Are there any flying Stukas?

[T89 Callan]

I've just got back from Kemble after watching the Battle of Britain memorial display which was pretty awesome, the Lancaster is juts imense and the noise of the Spitfire is perfection.

Anyway my favourite plane is the Stuka dive bomber and I would love to actually see one of these flying and doing a full on dive bomb run with Jericho Trumpet wailing.

Are there actually an left operational and do they ever attend Airshows in the UK or Europe?

[Olf]

Interesting thread here:

http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-120216.h...

[Eric Mc]

Simple answer - no.

[T89 Callan]

Eric Mc said:

Simple answer - no.

I read that thread as well and looking at the date that resto' project they discussed doesn't seem to have apearred yet.

Shame, as an Engineer I really love the Stuka, seems to be a plane that was designed by engineers to serve a purpose as simply and effectively as possible, like the T34 Tank and the Sten gun.

Anyway, would love to have seen and heard one flying, maybe in the future.

[Mr_B]

Is the one at Hendon the only example ?

[Eric Mc]

Mr_B said:

Is the one at Hendon the only example ?

It's one of the very few remaining. There might be a few others in museums.

[FourWheelDrift]

Mr_B said:

Is the one at Hendon the only example ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuka#Survivors

[Eric Mc]

They are surprisingly large machines - when seen in the flesh.

[Dr Jekyll]

There was a suggestion to get the RAF museum one flying for the Battle of Britain film, but it was decided that it was too scarce to risk.

They did get the engine running though, so it might well have been feasible.

[Eric Mc]

It was very much the wrong version for the Battle of Britain period, being a G rather than a B. The cockpit canopy is very different between the two versions.

B



G

[Dr Jekyll]

Eric Mc said:

It was very much the wrong version for the Battle of Britain period, being a G rather than a B. The cockpit canopy is very different between the two versions.

B



G

Would still have been a closer match than the Merlin engined 'BF 109s' and 'HE 111s'.

[Eric Mc]

Perhaps - but at least those aircraft were avaliable and flyable. The Stuka wasn't. They did build soome small scale Stuka replicas based on Percival Proctor light aircraft but the CAA refused to grant them a Certificate of Airworthiness. In the end they used radio controlled models - which looked pretty poor.

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

Eric Mc said:

They did build soome small scale Stuka replicas based on Percival Proctor light aircraft but the CAA refused to grant them a Certificate of Airworthiness.

There were 3 Proctors mocked up to look like Stukas IIRC, although they didn't really look anything like the real thing.

I remember seeing them at Bovingdon.

[Eric Mc]

Anyone any pictures of the Proctukas?

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

[T89 Callan]

Ginetta G15 Girl said:

Oh dear.

Looks worse than a Tiger tank made from a Bulldozer or something equally st I saw on an American Documentary a while ago.

[Eric Mc]

Urgh.

Matbe the scale models were the best alternative in the end.

[FourWheelDrift]

This is one of the 20ft scale (half size) radio controlled models used in the film, also used a Proctor engine to power it. Never knew they were big.

[Eric Mc]

I didn't realise the models were that big. I think they were very unconvincing, despite what the caption says.