warbirds – marvelousairmuseums.com

George J. Marrett is the historian at the Estrella Warbirds Museum in Paso Robles, CA. An amazing individual, he worked for Howard Hughes, has written at least half a dozen books, has test-flown nearly every jet the United States produced since World War II, flew death-defying rescue missions in Vietnam, is building homeless shelters in Paso Robles, and happens to be just about the nicest guy you’re ever going to meet.

My wife and I spent a nice trio of hours talking with him about the museum, about Howard Hughes, and about the many aircraft he’d test-flown. The man is remarkably sharp, and, at 88, still flies. He said he’d keep flying until nobody wanted to fly with him anymore.

So many of the stories he told stuck with me, but there was one in particular that I’m still pondering.

During the Vietnam war, he flew fourth position in a flight of four A-1E Skyraiders – big, propellor-driven fighter planes produced right after the end of World War II. They were slow compared to the jet fighters, but they were robust, and they carried lots of weapons.

His job, along with the other three Skyraiders, was to clear the jungle around a downed American pilot by firing at the Viet Cong soldiers intent on making a capture, so that the Huey helicopters could come in rescue him. The big fighter planes would lumber over the jungle, firing a spray of machine gun bullets at anything that moved towards the downed pilot.

The Viet Cong often fought back. In one flight, George watched the plane in front of him get hit, watched the pilot parachute away, and then actually watched the plane spiral down to crash among the trees.

“It was an amazing sight,” he grinned. He had inadvertently applied the air brakes in his own plane, called Sock It to ‘Em , and was flying too slow to be safe. But it gave him time to watch the crash.

When he returned to base, his crew chief, the guy who takes care of the plane when it’s on the ground, told him he’d been hit.

“You got a couple of bullet holes in the wheel well,” the chief said. “You wanna see ’em?”

George thought about it for a moment, and then said “No. Don’t even tell me that.”

Focus on the success, right? Let’s not recount how close we almost got to failure. His first book, the one about those rescue missions, is called Cheating Death.

That’s a profound way to look at high-risk tasks, isn’t it?

It reminds of the Star Wars line when C-3PO starts to tell Han Solo his chances of success…

“Never quote me the odds!”

Focus on where you’re going, not where you’ve been. I know George may have meant something far more profound that this, but we always apply the things we hear to ourselves, right?

So, when you’re taking a risk, and you hear that voice that starts to doubt the odds of your success, now you have an answer.

“Don’t tell me that. Never quote me the odds.”

You can learn more about the amazing George J. Marrett on Wikipedia and his many books on Amazon. And more about the impressive Estrella Warbirds Museum right here at California Air Museums.

Happy flying.

Marvelous Air Museums is part of the John D Reinhart content family. Writer, illustrator, videographer, and accidental filmmaker — find the whole story at JohnDReinhart.com.

The Southern California Wing of the Commemorative Air Force features a number of spectacular pieces of World War II flying history.

Their first acquisition was the massive Curtiss C-46 Commando, the largest twin-engine plane built by the allies during the war.

The pride of their fleet is the North American PBJ maritime patrol bomber, the very last PBJ that still flies.

And the museum is quite proud of its beautiful Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter, an immensely important carrier airplane from WWII.

Although these three planes carried out vastly different missions, were built by completely different companies, and were operated by two different branches of the military, they all have one thing in common: the Wright R-2600 Twin Cyclone engine.

The R-2600 Twin-Cyclone is a 14-cylinder radial engine – where your car has 4, 6, or 8 cylinders arrayed in a line or a Vee, the radial’s 14 cylinders are arrayed in a circle around the engine’s crankshaft. It’s a big motor that weighs about a ton.

One of the advantages to this rotary layout is the power it achieves. Where your Toyota Camry cranks out about 200 horsepower, and a new Dodge Charger pushes out less than 300, the R-2600 generates a whopping 1,800 horsepower.

Another advantage is that these engines are air-cooled, like in a VW bug. Standard engines have a radiator full of coolant. A radial engine does away that, using passing air as coolant. They look different, with those big, finned cylinder heads, because they need a lot of air to stay cool.

Our story gets interesting because the R-2600 engine was developed specifically for the Curtiss C-46 Commando. Wright, the engine manufacturer, was a division of Curtiss-Wright, the maker of the Commando.

The engine proved to be robust, and quickly became a huge success among aircraft manufacturers.

In fact, North American Aviation put them into their new B-25 and PBJ bombers, the last of which is the pride of the CAF fleet.

And Grumman Aircraft Engineering put them into their new F6F Hellcat fighters.

When installed in the PBJ bomber, the two R-2600s could move the 18,000 pound airplane at 245 mph on its bombing runs against Axis submarines and warships.

In the much heavier, 48,000 pound C-46 Commando, the engines pushed her along at 135 miles per hour over the Himalayas and into China to thwart the Japanese invasion there.

That same engine, when mounted in the much lighter, 8,100 pound Grumman F6F Hellcat, gave the pilot a brisk 376 miles per hour in dogfighting Japanese Zeroes to defend the American carrier fleet.

Three different airplanes. Three widely different roles. One engine.

Curtiss eventually opted to fit the C-46 Commando with the even more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double-Wasp, 18-cylinder engines, which are what you’ll find on the China Doll.

Interestingly, Grumman also moved up to the 2,000 horsepower Double Wasp for the Hellcat, and that’s what you’ll find on display in Camarillo.

The PBJ still features the original Wright R-2600s.

In the annals of WWII aviation history, each of these three aircraft was a standout performer, contributing more than their share in defeating the global threat to democracy.

And all three of those airplanes, among literally dozens of others, got their start on the historic Wright R-2600 Twin Cyclone radial engine.

Marvelous Air Museums is part of the John D Reinhart content family. Writer, illustrator, videographer, and accidental filmmaker — find the whole story at JohnDReinhart.com.

Tag: warbirds

Never Quote Me the Odds

One Motor, Many Planes