Until the arrival of the Grumman Hellcat, the Mitsubishi Zero was the undisputed king of the Pacific skies. But the little, nimble Japanese fighter was… Continue reading
The Flying Heritage Collection’s Sherman was assembled into a single fighting machine at Pressed Steel Car Company, a former locomotive and rail car building factory… Continue reading
It’s time to overhaul the engine in the Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3. In this image, the Daimler-Benz DB 601 Aa has been stripped down in… Continue reading
Back in World War I, getting a machine gun to fire through the spinning propeller of an airplane was a challenge. Some fighters even had… Continue reading
At the Flying Heritage Center’s Battle of Britain free Fly Day, you can take a look at how the two aircraft are put together. The… Continue reading
It’s time for the mechanics to change out the valve gaskets on the dual R-2600 engines of the B-25 Mitchell bomber at the Flying Heritage… Continue reading
The R-2800 engines seen in the Flying Heritage Collection’s Hellcat and P-47 have a particularly noticeable device perched on the top of their nose case.… Continue reading
Move over, 88 mm cannon, there is a new big gun in the Flying Heritage Collection. The M55 carries a massive 8-inch (203.2 mm) howitzer.… Continue reading
The simple rudder pedals on the FHC’s Iluyshin Il-2M3 Shturmovik have one little, useful addition. Unlike most combat aircraft in the collection, the Il-2’s pedals… Continue reading
Working on a plane is sometimes a bit of a puzzle. Here we see the confusing mass of cowling panels from the FHC’s B-25J Mitchell.… Continue reading
Many Russian WWII aircraft ditched electric or hydraulic systems and replaced them with … air. Pneumatics — to operate the flaps, push down landing gear,… Continue reading
A bullet punched through the oil tank is what most likely brought down the FHC’s Curtiss P-40C Tomahawk in 1942. But that certainly wasn’t the… Continue reading
In order to work on the Jagdpanzer 38(t) “Hetzer,” mechanics have pulled off the tank destroyer’s armored roof. They are in the process of pulling… Continue reading
What are all those ridges on the cylinder heads of some airplane (and motorcycle) engines? Air-cooled engines, without a radiator or coolant, use the atmosphere… Continue reading
By pulling off the armored access panels at the back of the FHC’s T-34/85 tank, mechanics have revealed the vehicle’s burly transmission and the aft… Continue reading
While the size of the average man stayed about the same, the size of the average fighter plane, and its cockpit, increased during World War… Continue reading
What is that odd-shaped thing on the end of the barrel of the FHC’s 17-pounder (and many other WWII cannons)? It’s not a flash suppressor,… Continue reading
If you are like me, you have been building models of tanks and planes for longer than you’d like to admit. A tiny model is… Continue reading
The propeller on the Spitfire just got back from an overseas trip. All the propellers in the collection need to be periodically removed and sent… Continue reading
What’s that bump in the barrel of an Abrams tank 120 mm gun? It’s a bore evacuator. Some people call it a fume extractor. It… Continue reading
