
A Christmas Story
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‘Twas the night after Christmas, when all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…
All images produced by Nick Anderson Photographic
Podcast (pt): Download
‘Twas the night after Christmas, when all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…
All images produced by Nick Anderson Photographic
Podcast (pt): Download
It’s starting to look its age, it’s frayed at the edges, wrinkled and has bits that might fall off. No, not me, my first venerable old Royal Air Force logbook. So before it comes apart completely, I think it might be time to punish you again with a few more stories from its pages.
Images under Creative Commons Licence with thanks to Daderot National Electronics Museum, the Royal Air Force, UK Crown, Mike Freer of Touchdown Aviation, USAF and the US Gov.
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Many of my aviation heroes are complicated people of nuance and contradiction but not this man. As I reflect on his life, so recently ended, I remind myself of his uncompromising, direct manner but also of his enormous courage and skill that brought Charles Edward Yeager to the world’s attention.
Yeager joined the Air Force as a Private and became a mechanic but he soon made his way into pilot training.
Yeager finally took the X!, now named Glamorous Glennis, over Mach 1 becoming the first to break the sound barrier.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to SMU Central University, USAF National Museum and the USAF.
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The RAF Chinook helicopter has proved to be a versatile and determined workhorse for the British Armed services but none more so than the airframe Bravo November. This remarkable machine was the sole surviving Chinook of the Falklands war and it continued to operate in many operations in the Middle East. Even more remarkable was the bravery of it’s pilots, four of whom received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Royal Air Force, SPC Glen Anderson, the Argentine Navy, the Imperial War Museum, USN, Jefediahspringfield, Martin Sgut, Martin Otero, Royal Marines and the Ministry of Defence,
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When examining pilot deaths in WWI it was discovered that 90% were put down to pilot errors whereas only 2% were due to enemy action! Things didn’t improve in WW2 either. A lowly 23 year old analyst challenged the assumption that cockpits should be designed to fit the Average Pilot. This is the story of Human Factors in Aviation.
The USAF conducted a large study into the size of their men to discover the dimensions of the average pilot.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the US Congress, Frederik de Wit, the Deseronto Archives, the USN, the Australian War Museum, Henry Vandyke Carter and Airbus.
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Having recently talked about of couple of embarrassingly awful US World War 2 aircraft it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t mention some from my side of the Atlantic that were knocked together in the jolly old British Isles! Sadly, there are way too many to cover so I’ll just take a deep breath and mention a few!
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Boulton & Paul Ltd, Airfix, the RAF, Air Historic Branch RAF, RN, and The Australian War Memorial Collection,