From Newsgroup: rec.aviation.piloting

Memories of days gone by ...

A good while back, I was visiting the former Aeromarine Museum that once housed an unbelievably rich archive of remarkably historically significant vintage aircraft including a Rutan round-the-world nonstop, one of ~eight
late '20s Italian amphibian transatlantic wooden craft, and of course, the WWII P-51 Mustang, and P-47 Jug, ...

This particular Saturday morning, I was fortunate to encounter a Jug
driver. At the time, I believed the P-51 to be the pinnacle of
engineering the war produced (at least the US production). I was somewhat surprised at the time by his assertion that the P-47 was the best WWII had
to offer.

I've since come to realize, that the P-51 could be brought down by small
arms fire into the coolant radiator on the underbelly, while the P-47 was
air cooled, heavily armored to protect the pilot and vital systems, and
six fiftys with armor-piercing incendiary tracer ammunition, and ten
rockets Or two 500 pounders.

So, while the Mustang is pretty and fast, the old Jug probably brought
home its operator most days.

Greedy developers managed to coax the City Of Santa Monica to close the
museum after years of sparing. Nearby residents were trying to get the
entire airport closed last I heard.

Larry
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