That is correct all the 109’s & He III ‘a were powered by the Rolls Merlin’s in the 1969 film, but still are a great plane for somebody to collect. Does anyone know what happened to the planes in this collection ? RIP Mr Edwards, a great pilot & a genuine guy !

Buchons

I believe they had 1 ME109 or at least he a 1 in his collection.

restoring the aircrafts would be like repainting a painting, it should be kept for and be for ppl to see

It's just paint from the movie, not service paint. Perhaps one should kept in the original movie paint for posterity.

The 109 that is based at Duxford UK is an ex BoB film aircraft and is painted in its film paint scheme, Yellow 7 I think,looks fantastic,seen it several times,they had Black 6 there for a few years too,a genuine DB 605 powered 109G,awesome. Rick

+michelle marshall The UK just got the Bf-109E from the Russell Group in Canada. The engine and prop are serviced and it probably will start flying for 2017. Another flying Emil for the UK is under rebuild in Germany.

Kenneth Cohagen plus the guys and girls from that era! few and far between now a days.

50sk that is amazing man. RIP. Mr CONNIE.

It was an honor to have meet him and his late son. The personal tour of the collection will always be a story to tell. Their typical warm Texan warm welcome to strangers and tails of San Batista's and Bay of pigs was my favorite. Now both gone. RIP Connie. RIP Tex.

The planes look rusty and in need of maintenance. I hope the collection is in safe hands and is getting the care it deserves.

Ondoeoed, respect... from the 🇬🇧

50sk : The Battle of Britain movie....when they used real planes and pilots before CGI .

De plus si on veut voler avec, il faut les équiper avec du marériel de navigation moderne !!

Pip, pip and tally ho.

Carmel Pule' Well said. In the words of Sir Winston Churchill- "never before, has so much been owed, by so many to so few".

Time

I remember being in Malta, it was a grand place to visit. As a matter of fact it was my first country that I had the pleasure to visit in the Mediterranean sea cruise onboard the USS Saratoga cva-60 the year was 1969. It wasn't my first country that I had been stationed in..that was Southeast asia Vietnam and that country had boogie men.. Viet cong gorillas nightmares comes over me and I wake up covered in sweat tears and NIGHTMARES flashbacks from a place in my old mind that I hope I never ever set foot on

Carmel Pule' These Buchons (Spanish ”ME 109’s”) only fought for Franco, the Spanish dictator. Connie Edwards met them, when participating in making the movie ”Battle of Britain”.

Ok Boomer!

Ummmmmmmmmmmm James Cagney had the starring role in said movie. But yes he does look like 'Connie' Edwards twin brother --- separated at birth. Hahahahahahahah !!!!!!!

Yep he just using it so people talk to him .... He die so and it get turned over by his kids don't worry fucker looks old

Connie is still alive. He is very well-known and has been a legend in the historic aircraft community for decades.

WolfKenneth sounds great but how many pilots have been killed "demonstrating" and destroying these old warbirds at air shows.

Then get out a vacuum cleaner, they won't even bother to build new engines for them.

+Tomasina Covell Restorers are making parts, but the demand for new engines would be low for the costs to create the tooling for them. It will be slow as 3D technology eventually makes it easier. Roll Royce will not license new Merlins to anyone. BMW and Mercedes are ashamed of their wartime involvement and are not really helping anyone restoring a DB engine or a BMW-801 engine.

They have been at Sywell aerodrome UK,now flying again very quickly as well.

They are in dry storage. Collecting dust isn't "rotting".

Bubba D

Bubba D The "Spitfire pilot's twitch"

Bubba D I know man I think he was wondering were he left all the keys there’s that many of em

I have PTSD and training was told awhile ago I'm always scanning I'll even look over my shoulders

And do what with it?

If it is really past restoration as in damaged beyond repair, then a plate glass top makes it into a fantastic conversation piece table, seen a couple of these and what an impressive piece of furniture....

@@derekstocker6661 you could melt them down and make cooking utensils.

4 years on, - didya get one yet ? There's still loads from back then, in the ground, still to be found (or the water). Good luck. HEY, if only the post war scrappers hadn't been so handy but, back then... Different times for sure.

Well he also did a fair amount of talking nonsense in this video... don't know how much you have done in your life, one would hope it was less. but hard to beat the amount of shit talk when a pilot says that a 109 would out turn a spitfire when the entire german Luftwaffe during WWII were acutely aware that if you turn with a spitfire you will lose and be shot down.. but okay... he flew some fake 109s built in spain with british engines that were in fact not REAL 109s and so he's the expert.

well he was 80 four years ago...I am sure his memory is pretty full...so inaccuracies are a liability of age....BoB made in 1960s?? most of that stuff considered SFS=Sale For Scrap! still a most impressive collection and be a shame to carve it up...it should all go to a trust or foundation that could put them flyable together..... the Confederate airforce he disses in video and others like it do a fantastic job of it and their Pearl Harbour "Act" is great theatre at airshow. ..something similar could be done in the same way of the Battle of Britan with authentic Vintage aircraft from that hanger.....the Allisons in Red are worth 250 grand and the merlins can run a cool million....I don't know why he is worried about money or bargin sale...he can't take it with him......and although not completely accurate info and models...still be great to have a whole wing of them...and pilots learning how to operate those old crates/Kites.... cut Connie some slack he outlived his son and sounds like he is a bit hard on equipment!! with Balls that big your allowed to exaggerate. ..makes storey more interesting

Richard Loveday of course richard, no doubt buckets of respect for the man, tho' it doesn't change the fact he's talking out of his backside about certain things here. taking the piss out of museums who keep their exhibits in beautiful condition while his are rotting in a barn is not cool. giving inaccurate account's of the historical capabilities of these aircraft is not cool either. sorry, of course you can't not have respect for him, but i call it as i see it too.

prix d'achat environ 1 million + 1 million pour le restaurer pour le faire voler !!

and so would the 'Bank Manager' !

robbietuned The worst guys are the ones that don't want to share their knowledge with you and it dies with them.

robbietuned how to set up magic pro platinum

there are skills but these old aircraft are no where near as complicated as later jet aircraft,,, pretty basic engineering i would say

These are spanish made copies with a rolls Royce merlin engines, spitfire later ones had a more powerful rolls Royce Griffon

Those Spanish want to be 109s were built after the war and called HA-1112s. They do not even look like a 109 with those motors and front ends.

slimchancetoo Yep, Ha 1112's.

slimchancetoo s

Shame ‘cause Mark Hanna died in one of those Spanish build planes.

slimchancetoo yup you can always tell the difference as me 109s have inverted daimler Benz engines plus they didn’t have four props

@@thetourettesgamer8851 ONE prop, with four BLADES.!!

I do that now and I don't care and it's a full stop.

All of those planes and equipment were very protected in that dry barn. He made a bet with someone over how many prop blades would turn before starting and they rolled one out and he won the bet. The planes have been sold to a European collector and will find good homes. Connie is an aviation legend.

Nickathome Smith I guess where you're from they didn't teach you what the word different means cuz it's to me it's a lot different those airplanes are being preserved in a building they are not rotting under a tree .maybe try finishing the third grade !!!!!!🖓🖓🖓🖓🖓🖓🖓

Nickathome Smith I had that happen. These damn old fools,they really think they can do stuff only young men can,yet in their own minds,they will live forever,and fix them back up. eventually thgey die and this stuff gets sold for peanuts.

TEEHT When you accuse someone of being stupid try not to look like an idiot yourself.Didn't they teach you proper grammer in school?

RC Hobbyist Extreme A tangent: There is a side to every old person that still pictures themselves as when they were young, in part this is because the perception of time is so warped. 0 to 18 yr.s old is as long as 18 to 80 with respect to how an individual perceives the passage of time. Childhood is as long as a long adulthood. That explains a lot of the disconnect from reality you mentioned. Old age sneaks up on everyone.

Bobbie Taco ..... I'm with the Texas Raider, a B-17G that looks as good as she flies.

His only son Tex, who was an great flyer passed away. He's doesn't have anyone else to hand it down to. Tex is the one that took me through the collection 10+ years ago, the Spitfire was flying as well as the 2 Catalina and several other sea planes. The collection was huge and it was really a small operation as far as staff was concern and they take a lot of maintenance each to keep flying.

Connie Edwards passed away in May 2019.

Not lucky, smart. In the Netherlands a supermarket owner has bought 2 spitfires. If you have money things are possible.

Unlike the Brits who masturbate to pictures of Spitfires 😂 🤣 In fairness, the Spitfire is perhaps the most GORGEOUS aircraft ever created. Much more attractive than British gals 😉

A lot of ww2 pilots would not agree with Connie concerning the Spitfire .Adolf Garland for one.

@ Wotdematter LMFAO !

I believe the armament of the Bf-109 E (2 x 7.62mm machine guns firing through the prop and 2 x 20mm cannons mounted in the wings) was much more effective than the 8 x .303 Browning machine guns of the Spitfire and the Hurricane, and they could climb and dive better thanks to fuel injection (in the early marques of the Spitfire and Hurricane, the engines had a carburettor fuel system which meant the engine often was starved of fuel momentarily when they entered a dive). The simple fact is the Bf-109 was inferior at turn fighting than both the Spitfire and the Hurricane. They were also disadvantaged during the Battle of Britain by their short range.

Ian Gibbons They're no better than scrap now.

no chance, not for ww2 warbirds

rotting away in his barnyard is a better end for them? and while he takes the piss out of museums which look after their aircraft... perhaps they would be scrap if he didn't take them... perhaps they would have ended up restored in a museum... who is to know, but rotting in his barn is not a good end for them either. and that's a fact

Ian Gibbons o

+Mycel The weren't worth anything in 1969 when he got them in lieu of payment for his movie work. The movie used about 50 CASA 2.111s for He-111 aircraft and when the movie finished the Spanish AF put them up for sale. The majority were scrapped with no buyers. It would be nice to have a few of those 2.111s to convert to He-111 today. Fortunately many of the Buchon fighters found collectors and are still around.

Ditto, producers will run out on payroll(60 +/- % of them you need to take their cash to bank and let it clear before you sign on because they are so notorious for paying with worthless checks especially near the end of the production as it shutting down, add small, local, and/or independent and the number goes up......) and they disband their film LLC/Incorporated company every few pictures/shows/circuits. Then there is nothing you can do. Despite the the same people in a newly formed and named LLC making money.... Yet when a film, a concert, tv show, circus, carnival, theatrical play, etc makes the nut and returns keeps going up, they don't give you any more pay but expect you take a loss if they do. A loss being defined as they didn't make as much profit as they wanted. Look at the film "Titanic" and how much it grossed but due to "creative" payout percentages for the producer, and others on the film, the accounting shows they didn't make any profit.....That is the business and how producers work/think. hence the long contracts(riders tell more about how someone has been screwed in the past) that spell out how a sandwich has to be a regular sized sandwich that the meat must fit the bread, etc, if it they are being fed instead of being allowed to leave and go eat elsewhere. If you can't get the money your best bet is anything of value because otherwise you're screwed. Labor laws? Not for people in the entertainment industry..... How much are you going to spend to get a court order against a bankrupt no longer in business, incorporated production company? Every ticket sold to a film shot in foreign country should be taxed as imported product but guess what else they duck. That is before you get into the all the money cities, states and countries pay to recruit the production to their area. The upper end can loose big but can also win big. A lot of hard working folks give up having a life to make productions happen and thrown to the side if injured or as soon as they are done. Work a hundred hour week? If you want to keep your job and you'll going to be unemployed within a week or two. Which your an independent contractor when it works to their advantage and not yours and the same thing as employee. IATSE and the Teamsters are needed to help make sure people get paid for the work they put in. A lot of people who work in the industry are expert craftsman and when you need experts to make sure details are right you need the collectors of items that are used to create any period or historical piece. Even Sci-Fi has to make sense. Production people are the ones that save the odd things most others don't. With the changing of the guard items that would be scrapped suddenly turn up for sale by family that only sees a quick buck and none of the love of preservation and enjoyment of items. With the internet the offspring are pricing out everything for when their loved ones die. It was worthless junk being hoarded until they found out how much one sold for then they have to get that much or more... Now if someone would just rescue that Cessna in the back of the shot at the beginning in the hanger.......

so should i scrap my ideas of being a grip and joining IATSE?

Same with the 'Blue Max' film,aircraft hidden away in Ireland at a stately home eventually one Fokker Dr.1 was stolen overnight surfacing years later,you can read into how he got those aircraft and a good job he did.

John Smith I was going to make an argument against yours about something but I feel dumb because you are totally right

Theese aircraft are an insult to the proper/original 109's and in my opinion should never have been allowed to be called a 109. The later "Buchon" versions of this monstrosity built by the Spanish used the rolls Royce Merlin engine. In fact, if you look closely, the front end of the buchon is almost identical to the spitfire (apart from the intake unde the motor, which looks like a sick smile). The original Daimler DB605 engine used in the real Messerschmitt is an inverted V, which gave the 109 it's lines and amazing looks. The Hispano engines and the Merlin are all normal V 12's, so they had to modify the entire front end of the aircraft to fit the totally different engines. They should be called FrankenMesserSchpit.

Thank you both for the info.......I knew they weren't 109's but didnt know what they were??. Was thinking they were modified Spitfires at first just for the movie.....

what will really sweat you off is they were Merlin powered

Dont call them ME-109's either.Official Luftwaffe Designation remained BF-109 through out the entire conflict,Messerschmitt's global reputation had grown to the point where the Air Ministry suggested changing his company's name from Bayerische Flugzeugwerke to Messerschmitt A.G.. but nothing official changed. Allied pilots began giving them the incorrect ME prefix in after action reports

wrong

smacdiesel: When he mentioned at the end getting his RAF "wings", and crashing during The Battle Of Britain, I momentarily took a double take, until I realised...…….

Was the crash landing intentional for the movie, or did the yank jerk wreck a perfectly good Spitfire ?

I don't think that's what he was saying at all.

@@mtk51 Alas. Thank you for posting this, Mark.

He's still bitter about his son getting killed.

Paul Lets not forget Hawker Hurricanes. Apparently they were responsible for shooting down the most bombers in the Battle of Britain.

TheCleansingx we can only hope so they are not just rotting if you are referring to the first guy

His only son was killed in a car accident, and no one left to take over the collection. I would bet your ass he would trade the entire lot to have his son back.

Probably all at once!

Ya but someone has the chance to buy and fly them again unlike a museum

That's a good question. If it had been sooner in time for the "Dunkirk" movie it might have been more epic with the air combat scenes.

@@raymondyee2008 No CGI was used in the filming of Dunkirk air scenes. And original Spitfire I was used that was incredible since it was what was used during the BofB in 1940. IMAX cameras were used in ways never tried before. I think the air battle scenes were THE BEST ever recorded as a result. www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/how-dunkirk-took-imax-cameras-theyd-never-gone-before-1023705

Fools gold ???, "An idiots ME-109" ??? No way. The Hispano HA-1112-M1L Buchon is NOT a massively altered Spanish knock off of the ME-109. It IS a basically an ME-109 with a Rolls Royce Merlin 500-45 (identical to a Merlin 24) engine. The engine, the engine bearers, the engine covers, the propellor and the armament are the only things that are different from a standard ME-109G-2. The Buchon's you see in this video are very valuable (and expensive !). With a Daimler-Benz 605A-1 engine the Buchon's can be modified to an almost original ME-109G.

They is really no need to cry since those are postwar spanish made ha-1112's.

Curtiss? Do you mean Packard who licence built the Merlin?

@@Slaktraxmy mistake, you are correct.

@@TorquilBletchleySmythe 🙂

They are Merlin powered

They where Hispano-Suiza powered but later some got converted for merlins.

most were Merlin powered from the start,no conversions. Merlin version was superior to the first few Suiza powered ones. CASA 2111 Heinkel 111 was also Merlin powered. Rick

WolfKenneth - I think Uncle Bullfrog is refering to the ones in the video which were all merlin powered 'scrap' engines leftover from WWII and the late 40's/early 50's. Most were Packard versions from XVIE's.

Almost as bad as an Avia

Richard Maguire. my uncle disagrees with him. he flew all three plus the 190 and said all were better than the 109.

Except for the fact that those are not 109s...

TheAspietunes. True.

By finally, you mean you stumbled upon someone who contradicts just about everything ever written about these types, including German pilots - and finally lines up with what YOU want to hear? I actually came here to specifically call out that point. If that was true I don’t think (certain parts) of the conflict would have played out the way they did.

All these aircraft had good & bad, but the 109 wasn't overall better than the Mustang, slightly better than the Spitfire. I'm afraid the P-51's were the overall best. Ultimately, availability of aviation fuel (and all that goes with it) and better livings pilots ruled the day

he annoys me by continually referring them as Me 109's THEY ARE NOT, yes they may be valuable as Me109 air frame based aircraft but they were made after the war in Spain as Casa buchons (for the Spanish air force who flew them up to the time they were retired just before filming the battle of Britain began...the He111's in the film too, were not heinkals at all but again were Casa built versions which had Merlin engines installed. Spain acquired a lot of the tooling and Jigs to allow limited production runs with these war time air frames after the war but not with the original engines and so the 109 and 111 based air frames were altered to allow the introduction of alternative power plants together with updated radios etc. Once again were built for the Spanish air force. In fact it was Spanish air force pilots who flew the majority (NOT ALL) of the German marked planes in the film.

Well spotted. Not too many people can see that. This guy doesn’t really know what he’s doing or talking about.

+Ian Ferguson Mr Connie Edwards was one of the lead pilots for the epic "Battle of Britain" film. He is old-school and is very respected in the aviation world. www.warbirdsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/Connie-and-Spits.jpg

FiveCentsPlease I meant zero disrespect to you or mr. Edwards. But this is a black and white issue. There is no middle. The bottom line is, if this guy can can throw millions of dollars around on aircraft that he doesn’t even know what it is, there is something working.

+ Ian Ferguson Edwards began buying old warplanes decades ago when they were worth very little. He has owned and flown many. He didn't buy those Buchons at all. The produces of the Battle of Britain film stiffed him on payment for his flying work in the film, so he took the Buchons and a Spitfire for payment instead. The Spanish AF was retiring them, and most of the Buchons were snagged by buyers. All but three or so of the CASA 2.111s were scrapped. Those Buchons are still in the movie paint. His Texas ranch is a mecca for warbird buyers.

David S they are indoors....

To the tune of over $15 + million. European and U.S. restorers.

B Perry is that what the collection went for 50 years after he got it.....he is no Warren buffet...but hope they went to appreciated homes and restorers of history.. do you have any other details..Connie dead now or still crashing shit etc etc?? I remember seeing Bob Hoover as a kid in his signature straw Bahama hat and thinking...Jesus is he old to be doing dead stick stuff like that....and that was 45 years ago!! 15 million was a gift. hope he got to spend it on his grand kids!

+Richard Loveday Connie is still kicking around. The planes went to a single collector and then were split between two collectors and are being refurbished for flight.

Yup! Those Rolls Royce engines were 1,600 hp Merlin 500-45

No prop plane will climb 31,000ft a minute let alone 57,000!

i think he added an extra '0' by mistake, meaning 3,100 & 5,700 fpm

+Bert Wragg Mr. Edwards passed away this year. The Buchons were sold several years ago and the rest of his collection is being sold one plane at a time. Some bastard stole some P-38 props from this property but serial numbers are traceable so they won't be able to sell them.