The Year Saw Many Triumphs, But Had Its Tragedies
The overall theme of 2005 to warbird operators is: growth and
expansion. As hard as it is to believe, there are more warbirds of
more types flying at the end of 2005 than there were at the end of
2004. Not only individual airframes, but entire fleets of entire
types have been resurrected and are returning to the register.
Other types that were once believed to be entirely extinct, have at
least been brought back to existence in museums.
It isn't all roses worldwide. The European community was driven
mildly mad by the latest excess of Brussels Eurocrats: insuring
large warbirds as transport aircraft. This meant that a vintage
B-17 needed to carry the liability cover of an Airbus toting
thousands of passengers a day, which was unbearably costly -- a
500% hike, according to one source. One B-17, "Sally G," had her
season in Britain saved, not because the Eurocrats wised up, but
because aviation enthusiast and entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson
wrote a check. (He didn't even rename her "Virgin Sally B," which
he probably could have gotten away with -- maybe the knighthood is
getting to him).
There were also some tragic losses during the year.
Warbird Rebirths!
There's more Axis airpower in the air today than there ever has
been since V-J Day, including types that have been silent for many
years. The first that comes to mind is the Messerschmitt 262, of
which five replicas have been constructed in Seattle by Bob Hammer
LLC and two are already flying. (as has been reported by Aero-News this
year).
The next project for Hammer and
company is restoring a pair of ultra-rare Me109Fs to
flying status (and one of them's for sale).
The Me109's single-engine fighter stablemate is the real success
story of 2005. Until a few years ago there were no airworthy
FW190s, now there are two separate, top-notch projects restoring
FW190s to flight. The one working with authentic airframes is White 1 Foundation in the USA (soon
to change its name as its mission continues beyond the return to
flight of the original White 1).
Another exciting project is a functional rebuild of FW190s to as
exact reproduction status as can be possible in 2005. This is of
course the Flug Werk project, which flew in
2005. Due to the difficulty of finding original BMW 801 engines
these planes are powered by a readily available Russian equivalent.
Flug Werk is flying one of these machines already, and test pilot
Horst Philipp conducted the first flights including gear retraction
in late fall 2005.
Flug Werk is committed to a production run of 16 FW-FW190s, and
has secured official permission to pick up where wartime production
serial numbers ended. And most amazingly, all 16 of the new planes
are sold. So what's next? For Flug Werk, the answer is to make a
version of the late-war FW190D, which was powered by a V-type
motor. Once again, Flug Werk is going to substitute a commonly
available engine, the Allison V-1710, for the unobtainium one, the
Daimler-Benz DB605.
Flug Werk is also making structures for the P-51. Their program
of Me-109 structures appears to be moribund.
(Note: the Flug Werk pictures were taken by
project photographer Urban Kirchberg, who passed away only three
days after he shot these images. Aero-News regrets the passing of
this talented photographer and extends our condolences to his
family and friends).
Japanese aircraft have also benefited from this burst of new
activity, but as the recovered aircraft are often in tough shape,
it's expected to take longer for them to return to the air. The
rarest of these ships at this time may be the incomplete Nakajima
B5N2 "Kate" torpedo bomber recovered by the Hunt
Brothers from the Kuril Islands a couple of years ago
-- it is, as they point out, the only Kate above sea level in the
world. For somebody with lots of money and lots of time, it's the
ideal project).
But it isn't just the Axis that have had forgotten types return
to existence. Most every schoolboy in the US knows that our heavy
bombers were the B-17, B-24, and B-29, numbers of which survive
today in flying or static service. The British Commonwealth, as the
schoolboys elsewhere in the Anglosphere know, flew the Avro
Lancaster, Shorts Stirling, Handley-Page Halifax. Until very
recently, Bomber Command, which lost a staggering 44% of its men on
missions over Germany, was represented only by the Lancaster, with
no complete Stirling or Halifax existing anywhere. That has
changed with the recovery and restoration of Halifax NA
337.
The aircraft, lost on a mission to support the Norwegian
Resistance, was recovered from Norway's Lake Mjosa in 1995 and,
restored, opened to the public in Trenton, Ontario in November,
2005. A second Halifax has been recovered from a lake in
Belgium.
Lakes have proven to be the best source of lost airframes,
especially deep lakes in cold northern climes. The cold, fresh
water does minimal damage. One very significant recovery in 2005
was one of the last P-47s lost in the European
Theater of Operations, which ditched on VE-Day minus
one. The machine is supposed to be restored to flying status.
Another type under restoration and rebuild, with a view to
flying, is the De Havilland Mosquito.
World War I is also represented in the ongoing progress.
Aero-News has always been pleased to cover Great War restorers and
rebuilders, particularly the fanatically accurate Achim Engels of
Fokker-Team. Engels and his merry men
are now at work (simultaneously) on 2 Fokker D7s, a short
production run of E. IIIs, and a Pfalz.
Warbird Losses
Jonathon Hedgecock of Warbird Adventures in Kissimmee, Florida
and student Jim Kern died in May when a wing departed from
carefully-maintained SNJ-6 N453WA. Fatigue failure of wing attach
fittings was the culprit, and in less than a month a final
emergency AD was in effect, mandating immediate and repetitive
inspections to prevent a repeat accident.
Two vintage fighters were lost in fatal accidents. P-51D
"Donna-Mite," N6327T, crashed at Fond du Lac while preparing to
overfly Airventure 2005; pilot Dick James was killed. And in
October, race pilot Art Vance died in the crash of a 1944 Grumman
F6F-5 Hellcat, N4994V. According to the NTSB factual report, he may
have been scud-running and remaining in visual contact with a
highway when he crashed. It was the second fatal mishap involving
that Hellcat; a couple of years ago, it survived an untowered-field
midair that claimed the lives of two in a Cessna 182.
A rare Yak-3 rebuild was lost in a July crash, although the two
on board escaped with injuries.
There were several tragic trainer accidents that all look likely
to be called pilot error. A Fairchild PT-26, N26GA, of the CAF
Dixie Wing off downwind, and apparently with full flaps, on an
82-degree day in June. June was also the month that an L-39 missing
since October 2004 was found by hikers, with the remains of pilot
and passenger aboard. In July, Rodger Modglin lost his life in a
Yak-52 during an airshow.
In August, a Consolidated Vultee BT-13A crashed and burned
shortly after takeoff from Lyme, New Hampshire, USA. The pilot and
passenger were fatally injured; witnesses said the warbird rolled
inverted and plunged into the ground while climbing out on the hot
day. In October, a T-6D Texan, N494S, crashed in North Carolina,
killing the ATP-rated pilot was killed, and the passenger was
seriously injured. The pilot, who had 25 hours in T-6 aircraft but
thousands of total time, appears to have run the fuel tank dry and
failed to switch to the full tank.
The World War One community also suffered some losses, at least
in Europe. A two-seat Bleriot of the British Memorial Flight
crashed in France, injuring its crew of two, and a carefully-built
Etrich Taube replica crashed and burned in Berlin with fatal
consequences to its experienced pilot, a former Interflug (East
German AIrlines) and agricultural pilot.
Regulatory Issues
Two regulatory issues
arose during 2005. The first was a new pilot-examiner program, made
necessary by the retirements of many experienced warbird pilot
examiners. The National Designated Pilot Examiner (NDPER) is
designated a "National Resource", and is authorized by the FAA to
provide check rides on a national basis. (there's a National
Designated Flight Engineer Examiner program, too).
The benefit is that these examiners can provide checkrides
nationwide, not just within the purview of a single FSDO. They're
managed by an FAA Flight Standards Manager, and EAA picks up their
administrative slack. It looks like a good and rational program to
keep 'em flying, safely.
The second was a wacky FAA NPRM, Draft Order 8700.1, Chapter 49,
on airshow operations. The new rule imposed numerous new and
unjustified restrictions. In consultation with EAA Warbirds of
America and other airshow participants, FAA has made some
modifications in the NPRM. The changes are certainly improvements,
but the rule still goes too far.
The Year, Overall
While a review of the mishaps is always in order, and one hopes
all will learn from it, we can't lose sight of the fact that the
year was positive, overall, for warbird operators and enthusiasts.
One serious challenge we'll face in 2006 is the continuing high
fuel costs (although, thank God, they're down from their peak).
This is a particular threat to multiengine warbirds, and to those
with very large engines (like the Douglas AD Skyraider's
R-3350).
The Phantom Streaker
Finally, all Aero-News readers are advised to be on the lookout
for a warbird operator who drove the authorities mad this October.
Despite thousands of eyewitnesses to his misconduct, he remains at
large. The dirty deed? A low, high-speed pass over a college
football game in Missoula, Montana. If you have any information
about the incident, the FAA would like to talk to you, you
betcha.