Continued, page four:
Noble noses. P51s in repose, of course. To some eyes, still the most beautiful fighter of World War 2 and after. But we're not going to start that fight here!
At least 18 Mustangs flew a raid on Oshkosh on the opening day. The pounding rhythm of their Rolls engines shook the ground.
And nobody left till it was over.
One on the roll...
Here's one to think about:
 That's Dick Brown's L4. That thing on the top is called a "Brodie Hook." And what it did in WW2 was save a whole lot of lives, not to mention ships, at Iwo Jima.
 As you can see from the illustration on the right, the planes (L5s) were hung on a 300 foot wire strung outboard of an LST. You had that much distance to slide under full power, release the hook and, hopefully, fly. When you came back from your scouting mission, you "trapped" on the sliding trapeze, which was about 2 feet above your prop. Dropping your airplane in the ocean was not acceptable.
Dick says the trouble was that, at Iwo Jima, they had planes but no trained pilots. Nevertheless, an "amateur" flew one. He subsequently discovered caves on a small island where the Japanese were hiding Kamikaze speed boats, intending to destroy the fleet's rudders to make the ships immobile against attack. Bombardment took care of that.
 Dick built his replica in collaboration with Jim Brodie, the man who designed the rig. He says Brodie was unaware of his invention's success until 50 years after the war.
How's it fly with that thing on the top? Dick swears, "You can't tell the difference. It weighs 37 pounds."
We'll tell Dick's story all the way through in a later issue. Right now, I've got to hurry on because there's a lot more..
Click to continue. . .
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