My New Ride
Posted on August 24, 2010 Posted by Kate Baker 26 Comments
As photographed at the Barnes Airshow in Westfield, Mass. As the bus emerged on the far end of the runway, I turned to my friend and asked why. As it shot white smoke and left a trail of flame, the why turned into laughter.As it raced down a wet runway at 350 mph, I exclaimed with delight, “That is so cool!”
I am easily amused.
This was rather interesting as well. There is nothing quite as sobering as reminding yourself you are in fact, not living in the movie Inglourious Basterds.
My son and I saw a rocket propelled truck at the Mountain Home AFB Airshow a few years back. It reminded me of Buckaroo Bonsai. It was also very fun at the time.
Oh, and nice P-47D close up.
I’m not an expert on fighter-plane iconography. Would someone more knowledgeable be so kind as to explain what the symbols mean in that second photo? Because right now, it looks to me like the last line indicates he shot down five witches.
What, haven’t you seen Bedknobs and Broomsticks? That went both ways, you know.
The Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA has the Enola Gay. Y’know, the plane that dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was a very sobering visit. (The Udvar-Hazy Center is an annex of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. It also has an SR-71 Blackbird, and the Enterprise space shuttle.)
Based on the rest of the icons on that left side, I’m guessing that the “broomstick” denotes ground-to-air rockets (given that the top icon is for V-1s and the others are for bombs, drop tanks, and trains)…
Ok, I count 20 kills on various Luftwaffe aircraft. However a J. Clyman does not appear to be on any of the WWII Ace lists.
I presume the Aircraft is a P-51-D, but I can’t tell without more the the actual aircraft.
My initial thought was that the last icon was an arrow. Then I realized it could be a canoe. Either way, I don’t think the Germans utilized Native Americans in WWII like the French did in the French and Indian War. (But then, I could be wrong!)
Not a canoe…I meant oar. Oh well, you get my meaning.
“Jacky’s Revenge”, P47D Thunderbolt NX1345B. I believe it’s Jeff and Jacky Clyman, and his combat flying was in P-40’s named Jacky C and Jacky C ii.
I think it looks like a fly swatter.
Opps. P47N. WarBirdRegistry
I was at the show on Sat with 180,000 other people. I had nowhere as good a view of the bus. The rest of the show was nice especially the military jets.
All I know about the broomstick is being an old Navy brat of a submariner–a broom tied to the periscope when you came back into port meant a ‘clean sweep,’ everything you saw, you destroyed.
joemeddic
Thanks htom, Jeff Clyman also used to own a P-51 which he restored in 93.
http://www.mustangsmustangs.com/p-51/survivors/pages/45-11553.shtml
For the record, the Udvar-Hazy Center mentioned above is the annex of the National Air and Space Museum, meaning that, like all of the Smithsonians, admission is free. If you think the main Air & Space building on the Mall is impressive, you ain’t seen nothin’ like the annex. The Enola Gay is, I admit, sobering, but there are many other things to look at as well. The space shuttle Enterprise, for Pete’s sake! I could have looked at that all day. (Yes, I know that the Enterprise isn’t spaceworthy and never was, but that’s as close as you’re likely to get to the real thing. I have heard a rumor, though, that once the remaining shuttles are decommissioned, one of them will replace the Enterprise at the annex.)
What the heck? Quadruple ace and I can’t find anything on him on the net?
The Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The Bockscar another B29 dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
That pilot has evidently killed five broomsticks…
At a guess, 20 Luftwaffe kills, 3 V-1 kills, 15 trucks, 5 Choo-Choos, 5 bombing missions, 5 dive-bombing missions, and 5 rocket air-ground missions. P-47s did a lot of ground attack due to their radial engines being slightly more capable of taking damage, and the Jug was a beastie of an airplane.
Witches on broomsticks would be classified as flying opponents, and so would be lumped into the 20 kills, unless they were remote-operated broomsticks, which might get a separate kill marker(only air-to-airs count for ace, ya see).
Well, a rocket-propelled bus is very cool… but I wonder if it’s efiicient/practical?
I hope you managed to avoid the Traffic Jam of Doom. I visited friends in Chicopee that day and could not believe what I saw on 91 North.
Make mine a third vote for the Udvar-Hazy Center. The aircraft on display are as impressive as anything you’ll see at the Air & Space Museum on the Mall. Admission is free, but parking is $15. However, they stop charging for parking after 4:00pm (and with the extended Summer hours until Sep. 5, they’re open until 6:30pm).
Besides the exhibits already mentioned, they have some other, extremely rare aircraft – like a Me. 163 Komet (a rocket propelled WWII German interceptor) and the only German Ar. 234 Blitz left in the world (the world’s first operational, jet-powered bomber).
The rocket propelled bus is very cool. Linking it to the Rocketry Planet forum!
Another vote for the Udvar-Hazy. Planes parked on the ground, planes hanging from the ceiling, walkways so you’re at eye-level with the planes….it’s just wonderful. Also, there’s a bus from Dulles- I think it cost me 50 cents to get there. If you’re stuck between flights, it makes for a great day.
That rockety bus is awesome. Whomever engineered it deserves a big praise.
My bad, I thought the Enola Gay dropped the second bomb, too. Sigh. I did a paper on it back in college, and I should not have forgotten that.
The broomsticks denote successful ‘fighter sweep’ sorties. Pilots were given orders to engage targets of opportunity in a specified area of operations. That could be anything from grounded aircraft to soldiers on foot to likely hiding places for enemy infantry, tanks, etc.
Often the planes would be armed with rockets, but that wasn’t always the case.