museum shutting down

[John Kerr]

Re: museum shutting down

Well the great Jay Miller photo collection will be hidden away forever. Lets hope not.

[kiwiracefan]

Re: museum shutting down

Well that explains everything. As far as WWI aviation is concerned he's looking like New Zealand's Paul Allen.

The Oberursel rotary engine re-engineering chronicled on the site is quite impressive.

He also owns Wingnut Wings which is devoted to WWI aircraft in 1/32 scale. He's not doing that for money. When you buy one of his kits you buy directly from them. They do not distribute through anyone. I don't own any kits, but have seen them in the box. The detail is not to be believed. Detailed full color glossy instruction sheets as well.

I'm happy to see that "Lord of the Rings" was able to finance his hobby for the betterment of all of us.

It is totally unreal to see them all lined up together, and to see airplanes such as a fokker DVII, Albatross DVa, Pfalz amongst the collection, all flying is beautiful, not forgeting the Be2c, Be2f, FB2 among others that have been built, the have a highly skilled and dedicated team.
Did you watch the video of them running the Oberursel, and the Beadsmore engine?

[Propellerhead]

Re: museum shutting down

Did you watch the video of them running the Oberursel, and the Beadsmore engine?

Yeah. Great stuff. It's fascinating to hear the engines "breathe" when they're pulling them through prior to contact. Valves clacking away, etc.

The Beardmore is a pretty piece of work with the copper water jackets. With the Oberursel rotary I still can't get over how the connecting rods are tied into the crankshaft in those concentric channels instead of the later master rod/articulating rod setup found in mature radial designs. Not very simple, but beautiful in a clockwork mechanism kind of way.

[kiwiracefan]

Re: museum shutting down

its a brilliant piece of engineering... but what is truly scary, they fly the beardsmore in a FE2b....

[WARPT]

Re: museum shutting down

that is sad news on the museum, on the ww1 front, thats cool to hear about the fokkers... but check these guys here in NZ out... they have built an albatross, several SE-5a's and other a/c, and they have even reverse engineered german rotary engines, and also rebuilt several other ww1 era aircraft engines that now fly
http://thevintageaviator.co.nz/node

I spent some time parusing the Vintage Aviator website. Amazing work they are doing there!
It appears to be quite the well-equiped facility as well. It is excellent to see these WWI airplanes being produced!

During Xmas I watched the movie "FLYBOYS" with my parents and my older brother.
Man, those WWI fighter pilots had BIG BRASS ones that clanked when they walked!

[kiwiracefan]

Re: museum shutting down

I spent some time parusing the Vintage Aviator website. Amazing work they are doing there!
It appears to be quite the well-equiped facility as well. It is excellent to see these WWI airplanes being produced!

During Xmas I watched the movie "FLYBOYS" with my parents and my older brother.
Man, those WWI fighter pilots had BIG BRASS ones that clanked when they walked!

I agree, they had huge brass ones in ww1... i also have some where a pic or 2 of Gene DiMarco with the vintage aviators Sopwith Camel reproduction (complete with 1916 LeRhone rotary) in formation with a Spitfire, the spitfire had flaps out and was on the low limits while the sopwith was at full power to formate up

[eagledriver]

Re: museum shutting down

"Cobra" being at the Arkansas museum came up in a previous thread (here: http://www.aafo.com/hangartalk/showthread.php?t=1206 ) and a couple of pictures posted. I kind of recall another thread that had a picture of it in the museum, but did not find it.

That was my post in the Buck Shots thread:

http://www.aafo.com/hangartalk/showthread.php?p=78899&highlight=arkansas#post78899

Sorry to hear that the museum shut down! I visited it a few times and enjoyed the displays. I have some more pictures of the collection if interested.