Some history.

I read some place, some time, that the average life of a '51 in the
ETO was about 70 hours. If this be true then they were almost used as
throw away birds. If they couldn't be fixed with duct tape they class
26'd the bird and got a new one. I have also heard about over night
engine changes on CO's birds, so there may be some or just a little
truth in these war stories?

In the original issue configuration out of factory they were red lined
at 505 mph. I've had some well over that figure but was careful
pulling out and did not pull max G's. Several friends, who were in the
ETO, said they would dive the bird well over red line to get away from
a 109 which had a weak tail and couldn't follow them and stay
together. I have no reason to not believe these stories but never saw
this put out in an official publication or taught in training.

Following the War there were several instances of the wings coming off
D's in dive/glide bombing runs and they reduced the max IAS to 450
mph.

On sound, there is no other bird that ever sounded like a Merlin in
the '51. Closest I ever heard was a British Halifax with it's four
Merlin's that sounded like a flight of four 51's.

So be it.

Big John
`````````````````````````````````````````````````` `````````````````````````````````````````````````` ``


On 18 Jul 2005 08:22:16 -0700, wrote:

As long as warbirds fly there will be an attrition rate. What makes me
NUTS is the people who have the priviledge (and $$$) to own/fly these
irreplaceable aircraft and race them putting them at risk of damage or
total loss. Risking the loss of a piece of history, to say nothing of
the pilot, just for the sake of a 400mph thrill ride is insane. I'd
like to see them all restored to their military condition and flown at
air shows. Much less chance of accidents there IMHO.

Will