Nut Tree Mustang Days 2012

I posted these to the Northern California section, too. Hope you don't mind!
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A few more.
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Great stuff.
Sparky's home base.
A Seghetti was probably wandering around there somewhere, beware!

 

Awesome pictures

 

Yeah, Steve was getting around the ramp on his bicycle. Introduced him to my dad and we had a nice chat.

 

Heck, no! Great warbird photos are always welcome here.

 

Last picture shows a couple of T-28 Trojans and Wildcat. Who let those guys in there?

Isn't that a Lockheed PV2 Harpoon below Sparky ?.

I think I spotted a YAK 9 in there too. Cool.

 

Sharp eyes! Yes, that's a PV2, configured for ASW (restored after post-war service as a forest fire bomber), and Eddie Andreini II's YAK 9U, named Ottobre Rosso (Red October). Here is Ottobre Rosso with (Sr.) Andreini's P-51 in the background. The YAK 9 back in the day had performance comparable to Me 109s and FW-190s. There was also an FM-2 Wildcat on the ramp.
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I've seen a YAK 9 making high speed passes at the EAA Fly-in at NAS Arlington. Really quite fast. Circles around the rest of the warbirds making passes that day.

 

Especially if it's in Eddie's hands (either one). http://www.miramarevents.com/dreammachines/eddie-andreini.html

I suppose that's to be expected since the plane looks a bit like a cross between a Mustang and a Spitfire.

http://vimeo.com/40056011

 

Of course, if it's like the other new-build Yaks, it probably has an Allison V-1710 under the cowl.....

 

'Original' Yak-9U's were faster than a P-40 and a Spit (a lot faster). Also a bit faster than an ME-109 and FW-190. But a little slower than a P-51, FWIW.

The Yak is a nice looking plane tho. Reminds me of what an FW-190 might look like if designed originally with a vee engine. (Not the later 190's with a vee stuck in where the radial had been.)

Most number built of all Russian planes...

 

The IL2 had over 36,000 produced and the Po2 had over 40,000 total produced - both far more than than the Yak.

I also don't see a Yak-9u outrunning a Bf-109K nor a FW-190D - though actual in the field top speeds varied to a fair degree, particularly with Luftwaffe fighters where fuel quality was often poor and the number of field modification kits for planes was huge. Water/Methanol - Nitrous oxide injection systems.... they played with lots of boost options.


Terry

 

The Yak might be able to outrun those other fighters at low level, which is where the Soviets preferred to fight, anyway. Look how much success they had with the P-39!

 

Right. The Allison was only weak at higher altitudes because it was naturally aspirated and ran out of breath there (until turbocharged for the P-38).

 

Yes, the Russians used the P-39 as an aerial arm of the infantry shooting up tanks and people.

 

The Soviets certainly flew plenty of P-39s in combat - throughout the war - but I'm not sure a dogged insistence on continuing to push the type into combat regardless of losses equals a stellar success. The FW-190 was faster at low levels, it too suffered from poor supercharger performance over 20K until the later inline powered variants. Most of the FW's that served on the eastern front were F models used in the ground attack role. The Fw-190F replaced the Stuka in many units.

From the Soviet perspective though, loss rates for the type didn't much matter. They were not manufacturing them - and didn't really have to even pay for them and they had plenty of young men to train as pilots so having units suffer insane loss ratios didn't represent a concern to Soviet commanders. They embraced a war of attrition.

Reading through combat reports for units like JG52 and JG54 on the Russian front though... the P39s got butchered. Emil Lang once shot down 12 in a single day. The P39 vs 109 is NOT a good match up if your a 39 driver and when you combine that with huge disparities in leadership, tactics and average pilot skill/experience through late 1944 on the Russian front.... well, lets just say I am really glad I did not have to fly a P39 on the Russian front. They had it even worse than the Brits, Aussies and Kiwi's who flew P40B's against 109s over North Africa.

There are plenty of anecdotes about Russian pilots loving the 39 though. It was the GUN. They loved that 37mm. You hit something.... its done.



Terry

 

I was sad to learn recently that a couple of short years after these photos were taken, Eddie Andreini augered in. R.I.P. Eddie. You were one of the best. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Andreini

 

Hya Darrell. Too bad about Eddie Andrini. Knew him for 35 years. Great guy. Thanks for bringing the thread back. Always nice to have a little advertising for the air show. On again for the second Sat in October. If you show up with you dad, I promise him some stick time in the 51. You also for that mater.
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