Warbird lovers: Our local Bf109e has arrived

[Bob Womack]

The Military Aviation Museum's Bf-109e has just arrived and is being reassembled. Thought you guys would like a peek.

Gift box






UNPACKING (video)

Spares! (Parts is parts) Inverted V Daimler Benz on its side.


Attaching the wings




Supercharger


Gearing up for retraction tests


More photos and video of the planes HERE.

They've also recently acquired a kettenkrad to tow the German planes around.

I'm like a kid in a candy shop.

Bob

[unimogbert]

..........

[6L6]

Fantastic!!!

Many thanks for posting these pics!

Bill

[Acousticado]

That's really impressive!

[Dan Carey]

Hey! I have one of those!
It's a bit smaller, though:



I have a P40 also:

[philo426]

Nice emil!i hope they find a gustav too!

[philo426]

...or a 410.

[Bob Womack]

Will you settle for an FW190?

This is their second. The first was sold a couple of years ago. This one is a Fleugwerk replica that has had the four bladed prop, hub, and cowling of a Tupelov Tu-2 substituted and is a much more dependable aircraft than most of the others. It also has a shorter nose and proper center of gravity so it "looks" right compared to the inline versions.



This joins a static display original radial FW190A and an inline Fleugwerk 190D replica that hasn't been certified to fly yet.

The A model is in the foreground here.

How about a reproduction ME-262?


They've gotten a "kettenkrad" halftrack motorcycle to pull the German planes out of the hangars. See it HERE.

Bob

[steveb2223]

I find the display of a Nazi Swastika banner to be in extremely bad taste. IMHO, of course.

-- Steve

[sled]

Originally Posted by steveb2223

I find the display of a Nazi Swastika banner to be in extremely bad taste. IMHO, of course.

-- Steve

To me it's a historical artifact displayed with historical artifacts. If someone was flying it in their yard that's one thing, flying it in a "museum" of sorts is something else. People need to quit being offended by history and instead learn it and learn from it. Maybe then the bad parts would quit repeating themselves.

[steveb2223]

It's quite likely that I know that history far better than you. My father and uncles fought against the Nazis. I grew up around Holocaust survivors. I see no educational value in the display of offensive material without any real historical context. Artifacts alone are not history. That display says nothing more profound than "Nazis built cool airplanes."

-- Steve

[Brucebubs]

There is a 109 and a 262 on display in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra here in Australia.
The 109 is surprisingly small when you stand next to it.
The center hub at the front of the 262 engines have a concealed pull-ring to start a small inboard 2-stroke engine that acted as the starter motor for the main engine.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

The Military Aviation Museum's Bf-109e has just arrived and is being reassembled. Thought you guys would like a peek. ...

...

It's interesting to see again the landing gear on the ME109. Many WWII airplane experts have pointed to the weakness of the landing gear design.

“Chief aerodynamicist for the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket fighter, Josef Hubert ....told me that Willy Messerschmitt had adamantly refused to compromise the Bf 109’s performance by adding the drag-producing wing-surface bumps and fairings that would have been necessary to accommodate the wheels with the proper geometry. This would have reduced its accident rate to within expected military-fighter ranges and made it a world standard!”

From this source: http://ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviatio...ead-29605.html

That is going to be a great project, rebuilding that airplane.

- Glenn

[Bob Womack]

This is, in fact, a museum. The Military Aviation Museum. It is probably the largest collection of flying, yet museum-grade preserved aircraft in the world from the WWII period. Just because you can't see the educational materials in the photos doesn't mean they don't exist. The hangar in question is an actual German hangar from the Cottbus airport that was used in WWII and then broken down, shipped over here, and reassembled at the museum to lend authentic atmosphere. Thus, it isn't a recreation of the German hangar, it is the real thing.

From their history:

This particular hangar, Hangar 6, was built in 1934 by a company called Osdeutsche Landwerkstatten GmbH (OLA). OLA was founded by WWI flying ace Gotthard Sachsenberg and his navy friend, Eberhard Cranz. They formed the company to help former military personnel make the transition to civilian life. However, Sachsenberg lost control of the company in 1934 when he spoke out against the Nazi uprising in Germany and it was discovered that he was of partial Jewish decent.

After being bombed by the Eighth Air Force it was repaired by slave laborers, some of whom signed their work.


“Anusia Waclaw Worked Here, 10.14.1944.” That inscription has been carefully preserved in the rebuilt hangar.

Most of the period German aircraft are painted in authentic WWII paint schemes and that includes the Nazi tail insignia.



Poor taste? If you go to the Imperial War Museum in London, you will see the Eagle Sculpture taken down from the facade of the Reich Chancellery at the end of the war.


You can also see Nazi national banners and flags of various types. These are factual items. The Nazi party is a fact of history. This is history. We learn by being exposed.

Hiding ourselves from a terrible past is fraught with trouble, lest we negligently follow down the same road as the German nation did. By the way, many veterans' groups use this museum as a gathering place for their reunions. If my uncle, a Spitfire pilot, had survived the war, he would probably come and sit in the cockpit of the museum's flying Spitfire IX, Hurricane, and Mosquito.

Those who fought the war were only offended by the symbols of their enemy for the period when he had power. When he was vanquished, they brought home items of all kinds that had the swastika on them to celebrate and explain what they had accomplished.

Bob

[dagobert]

Love those old warbirds, even better is seeing and hearing them fly.