by captjeff | Nov 8, 2020 | Plane Tales
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Orford Ness is a remote spit of marsh and shingle covered land that sticks out into the North Sea. Part of the chilly, windswept Suffolk coast of East England it became the secret location for a place where boffins could work on the latest experiments in aviation and nuclear weapons. It was also the place where one of the very last pilots to die in WW I would meet his end.
In ancient times, Orford Ness was home to smugglers!
Orford Ness in modern times, not far from Bungay!
The village of Orford with its medieval castle and Norman church.
The RFC version of interrupter gear.
A Martello tower.
A Heath Robinson cartoon.
The Bristol Fighter.
Beacon tower.
The Blue Plaque.
The Orford Ness Pagodas.
The experimental Over The Horizon radar codenamed Cobra.
The grave of Lieutenant Oliver Byerley Walters Wills, R.F.C. who was killed at Orford Ness a few hours before the end of WW1.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Ananias Appleton, Google Maps, the RAF, Alesey Komarov, Andrew Helme, Peter Norman, George Wolfe and Chris Gunns.
by captjeff | Oct 9, 2020 | Plane Tales
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I’ve done plenty of Tales about the triumphant aircraft of World War 2 that fought in the skies over Europe, Africa Russia and the Far East. Quite naturally, I guess, not so much is known about the horrible failures. Not all of the aircraft we will look at were quite that bad… many were just misguided ideas, old designs or put into the wrong role!
Vultee P-66 Vanguard.
The Vanguard with its original cowling design which gave insufficient cooling to the big radial engine.
The Vanguards at Karachi during their ill fated transit to China.
The Bell P39Q Airacobra.
The Airacobra with the big supercharger cooling vents that created so much drag.
The rather unusual, for a fighter that is, Airacobra cockpit door.
Guns blazing, the Airacobra was indeed quite well armed.
The RAF 601 Sqn with their renamed Caribou (Airacobra)… not much admired, the soon requipped with Spitfires.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to SADSM, USAF, Bill Larkins, WMFerguson, National Museum of the Air Force and the RAF.
by captjeff | Oct 3, 2020 | Plane Tales
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Any of Brien Wygle’s achievements would be enough for most of us to dine-out on for the rest of our lives. A World War 2 pilot who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying in active operations against the enemy. A man who flew Hump missions in a vulnerable C-47s and who saw three of his comrades go down in a single day. A pilot who volunteered to fly bombing missions for the fledgling Israeli Air Force, who taught Howard Hughes to fly jet aircraft and who became a notable test pilot and yet was one of the most unassuming people you would want to meet.
Much of Brien’s love of flying came from magazines and building model aircraft.
As a young man Brien saw a formation of Hurricanes which lit the flame of his desire to become a pilot.
Brien’s flying training started in the Tiger Moth.
Brien’s first operational type was the Douglas Dakota.
Brien spend much time in the Far East flying dangerous mump missions and supply drops to the Chindits.
Back in Canada, Brien got some rare jet time on the De Havilland Vampire.
Joining Boeing, Brein started work flying the B47.
Famously, Brien was the project test pilot for the Boeing 737.
Posing with Lew Wallick after a successful maiden flight of the B737.
Brien was also part of the crew that flew the maiden flight of the B747.
Brien Wygle passed away on the 15th of September 2929.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Phil Major, MOD, RAF, RCAF, Bill Barnes Magazines, USAF, RAF, Boeing Corporation.
by captjeff | Sep 25, 2020 | Plane Tales
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On the 18th of June 1940, Churchill stood in Parliament and gave a speech in which he stated that what General Weyland had called the Battle of France was over and that the Battle of Britain was about to begin. In the middle of this remarkable conflict was one Raymond Towers Holmes…
Sir Winston Churchill
Hermann Göring
Preparations being made for the invasion of Britain
Joseph Kennedy, the US Ambassador to Great Britain
Adolf Hitler
The Me 110
The Supermarine Spitfire
The Hawker Hurricane
The Me 109
Battle of Britain pilots
The coverage of Chain Home
Chain Home operators
Arty Holmes in his fighter
Dog fights over London during the Battle of Britain
Dornier Do 17s
The secret weapon flamethrower
The Do17 without its tail plunges down towards Victoria Station
Wreckage of the Do17 that Arty brought down
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to BiblioArchives, Bundesarchiv, the RAF, Wide World Photos, ROC, Adrian Pingstone, Imperial War Museum and the British Official Histories.
by captjeff | Sep 19, 2020 | Plane Tales
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I was recently digging through some old airline paperwork and came across a delightful booklet from my old airline entitled Cabin Address from the Flight Deck – briefing notes and suggestions. The booklet is more than 20 years old so the content might, on occasions, fail to reflect current sensitivities but I thought it worth digging into so that I could share some of its suggestions with you.
Images with kind permission of cartoonist Capt John Reed AKA Figment.
by captjeff | Sep 13, 2020 | Plane Tales
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Little Nellie was a rare breed of aviatrix the name of which has its origins in Ancient Greek. In more modern parlance, we have the familiar name autogyro… literally meaning self-turning. The way they work is the same way as a seed from a tree like a Sycamore flies and flying an autogyro is a novel form of taking to the air but one that saved 007!
Juan de la Cierva – the First Count.
The world’s first autogyro, Ciervas’s C1
A replica of the C6
The Cierva C9
The Pitcairn autogyro showing the rotor drive shaft
The RAF’s autogyro
A stamp commemorating the Russian TsAGI 1EA
The Fairy Rotordyne
The Bensen gyrocopter
Mailman Doug’s gyrocopter on the west lawn of the Capitol after he was taken into custody.
The Focke Wulf Fw-61
Little Nellie
A modern autogyro
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to L’Aéronautique magazine, Pascual Marín, Gyromike, Diego Dabrio, Johannes Thinesen, NASA, Post of Soviet Union, NACA, Fair Use, Cheesy Mike and Asterion.
