Home Racing World

This a great site if you're into aviation history or if you've ever wondered if that big, empty, fenced in plot of land down the road used to be an airfield. Many old airfields evolved into racetracks (before they turned into suburban neighborhoods). Check it out.
http://members.tripod.com/airfields_freeman/index.htm

I found three fields I know already. I landed on one of them, flew RC planes on another, and raided a couple of abandoned T-6s on the third.

I used to love going to the airshows at Glenview. At the last one I attended the FA-18 was the new kid, and
performed a very impressive routine.

:naughty: :naughty: :naughty: What is our youth coming to!

Well, it was just an aluminum map case from one and a gun camera lens cover from another. But I have to admit, if they still had those big old Pratt and Whitney 1340 Wasps on them, I would have found a way to get 'em! My second favorite engine of all the engines on the planet. Rolls-Royce Merlin is still number one of course.

@DAVE: Lived at Glenview in base housing from 59 to 67; my Dad worked in Base Ops just before he retired, it's still there.......as a bookstore! :angry-fire:

@Waytoo: Both are nice motors and tend to lean toward the Merlin, too, but I still favor a pair of J-79s in an old "Double Ugly" F-4.

@Bibsster: you forgot the snare drum rim shot!

I first saw a J-79 in a chrome-plated F-104 model by Revell, about 1960 or so. It was, I think, in the B-58 Hustler, too. The model had a "weapons pod" that released with a push button. It was years later that I learned it was a hydrogen bomb (shudder).

Glenview is gone?

Wow. I attended the 1970 (or 71?) Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) Nationals there as a representive for Fox Mfg. Co. (a manufacturer of model airplane engines) that I worked for at the time. Attending "The Nats" at Glenview was a neat experience, one that I have tons of good memories concerning.

Andre

My favorite planes are the WW1 biplanes. There's just something about them that's cool. I worked at a tool and die company after I got out of the Navy years ago. The owner was into rebuilding airplanes. He had 2 Rolls Royce Merlins in a room, along with a P51 he was having rebuilt. Those Merlins were big even sitting on a stand. :)

There was a guy we used to be in touch with when I worked on the P-51 in Louisville who lived in Southern Indiana who had lots of great stuff. He had 3 Storch aircraft (Skorzeny's STOL that rescued Mussolini from the mountain) from WWII. He had been re-machining parts for them for years. Any chance that's the same guy?

Yep. Those Merlins got bigger every time I got close to one. On the P-51 we had a scaffolding for me to stand on to set the valves (48 of them, each one as big as a drink coaster, the tappets looked like cold chisels). On a P-38 at Oshkosh, it was disorienting, because I wasn't on a slant relative to the engine as I always was on the Mustang. I still have my British Standard Whitworth wrenches that got me the job on the Mustang.

Thanks TsgtRet.

Sad, sad.

Such a bureaucratic bungling.

Andre

Rob, the guy was in Omaha, NE. Probably not the same guy. Those Merlins were some long dudes. I did notice they both had "modified" tags on them, so I assume they had been tweaked. :) This was around '70-'71.

I haven't seen a set of Whitworth wrenches in ages. :shock: