The Aviation Thread [Contains Lots of Awesome Pictures]

The Story:
Bomber Gas has been a landmark in the Portland area since 1947, when it arrived and became the region's most unusual filling station. It stopped operating as a gas station in 1991, and has since been associated with the adjacent Bomber Drive-Inn restaurant, where visitors can grab a, as the owners put it, 'Classic American' bite and a souvenir Bomber placemat.

The Bomber Gas is made from a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, type G. Shortly after the war Art Lacey went to Kansas to buy a surplus B-17 (on this Youtube film: nl.youtube.com/watch?v=tqbUG0dmxfk ) you can get a glimps of the surplus). His idea was to fly it back to Oregon, jack it up in the sky and make a gas station underneath. He laid down $15,000 and asked which one was his to take. The military replied take whichever you want because there were miles of them. Lacey didn't know how to fly a 4 engine airplane so he read the manual whilst taxing around. The military said Lacey couldn't take off by himself so he put a mannequin in the co-pilot's seat and off he went.

He flew around a bit to get the feel of it and when he wanted to land realized a co-pilot was necessary to lower the landing gear. He crashed his plane onto another one the ground. The military wrote them both off as "wind damaged" and told him to pick out another. Crashing them didn't matter since most of the B17s where up for melting. Lacey talked a friend into being his co-pilot and off they went.

On their way to Oregon they hit a snow storm and couldn't find their way so they went down below 1,000 feet and followed the railroad tracks. His partner sat in the nose section and would yell, tunnel! whenever he saw one and Lacey would climb over the mountain.

They landed safely on the local airport and where getting started to get permits to move the B-17 on the state highway. The highway department repeatedly denied his permit. So one late Saturday night he just moved it himself to find himself being stopped by the police. They wrote a $10 ticket for having too wide a load.

Update: According to late reports, the airplane has been removed for restoration.

Haha, I was looking at those pictures and going "Wow! There's another Bomber gas station out there somewhere?! How cool!". :lol:

From April 2009, before she was taken down to be restored (apparently only 1 of 11 left):

bomber.JPG



http://www.thebomber.com/
 
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One thing I've always found fascinating is captured aircraft. Seeing planes in the complete opposite warpaint they were intended for is very surreal.
http://img835.imageshack.**/img835/3494/capturedlightning.jpg
http://img844.imageshack.**/img844/7545/capturedmig.jpg
http://img838.imageshack.**/img838/2855/capturedfw109.jpg
http://img828.imageshack.**/img828/268/captured109.jpg
http://img842.imageshack.**/img842/3146/capturedmustang.jpg
http://img833.imageshack.**/img833/2363/capturedb17.jpg
http://img836.imageshack.**/img836/9498/capturedheinkel.jpg
http://img841.imageshack.**/img841/4779/capturedb172.jpg
 
What a great story about that B-17, Glad to hear its being restored too. MAN I wish I was around at the end of WWII, along with some money. how awesome it would have been to be able to get your hands on those planes for the price of scrap!

oh, and...

Soooo.... I'm guessing that page 101 will have you dothatvoodoothatyoudo?

:D

voodoolarge.jpg


F-101B_New_York_ANG_in_flight_1978S.jpg


F-101A_Voodoo-S.jpg


F-101Bs_New_York_ANG_over_Niagara_F.jpg


McDonnell twin engine fighters... :heart:
 
What a great story about that B-17, Glad to hear its being restored too. MAN I wish I was around at the end of WWII, along with some money. how awesome it would have been to be able to get your hands on those planes for the price of scrap!

oh, and...

*SNIP*

McDonnell twin engine fighters... :heart:

Hahaha... Bravo! +1

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
 
Cross post ho! Since most of the FG aviation fanclub doesn't hang around the photography forum I'm just going to point you over to my thread of my shots from the Duluth air show last weekend.

http://forums.finalgear.com/photography/duluth-air-show-2010-a-45048/

To entice you, vertical awesomeness. Oh my god a hovering harrier is loud.

https://pic.armedcats.net/r/ra/ramseus/2010/07/20/CRW_7647.jpg


unrelated: I did not know that Cirrus has parachutes for entire planes. How awesome is that?

Caps_deploy.jpg
 
I read a story some time ago about the first pilot to deploy one of those in an emergency. It saved him, his passenger and the aircraft.
 
One thing I've always found fascinating is captured aircraft. Seeing planes in the complete opposite warpaint they were intended for is very surreal.
http://img835.imageshack.**/img835/3494/capturedlightning.jpg
http://img844.imageshack.**/img844/7545/capturedmig.jpg
http://img838.imageshack.**/img838/2855/capturedfw109.jpg
http://img828.imageshack.**/img828/268/captured109.jpg
http://img842.imageshack.**/img842/3146/capturedmustang.jpg
http://img833.imageshack.**/img833/2363/capturedb17.jpg
http://img836.imageshack.**/img836/9498/capturedheinkel.jpg
http://img841.imageshack.**/img841/4779/capturedb172.jpg

You would love this book then:
http://www.amazon.com/Strangers-Strange-Aircraft-German-during/dp/0897471989
 
^
For those interested but less nerdy, here is my stab at a list of the above:
P-38 in Luftwaffe markings
A pair of Mig 15s (?) in formation with a USN Corsair
FW 190 in USAAF markings
ME109 in French (?) markings
P-51 in Luftwaffe markings
B-17 in Luftwaffe markings
Dornier 217 (?) in RAF markings
Pair of B-17 in Japanese markings in formation with a Mitsubishi Ki-21 (?)
 
^
For those interested but less nerdy, here is my stab at a list of the above:
P-38 in Luftwaffe markings
A pair of Mig 15s (?) in formation with a USN Corsair
FW 190 in USAAF markings
ME109 in French (?) markings
P-51 in Luftwaffe markings
B-17 in Luftwaffe markings
Dornier 217 (?) in RAF markings
Pair of B-17 in Japanese markings in formation with a Mitsubishi Ki-21 (?)

Your first ? looks like they may be MiG 17s or 19s; they're longer and less dumpy-looking than the 15s, plus they have a larger vertical tail [EDIT: definitely 17s, they have a small ventral tail that the 15 lacked]. That Me-109 is probably in RAF markings; I don't think the Armee de l'Air used a fourth ring around their roundel, but it's hard to tell in B&W. The second-to-last one is actually a Heinkel 219; you can tell by the bubble canopy.
 
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^ :cool:
Thanks, they are all quite tricky fokkers! :lol:

I think it's a shame when pictures of old warbirds are posted up without any labels, particularly interesting ones like those above.
Any casual viewer, who has little clue what they are is left short, I think.
:)
 
^ :cool:
Thanks, they are all quite tricky fokkers! :lol:
I see what you did there!
I think it's a shame when pictures of old warbirds are posted up without any labels, particularly interesting ones like those above.
Any casual viewer, who has little clue what they are is left short, I think.
:)

Though to be fair, most people who'd also be interested in what planes they are are also nerds like us.
 
The tail on the trailing aircrafts doesn't look quiet like what I remember the B-17 to be.
 
Dreamliner is such a pompus name for something that is essentially a newer 777/767. Air travel is no longer a dream, traveling economy class will still suck, and it will take just as long to get there. The name is even more retarded once we realise that ryanair will probably buy some, and dreamliner and ryanair mix as well as gay and republican.
 
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