For the folks that say you can't own bombers:

[Moosenose]

http://9news.com/satellite/SatelliteRender?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=4e56c0a9-0a09-0270-001a-da585d84fab8&TEMPLATEID=c69e6d77-0a06-92b3-0026-be8c3c80f8bd

Last flying Heinkel HE-111 crashes and burns.

It's a sad day....these old planes are very, very rare, regardless of which side used them. I wish I had gotten to see this one before it was gone. :(

[solinvictus]

1. Sad

It's sad, especially with the former Axis planes because most of them were taken out in the war. The sad fact is that these planes are not engineered for long service lives. The years of even moderate flying take the toll on them. It is sad to see the last HE111 go. I have a friend who used to be a WW2 re-inactor and he was lucky enough to see a Junker JU87 at a coastal D-Day event.

[Moosenose]

2. My sources tell me....

that this plane was actually a Spanish-made copy, reworked to Luftwaffe specs.

I've seen vintage warbirds (always American, I've never seen a German one) like this in the air...and it brings to life something that happened long ago. It's nice to look at them in museums, but until you actually watch one fly, and hear what they really sound like, it's still academic.

[petronius]

3. It's great to see them fly

I remember a few years ago there was an airshow here which I didn't know about - that morning on my bike ride I heard an unfamiliar motor noise and looked up to see a B-17 and a B-24 (IIRC) passing overhead. It wasn't the best view but it was a very different experience from looking at inert and often dusty and/or gutted machines in museums and airparks.

Very sad about the Heinkel - more sad about the pilots...

[Moosenose]

5. While it's sad that they died....

I can't think of a better way to go. The folks that fly this kind of stuff are a "different breed"...and it sure beats the hell out of dying from cancer. Given a choice of those two methods of death, I'm sure the pilots would have preferred the crash route.

I base this on conversations with good friends of both pilots, which is how I found out about it. It's like "free diving" or any other ultra-hazardous hobby...you know death is a very good possibility, but you do it anyway.

[jody]

4. Visit the "Commemorative Air Force"

Commemorative Air Force

[HawkerHurricane]

6. Formerly known as the Confederate Air Force...

But I digress.

It is a tragedy to lose the last flyable version of this aircraft, even if it was the re-engined Spanish version.

[billbuckhead]

7. Should we worship weapons so much? Material idolatry anyone?

Wasn't the He111 used at Guernica? Didn't it usher in a new era of terror? That being said I'm more excited about the German planes at the end of the war. Prop planes like the Focke Wulf FW190 and Junkers twin engine bombers were probably the best in class for most of the war. Then they finally built an amazing twin engine prop fighter after doing a terrible job in this class for the whole war by building a plane with both pusher and a puller props. The Dornier something or other. It was evil looking and then there were those jets! Supposedly the shocking radically swept wing MiG15 was a Focke Wulf(Kurt Tank) design captured by the Soviets at the end of the war. IMHO. the best looking airplane in history.

BTW, I've been in that Heinkel, on the ground unfortunately, at Atlanta's Peachtree City airport. There was a Boeing B17 also at this exhibition.

[HawkerHurricane]

8. Look at a F-86 Sabre

And look at a MiG-15.
So similar it's eirie.
It looks like both the US and USSR got copies of the same plans and worked out thier own version. I will agree thier both good looking designs.

I took a walk around that Heinkel 111 a couple of years back, and the B-17 (probably the same one) and other aircraft of the collection.

And yes, the He-111 was used in 'terror bombing' in Spain. It was a museum piece, and now gone, and that's sad.

[solinvictus]

9. Junker Ju-52

I believe it is still in service with Switzerland. It was the Axis version of the Douglas C-47/Dakota and was ubiquitous for years after WW2. It was used as a bomber, transport, and in civilian airlines.

Edit: Nope, the Swiss took it out of service in 1981, but the planes it sold are still flying.

[billbuckhead]

10. Actually the Ju-52 was more similar to an improved Ford trimotor

The Luftwaffe would have killed for Dakotas. They also used those Me-??? powered gliders. Airtransport wasn't a big plus for the Luftwaffe.

[HawkerHurricane]

11. Funny thing about the C-47 Dakota (DC-3)

EVERY country in WW2 used them. Douglas aircraft sold them to (or had liscensing agreements with) every country on both sides before the war. So DC3's served with every nations military. And still serve, in a US Navy varient called a R4D, with the Antartic support squadron. Longest serving aircraft of all time.

[solinvictus]

15. Dakotas

are still popular among Central & South American smugglers. They don't require a large or particularly well made airstrip for take off.

[-..__...]

12. Messerschmitt 323 ?

http://www.luftwaffepics.com/lme3231.htm

These things were a fighter pilots wet dream. They got shellacked the Russian front.

[CO Liberal]

13. When Did They Change Their Name?

[happyslug]

14. December 7, 2001, from what I found on the web.

http://www.commemorativeairforce.org/news/2001/nr-01-1207.html