Stephen Harding wrote in message ...
Dudley Henriques wrote:

"Stephen Harding" wrote in message
Do restored warbirds have some sort of security system added to
keep unscrupulous members of the public such as me, from taking
one up for an unauthorized flight? Some sort of starting "key"?

What about current military aircraft?

In theory it could be done, but the pilot doing it would have to be REAL
good! :-)) Just the pre-requesites are daunting to say the least.
First, the pilot doing this would have to be good enough to actually fly the
airplane, which not only requires specific skills but is aircraft specific
also. That means the thief would have to know where everything is in the
cockpit....probably in the dark .
A self inspired night checkout in the average warbird would kill all but the
most "inspired" I can assure you!! :-)))

I was hoping you or Vlado would comment.

Well I'll take your word for it. But I recall an American pilot shot
down in Europe during WWII stealing a FW 190 (IIRC). He got the thing
started and into the air (in the dark), but flew it back to England with
the gear down since he couldn't figure out how to raise it.

You're thinking of Bruce Carr from the 354th FG. He was supposedly
shot down over Czechoslovakia, stole a FW-190 and flew back to his
base in France. The story has been told on the internet and in
magazines, but I've never seen it included in a history of the 354th
and I beleive there is some debate about whether or not it really
happened.

~Michael