Please note, ONLY submit your Museum entries as either clickable thumbnails or "mini pics", up to 300 x 300 pixels and not heavier than 30k. Fly2E suggested this, as well as trying to get your shots close to the aircraft and in good lighting. Many thanks to Dave for these suggestions. Hopefully FLY2E will agree to become The Museum's curator.. 

I will be setting up a "template" that we all can use.
We want this forum to look "uniform" as if you are walking down a corridor through history.
All the same read,
Directly to the point,
Thread that is easy to follow,
Easy to understand.
Not too much..
Not too little.......
Feed your head and your outta here!

North American P-51 Mustang - Jumpin' Jacques

"Jumpin' Jacques" is a P-51D-20-NA model. Over the years the aircraft has appeared at many air shows throughout Europe, with her gleaming polished exterior, "Jumpin' Jacques" has become a favourite, much to the delight of all enthusiasts of this true thoroughbred. The fact that she has never had a major rebuild and is almost totally original as built in 1944 makes this a rare and special P51 Mustang. She still carries evidence of her battle scars with repairs just behind the pilot’s position on both sides of the fuselage, and puncture repairs to the fin. As an original "Tuskegee" * fighter, she is a rare thoroughbred and much welcomed on the UK and European Air show scene and now forms part of the Hangar 11 collection.

*"Tuskegee" was the popular name of a group of African American pilots who flew with distinction during World War II as the 332nd Fighter Group of the US Army Air Corps.

Messerschmitt Me 109 "Emil"

The Messerschmitt Bf 109, later known as the Me 109 was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt in the early 1930s. It was one of the first true modern fighters of the era, including such features as an all-metal monocoque construction, a closed canopy, and retractable landing gear. The Bf 109 was produced in greater quantities than any other fighter aircraft in history, with a wartime production (September 1939 to May 1945) of 30,573 units. Pictured here is the E variant, known as "Emil".



...That OK? 

North American P-51 Mustang - Old Crow

This Scandinavian Historic Flight P-51D, N-167F, is painted as "Old Crow", the aircraft of one of the 8th AF aces, Col. Clarence E. "Bud" Anderson of the 357Th Fighter Group, 363rd Fighter Squadron, who recorded 16% kills in the aircraft. The aircraft was built in 1944, but never saw action in WWII. It was flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force before going through several civilian owners and was acquired by SHF in 1980. It was then restored by Vintage Aircraft Ltd., Fort Collins, Colorado and was flown by Anders Saether across the Atlantic to Norway in 1986. Since then, she has been a steady performer on the European airshow circuit as well as taking part in the 1989 movie production "Memphis Belle".

The B-25 Mitchell

Design and Development

The B-25 was a descendant of the earlier XB-21 (North American-39) project of the mid-1930s. Experience gained in developing that aircraft was eventually used by North American in designing the B-25 (called the NA-40 by the company). One NA-40 was built, with several modifications later being done to test a number of potential improvements. These improvements included Wright R-2600 radial engines, which would become standard on the later B-25. In 1939, the modified and improved NA-40B was submitted to the United States Army Air Corps for evaluation. This plane was originally intended to be an attack bomber for export to the United Kingdom and France, both of which had a pressing requirement for such aircraft in the early stages of World War II. However, those countries changed their minds, opting instead for the also-new Douglas A-20 Havoc. Despite this loss of sales, the NA-40B re-entered the spotlight when the Army Air Corps evaluated it for use as a medium bomber. Unfortunately, the NA-40B was destroyed in a crash on 11 April 1939. Nonetheless, the type was ordered into production, along with the Army's other new medium bomber, the Martin B-26 Marauder.

Operational History

The B-25 first gained fame as the bomber used in the April 1942 Doolittle Raid, in which 16 B-25Bs, led by the legendary Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, took off from the carrier USS Hornet and successfully bombed Tokyo and four other Japanese cities without loss to themselves. However, 15 of the planes subsequently crash-landed in Eastern China en route to their recovery fields in that country. These losses were the result of fuel exhaustion, stormy nighttime conditions with zero visibility, and the lack of electronic homing aids at the recovery bases. Only one B-25B landed intact; it came down in the Soviet Union, where its five-man crew was interned and the aircraft confiscated. Fortunately, 71 of the 80 Doolittle Raid crewmen survived their historic mission and eventually made it back to American lines.




Although the B-25 was originally designed to bomb from medium altitudes in level flight, it was used frequently in the Southwest Pacific theater (SWPA) on treetop-level strafing and parafrag (parachute-retarded fragmentation bombs) missions against Japanese airfields in New Guinea and the Philippines. These heavily-armed Mitchells, field-modified by Major Paul Irving "Pappy" Gunn, were also used on strafing and skip-bombing missions against Japanese shipping trying to re-supply their land-based armies. Under the leadership of Lt. Gen. George C. Kenney, B-25s of the 5th and 13th Air Forces devastated Japanese targets in the SWPA from 1942 to 1945, and played a significant role in pushing the Japanese back to their home islands. B-25s were also used with devastating effect in the Central Pacific, Alaska, North Africa, Mediterranean and China-Burma-India theaters.

Curtiss P-40 Warhawk and The Flying Tigers

The Curtiss P-40 was undoubtedly one of the most controversial fighters to serve in quantity during the Second World War. It was praised and abused, lauded and vilified, but the fact remains that, as the first American single-seat fighter to be manufactured on a mass-production basis, it bore much of the brunt of the air warfare over several battle fronts. Its performance was inferior to the performances of the majority of its antagonists, but this shortcoming was partly compensated for by its tractability and its sturdiness which enabled it to withstand a considerable amount of punishment. It was amenable to adaptation and it was available when most sorely needed.

Not particularly good technically or in performance, though very durable, P-40s continued to be produced until the end of 1944, serving also with air force units of Turkey, South Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Later versions were known as Kittyhawks to the RAF and its Allies. Not usually realized is that the name Warhawk applied only to the United States Army Air Force P-40s starting with the P-40F version, a much improved plane with a license built version of the British Rolls-Royce Merlin engine installed.

The Flying Tigers

Flying Tigers was the nickname of the 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG), a group of United States Army (USAAF), Navy (USN), and Marine Corps (USMC) pilots and ground crew, recruited under Presidential sanction and commanded by Claire Chennault. They constituted a fighter group with three squadrons that trained in Burma prior to the American entry into World War II to fight against Japanese forces.

  The group first saw combat on December 20, 1941, twelve days after Pearl Harbor. The Flying Tigers achieved notable success against the forces of Japan during the lowest period of the war for American forces, and gave hope to Americans that they would eventually succeed against the Japanese. The Flying Tigers were credited for destroying almost 300 aircraft with a loss of only fourteen of their own on combat missions. The AVG was disbanded in July 1942, to be replaced by U.S. Army units beginning with the 23rd Fighter Group, which was later absorbed into the U.S. 14th Air Force with General Chennault as the commander. The shark-faced fighters remain among the most recognizable of any individual combat unit of WWII, and they demonstrated innovative tactical victories when the news in the USA was filled with little more than stories of defeat after defeat at the hands of the Japanese forces at the start of WWII.

Time Travels...

First Finalist: Aussiewannabe

Air America - 1969

Air America was an American passenger and cargo airline covertly owned and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1950 to 1976.  It supplied and supported covert operations in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.  It's slogan was "Anything, Anywhere, Anytime, Professionally".  This was not an exaggeration, as Air America aircraft, including the de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou and Fairchild C-123 Provider, flew many types of cargo to countries such as the Republic of Vietnam, the Kingdom of Laos, and Cambodia.  It also on occasion flew top-secret missions into Burma and the People's Republic of China.

Flying for Air America was hazardous and the pay was better than for both normal civilian and military aviation.  An Air America pilot could earn as much in a week as another pilot would in a month, and the pay combined with the promise of adventure attracted many pilots.  But the work was dangerous; even without conflict, pilots had to deal with poorly charted mountainous terrain, few radio beacons for navigation, bad weather, and often overloaded planes.

AC from SimV, Scenery is VOZ with Andy Weir's Mesh for Australia

Second Finalist Spitfire Boy

Third Finalist Specter177

...for a glimpse into the future...

Testing the F/A-37.

April 7th, 2027

Three prototype F/A-37 Talons get ready for flight testing at Edwards AFB. The Talon is the newest Advanced Tactical Fighter to come off the Lockheed-Boeing lines, designed to replace the aging F-22 for the Air Force and fill a niche in the Navy left open by the retirement of the F-14 in 2006. Military planners have said that this may be the last manned fighter in the inventory, with the rising use of advanced UCAVs. After the U.S. - EU war, America is now the unquestioned leader in military technology.

September 26th, 1939: THEY ARE SHOOTING AT US!

Fourth Finalist Harold Kip

...for his (now trademarked) meticulous research....




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On September 26, 1939, while on its flight from Stockholm to Amsterdam, German fighters attacked the Mees, one of the 23 DC-3’s, which KLM owned before World War II. The Mees received eighty hits and unfortunately a Swedish passenger was killed in the incident.  However, KLM Captain Jan Moll (who co-piloted the 'Uiver' in the MacRobertson Air Race) managed to escape into the clouds and fly the aircraft safely to Amsterdam Airport; Schiphol.  After this incident KLM painted all its aircraft orange and applied the letters HOLLAND on the fuselage.


The aircraft, a Douglas DC-3-194G (c/n 2142), was delivered for assembly to the NV Nederlandse Vliegtuigenfabriek (Dutch Aircraft Factory Ltd. - later known as Fokker) on July 7th 1939. After assembly it was delivered to the Royal Dutch Airlines, as PH-ASM ‘Mees’ (Titmouse) on July 21st 1939. KLM used the Mees, amongst other routes, between Amsterdam and Stockholm.


The Mees was confiscated by the Luftwaffe on May 16th 1940 and re-registered as NA+LE. As the aircraft wasn’t used it was transferred to Lufthansa service on June 15th 1940, receiving registration D-ATJG. She was destroyed in an allied attack on September 3rd 1944.


While talking to Aussie, the PH-ASR ‘Roek’ repaint for the default FS9 DC-3 came up, which mentioned the above incident in the readme file. But I told Chris that it wasn't the ‘Roek’ that was attacked but the ‘Mees’. Also, the original repaint wasn’t anything like it should be, comparing it to the replica of a similar DC-3, the PH-ALR ‘Reiger’ at the Dutch National Aviation Museum, Aviodrome. The aircraft were not yellow but orange, the font used was more similar to a square-ish ‘Arial’ style font and it was black instead of blue. Also the position of the decals wasn’t like it should be. I decided to repaint the FS9 default DC-3 in the correct colors, adjusted the decals with a font more suitable and labeled it PH-ASM.


To make the shot completely historically accurate I photographed the Mees in front of the 1928 rendition of Schiphol Airport, which has been completely rebuild at the Aviodrome.


BTW: I've posted an edit of one of the shots from this series in the Edited Forums



Thanks to Aussie for all the hours of researching, testing the repaint and discussing the Mees with me. This really is a joint effort!

"A Forgotten One..."

The Convair 990

The CV-990 was a first-generation jet airliner that competed with the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8.  Nicknamed "Coronado," it was originally developed by Consolidated-Vultee, which later changed its name to Convair and was eventually bought out by General Dynamics. The 990 first flew in 1961.

Essentially, the 990 was an upgraded version of the Convair 880, designed after United turned down the 880 and American asked for an improved aircraft to serve as the flagship of its Astrojet fleet. The resulting plane was (and still is) one of the fastest jetliners ever produced, able to cruise at 615 mph. This was accomplished by powerful engines, a narrow body, and special "shock pods" on top of the wings.

However, the 990's high performance came at a cost. The streamlined fuselage could only hold 110 passengers, compared to the 707 and DC-8's capacity of 150. The wing pods were originally intended to hold fuel, but the added weight caused them to vibrate dangerously at high speeds, so they had to be left hollow. This gave the 990 a comparatively dismal operating range (3000 miles on the outside), and made its operation a losing proposition for most airlines, killing sales. American, the largest customer, ended up replacing a $25 million down payment with 25 Douglas DC-7's, each valued at less than half a million dollars.

The 990 program ended as a write-off for General Dynamics: by some estimates, they lost over $150 million in the whole ordeal, not a small sum for a company reporting $2 billion in annual sales. Some planes were pulled off of the assembly line half-completed in a vain effort to recover costs. Convair never made another civil transport, and its defense contracts were seriously scarred for some time.

Airbus A340

The A340 was launched in June 1987 as a long-range complement to the short-range A320 and the medium-range A300.
The A340 was designed in parallel with the twin-engined A330: both aircraft share the same wing and similar fuselage structure, and borrow heavily from the advanced avionics and composite structure technology developed for the A320.

The A340 incorporates high-technology features such as fully digital fly-by-wire flight control system. It also uses joysticks instead of yokes. The A340's flight deck features CRT-based glass cockpit displays on the A340-200 and A340-300 and LCD-based on -500 and -600. Some composite primary structures are also used.

By the end of January 2009 a total of 385 A340s had been ordered (246 A340-200/300, 35 A340-500 and 104 A340-600) and 361 delivered (246 A340-200/300, 28 A340-500 and 87 A340-600).

The A340 was originally intended to use the new superfan engines of International Aero Engines, but they decided to stop the engine's development. The engine nacelles of the superfan engine consisted of provisions to allow a large fan near the rear of the engine. As a result of the superfan cancellation by IAE, the CFM International CFM56-5C4 was used as the sole engine choice instead of being an alternate choice as originally envisioned. The longer-range versions, the A340-500 and -600, are powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engines.

When the A340 first flew in 1991, engineers noticed that the wings were not strong enough to carry the outboard engines at cruising speed without warping and fluttering. To alleviate this, an underwing bulge called a plastron was developed to correct airflow problems around the engine pylons and to add stiffness. The modified A340 began commercial service in 1993 with Lufthansa and Air France

With the introduction of higher gross weight Boeing 777s, sales of the A340 began to decline. Over the last few years the 777 has outsold the A340 by a wide margin. Although the larger GE90 engines on the 777-300ER burn considerably more fuel than the Trent 500s, using only two of them compared to four Trents has meant a typical operating cost advantage of around 8-9%.

In January 2006, Airbus announced plans to develop the A340E (Enhanced). Airbus promoted that the A340E would be more fuel-efficient than earlier A340s and close the 8-9% disparity with the Boeing 777 by using Trent 1500 engines.

Airbus has predicted that it will probably produce 127 A340 units through 2016, after which production will cease






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