A cold lonely place...

[PatricksDad]

A B-17 tailgunner's post.



We had a 50th Anniversary celebration at our local airport today, with a few cool planes & cars. Nothing fancy, but a great way to spend a few hours this afternoon.





And one for Spidey. Not open every day, but still kicking:



A few more here: http://picasaweb.google.com/chrisw89...thAnniversary#

[nosnerd]

Re: A cold lonely place...

RCD built a killer Benz about 16 or so yrs ago,cantilever shocks in the front end and all...one seriously trick piece...i cant remeber for the life of me who it was built for...it even made the ISCA circuit for a while...

my buddy mark in ohio would know...

[PatricksDad]

Re: A cold lonely place...

That car was built for Modified Elim, I think driven by Alan Callaway.

It's a Riddler winner, and had some pretty innovative frame design. Some kind of sliding or hinged back half if I remember right. Don't know if it ever worked right, but it was a beautifully engineered and built piece.

[fahrenschnell]

Re: A cold lonely place...

My grandfather flew in a B-17 while he was in the AirCorps...

Seth

[98ciHemi]

Re: A cold lonely place...

Hey Seth, do you know any information about what plane he was on? If you know the unit or the name of the planes, I might be able to find a picture of it. I have LOTS of ww2 aircraft pictures.

[CTX-SLPR]

Re: A cold lonely place...

Find me a 460th Bombardment Group (heavy), 15th AF, Spinazola Italy. It's where my grandfather, who was a B-24 tailgunner, flew out of.

[Scott Liggett]

Re: A cold lonely place...

My Grand dad flew a B-17 out of Englad called Phyllis. He then became logistics commander of four flight groups including the 388th he flew in. I have a thread around here full of pics he took from 1933 in flight school up to the end of WWII.

[Bamfster]

Re: A cold lonely place...

It may have been cold and lonely, but just think how much fun it'd be with that gun!

My Dad was a waist/belly gunner and radioman on a B24 in the South Pacific (Palau Islands, Pelileu Island to be exact) in the 494th Bomb Group...aka, Kelly's Cobras. The name of his plane was The Flying Boxcar and had a railroad boxcar with wings on the side of it. The original was shot down shortly after take off in spring of '43 (all survived) and the replacement was named the same and painted similarly.

Cool stuff!

[67prostreet]

Re: A cold lonely place...

My dad was a Tail Gunner in the Korean War. Was said to be the most dangerous place on a plane.

[CTX-SLPR]

Re: A cold lonely place...

My dad was a Tail Gunner in the Korean War. Was said to be the most dangerous place on a plane.

My grandfather said something similar because all the shrapnel blew backwards and attacking from the rear was the least defended approach, though the slowest way you could make a pass at something. He also did waist gunner duty but was really a dedicated tailgunner. Too tall for the ball turret and just barely too short for the top turret. The nose turret on his B-24 was pretty much identical to the rear but he never flew missions in that position.