Grandson Update

This is an update on the youngest grandson..
When we visited him on Sunday he was four and
a half months old. Jager is all boy..flirting with his
grandmonther...laughing with grandpa...and
eating up a storm. In an earlier post, I mentioned
how he had to return to the hospital for a minor
operation to correct a digestive problem. Since
then he has done nothing but grow. He is spoiled
rotten.. if his mother is not carrying him around,
it is his two older brothers or his dad. His brothers
are fourteen and sixteen so to say that Jager is
a surprise, is an understatement. The parents
say he is a good baby and hardly ever cries. I
was hoping for a little pay-back for his dad...
but for Christmas we are giving Jager a rocking
chair Pony.. when he rides it, it makes horsey
and clacking noises.. REAL LOUD!! I couldn't
find a drum set.....

Denison Wins Again !!

For the past three years Denison has been
eliminated in the third round of the Texas
High School Football Playoffs,...but today Denison
defeated Marshall 35 to 26 in a game played
at Hanby Stadium in Mesquite.
Denison trailed the Mavericks 19-7 at the
half, but came back to outscore Marshall
28-7 in the second half. It will be the first
time in the quarter-final round of the playoffs
since 1997 for the Yellow Jackets. There are
only eight 4A schools still playing football after
today. Next round will be the Regional II
Championships and Denison will face off
against Sulphur Springs, a team that ended
the Yellow Jackets playoff run last year.
Sulphur Springs defeated Frisco Liberty
33-31 in the other Regional Semi-Final
playoff game. Denison plays Sulphur
Springs next Saturday at 2pm at Ford
Stadium on the campus of S.M.U.
Great Comeback Jackets !!

Fokker DV-II

Yesterday's post featured the Sopwith
Camel, a plane used by all of the allied forces
of World War I.. Today I offer the plane
used by the Germans to battle the Camel.
This is a Fokker DV-II, designed and
built in the Netherlands, this plane used
both BMW and Mercedes engines in its
development. Climbing and turning was
a distinct advantage for the Fokker over
the Camel or the Spad, used by the allies.
Twin machine guns mounted on the
front cowling were synchronized to fire
through the propeller. A first for the
Germans and later copied by the allies.
More on the Fokker DV-II..
Late in 1917, Fokker built the experimental V.11 biplane, fitted with the standard Mercedes D.IIIa engine. In January 1918, Idflieg held a fighter competition at Adlershof. For the first time, frontline pilots would directly participate in the evaluation and selection of new fighters. Fokker submitted the V.11 along with several other prototypes. Manfred von Richthofen flew the V.11 and found it tricky, unpleasant, and directionally unstable in a dive. In response to these complaints, Fokker's chief designer and engineer, Reinhold Platz, lengthened the rear fuselage by one structural bay, and added a triangular fixed vertical fin in front of the rudder. Upon flying the modified V.11, Richthofen praised it as the best aircraft of the competition. It offered excellent performance from the outdated Mercedes engine, yet it was safe and easy to fly. Richthofen's recommendation virtually decided the competition, but he was not alone in recommending it. Fokker immediately received a provisional order for 400 production aircraft, which were designated D.VII by Idflieg.

Sopwith Camel

The last post was of one of the worlds fastest
fighters..and now to one of the slowest. This is
a Sopwith Camel, the top fighter of the British in
World War I... It is also the fighter used by Snoopy
in the cartoon series... The Sopwith was used by
the British, French, and Americans in World War I
as a reconnaissance, bomber, and fighter plane.
The first photo is an actual Sopwith Camel and the
rest are of my model.
More on the Sopwith camel:

In appearance and design, the plane was not revolutionary. A biplane combining a distinct dihedral in the lower wing with a flat upper wing, it did have a distinctive "tapered gap." The fuselage was a wooden, box-like structure, covered with aluminum up front, plywood-covered around the cockpit, and then fabric-covered back to the tail.

With its center of gravity very far forward (the engine, fuel tank, guns, and pilot were all in the front third of the plane), the aircraft was tricky to fly, but very maneuverable for a skilled pilot. While 413 Camel pilots were shot down in combat, 385 were lost in non-combat related situations, many due to the Camel's difficult handling

Specifications of the F.1 Camel:

• Engine: 130hp Clerget 9-cylinder rotary engine
• Max. Speed: 117 MPH at sea level
• Ceiling: 19,000 feet
• Climb Rate: 10 minutes to reach 10,000 feet
• Weight: 929 lb. empty, 1,453 lb. fully loaded
• Wingspan: 28 feet
• Length: 18 ft 9 in
• Height: 8 ft 6 in
• Wing area: 231 sq ft
• Guns: Two synchronized .303 inch Vickers machine guns. The Camel was the first British fighter to mount twin forward-firing machine guns side-by-side, a natural arrangement that became standard for the RAF.
• Bombs: Four 20-lb. Cooper bombs

F4 Phantom

This is a model of the F4 Phantom Jet
Fighter/Bomber. I don't care for jet models
per say, but I have a special spot in my memory
bank for the Phantom. In Vietnam I was
stationed at Phu Bai on top of a mountain
fire base. We were constantly surrounded by
enemy forces and only artillery bases by the
Marines and the 101st Airborne Division kept
them off our necks. On one occassion when the enemy
tried to over run Phu Bai I called in air support
and a group of Phantoms returning from another
mission came to our rescue. Suffice to say, napalm
can be a terrible thing on advancing infantry.
The McDonnell Douglas F4 Phantom is a twin
engine, two-seat, supersonic fighter developed
for the U.S. Navy/Marines. It was developed
as an attack aircraft and later changed into an
advanced long-range all weather interceptor with
missile armament. The Phantom was in production
from 1958 thru 1981 and was used extensively
in the Vietnam War. It has been used by eleven
other nations and remains the front line fighter
for seven countries as of 2009. The first photo is
of two German Phantoms and the rest are my model.
Technical Specifications:
Engine Type: Two Genral Electric J79s
Maximum Speed: 1,472 mph (Mach 2)
Ceiling: 60,000 feet
Range: 1,615 miles
Wingspan: 38 feet 4 inches
Length: 63 feet
Armament: one 20 mm Vulcan gatling cannon
4 AIM-Sidewinder missiles
16,000 lbs. of bombs
Number built: 5,195

Denison Wins Again

The Denison Yellow Jackets continue their
march in the state football playoffs. Last
night they collected their eleventh win of the
year as they turned back Dallas Conrad
50-14 in a game played at Hanby Field
in Mesquite. The game was an obvious
mismatch as Denison led 44-0 at the half
and the starting players did not play in
the second half.
Denison will now advance to the 'Area'
semi-finals next Saturday against Marshall
high school. Marshall defeated Corsicana
last night 34-14.
Denison tailback D.J. Jones had another
big night..running for 156 yards and scoring
three touchdowns, all in the first half. He
now has 1901 yards rushing for the season.
He set the school record last year when he
ran for 2340 yards as a junior.

P-38 Lightning Fighter

I touched on this plane a few postings back
but that was to explain the difference between
the plane and the can opener that both go by
the designation P-38.
This posting is to show you my latest model
plane...The P-38 Lightning. It was the first
twin-engine fighter and was the first American
plane capable of flying 400 mph. A lot of P-38's
were painted black and used as night fighters
with their radar screens attached to the wing.
I started in that direction with this model, but
decided to change after I saw a photo of one
with this type camouflage pattern. I assume it
is to hide the plane in the Fall season. From the
air I think it would be tough to spot with the
changing of the leaves in the Fall. More info
on the P-38..
The Lightning designed by Lockheed engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson and his team of designers, represented one of the most radical departures from tradition in American fighter development. The Lightning was a complete break-away from conventional airframe design, power, and at long last, armament. Not only did it have twice the power and almost twice the size of its predecessors, but with no less than four .50 cal. machine guns plus a 20 mm cannon, the P-38 had enough firepower to sink a ship--and sometimes did. Concentrated in the central fuselage pod, the guns fired parallel which eliminated a need for a propeller synchronizer.

The Lightning tricycle landing gear and twin-boom configuration completed the list of major deviations from what might be considered conventional Army fighters. In this respect, it was very unusual that the Lightning design progressed beyond the testing stage; such radical concepts seldom achieved production status. But the simple fact was that the P-38 design worked and the Army seemed to have found its dream plane in this 400 mph fighter.

2012

My wife and I went to see "2012" today..
It is a new disaster movie and boy the special
effects are really something.
The synopsis of the movie is that the molten
lava inside the earth has been building up for
years and in 2012 it starts exploding all over
the world. We finally get to see California
break off and slide into the Pacific.. I didn't
think I would be able to see it in my lifetime!
The movie stars John Cusack, the family
man trying to keep his family together despite
the circumstances. Danny Glover is the
President of the U.S. and Oliver Platt is a
member of his staff. When the trouble
starts they discover that China is the only
safe place to be since the Chinese have been
preparing for this disaster. They have 5-6
giant arks that will keep a few thousand
people alive despite the earth trying to
eliminate them.
The story is a bit hokey...but the visual
effects are great. You get to see a 100 foot
tidal wave engulf the White House..and that
giant statue of Christ that overlooks the harbor
at Rio de Janeiro comes toppling down. Tall buildings
are no contest. The computer enhanced graphics
are like no other movie I have ever seen. If
you are into disaster movies,..this might be the
one you have been waiting for..

Texoma Toys For Tots Run

Change is Inevitable...

With the 15th Annual Toys For Tots
Run rapidly approaching,..there has been
a change in the location where bikes are
to form up... For the past several years
we have formed up at Red River Autoplex,
but now the dealership has changed hands
and that plan has gone down the drain. The
new location for riders to form up will be
TEXOMA HARLEY-DAVIDSON... It is located
at exit 64 off U.S. Highway 75 on the west
side. We will have an entire shopping center
parking lot to form up....

British Spitfire

This is my latest model... A World War II British
Spitfire fighter...one of the best looking planes
of the war. When Germany invaded Poland it
brought England and France into the war also.
France was overrun by the German war machine,
so it was up to England to stand up to Hitler until
the United States could make up it's mind.
In 1940 Hitler's forces ruled the European
continent and he turned his forces loose on the
British Isles in preparation for an invasion. The
only thing standing between the Luftwaffe and
complete success was the Royal Air Force. With
less than 500 Spitfires and Hurricane aircraft, the
RAF turned back any plans for invasion and made
Hitler turn his forces on the Soviet Union instead.
More on the Spitfire....

By the beginning of World War II in 1939, England had 306 early Mark II Spitfires in service. Air Marshal Hugh Dowding wisely held these aircraft in England during the fighting in France. When the Battle of Britain commenced in the skies of England in August 1940, it was these Spitfires and the Hawker Hurricanes that successfully protected the country from the German Luftwaffe. On August 20, 1940 when Winston Churchill spoke of these gallant pilots he said, Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

With the introduction of the German Focke Wulf Fw-190 in 1941, English Fighter Command needed an improved version of their current Mark V Spitfire. The installation of the Merlin 61 engine of 1565 horsepower in the basic Mark Vb airframe provided an improved airplane able to counter the threat of this new German fighter. The Spitfire aircrafts were produced with different armaments in the wings and the 'e' wings each had a 20 mm cannon and a 0.5 inch machine gun. A total of 5,665 Mark IX Spitfires were built during the war at an approximate cost of £45,000 ($64,000) each.

As usual, the first photo is a real Spitfire..and the rest are of my latest model.

Denison Wins Again

Last night was the beginning of high school football playoffs in the state of Texas. Friday the 13th, what a day to begin.
The Denison Yellow Jackets were facing
J.J. Pearce out of Richardson, a school with
twice the enrollment of Denison. The Yellow
Jackets took advantage of 7 turnovers by
Pearce and won the game 61-28.
It was the 27th playoff game in Denison
Football history. The team also set a school
record with 628 yards of total offense. Tailback
D.J. Jones ran for 146 yards and scored two
touchdowns. He now has rushed the ball for
1756 yards this season. Quarterback Jordan
Taylor accounted for 202 yards running &
passing the ball.
Denison will now face Dallas Conrad next
week in the Area round of the high school
playoffs. Conrad defeated Dallas Pinkston
24-19 last night...
Denison was the 1985 State Champion in
football and went to the title game in 1999,
2000, and 2001 but came home second best.
They are talented enough to return to the
top again this season. "Sting 'em
Jackets"

The Red Baron

I have been asked about all of the German
planes that I have posted on this blog site...and
I have mentioned how I have an admiration
for the Luftwaffe of the second World War. I
admit to being a German-American.
My grandfather came to America from the
Bavarian section of Germany in 1908 and my
father was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1910.
There was a part of the family that did not
immigrate to the U.S. and my grandfather's
younger sister, Annabelle was part of this
group. She married Lothar, the younger brother of
Manfred von Richthofen. Lothar is almost
overlooked in history, having shot down 40
allied planes and surviving the war. So I also
have a passion about the Richthofen brother's
accomplishments in World War I. Manfred
was the top ace of the war, claiming 80
confirmed victories before being shot down
himself. Almost 100 years later there is still
speculation over who killed the Red Baron.
Most experts give credit to Canadian pilot
Roy Brown, who engaged von Richthofen
in an aerial dogfight, but there is a chance
the Baron was hit by groundfire that caused
him to crash. His crash site was on Allied
land and he was given a state funeral. After
the war his remains were exhumed and
returned to Germany.
The photos are from my office. Just over
this computer space you can see two
replicas of his plane, and on the wall is a
woven tapestry of The Baron in action. The
other is two photos that my wife fixed for
one of my birthdays..

Off To Camp

I am playing the part of a bachelor this
week while my wife goes off to camp with
our youngest grandson. In our town, all
5th graders have the opportunity to go to
Camp Goddard in Sulphur, Oklahoma and
receive school credit for it. Our two other
grandchildren that live in Denison have
gone to camp Goddard and loved it...So
now it was Joe Bob's turn.
His mother and dad could not take time
off from work to accompany him to camp,
so once again it fell to their Granny. After
two days of packing, we met at the school
Monday morning and filled up the hallways with luggage &
boxes to make the trip. You could see the
excitement in the kids eyes as they talked
about what would happen once they arrived
at camp. Some of the teachers and counselors
also had a twinkle in their eyes too. I made
the trip just to help with the heavy lifting.
School maintenance personnel make sure
all the luggage made it to the camp, while
the students and counselors make the two
hour trip via yellow school buses. The camp
is in the Arbuckle Mountain Range and the
scenery is spectacular. The girl's cabins have
indoor facilities but the boy's have a common
facility between all of their cabins. (Title IX
does not apply here apparently) The campers
will learn about the environment, nature,
canoeing, and just living without modern day
appliances.
The camp lasts for a week and already some
are looking forward to Friday when they
return home......ME!

P-40 Warhawk/Tomahawk Fighter Plane

This was America's front-line fighter
plane during the late 1930's and early
1940's. The P-40 was built by Curtiss
Aircraft Company and was powered by
a 1360 horsepower inline Allison engine.
The P-40 had six wing-mounted 12.7
caliber machine guns and could carry
up to 1500 pounds in bombs. The
American version was called the Warhawk
but the ones given to the English were
called Tomahawks. Around 15,000 were
built, but only 29 are known to be still
flyable. More info below..The 1st photo
is a real P-40 and the remainder are of
my latest model.

History: The P-40 fighter/bomber was the third-most numerous US fighter of World War II. An early prototype version of the P-40 was the first American fighter capable of speeds greater than 300 mph. Design work on the aircraft began in 1937, but numerous experimental versions were tested and refined before the first production version of the P-40, the Model 81, appeared in May 1940. By September of that year, over 200 had been delivered to the Army Air Corps. 185 more were delivered to the United Kingdom in the fall of 1940, where they were designated the Tomahawk Mk I.

Early combat operations pointed to the need for more armor and self-sealing fuel tanks, which were included in the P-40B (called the Tomahawk Mk IIA in the UK). These improvements came at price: a significant loss of performance due to the extra weight. Further armor additions and fuel tank improvements added even more weight in the P-40C (Tomahawk Mk IIB). Curtiss addressed the airplane's mounting performance problems with the introduction of the P-40D (Kittyhawk Mk I), which was powered by a more powerful version of the Allison V-1710 engine, and had two additional wing-mounted guns. The engine change resulted in a slightly different external appearance, which was the reason the RAF renamed it from the Tomahawk to the Kittyhawk. Later, two more guns were added in the P-40E (Kittyhawk Mk IA), and this version was used with great success (along with their mainstays, the earlier B-models) by General Claire Chenault's American Volunteer Group (The Flying Tigers) in China.

Two Different P-38's

I have a friend (Lois) who was a little
confused over the military term P-38. It
is no wonder as the military usually has a
multitude of duplication when it comes to
terms.
The P-38 was first labeled back in the
late 1930's when it was applied to a twin
engine fighter built by Lockheed. The
P-38 Lightning was super fast and
was armed with 8 50-caliber machine
guns and two 40-millimeter cannons. It
was a super plane and mostly used in
the Pacific and North Africa. It could not
turn with the Messerschmidts so it was
used on a limited basis in the European
Theater. My mother was one of the "Rosey
the Riveters" of the early 1940's and
worked on the P-38 in the Grand Prairie
plant. My first words as a baby were "P-38".
Now move forward to the 1950's. The
military issued the troops C-rations as
some sort of food. Most of it came in tin
cans and thus,..the troops needed a can
opener to get to the items inside the cans.
The small can opener was about two inches
long and had a fish-hook blade for opening
cans. Most GI's in Vietnam carried their P-38s
in the band of their helmets. If you come
across a veteran who does not know what a
P-38 is,..you can bet he was not in the boonies. In 1966
I used a P-38 to open a can of soup that was
canned in 1943. I am still vertical so I guess it
was not spoiled.
Hope this settles any confusion Lois !!

Japanese A6 Zero

Another model for you to check out...
This is a Japanese Zero Fighter/Bomber and
it was the terror of the Pacific for a long time.
The Allies had nothing to compete with the Zero
until 1943 when Hellcats and Corsairs started to
enter the battle.
This was the plane most identified with the
attack on Pearl Harbor the morning of December
7, 1941. At 8 o'clock that morning 368 Zeros
dealt American forces their biggest loss of the
war. It was a bomb from a Zero that sent the
battleship
U.S.S. Arizona to the bottom, where she still
resides to this time. The Zero was powered by
a Mitsubishi engine from the same company
that today sends thousand of automobiles to
the United States. At the outbreak of the war
America's first-line fighter was the P-40 Warhawk.
The P-40 was no match for the Zero, which
could climb, maneuver, and outgun our best
plane. U.S. forces captured a Zero and brought
it back to the states, where it was disassembled
and examined thoroughly. Aircraft experts were
told to build American pilots a plane that would
defeat the Zero...and the result was the Corsair.
The first photo is an actual Zero taking off from
a carrier...The rest are my model.

Specifications

Type - Interceptor fighter/fighter bomber

Powerplant - Type: One Mitsubishi 31 radial piston engine
Horsepower: 1,130

Performance - Max. Speed: 557 km/h (346 mph) at 6000m (19,685 ft.)

Armament - Two 20-mm cannon (in wings) Three 13.2-mm (0.52-in) machine guns -Two in wings and one in fuselage
Plus Launch rails for eight 10-kg (22-lb)
or Two 60-kg (132-lb) air-to-air rockets