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  • The Kee Bird was a United States Army Air Forces B-29-95-BW Superfortress, 45-21768, of the 46th Reconnaissance Squadron, that became marooned after making an emergency landing in northwest Greenland during a secret Cold War spying mission on 21 February 1947.

    Although the entire crew was safely evacuated, after spending three days in the isolated Arctic tundra, the aircraft itself was left at the landing site. It lay there undisturbed until 1994 when a privately funded mission was launched.

    In July 1994, a team of aircraft restorers operating as Kee Bird Limited Liability Co. was led by Darryl Greenamyer to the emergency landing site. The aircraft had made a successful (albeit bumpy) landing on the frozen lake and had remained relatively intact at the site ever since.

    The USAF had surrendered any claim to the B-29 and it was believed that the ship could be put into flying condition, flown off the frozen lake and ferried to Thule AFB, Greenland where further repairs could be made before flying back to the United States.

    Using a shuttle plane, the team departed the U.S. Armed Services base at Thule and flew in tools and equipment to the Kee Bird. Over the summer months, the team transported four re-manufactured engines, four new propellers, an engine hoist, and new tires, as well as a small bulldozer, to the remote site.

    The team successfully replaced the engines and propellers, mounted the new tires, and resurfaced the aircraft’s control surfaces. Although the plane was nearly ready to fly, Greenamyer’s team was compelled by weather to leave the site.

    In May 1995, Greenamyer returned with additional personnel. The repairs begun in 1994 were completed, and the aircraft prepared to take off from the frozen lake on 21 May 1995. A crude runway was carved out of the snow on the ice using the small bulldozer that had been ferried to the site.

    The new engines were successfully started for the takeoff attempt. As Darryl Greenamyer was taxiing the aircraft onto the frozen lake, the B-29’s auxiliary power unit’s jury-rigged fuel tank began to leak gasoline into the rear fuselage. A fire broke out and quickly spread to the rest of the aircraft.

    The cockpit crew escaped unharmed but cook/mechanic, Bob Vanderveen, who was visually monitoring the engines from the rear of the aircraft, suffered smoke inhalation and flash burns.

    Despite attempts to extinguish it from outside the plane, the fire raged and spread through the fuselage. The aircraft was largely destroyed on the ground, with the Kee Bird‘s fuselage and tail surfaces being completely destroyed. When the lake thawed in the spring, it was feared that the wreckage (with nearly intact wing panels and engines) would sink to the bottom.

    As of 2008, the aircraft sat, broken, on an ice shelf on the surface.

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    • B24 Liberators
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      I google because I'm not young enough to know everything.
      Nemo Mortalium Omnibus Horis Sapit

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      • Photo below depicts a C-47/ DC-3 that went down near Canaima, Venezuela, close to the Table Mountain from where the `Angel Falls` come down. This aircraft was visited by me in the year 2000 . It had made an emergency landing in this flat Sabana after one engine quit. With that, the crew was unable to maintain their altitude while they probably tried to make a landing on the nearby Canaima airstrip. Allegedly, the aircraft was overloaded with mining equipment. Others say it was more probably a Drugs Transport, but both options were illegal cargo, always prone for overcharging the aircraft. Later , the Left-Hand engine and all instruments, props etc were dismantled and taken out by helicopter. Those were valuable parts for the Rutaca and Servivensa fleets of 10 to 12 DC-3´s that were shuttling tourists from the Isla de Margarita to the Angel Falls/ Canaima National Park, in Southern Venezuela.
        The U.S. Coast Guard has always been there to help those in distress, but that doesn’t always mean ships in a storm. In the Fall of 1989, it meant running
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        I google because I'm not young enough to know everything.
        Nemo Mortalium Omnibus Horis Sapit

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        • The Sea Harrier Graveyard at Charlwood, Surrey
          Attached Files
          I google because I'm not young enough to know everything.
          Nemo Mortalium Omnibus Horis Sapit

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          • Half Blind Japanese Pilot Flies His Damaged Zero For 5 Hours, Then Refused Medical Attention Before Making His Report.

            Theirs Is the Glory is a British war film, made in 1946, that covers the Battle of Arnhem and the involvement of the British 1st Airborne Division’s in
            Attached Files
            I google because I'm not young enough to know everything.
            Nemo Mortalium Omnibus Horis Sapit

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            • The A-24 Banshee was the USAAF version of the US Navy's SBD-3 Dauntless dive bomber. Various models of the Banshee were flown by USAAF units in the Pacific from 1941 until the end of the World War II. The plane was officially retired in 1950. From 1947 to 1950 it carried the designation of F-24.


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              • A U.S. Air Force A-10C Thunderbolt II and a F-35 Lightning II fly in formation with a P-47 Thunderbolt and a P-38 Lightning during the 2017 Heritage Flight Training and Certification Course at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., Feb. 11, 2017.

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                • Technically a plane...



                  X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, back on earth after a 2 year orbit.

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