Old Foe - Now Gone by bmac62
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Description
This post is particularly for all my fellow aviation enthusiats here at RR, but I hope the photos and the story that follows may find others of you interested too.
Friend or foe, air-worthy, antique airplanes are living treasures. An air museum display is interesting but a flyable aircraft adds the thrill of flight, the smells of fuel and lubricants and the roar of big, old, finely cared for engines.
This He 111 aircraft, owned and operated by the Commemerative Air Force (CAF) visited us at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in the summer of 2001. As many of you know, this was the Luftwaffe's bomber used throughout the Battle of Britain and indeed all of WW II. I had the extreme good fortune of being able to go through this entire aircraft.
Two years later tragedy struck. This He 111 crashed at approximately 1:10p.m. on July 10, 2003 near the Cheyenne Municipal Airport, Cheyenne, Wyoming. The plane was on final approach when the pilot reported an engine failure. After impacting the ground, it skidded into a school bus wash facility. The pilot and co-pilot, the only occupants of the airplane, were killed. Both the building and the plane were destroyed by the post-accident fire.
The plane was enroute from Texas to Montana for an airshow.
The Heinkel He 111 was initially designed as a transport aircraft and was first flown in 1935. The modified bomber version was used extensively in the Spanish Civil War and WW II. In 1941, the Spanish government acquired a license to build the airplane at its CASA plant in Tablada, Spain.
The CAF's aircraft was a Spanish built version of the He 111 and was officially designated a CASA 2111. The CAF purchased the aircraft in England in 1977. In 2003, this was the last flyable aircraft of its type.
The CAF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to flying and restoring World War II aircraft. Based out of Midland, Texas, the organization has over 9,000 members and operates a fleet of over 140 World War II aircraft.
I didn't know this aircraft had been lost until putting this post together today.
A full-size view reveals more mechanical and paint details.
Bill
Comments (14)
ralph49
Fantastic looking machine great presentation & history
hartafire
A Shame to have lost another one.....
Emil-arts
This is indeed a sad story. Not only the loss of life but also a fine aircraft. I do envy you Bill, being able to go through it. Standing and looking at one must be nothing compared to being able to touch and smell the interior. Thanks for posting this.
debbielove
Great set of pictures, again! Wonderful. But so sad that another old aircraft is gone. This is a Spanish built, Merlin Engined He111. The Spanish had loads of Bodies but could get no engines due to wars end. But there was an over abundance of Merlin's. So they put the two together! Worked fine. They did the same with Me109's. Dig deeper in them files, mate. What else you got lurking in there! Rob.
Alz2008
Wonderful capture and aircraft, Excellent well done..
neiwil
A beautiful presentation Bill.I love these multi-pic layouts.Great info,though a sad end.Just being picky but I think they where designated transports to get round the Versaille Treaty, but they where designed and always intended to be bombers.I'd love to see the raised eyebrows in the bar if you came out with the line "last time I was in an He111 I noticed.....".Thanks Bill this has really brightened a grey day in England.
kansas
Excellent shots. Thanks for this info. Very interesting.
Osper
You pays your money and you takes your chances! Nice layout. Good detail shots! And none the less, more history to an already historical bird.
Buffalo1
Great collage and a sad story. I have pics of this plane in the old CAF hanger at Harlingen, TX in the early 1980s.
chuter
There were a lot of subtle (and not so subtle) differences between the Spanish and German built 111s (beyond the engines/nacelles), especially in the cockpit. It did, however, give one a sense of what the 111 was like. I have a pic of my daughter standing next to the bombs holding her teddy bear.
vkoontz
I have pics of this acft at the Manassas,Va. airport in the '90's. I didn't know it was lost.
dbrv6
Great looking plane and presentation. Sad end to its story.
mermaid
intersting to see and read and so sad this on is no more and even took the pilots with it
moochagoo
My father has seen probably one of those, during the WWII, he was in a (french) plane to take military pictures of Germany. He took pictures when the german army invaded France, by Sedan. A terrible day.