Zeno's Warbird Video Drive-In October 2006 Newsletter

Hello –

We've got some great World War II plane features playing at Zeno's Drive-In www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com this month -- including two premiers.

Our First Jet Warbird! (Just for comparison purposes of course.)
We’re pleased to announce a new addition to our online stable of aircraft: the US Navy’s North American FJ-2 Fury. The FJ-2 is a very close relative of the USAF F-86 Sabre -- in most respects they are identical, The F-86 was adapted for carrier use as a quick fix for the USN’s need for a high performance swept wing fighter during the Korean war, "Flight Capabilities of the FJ-2 Airplane" shows the FJ2 in color and to good advantage. We've also added a number of new downloads from an F-86F Sabre pilot’s manual

At the Matinee, we're showing a quad feature "Winged Artillery," "No Sweat" -- another premier, "Angel in Overalls,’ and "Mission to Rabaul."

* "Winged Artillery" (Color) Nine 75mm canon firing B-25Gs of the 48th Bomb Squadron, 7AAF, based on Apamama in the Gilbert Islands, conduct a hair raising tree top level strike on the Japanese air base on Mille. Also features amazingly well preserved and very rare color footage of daily life of aircrew and ground personnel stationed on the islands

* "No Sweat" (Premier!) This film was produced by USAFE, (United States Air Force, Europe, filmed on location) to cut down on costly air accidents resulting from pilot error. Seemingly trivial mistakes sometimes led to SNAFUs -- or worse. You'll follow a pilot through what should have been a routine hop, but turns into anything but. The real star of the show is the featured aircraft, an F-86D -- the all weather version of the Sabre jet-- which is shown in considerable detail. Notice the radar scope mounted on the instrument panel. I especially like the pre-CGI aerial shots of a real Sabre slipping through the cumulus. A beautiful sight!

"Angel in Overalls" This film was developed to show US Lockheed P-38 production line workers the Lightning at war in a wide variety of combat roles. You'll see all aspects of Lightnings in action, including air-to-air gun camera, bombing, rocketing and photo recon. There's a cameo by Air Corps P-38 ace of aces Dick Bong too The dramatic ending of this film brings home a sobering reminder that the life of the fighter pilot was risky and often dangerous. Many young pilots made the ultimate sacrifice

* "Mission to Rabaul" The island of Rabaul, located in the southwest Pacific, northeast of the large island of New Guinea, was one of two strategic lynchpins for the Japanese. They poured tens of thousands of troops, hundreds of airplanes, and thousands of tons of supplies and material on to Rabaul to make it a mighty fortress. Douglas MacArthur's brilliant solution to the Rabaul conundrum was to isolate it, slowly starve it, and bypass it -- rather than assault it. One of the key steps in this strategy was to seize airfields in northern New Guinea to base Army P-38 fighters that could escort bombers on long range missions against the heavily defended Japanese stronghold. You'll see amazing on the deck footage from attacking A-20s and B-25s.

If you haven't stopped by Zeno's Drive-In before, we also feature 1940-45 vintage WWII Army & Navy films and pilot’s manuals on how to fly the F4U, F6F, P-38, P-39, P-40, P-47, P-51, P-61, TBF/TBM, AT-6/SNJ, B-17, B-24, B-25, A-20, A-26, B-26, B-29, and Stearman N2S.  And there are different WWII documentaries every month "At the Matinee." That's over 14 hours of rockin' props for free viewing over the internet.

Keep ‘em flyin’!

Zeno
Zeno's Warbird Video Drive-In
World War II Aviation Videos Playing Online 24/7
http://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com