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Hornets and Bearcats

By lex, on March 31st, 2010

Blues and Horsemen.

Oh, my.

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March 31st, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: Flying, History, Navy

16 comments to Hornets and Bearcats

  • SK1
    March 31, 2010 at 7:11 am

    YES – Today’s best flying the best of yesteryear…I sent a leter to the Chariman of NASCAR asking him if they could hold a “Oldies” race and have today’s team bring a vintage Car from the 60s & 70s for a once a year race…

    OLD STEEL is still the best steel – always !!!

    • MaxDamage
      April 1, 2010 at 10:47 pm

      Ya know, SK1, that’s not a bad idea. It would be really, really interesting to see some of the modern cars at, say, Daytona mixing it up with Plymouth Superbirds and Ford Galaxies in the mix. Safety would be much poorer with originals but knowing those Nascar boys they’d build a custom frame and skin it to look like a stocker in about a week.

      I love vintage racing. Machines were built to perform, not to look at.

      – Max

  • Joe in N. Calif
    March 31, 2010 at 7:14 am

    Wow.

  • SCOTTtheBADGER
    March 31, 2010 at 7:15 am

    Someone has sure taken good care of those Bearcats.

  • AO3 Ken
    March 31, 2010 at 7:58 am

    Dang, I think I got some dirt in my eyes during one of those flybys…

  • oklso
    March 31, 2010 at 9:31 am

    Very nice…good form work throughout!

  • MissBirdlegs in AL
    March 31, 2010 at 10:51 am

    Dang, I LOVED this!! I have to fix my eye makeup before going back to work, though. Made my heart swell, too.

  • Justthisguy
    March 31, 2010 at 1:35 pm

    I can’t see the video, so had to catch the drift from previous comments. At first I thought it was about the Horse Guards. Nice old lady who was my cat’s previous human had a grandfather in the Blues, in the Heavy Brigade at Balaklava.

  • Dust
    March 31, 2010 at 3:43 pm

    Seeing the facial reaction of these elder statesmem aviators when they get in the vicinity of and in the aircraft they flew during and just after WWII is worth the experience.

  • Minga
    March 31, 2010 at 3:43 pm

    Ha, I had a great great Grandad who was a colonel of the blues. His son ran away to the navy and was written off from the family.
    Video is “o for awesome” and Lex says it best – oh my. A permenant Bearcat team would be well patronized I’m sure.

  • Quartermaster
    March 31, 2010 at 5:50 pm

    I was at an airshow at Smyrna, TN back in the 70s (Former Sewart AFB) and a P-51 and F8F showed up. When they both got airborne they flew circuits around the field with T-6. The Bearcat walked away from the 51 and could easily turn inside it. As the time went on it turned into a race. The P-51 was struggling and the Cat easily walked away.

    A bit further back in WW2 off Norway, some Bf109s went after a Brit carrier loaded with Hellcats. The Luftwaffe got its clock cleaned dramatically. The Hellcat Was also a very nimble AC and the Bearcat was certainly in that tradition.

    • Casey
      April 1, 2010 at 10:08 pm

      Let’s not get all greed for the glory, QM. The ‘stangs were good aircraft too. :)

      Wouldn’t it be lovely to see some Bearcats mix it up with some Thunderbolts, and maybe some FW-190s? I only mention the latter because it occurred to me (watching the video) how much the F8F resembled the Wulf, except being a bit huskier. Excuse the pun…

  • Justthisguy
    March 31, 2010 at 6:01 pm

    Bearcat held time-to-climb record to 10,000 feet from standing start, well into the Jet Age. Supposedly it was the smallest possible airplane which could handle a Double Wasp.

  • twifivezulu
    April 9, 2010 at 6:54 pm

    Nothing in the entire world sounds like these big double row wasps.

  • ErrolC
    April 9, 2010 at 9:10 pm

    There are multiple strong rumours that the La-9 from NZ is headed to the US, so there is a nice match for the Bearcats. It’s also been reported that CAF wants to bring a Bearcat down for Warbirds Over Wanaka 2012.
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