Fly4Fun2

My Feedback: (25)

Tonight on the History Channel (9:00 PM) , they are showing the story of the lost squadren. This is the 6 P-38s and B-17 which were lost in Iceland in WWII. One of the P-38s was brought out and restored to flying condition by a team in Kentucky. It flew for the first time since restoration last October. I am pretty sure I read that this show will include footage of the restoration and first flight.

Goinstraightup

My Feedback: (26)

Thanks for the info!

MikeL

My Feedback: (3)

It's an interesting story about a very dedicated group of guys. They've been working on that project for a long, long time. The photos and video of the recovery efforts are truly amazing.P-38s are rare birds, and it's great to hear that they got another in the air.

We'd like to keep things strictly related to RC here in the Clubhouse, so I'll be closing this now.

stevezero

My Feedback: (11)

There was an awesome show on the History Channel last night all about the quest for the Lost Squadron. The lost squadron was a group of 6 P38's and 2 B17's that were being ferried from the US to Britain in July of 1942. They refueled in western Greenland, and were on their way to Iceland, before realizing the Iceland field was closed due to weather. They ran out of fuel on their way back to Greenland, and chose to ditch together on the ice pack in easter Greenland. All 25 crew members were rescued, but the brand new aircraft were left behind. A pair of men assembled a crew and undertook a challenge of finding these aircraft, and the show chronicles this endeavor. After many years of searching, they located a plane about a mile away from the original crash site. Piece of cake right? NOT!!, the plane was located a mere 266 feet under solid ice. The first plane they were able to drill down to was a B17, and it had been all but crushed due to the force of the ice on top of it. They salvaged some pieces parts from it, and gave up on the rest of the planes for a year or two. They ended up going back, and finding a P38 (less than 50 hours total on the airframe and engines), and they disassembled it under the ice, and hefted sections up topside. Was a totally fascinating show to watch, detailing the living conditions (terrible at best, -30 below, 70 knot winds, 7 feet of blowing snow overnight, 2 hours to dig out of your tent to get to breakfast on a good day), the methods of locating and reaching the aircraft, and the salvage methods. The plane even had a full load of ammo for the cannons in the nose, which they fastened one to a rack on a snowmobile, boresighted, and fired on a 55 gallon oil drum. The 50 year old ammo still worked, and worked quite well .

They ended up bringing the airframe to Kentucky, and did a several year restoration on it, culminating in the second "maiden" flight of it in Oct of 2002.

The website for the expedition is www.thelostsquadron.com

I know its not R/C related, but this is a phenominal piece of history, as well as a monumental undertaking.