Alfa engined planes and a hats off to Mr.DiMatteo

[Milanogold@xxxxxxx]

Mr.DiMatteo and all other Alfisti,
       Good to see you back on the digest;hope the vacation was peaceful and
happy for you and the missus.
        FYI, there's a b-29 (fifi) and the B-24(Diamond lil) currently on
tour, they're owned by the Confederate Air Force from Midland,TX (talk about
hot and high takeoffs!)Their B-24 is actually a C-87 cargo transport (number
003 off the production line) ;it's even rarer than the other B-24 still
flying.It took guts to fly something like that,sir.Especially in the CBI
theatre,Whoa!!!!!!!!!!!!Both planes were at the Manassas,VA airport about a
month ago;they offer tours and flights to build up maintenance and fuel money
for these gorgeous (fuel and oil hungry) birds.I'm a dedicated aircraft nut
(got my pilots license almost at the same time as my driver's license.Learned
to drive a stick on my brother in law's 78 Alfetta sedan and took my first
airplane ride in a Stearman.What a rush!!!!!!!!)Also, don't know if you had
experience with the B-36, but I hear one is being restored to flight condition
(a J model)by employees of "Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth,TX.Heard it was the
one destined for the Mather AFB museum in CA when the base was shut down.The
parts were contained  in 13 rail boxcars! 
        Regarding the Alfa engined plane in the National Air and Space Museum
in Washington DC, it is an AeroMacci (poor spelling)MC202.It was a front line
Italian fighter,and was in it's day considered to be a contemporary of the
ME-109E models/Spitfire MkV/P47B genre.The motor is an alfa built
1000Rc-41-1.This is an inverted vee V12 motor with fuel injection(to
facilitate inverted flight;by comparison,the Spit Mk5 had carbs, which would
starve for fuel in inverted or prolonged neg-G flight.)The motor in the MC202
was not Alfa designed, rather it's a license built Daimler Benz DB-605LA
(German designed; it had Bosch mechanical fuel injection.)The LA designation
means that it has a lower compression that allowed usage of lower octane fuels
(the 97 octane C3 fuel, rather than the higher octane fuels used in other
applications of this motor, like the Me109G/H and K series.Believe alfa built
the prop as well, it appears to be a Hamilton Standard type design.The
restoration of this plane is 100%,I'd love to see under the cowling of this
airplane.    
          I will happily snap some photos of this plane,or do a camcorder tour
of the museum for interested Alfisti(Any excuse to go to this museum, my wife
tells me).Please respond to me by email off the digest at MILANOGOLD@domain.elided.
Thanks, 
Terry and Sharon Akins
Alexandria,VA
1987 MilanoGold 2,5 (Alfie)
1984 GTV-6 (Vito)
1989 Toyota Celica GT (Wife's car,unnamed and unloved)
and other assorted bits of automotive flotsam and jetsam

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