by Nick Anderson | Aug 29, 2022 | Plane Tales
Podcast (pt): Download
Arguably one of the most talented and innovative aircraft developers of his time, John Knudsen Northrop had long sought an aircraft design that could start a revolution… a craft with minimum drag and a level of lift unachievable in any other form. Jack, as John Northrop was usually known, pursued his dream of building a pure flying wing strategic bomber that would exceed the capabilities of anything else his less imaginative competitors were designing.
The gliders of Otto Lilienthal
The Armstrong Whitworth AW-52
The Avion/Northrop Experimental No1 pusher
The remains of a Horton flying wing
The Northrop N1M
Nortons XB35
The XP-79 fighter
The XB-49
The YB-35s being broken up at the cancelation of the project
The final successful B-2 Spirit
Images shown under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the USAF, the Library of Congress, Northrop, National Museum of the Air Force, Michael.katzmann, the IWM, Sanjay Acharya, the National Archive and NASA.
by Nick Anderson | Aug 29, 2022 | Plane Tales
Podcast (pt): Download
It was an unpopular aircraft because, well… a lot of aircrew were superstitious. They were renown for carrying lucky charms, doing things a certain way and never daring to change the habit because it worked for them last time. Their machine was a B17 nicknamed Old 666 taken from the last 3 digits of its tail number 41-2666 and they were the Eager Beavers!
Old 666
The Martin B-26 Marauder
The B-17 bombing Japanese shipping North of Australia
The B-17’s waist guns
The route for their recce sortie over Bougainville
The Japanese Zero
A Zero passes close aboard
The damage to Old 666
The brave crew fight the Zeros off
Jay Zeamer receives his Medal of Honor
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the USAAF, Mark Wagner, USAF, USAAC, Gary Fortington, US National Archives and Records Administration, SDASM, Steve Jurvetson and those in the Public Domain or orphaned.
by Nick Anderson | Aug 29, 2022 | Plane Tales
Podcast (pt): Download
The conclusion of one of the hardest flying courses in the Royal Air Force, the QWI course. What faced us was the culmination of all our efforts over the past months of flying in the form of a week of intense work, drawing together everything we had learned. We had to fly a series of missions against all comers, demonstrating our level of leadership, control, tactics, formation management, aggression and skill. These sorties were complex and demanding, involving tactics we devised to allow us to fly without the use of the radio from start to finish.
The RAF’s F4 Phantom
The East German border
The Nicholson Trophy for best student on the course
Off to a specialist burns unit in an RAF Search and Rescue Sea King
Packing up our married quarter for Australia
The delights of Hong Kong
My tropical uniform
The last leg to to Australia
Our little married Quarter at RAAF Williamtown
Meeting our neighbours at street BBQ
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF and the author.
by Nick Anderson | Aug 29, 2022 | Plane Tales
Podcast (pt): Download
The 1920’s and 30’s were times of radical societal changes, particularly in the freedoms that women then demanded. The suffragette movement, the contributions made by women in the first world war and other dramatic events had clearly shown that forward looking women were no longer going to be content with the roles that men decided they were suited for. Aviation played its part in allowing women the freedom to tackle challenges that were previously denied to them, a fight for equality continues to this day. It is right that we celebrate those early pioneers who took to the air and led the way.
The Suffragette movement which paved the way for woman’s emancipation
Will Hay, one of Amy’s flying instructors
Amy’s planned route to Australia
Amy’s Gypsy Moth, “Jason”
Amy in India
Amy arrives in Australia
An Airspeed Oxford and notice of Amy’s “MISSING BELIEVED KILLED,” telegram
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to those in the Public Domain, the National Library of Australia, the UK National Archives, Bob Brown, the Queenslander, SADSM and those of unknown copyright.
by Nick Anderson | Aug 29, 2022 | Plane Tales
Podcast (pt): Download
An air hostess calmly walked through the crashing airliner telling the passengers, “Please fasten your safety-belts. Keep your seats.” Then she returned to the galley near the tail, sat herself down… and waited. One of the passengers had seen oil spurting from an engine and on the flight deck, Captain Anderson was nursing his aircraft in. The engine had failed not long after takeoff following that massive oil leak and this aircraft didn’t have a good reputation for single engined flying.
An Airwork Viking
The Nene powered Viking
The BEA Viking that survived a bomb explosion intended to bring the aircraft down
Airwork employed a number of Vikings that flew as far afield as South Africa
The aftermath of the crash
Air Hostess Beryl Rothwell
Capt Anderson’s youngest son, Nicholas James
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Norsk Luftfartsmuseum, BAe, the Daily Sketch, the AAIB, UK Gov, Vickers and Ruth AS.
by Nick Anderson | Jul 4, 2022 | Plane Tales
Podcast (pt): Download
Whilst we are discussing quaint idioms, many of us trust that old American adage, “If it looks good, it’ll fly good” attributed to both Neil Armstrong and Bill Lear and is something that all pilots understand. There is something about a fine looking aircraft that makes it appear trustworthy and gives one confidence that it will perform well. Sadly, I know of one company, however, who seem to have looked at their aircraft through bottle bottom glasses… or perhaps they never got the memo.
The Dunne D5
The Type 184
The Cardington Gasbag
The Shorts S38
The Singapore
The Shorts Empire flying boat
The Sunderland
The COW gun
The Sunderland’s internal bomb racks
The Sunderland’s rest facilities
The Bombay
The long legged Stirling
The unlikely looking Seamew
Hurel-Dubois Miles 106 Caravan
The Shorts SC 7 Skyvan
The Shorts SD360
The coolest Skyvan ever… Pink!
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Marinha do Brasil, Short Bros of Cardington, the RAF, Shorts, the Library of Congress, SADSM, George Jackman, the Royal Navy, Adrian Pingstone, Tomás Del Coro and those images orphaned or in the Public Domain.
