1. #21
    WTE_Galway's Avatar Senior Member
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    <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Stingray333:
    Awesome! I'd love to see (and to hear) a BF-109 in flight

    this morning as I drank my coffee, I was wondering, how many BF-109's are there around flying today? Although it was the most produced fighter aircraft of all time, I hear that ~1/3rd were lost in takeoff/landing, and then many were destroyed by the end of the war. Are they a relative "rarity" to be flying today, or are there quite a few around? A tough question to answer, but I am nonetheless curious,

    Thanks,

    Stingray </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

    I looked this up once, the figure for all 109's was actually about 5% of combat aircraft lost in accidents of all kinds. Which is still a lot. (but of all Luftwaffe aircraft the Starfighter record was far far the worst)

    Naturally outside of combat (among warbirds for example) the percentage of losses attributed to accident is close to 100%.
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  2. #22
    luftluuver's Avatar Banned
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    <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by stalkervision:
    Funny thing is it is flying with the dolly attached! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
    No it is a fixed wheel replacing part of the landing skid.

    more pics
    http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=...&distinct_entry=true
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  3. #23
    Beautiful photos! A quick question about the 51 razorback-it appears to be a P-51B/C style fuselage with a later P-51D style vertical fin? Is it a composite model or something I've never seen before?
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  4. #24
    luftluuver's Avatar Banned
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    <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Multimetal:
    Beautiful photos! A quick question about the 51 razorback-it appears to be a P-51B/C style fuselage with a later P-51D style vertical fin? Is it a composite model or something I've never seen before? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

    Many of the B/Cs had the fin fillet added as they had the same snaking problem, though not as bad as the D/Ks.
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  5. #25
    stalkervision's Avatar Banned
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    <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by luftluuver:
    <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by stalkervision:
    Funny thing is it is flying with the dolly attached! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
    No it is a fixed wheel replacing part of the landing skid.

    more pics
    http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=...&distinct_entry=true </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

    Thanks for the pics buddy. I couldn't imagine they would fly it that way.

    One thing I do wonder though, The Me-163 has a shock absorbing system in the skid when it was lowered. This was instituted when one of the luftwaffe pilots hurt his back very severely due to the problem of no good shock absorber system for the pilot landing the 109.

    Without the skid and it's shock absorber system what do they do now?
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  6. #26
    luftluuver's Avatar Banned
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    The pilot I think you will find was a female, Hanna Resche.

    Malfunctioning hydraulic dampers in the skid could lead to back injuries for the pilot on landing, which were always there.
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  7. #27
    M_Gunz's Avatar Banned
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    Heini Dittmar had injured his back badly enough landing one in Nov 1942 to be hospitalized,
    it says here on "Rudy Opitz Tells It Like It Was".

    Is taking the dolly up a problem?

    <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Rudy Opitz:
    "For my first flight, Dittmar just turned the plane over to me and said, ˜Go for it.' The dolly was just in front of the CG, so the tailwheel was able to come off the ground fairly easily once some speed was gained. I had my mind on the cockpit"”the pressure gauge and airspeed indicator"”and before I knew it, I was over the end of the runway and probably 200 feet in the air and had not ejected the dolly. Although it was not known how the dolly would affect the aerodynamics, I felt there was no reason to lose the dolly, so I decided to land on it. I had no breaks and, with the dolly attached, no shock absorbtion, but I landed without a problem." </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

    Yah, you can get hurt in the original 163 even though he didn't.

    It's a shame they don't say more about their 163 except that's it's real, not a replica.
    I doubt they'd tear the engine out and from the site text it would seem to have one so that
    much said I also doubt it's modified to run on other fuels like LOX and kerosene or stronger.
    And I'd hate to think of all the permits, etc, not to mention trouble and would even Lloyds
    insure one with pilot running on anything comparable to the original fuels enough to get it
    in the air?

    A replica.... liquid nitrogen can generate 7000 psi without even a flame but it might get
    just a bit cold inside the plane. There's ways and there's ways.
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  8. #28
    <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by luftluuver:
    The pilot I think you will find was a female, Hanna Resche.

    Malfunctioning hydraulic dampers in the skid could lead to back injuries for the pilot on landing, which were always there. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

    Get it right. HANNA REITSCH

    And she flew the Me163 and crashed in it too scarring her for life. She flew for the rest of her life. I am her #1 fan
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  9. #29
    luftluuver's Avatar Banned
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    <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by sw25th:
    <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by luftluuver:
    The pilot I think you will find was a female, Hanna Resche.

    Malfunctioning hydraulic dampers in the skid could lead to back injuries for the pilot on landing, which were always there. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

    Get it right. HANNA REITSCH

    And she flew the Me163 and crashed in it too scarring her for life. She flew for the rest of her life. I am her #1 fan </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
    Relax.
    Knew I should have put in a (sp??).
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  10. #30
    xTHRUDx's Avatar Senior Member
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    <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Paul Allen's/Flying Heritage collection's authentic Bf-109E warmed up & flew last Saturday. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>


    AKA_Goshawk and i were there too. we were the guys that came in that white C-150 and parked just before they taxied out. Then when we were about to leave, a grumman tigercat pulled in front of us and parked.
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