Posts Tagged ‘Allegheny County Airport’
Alis victoriae, deux
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, a humble narrator was tipped off by a neighbor that a museum aviation outfit, based in Arizona, would be making a July 4th oriented week long stand at Allegheny County Airport here in Pittsburgh.
They flew out two of their planes – a B-17 and a B-25 Mitchell – with the latter being the focal point of today’s post and the former yesterday’s. Links to information on both planes, the airport, and some general WW2 stuff were embedded in the prior post, so scroll down if you’re curious about such things.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Wings of Victory people had set up ladders, of a common variety, to facilitate the climb up into the planes. Once within, you needed to drop down to all fours to move through its confines for an interval, at which point you were able to stand up but needed to stay stooped over. It was very quarters tight within, but these are warplanes and they weren’t built for comfort or for modern day American bodies.
These are still operational aircraft, as a note, and were flown here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
From the prone position, this was what I saw while looking towards the nose of the plane. Below was the fore gunner’s station, above, the pilot and co-pilot/radio operator seats. I clumsily reoriented myself towards the neck of the plane, which would carry me through the bomb rack.
That’s right about when I started feeling a bit claustrophobic.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Squeezing through the breech above required sucking in the gut, but the buttons on my shirt were still clicking against the metal. All the kids on the tour jumped through like deer, whereas me and all the other fat assed old men had to turn sideways and hope for the best.
Americans were physically smaller back then, in stature and especially in body weight. Back then, the average height on a draftee was just under 5’ 8,” and their weight would have been about 150 lbs.
Modern day yanks… we don’t have lived knowledge of famine, drought, or financial depressions like they did back then. We’ve been very well fed, as a country, for the last 80 years. In 2024, the average weight of an American male is 197.9 lbs.
On the bomber doors and bomb bay walls, several former service members had left behind autographs with their unit information.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All of the kids were having an absolute blast, and were allowed somewhat free rein to explore. As you’d imagine, those machine guns on the windows were often grasped and ‘choom-choom-choom-gigatah-gigetah-gigateh’ sounds were enunciated more than once.
After leaving the plane, and checked the time on my phone, it was time to leave as I had another destination for the afternoon. I had driven here, so it’d be reached by automobile. It’s still quite novel owning a car, after all those years living in the center of NYC.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On my way out of Allegheny County Airport and to the parking lot, I noticed that the emergency fire unit, which is housed on the airport property, had just deployed their trucks in front of the hangar/garage which they operate out of. Neat.
My next destination was about a 25 minute long drive away, but more on that tomorrow.
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Alis victoriae
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
‘Wings of Victory’ is what today’s Latin title translates to, and it’s the name of a fantastic aviation museum group which flew two WW2 era aircraft to the 1931 vintage Allegheny County Airport, found in Pittsburgh’s West Mifflin section. The airport is built on top of a steel industry slag heap, as much of West Mifflin is. Wings of Victory were offering public facing tours of their equipment, which drew me in.
My neighbor Dwight turned me onto the outfit’s presence here in town, so I checked their website and schedule, and drove over to the airport to buy a ticket for the ‘ground tour.’
The price for that was supposed to be $15, but I think that the lady at the till figured me for a senior citizen because of the gray beard, and only charged me $10. Hey, maybe this ‘crazy old bastard’ thing isn’t just all terrifying doctor’s appointments, after all.
There’s discounts!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Taking a ride in a plane this old just ain’t in the cards for me, as I’m fairly unlucky – and certainly not at $500 a seat – which is what the ‘air tour’ cost. Yikes. The ground tour ticket led me onto the deck at the airport, where the two museum planes awaited. They are both still in working order, I’d remind.
There was a B-17 Flying Fortress (above), and a B-25 Mitchell.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The B-25 is one of several reasons that many people around the world rue the day that someone in their government decided to start a war with the United States. It’s the same model of the planes (developed under the command of General Billy Mitchell) that the American Military had designed the ‘Doolittle Raid’ around, which struck the Japanese home islands with a surprise bombing experience that occurred in April of 1942, and was led by Lt. Col. James Doolittle.
This was just the beginning of a vulgar display of industrial prowess which led first to the Battle of Midway, and then the 1944 emergence of the B-29 Superfortress aircraft (which carried massive fire and explosive bombs, and then the Atom Bombs) just a couple of years later.
The physical embodiments of ‘eff around and find out,’ American style.
Lessons learned by a nervous world, afterwards, included the idea that when a giant is sleeping you don’t antagonize it unduly.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Part of the ‘ground tour’ involved being able to actually enter the plane’s interior and do a walk through. Observationally, the crews on these planes were rather skinny fellows of small stature.
I realized that I was way too fat and old to have defended my country in the Second World War very quickly. You climb a few steps on a normal ladder, and then get down on all fours inside for a quick crawl to an internally installed step ladder that takes you into the ‘neck’ of the craft. The pilot and radio operator’s area was off limits, but I managed to crack out a couple of zoomed in shots.
This one was gathered on the B-17, btw.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The B-17 was clearly the crowd’s favorite, and had the longest line to get onboard. There were Grandparent and Grandkid combinations all over the place, and the kids in particular were going nuts over all this excitement – especially with all the machine guns which were arrayed all over the things.
Some of the folks from the Wings of Victory outfit were telling tales and reporting history, and it seems that both planes saw action in the European theater of WW2.
The B-25, in particular, was one of only about thirty survivors of the model which can still fly.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I got on the line to check out the B-17’s interior, which was pretty cramped within, truth be told.
Shots of the B-25 will be on display tomorrow.
Back then, with more.
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Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
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