Memorial Flight

[Richard T Eger]

This site was pointed out to me by Bertrand Hugot. The address of the site is:

http://memorial.flight.free.fr

for the French language version, and:

http://memorial.flight.free.fr/indexuk.html

for the English language version.

I'm not sure whether it is my computer or an issue with the site, but it never seemed to finish downloading. However, if you hit "stop", it will finally appear.

Taking directly from the home page:

"The Memorial Flight is a non-profit organisation formed in 1988 which aims to preserve French and European aeronautical heritage. Thanks to a close partnership with the Musée de l'Air et de l'espace, our action is mainly centered on an interesting period of our history in the field of technology and mankind: the First World War.

The Association started with the complex restoration to flying condition of an original SPAD XIII C1. The current flyable aeroplanes are a Fokker DR-I, a Blériot XI² and a RAF SE5a reproduction, an original Morane AI type XXIX and a Dassault MD311 Flamant. Other projects include a Fokker DVII, an Albatros DIII Oeffag , a Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter 1B2 and the static restoration of the He 162 n°120015 on behalf of the Musée de l'Air."

Bertrand has further added:

"Thanks to a close partnership with the Musee de l'Air et de l'Espacce, their action is mainly centered on an interesting period of our history in the field of technology and mankind: the First World War but the Memorial Flight Association has been asked to restore the He 162 nr 120015 on behalf of the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace. This airplane being one of the last survivors and one the few practically complete.

When the British Forces occupied Leck on May 15 1945, they found 27 He 162 on the airfield. Five were turned over to the French in Feb 1946 ; two A-1 version wnr. 310012 "red 7 " and wnr. 310003 "yellow 5" ; three A-2 version, wnr. 120093 "white 2" , wnr. 120223 "yellow 1" and wnr. 120015. The A-2's were flown with french markings from April 1947 to July 1948. Wnr. 120015 was painted in a single colour of grey/beige and bore the nr. 2. It was flown for most of the tests totalling nearly 14 hours on a total
amount of 18 hours of flight tests ; each flight lasting approximately 20 to 30 mn ; this enabled about 30 French Air Force pilots to get a glimpse of jet flying, pending the arrival of British Vampires in 1949.

More infos and prints of the restoration are here :
http://memorial.flight.free.fr/
go to "English version" and choose The news.

Parallel with this project, one of the researcher wrote a remarkable article in the french magazine AFM. In the issue n°6 there are a lot of prints and infos never seen before.

Other link is this french board and the author discuss about this french He 162 :

http://www.aerostories.org/~aeroforu...hp?nummsg=7080
&
http://www.aerostories.org/~aeroforu...hp?nummsg=7426 "

Thanks, Bertrand, for your site write-up.

Regards,
Richard