Alright, I’ll give that one to you.
Paul Mantz was, of course, killed in the crash of the airplane built for Flight of the Phoenix, and his partner Frank Tallman was the pilot who flew through the billboard in Mad Mad World. That was the connection I was looking to find, their partnership, Tallmantz Aviation.
What’s on deck for us bondoman?
Go for it, Bondo!
Wow, you guys type a lot faster than I do!
When I was 16, my family was on vacation in El Lay so my dad and I went out to the Tallmantz museum. The place was empty of people and we had it all to ourselves. What a blast!
Frank Tallman wrote a really cool book 20 or more years ago (I got it as a member of the Military Book Club circa 1975 … so I guess that makes it more like 30+ years ago!) – Flying the Old Planes. Lots of neat memoires of his years with Paul Mantz and great pics of a Bleriot IX, a DH 2, the Spirit of Saint Louis (those were all reproductions, of course), the B-25s used in Catch-22, and (as they say) many many more.
See if you can track it down at your library, it’s great.
I’ve got a photo of me sitting in the black Fokker Triplane used in “The Great Waldo Pepper” that was in the museum. The Movieland of the Air Museum, or something like that, in 1975. It had a steel framed kitchen chair with hyde of nauga in place, so I don’t think it actually flew.
Well, I hope not!
I also have attended the Reno Air Races since 1970 and remember Frank Tallman flying that Grumman Duck in an aerobatic display that was stunning. He had that bird doing things it was certainly not designed to do!
Those old airframes are becoming hazardous: a friend of mine, who’s a commerical pilot for USAir, had a friend die flying on of those CASA 2.111 – don’t know if it was one that played a Heinkel 111 in the films Battle of Britain or Patton, but it could have been. The metalurgy from even 50 years ago doesn’t last forever.
Glad Tallman didn’t die on film as his partner did, but he did die doing what he loved! I hope we all can.
Speaking of old airframes, what was the last operational use of the Norden bomb sight, what was dropped, from what, when and where.
The NBS was last used for dropping Igloo White Acoubouy acoustic sensors around Khe Sanh in 1968. They were fitted to Navy OP-2E Neptunes of VO-67.
I cant find accurate dates (years only) for this, As far as I know ADSIS seismic sensors were also used in Laos in 1968, but think this was before Khe Sanh.
I remember as a kid of about 10 reading a detailed article on the concept & uses of Igloo White & the related systems - I found it all quite amazing & pretty hard to believe. I was playing Pong on Atari while the US were blowing the Viet Cong away by remote control - who would have dreamt of GPS munitions back then?
I went to the Tallmantz museum in 1966, December. They had the XF-85 Goblin and the F-107 there in the back lot, but the thing I remember most is that just about a mile north east of the airport there was a guy plowing a field with a single bottom plow pulled by a horse. Next time I went Tallmantz was getting squeezed out by skyscrapers, and it wasn’t many years later.
Nicely done Milair…VO-67 was in existence from early 67 to late 68. HCM trail and Khe Sanh among others, and the old Neptune.
Your turn.
OK, Cheers;
What US aircraft was the first to be used in Vietnam, when, doing what, for Who & by Who?
No doubt there will be a multitude of conflicting answers here - I suppose its possibly one of these “Who really knows the answer” questions.
French Indochina definitely had P-40s hunting and whacking Japanese there during World War Two, but it wasn’t known as “Vietnam”.
Vietnam, let’s say is post September 2nd 1945…
I’m gonna guess:
F4U Corsair
I should elaborate here, this was the first official-unofficial US Aircraft involvment in the run up to the US conflict with Vietnam, in the assistance of the just about to be kicked out other Western country previously involved.
Think along the lines of Russian Mig pilots fighting wars they were not involved in.
T-28 Trojan?
Nope
Skyraider?
Nope
C-119 in "French " markings. As in Earthquake McGoon.
Got in (all) in one;
On to You.
That one was in my wheelhouse, a favorite story, although it ended in death.
May 6, 1954 CAT (Civil Air Transport) is operating air drops in support of the beseiged French garrison at Dien Bien Phu. Aircraft 149 in French markings is flown by James McGovern, a good old boy and adventure pilot nicknamed Earthquake Mcgoon, after the Li’l Abner character, and copilot Wallace Buford. Three other kickers are the crew, the mission is to drop a 105 on one of the artillery positions. Hit by ground fire, they make it to near the Laotian border where they crash and all but one crewman die.
Buford and McGovern were the first US airmen lost in that conflict.
http://jeffbass.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=portfolio.viewItem&item_id=136&cat_id=21
The new Italeri C-119 release has the correct markings, including USAF in slightly darker red than the then standard outer wing colors, as though painted over. Not 149, but that’s easy.
Here’s my ?
Wuddat? Hint, the windscreen is a bit unusual.
