The real, hard, war.

[Hammer]

Hi flyers. Hey, a couple of weeks ago our local airport hosted a rare event of Duesenberg cars. They drag raced them on our runway. Part of the event included a WWII B-25 Mitchell bomber. I got to fly on a ride in it! It was a flight of a lifetime. Big, powerful, loud and fun. It was pretty cool to see all the guns and imagine what it must have been like to be on a mission in one of those things while flying through flack and fire. We had a WWII veteran show up that had flown 52 missions in the B-25's. He had some pretty cool stories. It was an honor to talk with him. Those guys had pretty short life expectancies over there and 52 bombing missions was a heck of a lot. Flying in the bomber made me think that yes, it was a real, hard, war.
Speed and Greed on Titan!
Hammer

[Captain Zedo]

That sounds great. I live near a small airport that hosts an airshow every year. It includes old fighters from both world wars. I've gone up in an open cockpit bi-wing. That was fabulous. It really made me respect what those pilots were able to accomplish.

[Pilot]

Bi-Wing sounds like an awesome ride, (Not advisable on Titan though. ) I've been playing FreeSpace 2 again lately and I'm amazed that anyone pilot ever became an ace, let alone double ace, after all once you lost sight of the enemy it was most likely you going down. If you start thinking about how fragile the planes where back then it's amazingly risky. It's still risky but they do have radar and missiles and bullet resistant armor, when you compare that to Bi-Planes that had wooded skeletons with thin layers of paper or wood, or even pilots in WWII some of the planes (hull) where being patched up with beer cans due to shortages in supplies. Our pilot have it much better these days. (Specially Blackbird pilots, one minute in one country the next in another. About time the radar finds them. ^^)

[Captain Zedo]

Sept 16, 2010 19:24:03 GMT -5 Pilot said:

Bi-Wing sounds like an awesome ride, (Not advisable on Titan though. ) I've been playing FreeSpace 2 again lately and I'm amazed that anyone pilot ever became an ace, let alone double ace, after all once you lost sight of the enemy it was most likely you going down. If you start thinking about how fragile the planes where back then it's amazingly risky. It's still risky but they do have radar and missiles and bullet resistant armor, when you compare that to Bi-Planes that had wooded skeletons with thin layers of paper or wood, or even pilots in WWII some of the planes (hull) where being patched up with beer cans due to shortages in supplies. Our pilot have it much better these days. (Specially Blackbird pilots, one minute in one country the next in another. About time the radar finds them. ^^)

The planes were fragile and the one I flew in was in original condition having been restored by experts. Most of the show planes like that use graphite and carbon fiber reinforcement. Oh, how times change.