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:: II WW Warbirds ::

Do You like History?
Yes, yes, I can hear Your answer: Nooooo!!!But I think history can be very interesting Interesting when we can see and touch it.

Human History is unfortunately mainly the history of wars. It is sad, but military technic pushes all our civilization forward and is the cause of new inventions. Because of that me and my friend are gluing military models, and II World War is the most interesting (and most important!) for us. We decided to show You our some our models with short descriptions hoping you'll be

:: PZL P.7 ::

One of the Polish stereotyps is opinion that Polish technic is worse than technic from other countries...Who knows that Poland had in the past the most modern Air Force in the world (better than USA, United Kingdom, France, USSR...)?! Yes it's true!!! In 1933 Polish Air Force as the first in the World equiped all his fighter- squadrons with full metall planes. It was P.7 fighter produced by PZL (Polish Governement Aviation Workshop) in Warsaw - Okęcie. A prototype of this plane (called P.6) got the first prize at the "Aviation L'Exposition Á Le Bourge" (in Paris, France) in 1930.

A Polish pilot, cpt. B. Orlinsky, gave there a splendid show of aviation acrobation. English magazine "THE AEROPLANE" nr 1297 from 3.12.1930 wrote: ...This plane far overtook other constructions! The chief-constructor of P.6 and P.7 was a Polish engineer Zygmunt Pulawski.

P.7 was a small, well-shaped, mono-seat fighter with star-engine. Its wing has a very characteristic form: sea-gull's wing (like a flat letter W). This wing-form is called "Polish wing" or "Pulaski's wing". In the photo nr 3. You can see another peculiar detail of its construction: scissor chassis (shins are connected with pull-rods and make a triangle – it works like levers, the dampers are in fuselage). This system was patented and is constatntly in use.
In 1935 P.7 was repalced with P.11 – a new fighter from PZL, but in 1939 two fighter squadrons still used P.7. They fought against Germans "Messers" in "Polish September 1939".

The model presents a fighter from 123 squadron, IV/1 Division, Pursuit Brigade (123 eskadra, Dyon IV/1 Brygady Pościgowej), bright strip in white- color on the end of the fuselage and white triangle on the top-flat wing mean the plane of the squadron leader (cpt.pil. M. Olszewski). The image of a sea-gull with blue wings is the symbol of 123 squadron.

::Grumman F4F Wildcat ::

In the beginnig of II WW on the Pacific Ocean, American fighter aircrafts were worse than enemy planes. The situation got better when US Navy could get the new fighter – F4F "Wildcat" produced by Grumman Aircraft Company.



This one-seat, full metall monoplane with four 0.5 inch machine guns, armoured and protected fuel tanks, could equal Japanese fighter "Zero".
In autum 1943 F4F started to be replaced with a new, much better Grumman's construction – F6F "Hellcat". "Wildcats" then took off only from light aircraft carriers as light bomber– fighters.
In winter 1944/45 engineers and technicians from Naval Air Technical Workshop on the Hawaii (Naval AirBase Ford Island, Pearl Harbor) developed an interesting non serial-production version of F4F fighter. Planes were equiped with 2 bomb-pylons (adapted from "Hellcats") for 500 pd bombs and 4 rocketlauchers for 6 pd rockets. The fighter was armed like a semibomber!



With all this equipment "Wildcat" was too heavy to take off from normal airfields but it could take off from the deck-catapults carriers were equiped with.
Hawaian Naval Air Technical Workshop converted about 30 "Wildcats" that way (the modification was called "mod.1944").



photo nr 1.: model of F4F "Wildcat" in standard 1939-1943 US Navy camuflage (model painted with a brush) ;

photo nr 2. & 3.:
model of "Wildcat" mod.1944 in thesame camuflage (from February 1943 US Navy changed the type of the camuflage but only on new planes);

::Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat ::

F6F "Hellcat" (used in the dogfighter role, as an escort, ground attack, night fighter equiped with radar and in the reconaisance role) was the same for US Navy as P-47 "Thunderbolt for The Army.
Projected as a deck sea–plane "Hellcats" (especially from Marines Sqadrons) operated from ground airfields too.


The F6F was born in Grumman Aircraft Company as a provisional substitute for F4U "Corsair".
In 1939 US Navy ordered a successor of "Wildcat". In the competition won Chance Vougt with his F4U. When a prototype of F4U came to tests – serious problems appeared. Removing these problems took much time. Because of that problems US Navy ordered in Grumman Aircraft Co. an upgrade of "Wildcat".
L.R. Grumman and W.T. Schwendler (chief constructors of the Company) put into "Wildcat" so many innovations, that it became a completly new costruction!


Since winter of 1943/44 F6F started replace the F4F "Wildcats" on the decks of US Navy strike- carriers .
F6F was big and clumsy on the ground, but in the air it was different: nimble, speedy, maneouvrable... His dive speed was enormous (official to 845 km/h, but pilots say the real speed was about 960 km/h) and endurance of the construction.
Pilots loved this one-seat, full metall monoplane with doublestar-engine, six 0.5 inch machine guns, armour and protected fuel tanks.
Loved and honoured – F6F had not a nickname! Everybody called her simply: Hellcat


The first seriuos combat debut of "Hellcats" was during the "Batlle of Marian Islands" (17-24 June 1944). American fighter- pilots won this battle and achieved big success: about 500 shut down enemy planes compared to about 60 own ones. Only on 19th June "Japs" lost 315 planes with pilots – – Americans 23 and 20 pilots, and because of this incredible score this day is called a "Great Marian's Turkey- shooting".


In the "Great Marian's Turkey- shooting" one of the US Navy pilots, lt.pil. Stanley Vraciu shot down 6 enemies during 23 minutes in one combat flight! Another pilot, Bradford Hagie had problems trouble with the engine and had to make an emergency landing on another carrier. When he was returning to own deck, met a couple of "Japs" and shot down 3 of them... A splendid result in a non-combat flight on the half mile distance!
During II WW the "Hellcat" was the most effective fighter: 20 shot down enemies for each 1 own loss!


In the all 5 photos we can see a model of Chief's of Air Staff TG 58.2 own plane- carrier USS "ESSEX", Task Group 58.2, Task Force 58, 5 USNavy Fleet, north-west Pacific Ocean, region of Okinawa, april 1944 (osobisty samolot Szefa Sztabu Lotniczego Grupy Operacyjnej 58.2, – lotniskowiec "Essex", Grupa operacyjna 58.2, Zespół Operacyjny 58, 5 Flota USA, północno-zach. Pacyfik, rej. Okinawy, kwiecień 1945r.).
(US Navy camuflage - standard since 22 March 1944: all planes in glossy sea darkblue color, elements in white coloor on the tail and on the wings signed all planes from USS "ESSEX", two yellow strips on the fuselage and wings signed own plane of high officer, under cocpit canopy images of small Japan flag - symbols of victories

Serociak

:: Republic P-47D Thunderbolt ::

The P-47D was a horse of the U.S. Army Airforce during the last half of World War II and was in use in both the European and Pacific theaters.

Although the aircraft was large and heavy it was used not only in the ground attack role, but also as an escort to U.S. bombers. The first model called "Razor Back" differed from the model in the picture , which has a 360 degree, allround view "Bubble Canopy" This was achieved by removing the upper part of the rear section of "Razor Back" Nearly 12 600 "D"models were build, which is the largest total of one sub-type of any fighter in history.

This is incredible, but the first draft of this American famous fighter P-47 chief engineer-constructor of Republic Aircraft Factory, Alex Cartvelli, made on a sheet of paper in the train while coming back from conference organised by USAAC (United States Army Air Corps) with other Republic's chief managers and constructors. This project was an answer to the specification of a future fighter for the Army. Cartvelli says:
"It will be a dinosaur, but with peculiar proporsions!"

Many aviators say : when the plane is beautifull – flies beautifull.

P-47 was big, ugly, clumsy and... really had splendid proportions! Pilots liked this plane and called it"Jug" but the official name sounds more combative: "Thunderbolt".

This one-seat, full metall monoplane with doublestar-engine and turbo-charger was the heaviest one-engine fighter of II WW and was produced in the longest series (together 15680 planes).The "Jug" also beat another record: uncommon endurance.

(from pilot's story) It was in spring of 1944. Two sections of 365 Fighter Group (9 Air Army) on the P-47 flew with combat mission: destroy an enemy airfield. During attacks one of the "Jugs" got a couple of hits from German "flakvierlinge" (cal. 20 mm) and 37 mm AA-guns. The engine started shaking like a shaker in barman's hands, left wing buffeting, black smoke and hot oil impeded pilot's view... but "Jug" was still in the air! After 30 minuts, when I made emergency landing on an allied support airfield, all the airmen were deeply shocked: from the engine's 18 pistons 7 were completelly damaged and 3 connecting rods sticked out from the star-engine's carter, the main girder of the left wing was crushed, the back of the cockpit was a hole 1,5 m big in diameter!
P-47 "Thunderbolt" has Polish connections. First on the list of "Jug's" aces is lt.col.pil. Francis Gabreski (31 wins) ,a son of Polish emigrants. Eighth on this list is Polish cpt.pil. Boleslav Gladych (19 wins). They served in the 61 Fighter Squadron (56 FG, 8 US Air Army).

Snake

:: Chance Vougt F4U "Corsair" ::

In the short description of "Hellcat" you can read: In 1939 US Navy ordered a successor of "Wildcat". In the competition won Chance Vougt with his F4U. When a prototype of F4U came to tests – serious problems appeared. Removing these problems took much time.
A new US Navy fighter had problems because it was a very modern construction with wings like a flat letter "W" (in that way engineers wanted to use a laminar aerodynamics - first time in USA in serial-produced fighter-plane), a three-spade special propeller with gigantic diameter (4 meter – biggest propeller in one-seat plane!), landing gear - chassis with newest high-pressure hydro-pneumatic bumpers (characteristic view of wing afford use a shorter chassis)...

This and other new construction solution caused a trouble. First tests in the air showed numerous faults: horizontal unstability on the flat-angle-flight with lower speed, very big spin-dynamic of propeller, bad view from cocpit, too soft landing gear. In test-pilots opinion those faults were not too serious, but the plane required experienced and very good pilots. F4U had also avantages: maneouvrable at high speed, enormous climb-speed, endurance of the construction, large range.

"Corsair's" faults were especially nuisance when F4U had to operate from a carrier. This was the reason why this plane projected as a deck sea-plane was directed to Marines Corps Aviation where it took off from ground airfields, and was used from 13 Feb. 1943 as a dogfighter and ground attack fighter/bomber. On the carriers-deck F4U appeared in January 1945. To the end of II WW "Corsairs" (in 19 squadrons of US Marine Corps and 6 of US Navy) made 64051 combat flights (54470 from ground and 9581 from carriers) and shot down 2140 enemies. 189 planes were lost in aircombats 349 in ground-attacks, 164 in take off/landing ont the carriers, 692 in trainig-flight (11 shot down enemies for each 1 own loss). "Japs" pilots called her"whistling death" or "sweet brute"...

The II.WW not end of "Corsair's" combat career. F4U in version 5 fought in Corean War as a strike-bomber. Especially for this purpose there was constructed a new version – AU-1. During this war 26 squadrons of "Corsairs" made 45% strike-missions for US Navy Aviation!
American "Corsairs" were in service to 1957 but French Navy used F4U to 1964!

In the 4 photos we can see a model of F4U-5NL "Corsair" (night fighter equiped with radar and night-shot-sight) from US Navy Air Group VC-3, carrier USS "Princeton" – Japan Sea, east shore of Korea, 1953 (Grupa Powietrzna VC-3, lotniskowiec USS "Princeton" – Morze Japońskie, wsch. wyb. Korei, 1953)
(US Navy camuflage - standard Corean War: all planes in glossy sea darkblue color, white color on the tail and on the wing's bulge signed radar's equipmend, big letters NP signeds all planes from USS "Princeton", under cocpit canopy images of small red stars - symbols of victories in air-combats, on the engine cover panted image of small white bombs - symbols of strike-missions also image of girl in red skirt - symbol of VC-3 Air Group and number 21 - individual number of plane. All letters and numbers are in low-visibility mode, also an american star&stripes.

Serociak