Open house at Wright Field

Flight Journal, Aug 1999 by Peterson, L W

In late March, the "Open House at Wright Field"-at the U.S. Air Force Museum (AFM), Dayton, Ohioreminded us of the days toward the end of WW II when captured foreign warplanes were being tested over the fields of Ohio. On the ramp in front of the restoration shops, the Museum briefly displayed examples of three, very rare, WW II German Luftwaffe aircraft.

Lined up in the early spring sunshine were the AFM's just restored and freshly painted Messerschmitt Me 109G-10, its possibly soon to be traded Me 109G (a former Spanish-built, Merlin-powered Bouchon that had been converted to a Daimler-engine German version) and its Junkers Ju.52, which the Museum, for a long time, assumed was of Spanish origin. New information gives the AFM staff good reason to believe that it is, in fact, a Germanbuilt Ju.52.

Recovered from Eastern Europe, the Me 109G-10 is a combat veteran that has been immaculately restored for Cal Smith's Evergreen Aviation by Darrell Skurich in Ft. Collins, Colorado. The small-airframe, large-engine version of the famous G-10 Luftwaffe fighter is one of the last production models of this long-serving design, which mates a 2,000hp engine with a notoriously small airframe.