Russ;
Well-- surprise-- I was an "Army Brat", too. I never did get to see an
operational B-36 but I finally did see one in the AF Museum in Dayton. Man,
were those things big!
I was at an airshow, too, where a P-51D made a very low- level high- speed
pass over the crowd and then pulled up in a high "G" climb. A real thrill.
What a sound!
Armored vehicles make neat sounds, too. Hearing a tank moving in the dark in
your bivouac area is not a comforting sound-- even when you know darned well
that it's one of yours. The movie "Patton" had the most realistic scenes of
armor that I've seen in the movies. The scene where an armored column is
moving on a muddy road through the falling snow to relieve the Airborne in
Bastogne is so real that I could almost reach out and touch the cold metal.
They got the tank sounds right, too.
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
-----Original Message-----
From: rtmack [mailto:RTMACK@pop3.concentric.net]
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 2:54 PM
To: Albaugh, Neil
Cc: 'RTMACK@concentric.net'; 'Rose & Terry Hunt'; Land-speed@autox.team.n
Subject: Re: Recips.
Neil:
I was an "army brat", and travelled around-- but a lot of my growing up was
in San Antonio, a great air force town. I remember the sound of the 6 Wasp
Major (28cyl) radials on the B-36s (couldn't even hear the 4 little
turbojets)-- like prolonged thunder, for minutes at a time. I would lie on
my back in the sunflowers and watch them for hours, from the time I was 4
'til about 7.
But the first Merlin I ever heard "up close" gave me a better scare than a
wooden roller-coaster. At 12 years old, my best friend's dad (ex- "Mighty
Eighth"; B-17s) took us to a small airshow at Stinson Field. As the
audience was in the bleachers awaiting the opening of the show, a distant
scream began to build and grow closer-- and CLOSER! We all strained to see
where the sound was coming from, and it was right out of the sun. With the
hair standing up on the back of my neck, I dived under the stands along with
everyone else-- and peeked out to see a P-51D level-off a couple hundred
feet above our heads. It's a wonder nobody had a heart attack-- or maybe
they did; I was so focused on the airplanes that day, I might not remember.
I do remember being glad that I had just gone to the bathroom! I've wanted
a 51D ever since.
Russ Mack
"Albaugh, Neil" wrote:
Great story, Russ. Those Constellations were certainly great looking planes!
Big radials are great sounding engines... but a hot V-12 Merlin ain't bad,
either!
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
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