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.
by Nick Anderson | May 20, 2021 | Plane Tales
Podcast (pt): Download
Air Law is something that all pilots must have some knowledge of or they wouldn’t be awarded a licence or certificate… it’s required knowledge. Having said that, it’s a long way from being simple and even a qualified Air Transport pilot will only have scratched the surface. In the Air Force, one might have assumed that things would have been pretty tight and mutiny unheard of.
Let me set you straight!
Early balloons
An aircraft Commander
The Signals Corps in a balloon basket
The Freeman Field mutiny
Lt Bill Terry
The RAF in Karachi
The RAF mutiny
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Library of Congress, US Army,the RAF and the RAF Museum.
