Radicaldude1234
Well-Known Member
So I had the day off on Friday and I headed down to the fantastic Planes of Fame Museum down in Chino, CA to visit its huge collection of 100+ warbirds.
I didn't know it at the time, but apparently the Chino Airshow was last week, so a lot of the visiting flying exhibits were still there...with a good third of them unroped. This, coupled with the fact that apparently no one visits the museum on a Friday afternoon and the apathy of the general American population to aviation, meant that I all but had the place to myself.
So they left me, a pilot whose also an engineer and wannabe homebuilder, in a place with over a hundred warbirds and a good third of them unroped with a camera...
...Let that sink in for a bit...
And don't worry, I uploaded the pictures here: Planes Of Fame Photos by Radicaldude1234 | Photobucket
Also, yes I overcame the almost overwhelming urge to crack open some canopies and sit in the cockpit.
Some observations I had on the construction of these old warriors:
-They were bigger than you would expect
-With the exception of flush rivets, the finish on most of them were on par with your run of the mill Cessna 172.
-Most aircraft could have probably increased their performance by more than 20% if they had taped seams, rivet holes, etc.
-There weren't too many complex parts...there were just a lot of parts.
-"Rather overbuilt than be sorry" was the rule rather than the exception.
-We got lucky that riveting was the prefered method of joining aluminum pieces, or else these planes would have been way too difficult to restore.
-There were a lot of "good enough" solutions and tweaks to interesting problems.
-Some of the horizontal tail sections were nowhere near airfoil shaped. Apparently you have a lot of leeway in picking tail sections.
-For the lower speed warbirds, there was a liberal use of fabric construction. About half of the elevators and ailerones on piston engined warbirds were fabric covered.
-There are more cross and flathead screws holding things together on critical flight surfaces (wings, stabilizers) than you think.
-The fit and finish on post-war birds (mostly jets) was VASTLY better.
Like I mentioned above, I've uploaded all the picture I've taken and hope y'all will use them for inspiration for design problems. I was particularly impressed by their Frise Aileron hingers, undercarriage design, and access panel placement for regular maintenance.
Shout out if you see something that catches your attention or if you have any examples of historic ingenious design!
I didn't know it at the time, but apparently the Chino Airshow was last week, so a lot of the visiting flying exhibits were still there...with a good third of them unroped. This, coupled with the fact that apparently no one visits the museum on a Friday afternoon and the apathy of the general American population to aviation, meant that I all but had the place to myself.
So they left me, a pilot whose also an engineer and wannabe homebuilder, in a place with over a hundred warbirds and a good third of them unroped with a camera...
...Let that sink in for a bit...
And don't worry, I uploaded the pictures here: Planes Of Fame Photos by Radicaldude1234 | Photobucket
Also, yes I overcame the almost overwhelming urge to crack open some canopies and sit in the cockpit.
Some observations I had on the construction of these old warriors:
-They were bigger than you would expect
-With the exception of flush rivets, the finish on most of them were on par with your run of the mill Cessna 172.
-Most aircraft could have probably increased their performance by more than 20% if they had taped seams, rivet holes, etc.
-There weren't too many complex parts...there were just a lot of parts.
-"Rather overbuilt than be sorry" was the rule rather than the exception.
-We got lucky that riveting was the prefered method of joining aluminum pieces, or else these planes would have been way too difficult to restore.
-There were a lot of "good enough" solutions and tweaks to interesting problems.
-Some of the horizontal tail sections were nowhere near airfoil shaped. Apparently you have a lot of leeway in picking tail sections.
-For the lower speed warbirds, there was a liberal use of fabric construction. About half of the elevators and ailerones on piston engined warbirds were fabric covered.
-There are more cross and flathead screws holding things together on critical flight surfaces (wings, stabilizers) than you think.
-The fit and finish on post-war birds (mostly jets) was VASTLY better.
Like I mentioned above, I've uploaded all the picture I've taken and hope y'all will use them for inspiration for design problems. I was particularly impressed by their Frise Aileron hingers, undercarriage design, and access panel placement for regular maintenance.
Shout out if you see something that catches your attention or if you have any examples of historic ingenious design!
