by Nick Anderson | Jun 22, 2021 | Plane Tales
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It was the 19th of January 1915 and the people of the English towns of Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn were woken by an eerie throbbing sound from above them. No-one there had ever heard it before, this deep rumble of powerful engines in the sky, slowly approaching in the darkness. People left their homes and looked into the inky black sky but nothing could be seen. The noise grew and, now alarmed at this strange roaring, they began to run but nobody was sure which way would be safe… they didn’t know if they were running towards danger or away! Then the blackness was cracked wide open by a bright flash, soon followed by the thunder of an explosion as bombs dropped on the defenceless people below. The full horror of aerial warfare had been unleashed on the people of England and when the smoke cleared, the first deaths revealed.
The bombing of Kings Lynn and Great Yarmouth.
A British recruitment poster.
A commemorative wall plaque.
Newspaper headlines of the day.
The Buckingham bullet.
Lt Warneford’s downing of the first Zeppelin by a fighter aircraft.
The L23 capturing the Norwegian bark, Royal.
Using Zeppelins in support of the German Navy was a primary mission and crashes became commonplace.
The world’s first deck landing on an aircraft carrier, the converted Battlecruiser HMS Furious.
Sopwith Camels onboard HMS Furious prior to the Tondern raid.
The aftermath of the Tondern raid on the Toska hangar.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to The Library of Congress, Christopher Braun, Geni, Crosby F Gordon, The War Illustrated, the Imperial War Museum, Marshall Everett, the Ministry of Defence and for images in the Public Domain.
by Nick Anderson | Jun 16, 2021 | Plane Tales
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Lieutenant Colonel Rob Sweet, after a 33 year career flying the Warthog, completed his final flight on the 5th of June 2021 at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia. As he climbed out he was met with a shower of champagne. I don’t regret going over there, fighting and getting shot down, Sweet said, that’s what I took an oath to do. The Air Force Chief of Staff, General Charles Brown said, with your retirement, it will be the first time in the history of our Air Force that we will not have a former POW serving. Thank you for all you’ve done. This is the story of Rob Sweet.
The venerable Spad (the A-1 Skyraider).
General Electric GAU-8/A beside a Volkswagen Beetle!
A comparison of size between a .303 round and that of the GAU-8.
The smoke created by the GAU-8 could be a problem when ingested into the engines.
An Iraq Republican Guard armoured vehicle.
The SA-3 Strela.
Rockeye bomblets.
Lt Col Sweet is finally released.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the USN, USAF, Samf4u, Defence Imagery, Department of National Defence, Vitaly V. Kuzminand and Johnny Saunderson.
by Nick Anderson | Jun 11, 2021 | Plane Tales
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Another foray into the log book as the Old Pilot starts work as a Qualified Flying Instructor at No 4 Flying Training School, RAF Valley.
Another course of newly minted QFIs
A Hawk T1 over RAF Valley on the island of Anglesey
Hawks in close formation
The Reds doing it properly in cloud and everything!
Flying solo in the Hawk
The Hawk doing aerobatics
The RAF Valley Summer Ball
Yours truly, B2 QFI
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the UK Ministry of Defence.
by Nick Anderson | Jun 1, 2021 | Plane Tales
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Looking back on the final years of the second world war its easy to forget that nobody knew quite when the conflict would end. Many aircraft were constructed and flown and were thought to be the pinnacle of fighting science at the time but we know little of them nowadays because the war ended and they never made it into service… they were no longer required. Here are a few.
The Supermarine Spitfire
The Republic Rainbow
The Martin Baker MB3
The Martin Baker MB5
The CAC Boomerang
The CA 15 Kangaroo
The HO 229
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, SDASM, USAF, Insomnia Cured Here, RAF, Martin Baker, IWM, Australian War Memorial collection John Thomas Harrison, US Army, Tomás Del Coro and the NASM.
by Nick Anderson | May 27, 2021 | Plane Tales
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A favourite old tale of the checkered history that brought about the Phonetic Alphabet and Op Brevity Code… retold.
A early radio
Send three and fourpence!
An early Army signals book
N for November
The NATO Phonetic Alphabet
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the US Army, an Unknown cartoonist, US Mint, Matthäus Mérian, Daiju Azuma, Screenland, Elmer Eustice Bucher, Generali, Master of Jean Rolin II, Mcj1800 and the Auckland Museum.
