS HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014! The new board of the lesser) events that made French Wing began its aviation history. For assignment on January its first issue, you will 1st and would like to find out that the P-51 wish all members and Mustang can fly for followers a happy new nearly eight hours at an year. average speed of well COLONEL over 430 mph! If you CULPEPER'S The French Wing will are skeptical about such FLYING CIRCUS be going through some figures, just as I first necessary change this was, you can jump right A 1981 BBC documen- year, as was already now to page 3 to find tary retracing the histo- pointed out in previous what it was all about... ry of the Confederate Air newsletters and during Force, renamed Commem- the 2013 general We hope other members orative Air Force in 2002, meeting. will join in and contribute can be seen on YouTube. to the newsletter. We You might notice also need volunteers for http://youtu.be/WffpEgh3xzU some changes in the the various tasks and Filmed at the Headquar- Newsletter. The "Battle work groups that will be ters in Harlingen, Tex- colours" section, fed set up this year to make as, this documentary with aircraft profiles sure the French Wing includes interesting his- made by yours truly, will strives and survives. torical footage showed become permanent. You the original CAF and its will especially note a new Thanks in advance for folklore. ■ section: "Past times..." , those who will join us in whose author is Roger these tasks, and see you Robert, who recently soon at the hangar! CAF FRENCH WING joined the French Wing. ANNUAL FLY-IN TO This section will be dedicated to great (and -Bertrand Brown BE HELD MAY 24 The date for the 2014 CAF French Wing fly-in has been LIST OF POTENTIAL LOCATIONS FOR NEW fixed to Saturday the 24th of CAF HEADQUArtERS NARROWED TO Ma, 2014. THREE TOWNS We are already looking for The board of directors of the members willing to assist in the Commemorative Air Force The three towns are: preparation. Please contact Sté- has narrowed the search for phane Duchemin if you wish to be involved. the National Airbase to three •Dallas Executive Airport, Dallas locations, within the state of •Ellington Field Airport, We also appeal our members Texas. Houston and followers to assist us in •North Texas Regional Airport, gathering as many vintage air- Contrarily to what was indicated Sherman/Dennison, Texas craft and warbirds as possible. on the website previously, it (Dallas Metropolitan) If you know owners of such air- now seems the annual meeting, craft who would be interested, AIRSHO, will also be held in the For more information on this please let us know so we can in- new location instead of Midland. topic, visit the CAF website. ■ vite them! ■ 3 Past times... January 31, 1951 By Roger Robert CHARLES BLAIR BEATS NEW YORK TO LONDON SPEED RECORD ON A P-51 MUSTANG WITH AN AVERAGE SPEED OF 446 MPH! After the war, the P-51 Mustang After serious preparation, NX1202 was sold to race pilot Blair flew it from New York Paul Mantz, who flew it at the to London (a distance of 3477 Bendix Air Race s in 1946 and miles) on January 31st, 1951 1947, and modified it with , at the amazing speed of 446 Charles F. Blair, Jr added fuel tanks in the wings mph, thus beating the previous to double its range. record by one hour and seven Born in 1909, Charles Blair was an Air minutes. Force Brigadier General, Navy Captain, In 1947, he established a new test pilot, commercial pilot and airline owner. speed record for crossing the One of the objectives of the USA East-to-West and West- flight was to study the jet During World War II, Blair flew for to-East with this aircraft, stream phenomenon. Blair the Naval Air Transport Service and the which had been baptized encountered this powerful Air Transport Command. In the mean- "Blaze of Noon". aerial current at 37,000 ft, time, he was also a test pilot for the F6F exactly as planned, and "rode Hellcat, F7F Tigercat, F8F Bearcat and After its last Bendix race, it" to London. This record still Martin Mars flying boat. the mustang was then sold to holds for piston-powered fixed- Charles Blair, a Pan American wing aircraft. ■ After the war, Blair headed the first World Airways pilot who flights and trials of the Lockheed Con- renamed it to "Excalibur III". stellation and Boeing Stratocruiser air- liners. In 1950, he became a pilot for Pan Am. He developed a new navigation meth- od for polar regions, where a compass Photo Roger Robert is practically useless. To prove his meth- od's effectiveness, he flew from Bardu- foss in Norway to Fairbanks, Alaska on May 29, 1951, flying over the North Pole. After he departed Norway, he was left with no alternate landing spots, ra- dio communication or available help. After 10 hours and 27 minutes, exact- ky as planned, "Excalibur III" arrived in Fairbanks. He married actress Maureen O'Hara in 1968. He was killed 1978 in the crash of a The P-51C Mustang"Excalibur III". Through Pan American, Charles Blair donated this historic aircraft to the N.A.S.M. on November 6, 1953.