The World War II Database has it all: Event Summaries, Book Reviews, Participant Profiles, detailed specs on ships and aircraft, and 3500+ photos. The DBs RSS feeds are here and here.
With the widespread interest in the recent P-51 crash in Oshkosh, WI, I wanted to lay down this little tribute. It’s from Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun via youtube.
The short summary of the scene in this: a young aircraft obsessed boy named Jim, who happens to be interned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, gets a close up look at the p-51 during an ariel attack.
“Go p-51. Cadillac of the sky! Whoaaaa! P-51. Cadillac of the sky!”
There is much to love about this scene (FF ahead to the middle of the clip) to see a young Christian Bale in his “stance” as he meets the p-51.
Stunning video out of Poland shows the mid-air crash of two Zlin Z-526AFS aircraft. The Aero News Network reports that the aircraft “were part of a three-ship formation that had fanned out; the accident occurred as the planes converged on point for the next segment of the performance.” Both pilots were killed in the accident. Video of the crash is here via youtube.
According to internet documents, the Zlin Z-526AFS is a modern aircraft, not involved in ww2. After seeing the footage, my first thought was this: “more warbirds crashing, as in Oshkosh?” But this is not the case. Regrettable, still, no matter the aircraft.
Just after the recent p-51 crash in Oshkosh, I posted a link to images via Flickr and also to a video of the crash via the the Aero News Network site. Since that video has been posted on youtube, I’ve posted a more direct link to it here.
Again, there is commentary from the creator, a witness interview, and the actual crash.
This just in from the NTSB.gov web site. It details the crash of the P-51A in preliminary form. Visit the web site linked here for the report on the P-51D.
NTSB Identification: CHI07FA243A
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Friday, July 27, 2007 in Oshkosh, WI
Aircraft: Beck P-51A, registration: N8082U
Injuries: 1 Fatal, 1 Uninjured.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.
On July 27, 2007, at 1519 central daylight time, an amateur-built Beck P-51A, Mustang, N8082U, was destroyed during landing approach when it impacted terrain after it collided into the empennage and fuselage of a North American P51-D, Mustang, N151RJ. N151RJ had just landed on runway 36 (8,002 feet by 150 feet, grooved concrete) at the Wittman Regional Airport (OSH), Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and was starting its landing roll when N8082U struck its empennage and fuselage. N8082U was still airborne at the time of the collision, and it rolled over to the right of the aft fuselage of N151RJ and impacted the terrain in a wings level, inverted attitude. The collision with N8082U pushed N151RJ onto its nose, and N151RJ subsequently skidded down the runway and came to rest about 788 feet from the initial impact point. The pilot in N8082U received fatal injuries, and the pilot in N151RJ was not injured. Both Mustang airplanes departed from OSH as part of a five-aircraft air race demonstration event at the EAA AirVenture 2007 air show. The demonstration air race was completed and the five aircraft were in the process of landing separately, and not in formation, on runway 36. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident.
It’s odd where the web will take you some days. Just today I was doing some regular old emailing and noticed an ad that said “P-51 for Sale.” I logged out and typed the same tag in google and found myself on this page. “Cool,” I thought.
But the real story here has to do with an accident I read about on the main page, of two P-51s colliding at an air show in Wisconsin. A link describing the crash that killed one pilot (Gerry Beck) is at the web site’s forum.
Further reading in the forum reveals several photos of the actual event at Flickr. News stories of the event are here and here. Another has the video of the collision here. Please consider the very reasoned preface before the footage reported by Jim Campbell of the Aero News Network.
Source: all links listed in the Mustangs p-51 forum.
