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B-17s straffing & IJN Aoba, & UK POWs
On 4/7/2012 11:27 AM, Gordon wrote:
On Apr 6, 9:55 pm, wrote: On 4/6/2012 10:24 PM, Peter Stickney wrote: The PBY is an amazing beast - I've never been inside one, but I've seen a couple of them fly. If you ever get the chance to go to Pensacola NAS the museum has a cutaway Catalina fuselage. They may look big on the outside, but they are crowded inside. Take a look at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shutter...09/4728119350/ That makes me happy, actually. That cutaway fuselage used to be integral to the base survival school -- I have photos of it internally and externally when I was going through aircrew candidate school in 81. When the survival school was condemned (it was from the 40s and was not in very good shape even when I was there) a few years back, quite a few of us cried foul and ultimately the Cat was saved. Back in the day, the interior was completely restored, with all the original equipment (weapons, SAR gear, electronics, etc.) that a wartime aircraft would be expected to carry. Beside it was a full size diorama of a pilot in his life raft, with all his goodies laid out on the inflated part. Several years later, we overflew LCDR JM Twiss, down at sea after his A-7 stalled. I had a momentary smile when I realized he had all of his gear laid out on his raft-edge, just like at the survival school we had both attended. Gordon, the Navy knows how to put on a good display when they want to. The cutaway has mannequins dressed in period flying kit placed in several crew positions. This gives a better sense of scale than one gets just standing next to it. If you get a chance to visit the museum it is worth the time. Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired |
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