COMMEMORATIVE AIR FORCE / Swiss Wing Special Edition Volume 13, No. 50 CAF Swiss Wing Newsletter August 2008 CAF Swiss Wing in Duxford On Saturday July 12th 2008 thir- ty enthusiastic participants among which twelve CAF members met early The fl ight line morning at the Zurich airport. Travel guide Walter Fürst of Cosmos got his group together for the Swiss fl ight to London Heathrow. Passport control was easy, baggage delivery took some- what longer but soon we were on our way by bus to Duxford airport. rods, three B-17 Flying Fortresses, two We had the whole day to check out the Douglas C-47/C-53 Skytrain/Dakota. fl ight line and chat with the pilots and Two Piper L-4, one Ju52 in oldie Luft- crew. The impressive line-up included hansa colors, two Messerschmitt Me- – just to mention a few – eleven Super 109 and Bf-108, a Corsair FG-1D, a Know to useuse this Marine Spitfi res (nine different types), P-39 Airacobra, a Focke-Wulf 190, one Supermarine Seafi re, two Hawker one Skyraider, one B25J-20 Mitchell, EnglishEnglish version Hurricanes, six P-51 Mustangs and one A-26B Invader, a Hawker Hind two Gloster Gladiators. Three Grum- K5414, a Swordfi sh I, one Bücker 1stst: Go to thethe German partpart ofof thethe man (FM2-Wildcat, F6F-5K Hellcat, Jungmann, a Lockheed Electra, fi ve homepagehomepage andand print out thethe Ger- F8F-2P Bearcat, three Curtiss Hawk Stearman Caydet of the Guinot team man Version of the ContactContact (75, P-40B and P40-N Warhawk), two with wing walkers. One HA-1112 Yak fi ghters (3UA and 9UM) fl own by -M1L Buchon, three DH 89A De 2ndnd: FollowFollow thethe papagesges andand readread thethe German pilot Vogelsang, two Nim- Havilland Dragon Rapides plus a top German/EnglishGerman/English titletitle oldie Thulin/Bleriot XI. rd Table of Contens 3 : Not allall Pictures legendslegends andand articles are translated in full length Duxford Page 1 With our golden pass we had free 4th: Have funfun andand enjoyenjoy thethe Con-Con- Max Page 4 access to the fl ight line and the private tact Full-Reuenthal Page 5 tent and free entry to the museums. The Russians Page 7 The uninterrupted program on both ColCol Werner MeierMeier Courtelary / Ecuvillens Page 9 days lasted 3-1/2 hours and the air was Col Jost Schneeberger News / Veranstaltungen Page 11 fi lled with the sound of aircraft en- gines. The fl y past grouped the same CAF Swiss Wing August 2008 Page 2 vintage aircraft together such as the a last visit to the RAF Hendon muse- Battle of Britain Memorial fl ight. um was scheduled on the way to Hea- throw airport. The fl y-pasts were absolutely fi rst class. The demonstration fl ights appeared RAF Museum Hendon close to dangerous with the simulated attacks, low passes and aerobatics. The Unfortunately the three hours were sound of engines at times drowned out too short to do the exhibits justice. the excellent speaker who commented In fi ve separate hangars «Milestones each action and aircraft. The whole of Flight» are presented to name just show was a treat for the Swiss visitors a few: Mustang, Mosquito, Kawasaki as such shows would be unimaginable Ki 100, Bf 109G, Me 262, Hawker in Switzerland with its strict rules. Tempest, Gipsy Moth, Bleriot Xi, Si- korsky Hoverfl y, Harrier, Euro fi ghter For those who looked for other high- Typhoon. lights there were many tents and shops offering all sorts of attractions and In the bomber hall: Lancaster, Wel- presentations referring to the histo- lington, Handley Page Halifax, Avro ry of Duxford, a major base during Vulcan, and Buccaneer. Further ex- WW II for the RAF and the US Air hibits show the Force. In four large hangars exhibits dam buster raid cover the American Air Museum, a fi eld control Hangar No. 2 is dedicated to WW II tower and 3-D US and RAF aircraft, Hangar No.3 Cinema. covers marine operations and in No.4 the role of Duxford in the «Battle of The historic Britain» is documented. In a fi fth han- hangars which gar conservation and restoration work date from WWII is in progress. contain fi ve se- parate themes: The American Air Museum exhibit «Whirling Ro- includes the SR71 Blackbird a U-2, tors» covers he- a B-24 Liberator, F86 Sabre among licopter displays others. Unfortunately the museum is such as Westland so crowded that it was diffi cult to get Wessex, Avro good pictures. Rota and Bristol Belvedere. The The Land Warfare Hall realistically «Wings over Wa- presents ground based situations of the ter» theme inclu- Burma, North Africa and Normandy des a Supermarine campaigns. Southampton fl ying boat of A further building houses British and WW1 vintage, a Common Wealth aircraft thru the Bristol Beaufi gh- ages from the earliest days of aviation ter and emergen- ending with the Lancaster, Sunder- cy gear for over land, Vulcan and Concorde. All in all water operations. the Duxford visit was very good value and all participants had a great time. The «Fighter» section includes two Wing walkers.. Spitfi res, the only remaining Hawker B-17 and a P-51 After the two days in Duxford and our Typhoon, Gloster Meteor, F-4 Phan- A new Twin-Airplane...? stay at the Crown Plaza in Cambridge tom, Tornado. Insight into the respec- CAF Swiss Wing August 2008 Page 3 tive weapon systems is presented as well. The «RAF Overseas » exhibit includes a WW1 Bristol Fighter, a Curtiss P40 Kittyhawk, a P-47 Thunderbolt and a Hawker Hart among others. A further theme «Jets» includes the Jet Pro- vost, Hunter FGA9, English Electric Three swiss Lightning, Venom and their respective visitors.. a weapon systems and ejection seats. The real «Oldiesv» are grouped in the «Grahame-White Factory» to list just a few: Sopwith Pup and Triplane, Vi- ckers F.B.5, Bleriot, Caudron GIII, Vickers Vimy, Hanriot HD1, SE5a, Sopwith 1.1/2 Strutter… Finally in the «Battle of Britain» hall in which this historic feat is documen- ted in great detail. English and Ger- man aircraft involved in this battle are exhibited in excellent condition: Spitfi re, Hurricane, Defi ant, Bf-109, Bf-110, Ju-88, He-111, Fiat CR42 Falco and the giant Sunderland fl ying boat of the Coastal command. Several dioramas and a 15 minute fi lm vividly document this period of WWII. After three days of aviation museums Six Spitfi res and a and air shows we happily boarded Yak with rain bow Swiss International Airline fl ight to Zürich. Col Hansjörg Engler three Dragon Rapides CAF Swiss Wing August 2008 Page 4 report Elected to the Committee: Max Schönenberger At the general meeting 2008 Max was elected as a member of the Swiss Wing CAF committee. Born on February 26th 1941 in Zü- rich he went to school in Oerlikon 737 crews to DC-9/MD-80 lasted 4 and absolved an electro-mechanical months. After return to Switzerland apprenticeship followed by study in a further job offer to fl y for Odette, electrical engineering at the Winter- later Helvetic airline came along but thur Technology Institute. Military after four months his third and fi nal service in the artillery followed by retirement from commercial fl ying in jobs with Bührle and Contraves gave 2004 became reality. him an entry in the Air Force and an- ti-aircraft unit with responsibility for Even after retirement Max is still ac- the 35 mm anti aircraft cannon and tive in a joint owner group fl ying a its electronic control. Cirrus SR20 and a Piper Arrow and of course also the CAF Stinson. Ha- In 1964 he started his fl ight training ving joined the CAF committee he and until 2004 he would pursue his plans to handle the Flight Ops and is career as a pilot. The stages in short: looking forward to this new task. Co-pilot with Globe Air on Dart He- ralds on European routes, Captain with Balair, integration into Swissair in 1970 initially on DC-9 and DC-10 as co-pilot on international routes. In 1985 follows promotion to cap- tain on MD-81 and later on to B-747 Jumbo Jets. Retirement in 1997 but six months later recall as training cap- tain on the MD-80 fl eet taken over from Crossair. After the demise of Swissair continued service with Swiss International Airline on MD-80 until second retirement in 2001. In 2003 while on a safari in Namibia he was contacted by a South-African and former captain with Crossair to help in training of MD-80 crews of the low cost South African carrier «Kulula». The transition training of CAF Swiss Wing August 2008 Page 5 report Summer Part in Full-Reuenthal The traditional summer party of the Swiss military museum took place on the fi rst July weekend. The CAF was present with members of the commit- tee and the yellow promotional tent was pitched on the grounds of Full- Reuenthal. After a cloudy Friday followed a sun- ny Saturday and large crowd gathered early to witness the show and visit the museum. There were opportunities to take rides in armored cars and troop transports. New and old tanks and tra- cked vehicles were demonstrated on the training grounds. On the hour the great surprise of the day was the aerial show. Our Stinson fl own by Werni Meier and alterna- tively Max Schönenberger demonst- rated the use of identifi cation lights «IFF» identifi cation friend or foe or Henry Saladin as commentator of the Stinson show..