Saturday, June 21, 2008

Click on any image to enlarge ...

Today, there were three neat WWII vintage war birds at the Seattle Museum of Flight. Above and below, a B-17 bomber.

Besides being able to crawl around inside these, for the princely sum of about $400, you could take a 30 minute ride in them. This specific aircraft flew a mission for each bomb painted on the nose, and shot down a number of German fighters sent to interdict them. Each represented by a swastika painted on the nose.

They also had and flew a B-25, below. This one sank at least one japanese ship and shot down 10 Japanese fighters.

And finally, they had a neat P-51 Mustang. Only 6 Mustangs were made with 2 seats. This was one of the six. and for the princely sum of $2,200, you could buy a 30 minute ride in the Mustang.

This was a cool reminder of the progress aviation has made in the last 60 years. In 1948, the B-17 was about the biggest and baddest aircraft in the skies. This is a dinky little plane compared to a Boeing 747, or an Airbus A-380. It is roughly equivalent to an abacus compared to the super computer represented by, say, the B-2 bomber. The P-51 is more or less a Volkswagen compared to an Audi R8 representing a Stealth fighter. We’ve come a long way baby ... 

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Planes
(0) Comments • Permalink