[chris455]

Bravo!

[ShadowGravy]

You may've seen this footage, but it's a decent WWII color film about the 362nd Fighter Group, 377th Squadron Jugs flying out of Etaine, France. It has a step-by-step engine start procedure showing the cockpit setup and control setup.

The vintage footage is good but I'm pretty sure there are some scenes from Thunderbolt! slipped in there. Also, the start-up procedure is actually Jeff Ethell in the modern restoration 'Tarheel Hal.' It looks like whoever put together the 362nd FG/ 377th FS tribute video chopped up the Ethell footage, dirtied it up a little and gave it a new voice-over. (Ha ha, and they also blotted out that modern guage above Ethell's knee.)
Compare for yourself.

The scene showing the slip ball on the gunsight seems valid though.

[duffys tavern]

Thanx ShadowGravy, nice footage. P-47s takeoff and landing with canopy open sure
looked swell. We're close to having the perfect "Jug"!

[I_B_Spectre]

I know what you mean, ShadowGravy. I went looking through more online film footage and saw some of the same scenes integrated into other clips. Where vintage footage is concerned, there's no more new stuff, so the most we can expect to see besides re-runs are re-mixes. Still, enjoyable nonetheless. I saw the gunsight with slip/skid all in others films as well that appeared to be slight variations on the one mentioned. It would be nice if enough Jugs in flying condition could be assembled to shoot a modern air combat movie. We know there are enough Mustangs, but the field gets thin when we're talking about P-38s and, especially, Axis planes. Computers can do amazing things, but mostly what I've seen is pretty hokey. There's no substitute for the real thing.

[chris455]

No substitute for the real thing

Exactly. Watched "Battle of Britain" a little while back and was amazed (again). First saw it as a kid in the theater with my mom. I don't know whether I enjoyed it more at 10 or 50, all I know is, I liked it!

[I_B_Spectre]

The sad thing is, movies like Battle of Britain just aren't do-able anymore due to the lack of readily available aircraft. Even at that, you probably noticed the 109s were Spanish-built Buchons fitted with upright V-12 Merlins rather than inverted Daimlers. I don't recall which movie it was, maybe 12 o'clock High, but they intentionally crash landed a B-17 for the film. Imagine that...airplanes now so rare and expensive they are meticulously maintained and protected, but once just so much surplus that you could crash them on purpose for film footage. When P-38s were first offered for surplus sale, they were only $1250.00 and, IIRC, that was with full fuel (probably 115/145, which isn't around anymore) for fly-away. The USAF sold their first surplus P-51s in Sacramento, 1957 and the article I read said everybody that wanted one, got one and they sold for between $750 and $3,000. If you ever run across a working time machine, I know where I'd go!

[Th!rdeye]

OMG a P-38 for a little over a grand?!

I want.... i wished i lived back then....

[poncho]

I have installed the new pit in the D22 razorback. The only real change is the throttle handle. It is fun to fly.





Poncho

[FA_Diablo]

that looks fabulous poncho. Now you're making us really jealous you know?

[chris455]

Poncho,
May I call your sattention to the green, crescent-shaped item that lies immediately forward of the
black hood with the sqaure hole in it? It lies rather between the black hood and the base of the windshield frame.
This "green crescent" has escaped my ability to find it in any photos.It is an original part of the JHAT pit, and I fear it's existence in the actual P-47 is not a certainty.
I think it makes that portion of the dash look unecessarily busy.
Would it be possible to dispense with the crescent and extend the black hood all the way up to the base of the windshield frame ? Please get input form others first, but IMO it would be closer to the prototype than what we currently see.
Oh, and BTW, I had to wait for 20 minutes to stop salivating before it was safe to approach my keyboard to write this

[poncho]

I agree Chris, I will see what I can do. It may not be possible to get it perfect because I am trying to balance out maybe 3 things by moving the hood around. 1)I want to make sure the panel lites are not obscured by the overhang. 2)I want to make sure the hood does not jut out beyond the fuselage. 3) I want the gunsight to look like it is correctly positioned with respect to the hood.

Sometimes I can get tunnel vision when correcting one problem and miss others. It helps to have another set of eyes look at it sometimes.

[chris455]

Well, I was actually worried that you were going to accuse me of being anal-retentive
That "thing" has just always bugged me; I can't remeber ever seeing it in any photos.

Waiting with baited breath for the finished product,

[poncho]

Hows this?
After trying to stretch the hood over the object in question and not getting a satisfactory result, I decided to cut the SOB out entirely.
I'm sure the object was supposed to be a support for the armor glass, but I had not seen any refs that made it so prominant.

[chris455]

Poncho,
You are a sorcerer!
It's perfect!

[poncho]

That probably should have been done a long time ago. If not for your anal retentivness, I might have overlooked it. Thanks it looks much cleaner.