WW2 ETO Ideas please

[JoHubb]

I'm taking part in a mission to ferry shortish range military aircraft to Europe via the North Atlantic Route. Usually, I fly low and slow GA types and am not 'well up' on military.

I'd be grateful for a few suggestions but I want to get away from DC-2s and -3s this trip. I don't have the A2A P-51 - this might be beyond my flying skills anyway.

[Motormouse]

Seem to recall from a magazine article, that single-engine types went by boat/ship; so for an alternate, west to east
Lockheed P-38 (David Copley's freeware one can still be had at usual places)
Lockheed Hudson (Alphasim)
PBY Catalina (Alphasim)

going back the other way to Canada , Bristol Beaufort (Bolingbroke substitute; Alphasim) used in training schools

ttfn

Pete

[lemonadedrinker]

Hi
, check out 'women airforce service pilots' as they were the heroes who flew thousands of airplanes across the North Atlantic to the ETO...B17s, B24s P51s. 1000 of them flew over 6 million miles (from Wikipedia!)

DC3 Airways has flight plans I think for the Northern Routes.

Glenn Duncan has made scenery and flights for Southern crossings ..and.. a wonderful C87 as well !

Andy.


ps the reference to the P-51 is in a picture on the WIKI site... maybe just (!) flying cross country from the plant to get to the boat on the East Coast..still a 3000 mile trip in all weathers .

A

[Sunny9850]

I agree that typically singles would not be ferried if they could reasonably be shipped in crates. No sense in risking personnel and material in that way.
Wiki has a fairly decent site for the ferry routes used during that time to get to the ETO, but I have not seen a list of airplanes that were ferried in regular terms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_A...n_World_War_II

Cheers
Stefan

[JoHubb]

Seem to recall from a magazine article, that single-engine types went by boat/ship; so for an alternate, west to east
Lockheed P-38 (David Copley's freeware one can still be had at usual places)
Lockheed Hudson (Alphasim)
PBY Catalina (Alphasim)

Pete

Thanks, I've checked out the P-38. Nice plane which flies well too. Maybe.....or maybe I'll pitch in and buy the Cat. I've always had a soft spot for the Cat as RAF flew them from bases in Lough Erne, Co Fermanagh, N. Ireland. They were used for convoy protection in the N. Atlantic and had 'special permission' to overfly part of the Irish Republic, which was neutral in WW2. In other words, a blind eye was turned.

Hi
, check out 'women airforce service pilots' as they were the heroes who flew thousands of airplanes across the North Atlantic to the ETO...B17s, B24s P51s. 1000 of them flew over 6 million miles (from Wikipedia!)

Andy.

That's very interesting. I've just agreed to do a philatelic presentation on women aviators. I'd no idea that women pilots flew these routes in such numbers.

I agree that typically singles would not be ferried if they could reasonably be shipped in crates. No sense in risking personnel and material in that way.
Wiki has a fairly decent site for the ferry routes used during that time to get to the ETO, but I have not seen a list of airplanes that were ferried in regular terms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_A...n_World_War_II

Stefan

Thanks for the link, Stefan.

I guess some Beech 18s were flown over for special ops perhaps. Does anyone know?

[Willy]

I think the RAF used the C-45 (Beech 18) much like the US did. I've flown the North Atlantic route with it when I flew Milton's around the world.

My usual route across the North Atlantic is to leave northeastern Canada for BGBW in Greenland. This airfield was known as "Bluie west One" during the war. Author Ernie Gann tells quite the tale of his first flight into there flying for Air Transport Command in a DC-3 in "Fate is the Hunter". From there, it's on to Keflavik which was also an ATC stopover. From there they usually flew on to Prestwick Scotland, but I usually break that one up with a stop at the Faroe Islands.

One idea that I'm working on is to place a WWII carrier around where I know they did operations during the war. For the ETO, that's a bit thin, but Ranger (CV-4) did do some anti-shipping operations north of the Arctic Circle near Bodo Norway. As I don't have a version of Ranger, I'll put Saratoga (CV-3) in there instead. (I'm working on an around the world flight in a SBD Dauntless landing on carriers along the way)

[Maarten -]

I've always had a soft spot for the Cat as RAF flew them from bases in Lough Erne, Co Fermanagh, N. Ireland. They were used for convoy protection in the N. Atlantic and had 'special permission' to overfly part of the Irish Republic, which was neutral in WW2. In other words, a blind eye was turned.

I've been to Lough Erne in 2006 (one of my many stays in Norn Iron). Friends of mine were on holiday in Enniskillen and took me and my local family on a day-long boat trip on the lough. One of the most beautiful places in Ireland. I never realised that Catalinas had been based there during WWII. (and why not; Lough Erne is huge).
Thanks for the memories.

Cheers,
Maarten