Plane Tales: Recent Episodes
Capt Nick
With the influx of new Airbus airframes, Virgin needed more pilots and not just to occupy the right hand seat… there were opportunities for promotion to Captain much earlier than had been the norm. When I joined the time to command was about 8 years. Looking back I did my first sector with Virgin in July 1994 and it was now November 96, 2 years 4 months later and I was already starting my pre-command training.
A typical month of Tornado flying might accru 25 hours in 15 sorties. As an airline pilot I could easily do that in 2 sectors!
Who wouldn’t want an expenses paid trip to a tropical island?
We were headed to the fabled island home of the extinct Dodo
The result of a Flight Management computer issue was commonly the PLEASE WAIT message
When the Kai Tak IGS approach wasn’t available, we would usually get a VOR approach over Chung Chau and Stonecutters island
Roy and Curly certainly pulled my leg!
The pre command Sim was certainly a challenge
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Jeppesen Charts.
And my heart went! Thump, thump, thump; thump, thump!
I was lying in the King Edward the 7th hospital imagining Phil Collins playing drums on my heart while watching the monitor and wondering how I was going to support my family after I’d been permanently grounded with this condition that had come right out of the blue. The specialist had confirmed my GP’s diagnosis of…
Digoxin was a plant extract from Foxgloves used as far back as Roman times!
Good old Cookie.
The brilliant Professional Pilot’s Rumour Network
JFK in the snow
The fleet of snow ploughs
Getting airborne in a blizzard
Finally emerging from a line of thunder storms
The Master Warning activates
Images used under the Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Royal Air Force, the Civil Aviation Authority, The Roman 13th Legion, and the PPRUNE website.
We last spoke to Basam when he was doing his Jet Upset Training but now that he has his dream job it was appropriate that we should chat again on one of his London layovers. In particular, he is flying around a war zone which presents additional challenges to a civil airline pilot.
Basam in London near St Paul’s Cathedral
Post interview
A flock of seagulls had chosen that moment to break ground from the grass beside the runway and fly across our path. They disappeared under the nose as we climbed away and cleaned the aircraft up… no noise of an impact but then we noticed the No 2 engine’s N1 vibration number was pulsing and reading a bit high. So starts another Tale from my flying logbook.
Marauding seagulls at Shannon
The A340 Cockpit
Setting the landing flaps to Config 3
JFK VOR to 22L
The route LHR to HKG
Landing at Kai Tak
Trying to maintain landing recency
Images published under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Nick Anderson, Google Maps and the FAA.
The next tale from my RAF Logbook, albeit now being filled with civilian flights for Virgin Atlantic Airways…
A Virgin A340-300 going round the checkerboard at Kai TAk airport, Hong Kong.
The checkerboard approach from the flight deck.
The treasured Hong Kong landing authorisation card.
The A340 fuel tank layout.
The result of the Air France ground fire.
Iqaluit Airport
The beautiful and historic town of Narita
Flight over Russia
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the author, the BEA, Airbus, Iqaluit Airport historic society, BruceBlaus and Peterhcharlton.
The second part of an interview with Alan Munro, retired RAF pilot and Cold War warrior, where we talk about his book… Fast Jets on the Front Line.
A 19 Sqn F4 Phantom
A 228 OCU F4 Phantom
An RAF Chinook helicopter
The back seat of a Phantom
Berlin’s infamous Checkpoint Charlie
The RAF’s Winter Survival Course
Images published under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Rob Schleiffert, Gerard van der Schaaf, The RAF/MOD, the US Army,
In this tale we listen to part of an interview with author Alan Munro who talks about his recent book, Fast Jets on the Front Line.
Interviewing Alan
The Gloster Javelin
A 29 Sqn F4 Phantom
The RAF’s Harrier GR1
Images are shown under the Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, Alan Munro, Hawker Siddeley and Nick Anderson.
A tale that might have been forgotten but here it is from APG670!
This tale isn’t about me operating into the massive aviation hub of Chicago O’Hare Airport but of how it got its name. For that, I’m going to take you back into Chicago’s seedy past to the days of Prohibition and the notorious gangster, Al Capone.
Enjoying a beer in Chicago!
Destroying beer during Prohibition.
Al Capone and Easy Eddie
Capone’s mug shot
The murder of Easy Eddie
VF3
The Thatch Weave
O’Hare and his Wildcat
O’Hare is presented with the Medal of Honor
A tribute to Edward O’Hare at the airport that bears his name
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Library of Congress, the US Gov, the FBI, the USN, the Cradle of Aviation Museum, the Newberry Library, Raysonho and the National Archives.
Delving into my log book yet again I recall thatI had flown a couple of supernumerary trips to John F Kennedy airport in New York, sitting in the back of the cockpit watching how it was done but now it was my turn to clamber into the hot seat to start my line training with Virgin Atlantic. I was also flying with the Chief Pilot so absolutely no pressure!
Compared with the Airbus A340, the old Boeings were beginning to look a bit like dinosaurs!
The confusion of aircraft flying over the Atlantic only really became apparent when they were all leaving contrails!
With the early MCDUs it was possible to outpace the processor that was trying to keep pace with your key presses.
Despite the plethora of satellites whizzing around the world, the world of aviation still often relied on old fashioned HF radios for communication.
The data we used to plot our position on maps came from the same source as that that guided the aircraft!
I was surprised to see that this famous airport still regularly used approach aids common in much less developed countries.
Images used under a creative commons licence with thanks to Nick Anderson, NATS, Airbus and the UK Gov.
From the French word saboter, sabotage refers to the act of bungling, botching or wrecking something, particularly for political or military aims. It is derived from the French word for a wooden shoe, a sabot and likely refers to clumsy work carried out by those peasants who clattered about in such simple footwear. The world of aviation escaped known acts of sabotage until 1933 when a sleek and streamlined Boeing 247 of United Air Lines Flight 23 taxied to the departure gate at Newark Airport to allow it’s passengers to embark. At a time when most airlines were flying flimsy wood and cloth biplanes that looked like old World War One bombers, and indeed many were, Boeing were ahead of the game.
The Boeing 247
An early 247 with the forward sloping windshield flying for the Royal Air Force
Passengers embarking on a United 247 NC13345 which later crashed into a hill in dense fog and burned.
J Edgar Hoover’s letter closing down the sabotage investigation
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Boeing, the SDASM, the RAF, United Airlines, the Library of Congress, the Chicago Tribune and the FBI.
I’m sorry dear listener but the logbook stories continue unabated with the next instalment. I had been inducted into Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd and, after completing the type rating technical exam we were dispatched to the heart of Airbussery, Toulouse in France, to undergo their simulator training course. There were about 10 of us but, other than our sim partner, we didn’t have a lot of time to get to know each other with our busy month long schedule.I’d been paired up with a 340 pilot from the Northern Isles of Scotland and was all set to pick his brains on the subject until I discovered he had been flying the SAAB 340, a little Swedish twin engined turboprop.
Lufthansa A340
The World Ranger livery
When your instructor says, “Bof!”
Breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner!
Cordes
Pool drill with the Cabin Crew
The Queen opens Queen’s Building
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to MarcelX42, Airbus, HM Gov, Heathrow Airport, Cordes tourist board, Nick Anderson Photographic and Mid Journey AI.
I’m sorry dear listener but the logbook stories continue unabated with the next instalment. I had been inducted into Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd and, after completing the type rating technical exam we were dispatched to the heart of Airbussery, Toulouse in France, to undergo their simulator training course. There were about 10 of us but, other than our sim partner, we didn’t have a lot of time to get to know each other with our busy month long schedule.
The SAAB 340… a little smaller than the A340!
Lufthansa A340, the A340 launch customer.
The World Ranger paintwork
A340 Sim
Cordes, France
Door training
Pool training
First time in the Black Pyjamas for real!
Taking G-VSKY into the air for the first time
Circuits at Manston
Job done!
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Ronnie Robertson, MarcelX42, Simaero, Clément Gruin and Nick Anderson.
In earlier decades, the early demise of pilots was mainly based on empirical evidence and based on the well publicised news of an ex colleague’s early death. However, in 1992, the time when I was putting in my papers to leave the RAF to pursue a life as an airline pilot, the Flight Safety Foundation published a study which seemed to confirm that pilots died at a younger age than the general population. The oft quoted statistics that a retiring pilot would only have 5 years to enjoy their pensions was quoted… BUT WAS IT TRUE!
Early pilot death has been assigned to the myth that, as a work group we are prone to a tragically short retirement down to ‘flight line talk’ and that each time an airline pilot dies shortly after retiring the hypothesis of early death is reborn and reinforced in this weak minded group of grounded gossipers! (I said that last bit)
The 1992 study which expressed mortality data as percentages is now considered an “interesting” method and apparently, dare I say it, “inappropriate”!
This information is quoted by a large fiduciary investment company based in Dubai. They quote a Boeing Aerospace actuarial study of life span based on age at retirement. Boeing deny ever producing this study.
The Flight Safety Foundation later published this study by, amont others, the Wright State University School of Aerospace Medicine and the US Federal Aviation Administration Civil Aeromedical Institute
The comparison group of the general population used was that of US white males.
Please feel free to discus
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Flight Safety Foundation and AI generated images.
So the logbook tales continue. I am out of the RAF and seeking an airline job but in the downturn there are few available. In the meantime I am working for British Aerospace flying Tornado F3s on trials flights. I had also been given the chance to deliver a Hawk 100 series trainer to the Royal Malaysian Air Force. I left you at Bangkok having turned a brand new aircraft into a blow torch and nearly cooking an inquisitive guard.
Flying the last leg to RMAS Butterworth
We complete our 7,000 NM to Malaysia
Chasing the towed decoy trials
Some of Hoppy’s aircraft had parted company
We soon passed 600 knots and slipped through the sound barrier without a ripple
I went off to a little commercial uniform shop to pick up my first of the 4 different Virgin Atlantic uniforms I would wear over the next 25 years.
The Flight Crew Operating Manuals, from which they picked facts at random to put into the question paper.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Mid Journey AI and Nick Anderson.
Colin will be visiting California in a few weeks and will speak at the Voices of Valor Gala Dinner, A Tribute to the Greatest Generation, to be held at the Palm Springs Air Museum California Gala Dinner on the 8th of February 2025. https://palmspringsairmuseum.org/gala/
Colin Bell telling us his story
The cockpit of a Mosquito
The Canadian Mosquito factory at Downsview, near Toronto, Ontario
RAF bomber crews eating their traditional breakfast after a mission
One of Chilon of Sparta’s famous quotes
Colin beside a painting of his Mosquito
Female German Army personnel and an AA gun battery
The dreaded white light indicating the presence of a Luftwaffe Me262 night fighter
Colin standing by an Me262 jet fighter showing us what he thought of being chased by one
The book of their exploits written by Colin’s navigator’s son
Images shown under a Creative Commons licence with thanks to Fotoafdrukken Koninklijke Luchtmacht, the Royal Air Force, the IWM and images in the Public Domain.
This Tale is a continuation of the interview of World War II pilot Flight Lieutenant Colin Bell DFC. At the age of 103, Colin recalls with perfect clarity what it was like to fly his De Havilland DH 98 Mosquito bomber into action as part of a Pathfinder Squadron. This Tale is the second part of the interview with Colin, the opportunity for which I have to thank my old friend Bob Judson. Having had a high ranking career in the RAF, Bob is now a consultant in the field of psychological, life and executive coaching and has a podcast, Leading 4 Life, which explores leadership in the stories of his own life and those told by his many illustrious guests, such as Colin. Bob was kind enough to allow me to share in this opportunity to interview Colin. If you want to take advantage of Bob’s services or listen to his free podcast then check out his website, here: https://www.leading4life.co.uk/ and his great podcast here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2227500
The Nissen Hut was wartime emergency accommodation with a single coal burning heater. It was notoriously cold in the winter.
A No 608 Squadron Mosquito, B Baker March, takes off from RAF Downham Market
Bomber Command aircrew mission briefings
RAF Bombers attacking Berlin with Pathfinder flares below them
Most of Colin’s bombing attacks were made as individual aircraft
Colin Bell talking to us during his interview
Hanover under attack from US forces during a daylight raid
Germani Anti Aircraft Artillery
A Mosquito formation
A period description of how OBOE functioned
The bar of the Crown Hotel Downham Market
A Focke Wolf FW190A similar to the type that employed the Wild Boar tactic
Jimmy Stewart who flew the B17 and B24 in operational missions and became a Brigadier General in the USAF
Colin stands beside one of the few remaining Mosquitos
Images shown under a Creative Commons Licence with thanks to Mark Vickers, Colin Bell, the RAF, Bert Verhoeff, the Australian War Memorial collection, the IWM, RAF Bomber Command, German Federal Archives, the USAF and the USAAF.
You are sitting in your airliner and the handsome, pretty or in a non-binary sense cute, elegant, lovely or in a non exclusive way charming, fine, interesting or personable flight attendant is standing in front of you to demonstrate the safety features of your aircraft. Hopefully if you enjoy the airline pilot guy enough to be listening to this you might have more than just a passing interest in what safety equipment there is onboard the average big, well equipped, airliner.
Most airlines show the gender-specific pronouns that are typically used to refer to people in the way they identify
Door Arming controls
Girt Bar system that can be found on older style aircraft
Steph beside ‘her’ emergency exit
Slide use in theory and in practice
Disobeying safety instructions can lead to increased danger and possible loss of life
The early days of air travel
Jack Grant, an Australian, who invented the modern inflatable slide and won the Cumberland trophy
Aircraft safety equipment
Halon (halo-genated hydrocarbons) are the world’s best fire extinguishing chemicals but banned from manufacture
Safety cards through the history of aviation
Images are used under a Creative Commons licence with thanks to Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd, Airbus, Oleg Bkhambri (Voltmetro), Boeing, Dr Steph, Marc-Antony Payne, Qantas Airways Ltd, John Collier, the Library of Congress, The Museum of Civil Aviation and SOC.
It is rare to have the opportunity to meet one of the brave young men who flew and fought in the Second World War so I was delighted to be able to talk to Flight Lieutenant Colin Bell DFC. At the age of 103, Colin recalls with perfect clarity what it was like to fly his De Havilland DH 98 Mosquito bomber into action as part of a Pathfinder Squadron. This Tale is just the first part of the interview with Colin, the opportunity for which I have to thank my old friend Bob Judson. Having had a high ranking career in the RAF, Bob is now a consultant in the field of psychological, life and executive coaching and has a podcast, Leading 4 Life, which explores leadership in the stories of his own life and those told by his many illustrious guests, such as Colin. Bob was kind enough to allow me to share in this opportunity to interview Colin. If you want to take advantage of Bob’s services or listen to his free podcast then check out his website, here: https://www.leading4life.co.uk/ and his great podcast here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2227500
Flt Lt Colin Bell DFC RAF
The lonely and dangerous job of a tail gunner
The PT17 Stearman
The Vultee BT-13A Valiant
The North American AT-6 Texan trainer AKA the Harvard.
The Bristol Blenheim
The de Havilland DH98 Mosquito
Colin with Bob (left) and myself (right) at the RAF Club in front of a painting of the Mosquito gifted to Colin and then presented to the RAF Club to display.
All images are shown with permission or under the Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, the IWM, the USAAF, the National Museum of the USAF and Fotoafdrukken Koninklijke Luchtmacht.
I’m moving things on a bit in my logbook tales as it seems to be taking forever to get to the end so here’s the next one. I’d found a temporary job with the aircraft manufacturer British Aerospace flying Tornados and Hawks but now I was getting invitations to interview for jobs with a number of airlines. After months of drought, the flood gates seem to have opened and after wishing for just one offer I now had the opportunity to chose who I would go to. First, however, I needed to get through the interviews.
A Monarch A300
A Cathay Pacific Tristar
Virgin Megastores worldwide
RB’s Manor House and the album cover for Tubular Bells
Richard Branson starts his own airline, Virgin Atlantic
Northwest Airlines put in a substantial order for Airbus A340s which were then flown by Virgin Atlantic
The BAe Hawk delivery team
One of the RMAS Hawk 108s
In formation and we’re off to Malaysia
First stop Nice
Then on to Tanagra
Luxor
Dubai
Mumbai
A little ‘hot start’ in Bangkok
Images under creative commons licence with thanks to RHL images, Virgin, Jaco Ten, Northwest Airlines History Centre,
My logbook tales continue and after 5 months without an income the bucket of shekels I had to keep us afloat was starting to run dry… I could see glimpses of the bottom. Luckily the mortgage on our modest 2 up, 2 down, 250 year old, Scottish stone, terraced cottage at Leuchars wasn’t excessive and we had pared our living expenses down to the bone. The sniff of some flying work for British Aerospace down at their factory at Warton, however, was very, very welcome.
RAF Warton during construction in 1938
The TSR2 and Panavia Tornado, both built at Warton
The Eurofighter Typhoon, soon to begin construction at Warton
The F3 Tornado in weather
The BAe Hawk
The Joint Tactical Information Display System
An F3 Tornado with a towed decoy
A Monarch Airways Airbus A300
Images shown under a Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, the MOD, British Aerospace, British Aircraft Corporation, the USAF, the USN, DoD and Monarch Airways.
Stories from my logbook continue with the last few weeks of my service career, which were a blur of form signing, return of equipment, formal dinners, informal parties, speeches and gifts, all accompanied by feelings of regret and excitement at to what my future held. I flew my last flight in an F3 leading a 3 ship out over the Scottish highlands and then, after everyone had landed, I beat up the squadron low and fast. I then planned to do a low, slow pass with a full burner pull-up into the vertical…
My full burner climb ended ignominiously when one reheat failed to light!
The mecca of all things truckie! Brize Norton.
The horrors of learning Morse Code!
The Campaign Against Aviation
The PA34 of British Aerospace which I flew at Prestwick
Finally, the proud holder of an ATPL
At last, the sniff of a job!
Images shown under creative commons licence with thanks to the MOD, the RAF, the CAA, Chris Lofting and BAe Systems.
Log book stories still abound but I’m now on the last volume of my small collection of RAF Form 414s. Unbeknown to me back then, my time in the Air Force was fast coming to a close. When I was offered the job on the Tornado it was on the understanding that I would serve an additional year to amortise the cost of training and I was now in coming up to the completion of my term of service, 19 years or aged 38 which ever was longer. If I signed on again it would be to age 55. What’s more, I needed to make up my mind as the RAF wanted 18 months of notice of my decision… would I stay or leave.
The F3 Tornado
He used a mixture of chicken entrails, throwing bones and gazing into his crystal balls to tell me my fortune
With their glory days behind them the young guns often treated Specialist Aircrew with scant respect and as their skills grew tired and their experience became tarnished with age they sometimes had little to offer but old war stories
The KC135 equipped for probe and drogue refuelling
RAF weather colour codes
My ATPL study books
An F3 equipped for QRA
The result of a midair collision
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Ronnie Macdonald, Mike Freer, Trougnouf, US DOD, Mike McBey, Defence Imagery, the RAF, the MOD, the RAF Air Historic branch, the IWM, J Thomas, Midjourney and Adrian Pingstone.
In the words of it’s benefactor, “It has been described as the most exclusive Club in the world, but the entrance fee is something most men would not care to pay and the conditions of membership are arduous in the extreme.” Other clubs that sprang up during the World Wars are more a measure of the bravado, luck or good fortune of its members to make use of an aircraft’s emergency survival equipment but the club I will tell you about today is one that honoured the grim stubbornness of its members to overcome the pain and disfigurement of their injuries with stoical good (if rather dark) humour. The Guinea Pig Club.
The badge of the Guinea Pig Club
McIndoe
McIndoe and his patients
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, East Grinstead museum, the Library of Congress, the RCAF, the IWM, the RAF Benevolent fund and the Queen Victoria hospital.
My logbook tales continue with my tour on Tremblers flying the F3 Tornado which had got off to a difficult start when our compliment of brand new aircraft were shipped off to other squadrons and, in return, we received the dregs of the RAF’s Tornado ADVs. They certainly weren’t in the best of condition and I began to think I was fated when I was forced to divert following a generator failure and X-drive clutch failure on an air test but then I was looking forward to leading a detachment down to Coningsby to fight F-16s over the North Sea in the Air Combat Manoeuvring range for a week.
The British Aerospace North Sea ACMI served UK and European Air Forces
Tremblers formate on the RAF’s new E3D Airborne Early Warning aircraft.
An F3 Tornado fires an AIM 9 Sidewinder missile
A piper plays at sunset
A 100 Squadron Hawk trainer
An F3 on approach
The K2 Victor Air to Air Refuelling tanker trailing all 3 hoses
Italian firemen hose down a Tornado canopy as it was too hot to close properly
The F3’s single Mauser 27mm cannon
The golfer Tom Kite playing for the USA in the Dunhill Cup at St Andrews
The Royal and Ancient golf club at St Andrews beside the 1st tee and the 18th green. In front is the historic bridge built for herders over the Swilken Burn
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, the R&A golf club, BAe, Mike Freer and Optograph.
It’s the summer of 1971 and Helen Reddy is singing about hiking down to the canyon store to buy a bottle wine and having such a good time. I have no doubt that the nine prominent Salt Lake members of the Fishy Trout and Drinking Society returning from their deep sea fishing trip were feeling equally relaxed as they boarded their flight back home from Los Angeles. They were getting onto a Hughes Airwest DC-9, Flight 706, the forerunner of Capt Jeff’s beloved Mad Dog and Angry Puppy, belonging to a new regional airline purchased and renamed by Howard Hughes. A little before them, a U.S. Marine Corps F-4B Phantom II, Bureau Number 151 458, departed Mountain Home Air Force Base in southwest Idaho, bound for Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada…. and so the story starts!
A Hughes Airwest DC-9
A U.S. Marine Corps F-4J Phantom II,
An ANA B-727
A JAF Japanese built F-86F Sabre
The B-727 and F86 tracks
The flight paths of the DC-9 and the Marine F-4
The F4’s position as would be seen from the DC-9 cockpit
The DC-9’s position from the F4 front cockpit
The eye’s Fovea Centralis, the small area of the eye’s retina that can detect fine detail
Various TCAS displays
Images under a Creative Commons licence with thanks to Richard Silagi, the U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation, Michael Bernhard, Hunini, the NTSB, the USN and U.S. Defense Imagery.
The numeric version of three previous Tales covering the A to Z of Aviation. Now we look at what numbers might mean to pilots?
Babylonian numeric text
The Japanese Zero fighter
A ‘tongue in cheek’ three engined Airbus
The twin hulled S55 flying boat
The North American F-82
Flying in Vic
The Piaggio Avanti EVO
The Old Course with RAF Leuchars in the background
The 10 ton Grand Slam bomb
The Seven Seas appeal of the DC-7C
The NASA B-52 “Balls 8”
Red 10
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, Kogo, Arpingstone, images from the Public Domain, the USAF, the RAF, Scott Cormie, Swissair and Delta, NASA,
As you may recall I was undergoing the training course for the Tornado F3 Air Defence Variant having completed four previous flying tours. Now being a senior officer it made the job of working as a student again a little more bearable.
The Old Pilot’s logbook tales continue:
An RAF Tornado Air Defence Variant
67° wing sweep
Ait to Air refuelling from the wing stations of an RAF VC10
We watched in horror as a motley collection of hanger queens and scruffy excuses for aeroplanes were delivered, bent and leaking, onto our aprons
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Royal Air Force, the MOD, Adrian Pingstone, Chris Lofting, J Thomas and Pràban na Linne Ltd.
Form 414, my RAF Logbook continues with me leaving Australia and the Hornet unhappily in my rear vision mirror as I was heading back to Blighty and a cold winter in Lincolnshire. No 229 Operational Conversion Unit was the training unit that would give me my first taste of the Mighty Fin, the Swing Wing Super Jet, Mother Riley’s Cardboard Aeroplane otherwise known as the Air Defence Variant of the Tornado.
Not just a British aircraft, the Tornado was a project involving Germany and Italy as well.
A cutaway of the ADV Tornado
Just some of the multitude of limitations that Tornado pilots were required to memorise
The Tornado cockpit showing the wing sweep lever
The Mighty Fins of 43 and 111 Squadrons
The RB199 lacked sufficient thrust to allow the F3 to perform adequately at medium and high level but it did have a way of going backwards!
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Surruno, Panavia, BAe, the RAF Museum, Mike Freer, Kevan Dickin, Chris Lofting and the RAF.
After I landed my aircraft I clambered out of the Hornet with the cold realisation that I might have flown my last sortie. The spinning sensation had ceased and the sortie had gone beautifully, it was almost as if it had been a bad dream. A continuation of tales from the Old Pilot’s logbook, RAF Form 414.
Was the sun about to set on my career?
The surgery span round and round
Promotion
Exercise K89
One of our opponents, the F16
Firing off live missiles like the AIM 7M Sparrow
Landing in a thunderstorm
A week on Song Song island acting as the Range Safety Officer
The RSO and his crew of Malay troops
My final flight and the boys renamed my aircraft Nick The Pom!
The year is 1957 and the space race is underway. The major powers around the world, mainly the Soviet Union and the United States, are all striving to develop the technology that will allow them to reach outer space. The Soviet Union’s Academy of Sciences prime aim was to beat the Americans into Earth orbit and their top secret Sputnik project was about to reward all the efforts put in by a generation of scientists and engineers. Sputnik 1 was soon to be placed atop an R-7 rocket and launched into a low orbit to become the first artificial Earth Satellite. But what if they hadn’t been the first?
Sputnik was fired into a low earth orbit on the 4th of October 1957 atop an R-7 rocket
Some months before the Sputnik launch the US were conducting nuclear tests
The Pascal I underground test caused a huge blue flame to erupt from the desert
Very high speed cameras were used to film the tests
The Horizons spacecraft
People wonder what became of the manhole cover and if anything was written on it?
Images under a Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Atomic Heritage Foundation, the Federal Government of the United States, NNSA and NASA.
Let me take you back to the dim distant past and Captain Jeff’s start with his legacy airline, ACME, I mean Delta, no ACME, Delta, Acta, Delme… oh whatever. His career started, not in the Captain’s seat but somewhere in the bowels of flight deck, sitting sideways with control panels in front of him instead of windows, that stretched to the ceiling! Jeff was an engineer on his favourite three holer, the Boeing 727. The loss rate for this iconic airliner was, unhappily, quite high. As of 2019 the aircraft had suffered 351 major incidents of which 119 resulted in a total loss. The loss of life resulting from these bare numbers has risen to over four thousand souls. One addition to those sad statistics came from Flight 600. This is the story.
The Boeing 727 Flight Deck
The 727 on its maiden flight
The famous S bend
With tail mounted engines the wings could be fitted with full span lift devices
The B727 was the first first airliner to have an APU
The 727 had rear mounted stairs that were used by the nefarious DB Cooper
Which resulted in the fitting of a Cooper Vane
The mechanics of a microburst
Our Captain Jeff
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Felix Goetting, Alex Beltyukov, Boeing, Tank67, Daderot, Juras14, Aero Icarus and NASA.
Two of the Saratoga’s F14 Tomcats were tasked to defend the carrier against a simulated attack during Exercise Display Determination 87. The leader of this small formation included a senior pilot and skipper of a newly arrived Junior Grade Lieutenant Timothy Dorsey. Many years later, Dorsey would be nominated for promotion to a one-star Rear Admiral, an appointment that required Congressional approval. What stood in his way was an incident that occurred during that fateful day in 1987.
USS Saratoga
Timothy Dorsey
F14 Tomcats on deck
An F4 tanking
HUD film of the engagement
US Navy wings
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the US Navy, US Air Force and the US Gov.
Part 2 of my interview with my mate Matt, steely eyed rocket man extraordinaire.
Goonhilly
Gyros and spacecraft in Telstar
The interior of Telstar
The magnitude of space junk around the world
The first live TV pictures transmitted via satellite
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to NASA, I Alison, Rama, NASA, US Gov, the BBC and Andrew Bulko
At first glance he looks to be a rather scruffy and unkempt elderly chap but behind the heavy glasses there are two twinkling eyes that reveal more than you can imagine. Indeed, appearances can be deceiving as this retired RAF Technician could have well been a steely eyed missile man as he controlled military satellites around during the Cold War. Meet my mate Matt!
Sputnik
RAF Oakhanger
Inmarsat equipment on board a ship
Not every launch was a success
Telstar
Voyager
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Nigel Chadwick, NRAO/AUI, Saber1983, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Dale Griffin USGS, then Science Museum and NSAS.
In the tale, the Applegate Memorandum, I described the difficult birth that McDonnell Douglas had with the DC-10 when it’s safety record was permanently marred by a cargo door design flaw that plagued its introduction. Sadly, this wasn’t the only issue that was going to discredit the aircraft in the eye of its passengers and they would ultimately condemn the world’s first 3 engined wide body as a dangerous failure. Although the aircraft’s problems with its cargo doors could be firmly laid at the feet of McDonnell Douglas, the next disaster that the aircraft would have to cope with was not of the manufacture’s making, but of some operators who took it upon themselves to shorten engineering procedures.
Then incident aircraft N110AA
Cutaway showing the configuration of the wing mounted engines
The DC10 cockpit
The last moments of American Airlines Flight 191
The aftermath
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Dale Coleman, Jyra Sapphire, Jon Proctor, the Bureau of Aircraft Accident Archives, the NTSB, the US Gov and American Airlines.
I left you last time after we had returned with our Hornets from New Zealand having had a very productive and interesting few weeks working with the Kiwi A4 Skyhawks. We soon settled back into our Squadron HQ at RAAF Williamtown and started to work up some Maritime Strike tactics against the ships of the Australian Navy. These were early days for the Australian Hornets and the anti ship missiles that were to be purchased had yet to be properly integrated into the aircraft’s weapons system… and so continues the Tales from the Old Pilot’s Log Books.
The Hornets mix it with the Navy!
It was the P3 Orion’s job to find the ships and broadcast their positions
The RAAF had yet to equip their F18s with anti ship missiles but that didn’t stop us training
We flew affiliation sorties against the RAAF Caribous so I got the chance to observe from the other side of the engagement
Called in from leave to fly an engine air test I did so with my holiday beard still attached!
The rake of the Hornet seat didn’t suit my back leading to a nagging problem
On our way to Malaysia we staged through Bali
At RMAF Butterworth we stayed in the beautiful old RAF Mess
And could frequently be found in the Hong Kong Bar
Back home in Australia I started to suffer from vertigo and wondered if the dream had come to an end
The conclusion of a chat over a pint with Wood Duck, the Royal Australian Air Force Air Attache to the Australian High Commission in London.
Images of No 2 OCU when it was equipped with the FA18
The handover of No 2 OCU Hornets to the new commanding officer and the new F35 Lightning fighters.
RSAF Hawk trainers
As a fighter pilot on the newly formed 77 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force, now equipped with brand new FA/18s, we had many experienced pilots but before long we also acquired pilots on their first operational type. One such pilot was Woody, or more formally known as Wood Duck and flying the Hornet was just the start of a long career in aviation that took him all around the world. Now the Air Attache at the Australian High Commission in London, Woody and I met at a local hostelry and had a beer whilst talking about old times.
The Australian FA/18B
Flypasts performed by No 2 OCU RAAF whilst under Woody’s command
Woody as a youngster in the Hong Kong bar whilst on deployment in Malaysia.
RAAF Hornets in Butterworth
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAAF, the USAF, the RMAF and No 2 OCU RAAF.
So you want to be an airline pilot? You want to travel the world, visit strange and exotic countries and immerse yourself in the wonders of foreign cultures? You want to make a good living, bring up a family and plan for a wonderful retirement driving your luxurious RV around the wide open spaces of your beloved country? Has it crossed you mind that your chosen occupation might not be the safest way to achieve your dreams?
The Old Curmudgeon rides again
Airliner crashes are rare events
Ensure that you join a recognised union that can afford you legal representation anywhere in the world
I trust that you will recall the stories from my RAF Logbook which had reached the point of my first Hornet deployment to New Zealand to work with the Kiwi A4 Skyhawks of No 75 Squadron Royal New Zealand Air Force at Ohakea.
The squadron we were working with had a rich history and I was sure I was going to enjoy my time with them.
75 Sqn RNZAF formed with Wellingtons purchased by the New Zealand government
75 Sqn A4 Skyhawk
The Kiwi Red formation team
Inverted whilst in contact
An A4 in combat firing rockets
How to fly a flat scissors
An FA18 pulls into the vertical
The effectiveness of camouflage
Low level
Attacking a splash target
The Hornet at night
The disappearance of the hook was investigated
The perp was arrested!
75 Sqn RNZAF was sadly disbanded
Images shown under creative commons licence with thanks to the RAF, the New Zealand Defence Force, the USN, CNATRA, Bernardo Malfitano and Myself.
The Right Hand Traffic Rule stated that an aircraft which was flying within the United Kingdom in sight of the ground and following a road, railway, canal or coastline, or any other line of landmarks shall keep such line of landmarks on its left. For reasons that defeat me the rule went on to give an exception stating, “provided that this rule shall not apply to a helicopter following the Motorway M4 on a route from West Drayton to Osterley Lock!” Let me take you back to the the birth of commercial aviation in Europe after the First World War.Daimler Airways operated the De Havilland aircraft on the Croydon to Paris route and Grands Express were operating the same route, albeit originating from Paris. The scene was therefore set and, no doubt the astute amongst you will already be speculating on what befell the Daimler Airway mail flight departing Croydon on the 7th of April 1922 and the Grand Express aircraft that left Le Bourget on the same day, just after noon. This is that story.
The Farman Goliath airliner
The DH18
The BAS 500cc single Gold Star
London to Le Bourget
Le Bourget to London
Traffic in France drove on the right hand side
On that fateful day, the weather was poor
The Picardie accident was the world’s first mid air collision between airliners
Images shown under the Creative Commons licence with thanks to Albert Thuloup, Handley Page, BP, SADSM, The Library of Congress and Popular Mechanics.
Traditionally the phrase Brass Monkeys goes hand in hand with weather so cold that only a naughty sounding description like, “It’s cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey,” will suffice. If, however, you were the crew member a NATO aircraft in Europe during the tense times of the Cold War, Brass Monkeys meant something very specific! It was a code phrase that everyone knew of and listened out for on the Guard frequency just in case it was broadcast. Two or three minutes into the flight Rikki was super-sonic and climbing through twenty thousand feet or so when the first “Brass Monkeys” call came over the radio: “Brass monkeys, brass monkeys, aircraft heading east at high speed fifty miles east of Gutersloh, brass monkeys”. He ignored it!
The true origin of Brass Monkeys has been lost in time
The identification papers of defector Viktor Belenko
Map of the East/West German airspace
An F84
West German Navy Sea Hawk
A Lightning F3 landing
Mig 21s chasing
Returning safely
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Louis-Philippe Crépin, images in the Public Domain, the CIA, the RAF, Rosario Van Tulpe, Milborne One and Mike Freer.
Life on 77 Squadron had settled down to a routine, if it ever really could on a fighter squadron. There was certainly plenty of variety to our flying. In one month I flew some practice bombing attacks, both day and night, on the Evans Head weapon’s range north by 230 nm. This was followed by a 4 ship formation demonstration of ground attack on our own airfield as part of an Open Day celebration for the public. Then night radar bombing on the Beecroft range at Jarvis bay about 150 nm south. Then we bombed and sank a tug boat before flying off to New Zealand.
The Squadron hours board
A head on view of the FA18A
Our Hornets in close formation
A MK82 low drag general purpose bomb
A 77 Sqn Hornet landing
RNZAF Strikemasters AKA the Bluntie
The RNZAF A4 Skyhawk
Landing at Ohakea
My old buddy John
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Myself and Greenshed.
Marvin and Rebecca's first two flights of the day were cancelled due to high winds at Newark so they both waited in the crew room until their company dispatch released them for flight 3407 at 6pm, 4 and a half hours after their initial report time. Certainly for Rebecca, it had been a long time since she had done more than nap in a chair. Their flight to Buffalo was due to take 53 minutes and they were carrying 45 passengers which, along with their two cabin attendants meant that they had 49 souls onboard their Q400 aircraft. The pilots’ performance was likely impaired because of fatigue but to what extent could not be conclusively determined. However, they boiled down to the flight crew’s failure to monitor airspeed, the flight crew’s failure to adhere to sterile cockpit procedures, the Captain’s failure to effectively manage the flight and Colgan Air’s inadequate procedures for airspeed selection, management during approaches in icing conditions and training. This is the story of Colgan Air Flight 3407.
A Bombardier Q400
The SAAB 340
The DH Dash 8
Examples of wing icing
Stills from the NTSB accident report
Stills from the NTSB accident report
Stills from the NTSB accident report
The wreckage of Flight 3407
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Lord of the Wings, Bill Abbott, Steve Fitzgerald, NASA and the NTSB.
With thanks to listener Sam Dawson who has such interesting relatives and to Betty Goerke, the author of a book about Baz Bagby, A Broken Propeller. I am pleased to present the story of Sam Dawson's Great Uncle Baz.
Stunt pilot Lincoln Beachey at Niagara
The 1st Aero Squadron
Early Aerial Reconnaissance
The 88th Aero Squadron
General Billy Mitchell
The start of the Great Transcontinental Air Race
Great Uncle Baz
Images under creative commons licence with thanks to the Library of Congress, the USAAC, the USAF, the RFC, the US Army, the National Archives and SADSM.
The continuation of my log book tales, otherwise known as RAF Form 414, and we are up to Volume 20. Apart from other asides, this tale deals with my accidental overflight of a very secret satellite surveillance base run by the Australians and the CIA!
Overflying Uluru (Ayres Rock)
My arrival at Alice Springs airport
My 'circumnavigation' of Australia
My aircraft being impounded on arrival at RAAF Pearce
Seeing my father at the 1881 Resturant
The Great Australian Bight
Passing through RAAF Edinburgh
Looking back through the fins
Heading home to Williamtown
Images under creative commons licence with thanks to Myself, Nachoman-au and Google Earth.
The DC-10 was McDonnell Douglas's first commercial airliner project since the merger between McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. It started life on the drawing boards as a 4 engined, double decked, wide body airliner that could carry 550 passengers but morphed into single deck, three engined aircraft that could carry one passenger short of 400! In what was expected to be a knockout blow to the competing Lockheed L-1011, the President of American Airlines and James McDonnell of McDonnell Douglas announced American Airlines' intention to acquire the DC-10. Flight 96 was en route between Detroit and Buffalo when, above the city of Windsor in Ontario whilst climbing through 11,750 ft the flight crew heard a distinct thud and dirt and debris flew up from the cockpit floor into their faces. On inspection it was obvious that the rear cargo door had detached from the aircraft. This is the story of the DC-10 cargo door issue and the engineer who tried to warn the company of the dire problem.
The 4 Engined Douglas Proposal
The DC-10
The Cargo Door
The Cargo Door of Flight 96
The Accident Report of Turkish Airlines Flight 981
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the SDASM archives, the Douglas Aircraft Corp, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, the FAA and the DOT AIB.
Telling the tale of my flying career, I left you at the end of my F/A18 conversion course as we reformed the No 77 Royal Australian Air Force Squadron with their brand new Hornets. So far our one and only aircraft A21-5 was being shared around and everyone wanted a piece of it, either to fly or learn how to fix it. The squadron execs were pretty busy dealing with the job of getting the new squadron personnel squared away so the rest of us got more than our share of flying. There wasn’t much we could do with a single jet but I was happy just to play with a multi million dollar toy and get used to my new home.
The M61A Vulcan Cannon
The ‘Pig’ Australian F111
My route around Australia
Mt Isa
Arriving at Darwin
Uluru through the HUD
Pine Gap
Alice Springs
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Peter Gronemann, General Dynamics, Fhrx, and Google Maps.
Hawaii became the most recent state to join the union in 1959 and is now the third wealthiest. Following it’s annexation, Hawaii became an important naval base for the US Navy so it is hardly surprising that they should be the first to attempt a flight from the US mainland to the island. Aviation had already arrived at the islands in 1910 courtesy of Bud Mars, the Curtiss Daredevil.
The Hawaiian Archipelago
The annexation of Hawaii
J C Mars
Commander John Rodgers
Rodgers in the Wright Flyer
The PN9 flying boat
Rodgers and his crew survive to be welcomed into Hawaii
The Atlantic-Fokker C-2 Tri-motor
Atlantic-Fokker C-2 “Bird of Paradise” arrival in Hawaii
The start of the Dole Air Race
In all, six aircraft were lost or damaged beyond repair and ten lives lost.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Google Map Images, Bain News Service, Harris and Ewing, the Library of Congress, Hawaii Aviation, the USAF and the SDASM.
Images under Creatiove Commons licence with thanks to
It was the 13th of May 1912, a Monday, when a Flanders F3 Monoplane took off from Brooklands in Surrey, a county of England. The pilot was the aviation pioneer Edward Victor Beauchamp Fisher and his passenger the American millionaire Victor Mason. Fisher had an Aviator’s Certificate, the 77th to be issued, had learned to fly at Brooklands and was a flying instructor there. He had also worked with both A V Roe (the founder of Avro) and Howard Flanders, whose monoplane he was flying at the time. The two men had made two or three circuits of the airfield at about 100ft, the 60 hp Green engine operating well when, in a left turn, the aircraft fell to the ground killing both the aviator and his passenger before catching alight and burning. In the early days of aviation such accidents were fairly common but what sets this one apart is that it was the first in history to become the subject of an accident investigation by an official civilian body… the Public Safety and Accidents Investigation Committee of the Royal Aero Club.
Brooklands airfield and motor racing circuit circa 1907
The Flanders F3/4
The Wright crash
Lt Frank Lahm
The 1920 Air Navigation Act
The 1926 formation of the NTSB
NTSB Investigators
The Challenger disaster
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Daimler Chrysler AG, Bain News Service, National Museum of Health and Medicine, the USAF, UK Gov, NTSB and the Kennedy Space Centre.
The 12 days of Christmas are generally thought to run from the 26th of December to the 6th of January and is an important period of religious celebration or for those of us who observe Christmas in a more secular manner, it’s more likely to be a traditional time of recovery following our holiday excesses and to welcome in the New Year. Of course, those of us in the Aviation industry often remember dates by events that occurred on a particular day and the most memorable are often the most tragic. With that in mind I present the 12 crashes of Christmas.
The TU144
Earthrise from Apollo 8
The Lockheed A-12 Oxcart
The C-130
The Avro Ten
The Vickers Wellington
The Handley Page O
The captured bomber
Gustav Hamel and Eleanor Trehawke Davies
Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man
The Flying Machine
The Convair 440 Metropolitan airliner
Amelia Mary Earhart
Earhart’s Electra
Amy Johnson
A Finnish Fokker
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Michel Gilliand, NASA, the USAF, State Library of Queensland, the RAF, US National Archives, the Rijksmuseum, Luc Viatour, SDASM,and those images within the Public Domain.
Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier was one of two men who left the earth’s surface and flew in Montgolfier’s balloon for the very first time. He also designed a type of balloon that was given his name that flew using a combination of a lifting gas and hot air. More than 200 years later, his design would be used in the balloon that made the first non stop round the world flight.
A Rozièr balloon
Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier in a Montgolfier balloon
De Rozièr perishes in a baloon crash over Wimereux
Don Cameron led the way in record breaking and unusual balloon design
Double Eagle II
Virgin Flyer
The successful balloon circumnavigation by Piccard and Jones
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to those Public Domain images available, NASA, the Smithsonian,The Virgin Group, Cameron balloons and Breitling.
Each year upwards of 2 million of the faithful make the journey to follow the path of the profit Muhammad to a number of holy sites before their pilgrimage rites are considered complete. Muslims from around the world make this journey which, in modern times, is often completed using air travel, as it was in 1991 when Nigeria Airways wet leased a Douglas DC8 operated by Nationair Canada to help them cope with the season’s increase in passenger traffic due to the Hajj. Under the hot sun of the Arabian desert, the scene was set for a disaster.
A Nationair DC8
King Abdulaziz International airport in Jeddah
The Maintenance Record analysis
The DC8 gear
A typical brake fire
Excerpt from the accident report
Excerpt from the accident report
Conditions in the cabin became unsurvivable
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Pedro Aragão, Yousefmadari, ICAO and the USAF.
They were the pioneers who trod the territory beyond the sound barrier… a place no man had ever been before and which had killed many who attempted the journey. The rocket powered, winged bullet first flew only 42 years after man’s first powered flight, an achievement that still astounds me. To think that a toddler around at Kitty Hawk who saw one of the Wright Brothers first flights, could have heard the world’s first man made sonic boom before they reached the ripe old age of 50 is a true testament to the ability of America’s finest minds and the bravery of their greatest pilots.
The Bell X1 in flight
The Miles M52
The X Planes
US Military astronaut wings
The X2 drop
The X2 crash
The X15
An X15 launch
Armstrong with the X15
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to NASA, the RAF, the USAF, NPRC,
It’s time for another of my flying logbook tales and it’s May 1987 and I’m on the Australian FA18 No 2 Operational Conversion Unit at RAAF Williamtown starting the final phase on course 1 of 87 before moving onto No 77 Squadron which was to be my home for the next few years.
An FA/18B with a pair of BDU33 practice bomb carriers
The Salt Ash bombing range
A practice bomb strikes the centre of the target
The CCIP aiming symbology
Mk 82 500lb General Purpose bombs
RAAF Townsville
Mk82s hitting the target on Cordelia Island
Course graduation
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Welcome Collection and the USAF.
A tribute to Sherman Smoot, friend of the APG Show, who died doing what he loved best… flying.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Capt Nick Anderson.
The First World War battle of the Somme continues, to this day, to fascinate and appal in equal measures. Much has been written about the ground war the first day of which saw the greatest number of British casualties than had occurred before in the entire history of the British Army… 19,240 were dead and 38,230 injured. The fighting over a 16 mile front lasted almost 5 months, after which the Allied troops had advanced about 6 miles. The butchers bill of casualties was horrendous. The combined Commonwealth countries number reached nearly 60,000 but was dwarfed by the United Kingdom’s casualty number of over 350,000. The battle opened on the 1st of July 1916 with a massed explosion that ranks amongst the largest non nuclear explosions in history and was then considered the loudest human made sound to date, audible beyond London 160 miles away. It was witnessed by an 18 year old RFC pilot.
The mine under Hawthorn Ridge
Then the dust cleared and we saw the two white eyes of the craters
Going over the top
The la Boisselle mine crater now and then.
Pip’s landing
The Fokker Eindecker
Bristol Fighters
A dogfight
The battlefield
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to British First World War Air Service Photo Section, Ernest Brooks, Henry Armytage Sanders, H. D. Girdwood, the RFC and the IWM.
Robin Olds was a hard drinking, hard working man who led from the front in a way that inspired his men to become a great fighting force. He only became frustrated when he saw mistakes being made by those above him who should have known better and he went out of his way to make his feelings known. He defined what it meant to be a fighter pilot, not only in the air but on the ground with the stunningly beautiful Hollywood actress, Ella Raines, the first of his 4 wives.
The court-martial of General William “Billy” Mitchell 1925
West Point students
A P-38 Lightning
A digital representation of SCAT II
A Bf109
Olds and his P51 Mustang SCAT VI
A P80 Shooting Star
The Gloster Meteor
An F86 Sabre of the 71st, Hat in the Ring Sqn
The F4 Phantom
Robin Olds completes his 100th combat mission
Robin Olds in Vietnam after his 4th Mig kill
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to those images in the Public Domain, the Bundesarchive, the USAF, Digital Combat Simulator, Ruffneck88, USAF National Museum and RuthAS.
A recent news programme caught my eye when I realised it involved our great friends at the Farnborough Aviation Sciences Trust museum. It reminded me of the group of sadistic so-called doctors who populated the Institute of Aviation Medicine and tortured generations of unsuspecting and innocent RAF aircrew in machines such as the one the article featured, a centrifuge! This aforementioned device which resembles a vast witch’s ducking stool crossed with an iron maiden, first operated in 1955 but was decommissioned as recently as 2019 and has now received Grade 2 protection.
The Institute of Aviation Medicine
The Farnborough Centrifuge
The Cecil Hotel with it’s red and white ornate frontage
The august medical journal, the Lancet
Early versions of oxygen masks
An early mobile decompression chamber
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, FAST museum, The Library of Congress, those images within the Public Domain and the National Museum of Health & Medicine.
The story of my military flying career continues with the new challenge of flying the FA/18 Hornet round the beautiful skies of Australia.
The official crest of No 77 Sqn RAAF with its Grumpy Monkey
The 77 Sqn Mirages
The helmet fitting
An FA/18A cockpit
Sunset
The Head Up Display
The location of RAAF Williamtown
Firing the gun
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Nick Anderson and Google Earth.
Featured in a Scientific magazine which offered a first look inside the USAF’s new jet fighter, the F-89 Scorpion was to have an interesting history which involved the Battle of Palmdale and a top secret Canadian UFO!
A Scientific Magazine cutaway drawing
The Fly-off competitors
The Northrop F89 Scorpion
The 437th Fighter Interceptor Squadron
An F6F Hellcat red drone
Mighty Mouse rockets
1st Lt Moncla
The Canadian UFO
The official USAF report
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Scientific magazine, the USAF, USN, NASA, SDASM, RKO Pictures and those available through Fair Use and Public Domain.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The aircraft was named ‘Flagship District of Columbia’ and was only the 12th Boeing 707 ever made. It was delivered to American Airlines in February 1959 so at the time America was taking its first steps into the void of outer space it was a mere 3 years old. It hadn’t long been out of it’s periodic inspection and with less than 8,000 hours on the airframe N7506A was expected to have a long and productive life ahead… a wish that would be dashed in a few short minutes.
The New York skyline
An American Airlines Boeing 707 at LAX
Changes in apparent span and the effects of sideslip on a swept wing when yawed
The 707 rudder control system
Wreckage from American Airlines flight 514
The Calverton crash still smoking
A New York ticker tape parade
The flight recorder trace from the American One's final moments
A reconstruction of the track of Flight One
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Jon Proctor, San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives, the Civil Aeronautics Board and Ted Quackenbush.
The Royal Air Force’s Pilots Flying Logbook is a sturdy publication, cloth bound in blue with gold printing on the cover, on the inside of which are the instructions for use. Para 1, sub para (a) it states that the Book is an official document and is the property of Her Majesty’s Government… well, good luck trying to get this one back!
The star of the Top Gun movie
The much admired RAF Phantom QWI badge
The island of Cyprus was famous for its rough red Kokinelli wine
The 20mm SUU23A Vulcan cannon
A typical Cypriot meze
Mrs A moving yet again
Receiving my 1000hrs Phantom badge
The F4 rear office
The arrival of son No1
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Gage Skidmore, Google Earth, Thomas Fedor and Cyprus Tourism.
Last week we chatted about historic incidents that led to aircraft upsets. This week we talk to a newly qualified airline pilot who is undergoing advanced Upset and Recovery Training at a British training school. We also speak to the school's chief pilot and one of the instructors, an ex Mig 29 pilot.
Basem undergoing upset training at BAA in a Grob
One of the BAA's Extras
Basem off to be turned upside down!
Adrian... Basem's ex Mig 29 instructor
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Capt Nick Anderson
With the arrival of jet powered airliners, commercial pilots entered a new world of high altitude flying in large swept wing aircraft at velocities approaching the speed of sound. They were often unprepared for the challenge and before long unexpected and unexplained loss of control events began to worry the world of aviation. These events initially occurred when an aircraft was upset from its normal benign straight and level environment and ended up in a high speed dive, something that was rare in the earlier days of straight winged, piston powered airliners. Hence, they became known as Jet Upsets.
Coffin Corner!
Upsets involve extreme attitudes
Less than perfect cockpit design often contributes to upsets
A Pan Am B707
China Airlines A300
The tragic result of the China Airlines upset
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Boeing Company, Geni, the NTSB/CAB, Guido Allieri and the JTSB.
In the world of Slavic folk tales there are giants in Ukraine but as aviators the ones we are interested are the giants that the fabled aircraft designer Oleg Antonov designed. This is his story.
The OKA1 glider
Antonov at the Leningrad Polytechnic
The OKA38 Stork
The An-2
The An-12 Cub
The An-24 Coke
The vast An-22 Cock
The huge An-124 Condor
The flight deck of the An-124
The mighty Mryia, An-225, carrying a Buran project space shuttle
The destruction of a dream, the Mryia was a victim of the Russian invaders who recently attacked Ukraine
Oleg Antonov
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Antonov Design Bureau, the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, the Central Design Bureau for Gliders, Arpingstone, Igor Dvurekov, Dmitriy Pichugin, Toshi Aoki, Yevgeny Pashnin, Vasiliy Kob and Дизайнер: А.Безменов.
It’s logbook time again and you may recall that I was as freshly a minted A1 QFI as there could be and I had just left the training world to return to the front line on my old Squadron, the Fighting Cocks. I had been in Wales for over 4 years and in that time the faces I knew on 43 Sqn had almost all gone... it was like I was joining a unit of strangers.
The Q Shed
Additional armed aircraft ready to go onto QRA
The F4 tank limiting speeds
A Soviet Badger trying to sneak past at low level
An F4 tanking from a converted Victor V Bomber
Decimomannu Air Base
How the ACMI Air Combat Manoeuvering Instrumentation worked
The Men of Harlech near Llanbedr
The Jindavik target drone
A frame from the Jindavik cameras showing a Sidewinder about to impact the towed flare target
My new navigator, Coolhand
A 43(F) Sqn Phantom
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, the USAF, RuthAS and Mike Freer.
It was a grand sight to see another German aircraft there, a Junkers W33 with its distinctive corrugated metal skin and stylish enclosed cockpit, a far cry from his own flimsy machine. The German pilots greeted each other and marvelled at how, in 1928, they should have met in such a remote place… some 3,300 miles, 5,300 km, from the Fatherland. It is doubtful that the Junkers pilot knew much about the young 22 year old airman with his flimsy little aircraft, but the gaunt and weathered Baron was well known to von Koenig-Warthausen!
The Junkers W33
Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld
Alcock and Brown preparing for their transatlantic flight
Posing in front of the W33 named Bremen
The Bremen damaged but safely across the Atlantic
The flimsy, lightweight Klemm L20B
The Klemm airborne
Baron Freidrich Carl von König-Warthausen
The Baron renamed his aircraft after his countryman Hünefeld
Images under a Creative Commons licence with thanks to Monika Hoerath, Tomas Mellies, MIKAN, The Bundesarchiv, Edward N. Jackson, L'Aéronautique magazine, John Underwood plus images in the Public Domain.
Instead of a cargo of bored business men and excited holiday makers, this aged DC-10 was carrying 12,000 gallons, thats 45,000 ltrs of bright red liquid in a huge tank attached to the centre of the fuselage. This is the story of the fire fighting water bombers.
A vast DC10 converted to flying tanker operations
A forest fire
Mixing fire retardant
A fire lookout
The Morton Lake hotshots
The dangers of a wildfire are considerable, even during an evacuation
The dangers of manoeuvring a big aircraft at low level are considerable
Other aircraft are converted into water bombers like this PBY-6A Catalina
Helicopters deliver water from buckets
One of the few purpose built water bombers, the Canadair Superscooper
The magnificent Mars water bomber
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the USAF, John McColgan, signal mirror, DarrenRD, Tim Peterson, the USN, SSgt Ed Drew, Pierre Bona and Alex Juorio.
On the last tale, Sidewinders and Sparrows we talked a little about the history of rockets and missiles but it’s a big subject so this week I thought I’d expand on the theme a little and as I'm going to mention lots of rattlesnakes and sparrows, I should probably use the correct collective nouns… rhumbas and quarrels!
Rules of Engagement
JTIDS
The result of a Blue on Blue engagement
An AIM 54 Phoenix launch
An AIM7 Sparrow in flight
The APG63 radar
Radar discrimination
AIM7 Sparrow missiles on an F15 Eagle
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the USAF, USN, Daderot and the DOD Media.
Despite their obvious differences, Sidewinders and Sparrows often went together because they aren’t just the names of flying creatures and slithering serpents… they are weapons of war.
The Sidewinder
House Sparrows
The Rapier missile system
Chinese Fire Arrows
The Tipu Sultan's artillery rockets
The RS-28 rockets fired by the Polikarpov I-16
The German R4M unguided air to air rocket
The nuclear AIR-2 Genie missile
A Genie launch
The AIM9 Sidewinder
The rotating reticule
The rolleron
Guidance
The warhead
An AIM 9 warhead effect demonstration
The AIM7 Sparrow
A QF4B killed by a Sparrow missile
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to images in the Public Domain, UK Defence Imagery, Wubei Zhi, NASA, Juergen Schiffmann, the USAF, David Monniaux, RoyKabanlit, U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation and the USN.
It was New Year’s Day, 2007 and the 96 passengers booked on Adam Air Flight 574 from Java to Sulawesi boarded their Boeing 737-4Q8 for their 2 hour trip. The Indonesian government had adopted a policy of deregulation in the country’s aviation industry which had resulted in a boom of start-up airlines, many of which were low cost carriers. This decision wasn’t matched with an equivalent ramp up of government supervision and control… the result was fierce commercial competition amongst the new airlines with little or no oversight.
Competition amongst the many start up low cost airlines was fierce.
The incident Adam Air Boeing 737, ready for boarding.
An Adam Air B737 taxies out.
Debris from the flight is washed up.
The USN ship Mary Sears.
Adam Air flight 172.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to FLasset for logo, marlborotosca, Dmitriy Pichugin. the NTSB, the USN, the NTSC and ERRORHUNT.
Another installment of tales from my RAF logbook. I’m about halfway through my 4 year sentence at RAF Valley instructing those RAF pilots destined for the fast jet world. The first couple of years had been far from without incident and I should probably mention that I nearly lost my greatest friend to an accident but someone was watching over him that day and he survived.
Our great friend, Glen, a USAF exchange pilot.
Flying in the Hawk
The laying on of hands by Central Flying School
The Hawk T1 trainer
The horrible Spinning explanation
The laziest A1 QFI in existence
How do you get a pilot going? Well, in the old days it started with a hand crank!
The Hucks Starter
... Cowboy Land!
The Coffman Starter
A cartridge starter on the RB-57A
The DHC1 Chipmunk
The Arnold Benz Velo
The cycle of a jet engine
RN Seahawks simultaneous use of their cartridge starters
RAF Lightnings of No56 "Chicken in the Basket" Sqn at RAF Akrotiri
The SR71 Blackbird
The Riedelanlasser starter for German BMW 003 and Jumo 004 turbojet engines
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Library of Congress, Jeff Dahl, NACA, US Patent Office, bomberpilot, Jeff Dahl, the IMW, the RAF, the USAF and Kogo. Attribution not possible for some images.
Waiting for the arrival of the December flying roster was always a tense time. Those with big family gatherings are anxious to ensure they are at home with their loved ones whilst the more carefree crew, with fewer ties, might want to be down route somewhere exotic knowing that a bevy of party goers would be flying with them. I know of one crew who flew over Christmas with great excitement… at least I believe so! Their names were Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders, the crew of the Apollo 8 space mission.
Saturnalia
Victorian Christmas
Father Christmas
The Apollo 8 Crew
The Zond 5 spacecraft
The emblem and launch of Apollo 8
Stage 3 jettison
The surface of the moon
Earthrise
A safe return
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Antoine-François Callet, Joseph Lionel Williams, Robert Seymour, Josiah King, Alfred Henry Forrester, the USSR Post and NASA.
And so Plane Tales was born with the story of the mixologist Joe Gilmore… well, kind of. There had been a few bits in the Show pre the Farnborough special but it hadn’t become part of APG like it is now. The number of Tales will never catch Jeff’s impressive half millennium but they have now passed the 300 mark and these are a few of the memorable ones.
The mixologist, Joe Gilmore
Tumble Down Dick
The flight under Tower Bridge
Parliament
Capt Ogg ditching the Sovereign of the Skies.
Bob Hoover
Major Bung Lee lands his Bird Dog on the USS Midway
Capt Andy Anderson
Hillel
Voiceover artist Greg Willits at GregWillets.com
A tribute to the crew of Lady be Good
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks given on the original episode, Thomas Rowlandson, Greg Willits and DaniKauf, the USAF, the USN and those in the Public Domain.
In the United States the Coast Guard is a fully paid up branch of the military. Its men and women have served with valour in many conflicts and I’m going to tell you about one such event, the rescue of Misty 11.
The badge of the US Coast Guard
An F100 Fast FAC Misty crew
An OV10 Bronco
Spads escorting a Jolly Green Giant
The jungle penetrator.
Landing in difficult terrain
500 saves
The approach into the valley
The rescue
Technical Sergeant Donald G. Smith
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the USAF National Museum, the USAF, USAF National Museum, USGOV-PD, Digital Public Library of America, Defence Imagery, the US Coast Guard and US Gov.
Year two of Porridge… that’s an old term used by prisoners to describe their time inside jail but was very apt as many of my fellow flying instructors and I had not volunteered for this particular job and it was a long one. As I leaf through the pages of my log book I recall memories from my flying career.
Flying with the Air Officer Commanding
The badge of No 4 Flying Training School, palm tree and all!
Lining up for breaks to the right when someone decided to go LEFT instead!
The fabled MON formation
How the English might have read it!
10 Hawks in echelon
Fishing!
The F4 FIRE Drill
If FIRE confirmed - EJECT
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, BAe, MOD and Mr Geoff Lee of Plane Focus.
Suddenly the black of the night that surrounded them was split open by bright tracer cannon fire that streaked by the windows with loud cracks and then came the shock and thud as some struck the aircraft. The lights were all extinguished… so in the dark, tense and alarmed, everyone waited to see what would happen next. It was the 24th of October 1956, and the first shots in a war over the Suez Canal had just been fired!
Ferdinand de Lesseps, the Father of the Suez Canal
The opening of the canal
A collection of canal views
British armed forces went great lengths to protect the canal during 2 World Wars
After a military coup in Egypt, Nasser took control of the country and seized the Suez Canal
The NF13 Meteor sold to the IAF by Britain
An Il14, as used by the Egyption Air Force
The actual Gloster Meteor used in the attack
The Ilyushin is brought down killing all onboard
The invasion by British, French and Israeli forces is a complete success but political pressures force them to relinquish the canal
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Mohamed kamal 1984, NADAR, the Tropenmuseum, the IWM, the RAF, the MOD, Lars Söderström and other images in the Public Domain.
About this time of the year, I like to do a tale that turns our minds to those who gave their lives for their countries in the many conflicts that have plagued the world. In the past in tales such as, “In Flanders Fields and Lest We Forget” I’ve talked about the poppy, used as a symbol of remembrance in many countries, and the poem penned by the Canadian doctor, Lt Col John McCrae. There was a gap in my story, however, that I would now like to close. The gap that transformed the sad words of John McCrae’s poem into the adoption of the poppy as a representation of remembrance for the fallen, amongst such a large part of the English speaking world… and beyond.
Lt Col John McCrae
The Escadrille Lafayette in July 1917
Moina Belle Michael
Desk and poppy
The YWCA
In Flanders Fields written by John McCrae
An original remembrance poppy
The Poppy Factory in London
Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance in the Albert Hall
The Poppy Lady's historic road marker
Images under Creative Commons licence under Public Domain and with thanks to the National Museum of the Air Force, the Poppy Project, Neysa McMein, Heatherannej, Nickeaglesfield, the MOD and Ember390.
Within a few days of detonating their first nuclear bomb, to the dismay of the Soviets, President Truman announced that they had the evidence to prove that within recent weeks an atomic explosion had occurred in the USSR. How the United States had obtained that knowledge was highly classified but we now know the story of the secret snoopers who sniffed the stratosphere and their spooky sorties!
The Castle Bravo test blast
The Tsar Bomba
American concerns over nuclear fallout
The WB-29
The RB-47H at the National Museum of the United States Air Force
Balloon debris
The RC-135
The long thin island of Novaya Zemlay
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to TravelingOtter, the US Department of Energy, Croquant, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Ruth AS, the USAF, the University of Texas, the SDASM Archives and NASA.
This is the concluding part of my interview with Mike Wildman, an amputee pilot who has had a fascinating career in aviation. The first part covered Mike’s life in the Royal Air Force flying, the second concerned his life changing decision to have part of his left leg removed and his fight to lead the world’s first disabled formation display team. In this final section Mike tells us about creating Team Phoenix Air and flying the stunning Yak 50.
Mike leading the Bader Bus Company team
The Ultimate High Flying Experience
The interview with Mike, filmed by Nevil Bounds
Team Phoenix Air formation display
Sherill from Team Phoenix
The Yaks
The Yaks
The proposed 2022 air show highlights
The Yakovlevs in the air
The home of the Yakovlevs
How to get in touch with Mike Wildman
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Mike Wildman, Nevil Bounds, The Bader Bus Company, Ultimate High, Team Phoenix Air and the Yakovlevs.
This is the second part of my interview with Mike Wildman, an amputee pilot who has had a fascinating career in aviation. The first part covered Mike’s life in the Royal Air Force flying, amongst other aircraft, the C130 Hercules. In this part we hear about his life changing decision to have part of his left leg removed and his fight, not only to get back into the cockpit of an aircraft but to lead the world’s first disabled formation display team.
Recording the interview with Mike in front of a Yak 52
Mike, a Captain with Virgin Atlantic Airways
Mike after his life changing decision to have part of his left leg removed
Aerobility, the organisation that got Mike back into the air as an amputee pilot
Sir Douglas Bader, a double amputee WWII Battle of Britain fighter pilot
The pilots of the world's first amputee formation team
The Bader Bus Company Still Running formation team
Mike climbing out of his Yakovlevs Yak 52
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, Aerobility, the Yakovlevs, the Bader Bus Company and Mike Wildman.
Mike Wildman is an amputee pilot who has had a fascinating career in aviation. This tale is about his time in the Royal Air Force flying the C130 Hercules in some very challenging theatres. His story will both amaze and inspire, particularly in the later parts when we will cover his work as the leader of the world's only fully aerobatic amputee formation team... TeamPhoenixAir.com
Mike, learning to fly
Mike during his RAF basic flying training
Mike was posted to fly the C130 Hercules
Low flying over the desert
Mike, the captain of a Belgium Air Force C130 during his exchange tour
The EPTS Andover that Mike flew
The Boscome Down Comet 4 named Canopus that Mike flew to the North Pole
The day at RIAT when a Mig 29 crashed onto Mike's aircraft nearly killing him and the others who were watching the show from the top of the fuselage!
Contact details for Mike and Team Phoenix, the world's only disabled aerobatic formation team
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Mike Freer, RuthAS and the RAF.
The Old Pilot ventures back to the little airport where his career in aviation began nearly half a century previously, meets the young lady now doing his old job and recalls some adventures from his early days.
Many thanks to Nev of Plane Talking UK for providing the audio visual equipment
Grace talks about Synergy Flight Training
The Old Pilot does his thing!
Thanks to those who came
White's is the oldest and most exclusive Gentleman’s club in London its members have included more Earls, Dukes, Lords, Barrons, Princes, Knights, Viscounts. Marquesses, heads of industry and notable politicians than you could shake a stick at. The name we’re interested in, though, is that of Lord Edward Grosvenor, the youngest son of the 1st Duke of Westminster. It was in White's that Grosvenor had the idea to form an RAF Squadron of wealthy aristocratic young aviators all of whom were already amateur pilots and members of the club... this is the story of that Squadron.
Hot Chocolate, the drink that started it all
Chocolate and Coffee Houses were known for anarchy, licentiousness, gambling, hobnobbing, and politicking.
White's, the oldest and most exclusive Gentleman’s club in London
The French Foreign Legion
The Gordon Bennett Balloon Race trophy
An officer and a gentleman
The Avro 504
No 601 Squadron the County of London
Swapping cockpits
Billy Fisk III driving the 1932 US Olympic bobsled team
The Hawker Hurricane
Canadian Sir John William Maxwell Aitken
The Millionaire's Hurricanes over England
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Library of Congress, Afro Bighair, Anthony O'Neil, the National Archives, Deutsche Fotothek and the RAF.
The world of a pilot is different to any other. They see things from a different perspective and view the world from places that even the mightiest birds cannot reach. All their faculties of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing experience sensations unique to their position whether they are manoeuvring a mighty airliner or sliding through the air on sheets of silk in a slippery sailplane. When they get a chance, even the most professional and conscientious pilots will take a moment to marvel at their world. These are treasured moments that they will lock in their hearts and only bring out in quiet moments of contemplation, perhaps when they look back and realise what a life of wonder they have led.
The gear
The brain
Cordite
Passengers
Switches
Gloves
Goon suit
Size
Saraha
Ice rivers
Ice bergs
Streets of cumuli
Skyscrapers
Noctilucent
Glory
Trails
Moon
Sunset
Steph
Rick
Atlantic
Touchdown
We all have our favourite flying movies, whether it’s a black and white classic with biplanes wheeling around the sky flown by actual World War One flying aces, comedy cult movies from which we can quote our favourite lines (Shirley you don’t mean that) or modern thrillers which employ state of the art computer generated imagery. This is a story of a much loved actor who didn't just act in an aircraft crash, he became an unwilling participant.
Favourite movies
Ancestor William Bradford
Army swimming training
Going AWOL, a black mark for the squad
The Douglas AD-1Q Skyraider
A ditched Skyraider
A single seat dingy
The coast off Point Reyes
The RCA station that took him in
Clint Eastwood
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Glasshouse, coolvalley, Impawards, MGM, the US Army, US Navy, the Produzioni Europee Associati and the NPS GOV.
The work the Young Tiger crews performed during the Vietnam War was monumental. With an average fleet of 88 tankers over a 7 year period they performed nearly 180 thousand missions offloading 8.2 billion lbs, thats over 3,700 million tons, of fuel. A staggering achievement only surpassed by the hundreds of aircraft saves they achieved, preventing many of their fellow aircrew from falling into enemy hands.
The Lockheed L193 tanker proposal
A B52 of SAC refuelling from a Boeing KC135
The KC135 Flying Boom
The Flying Tigers in Vietnam
The F105
A KC135 refuelling F105s
Navy Whales
The Daisy Chain
An F111 tanking
The Flying Tigers at work
Images shown under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Lockheed, the USAF, NAID, the US Government and the US Navy.
Forty years ago, four RAF pilots graduated from Central Flying School and became fast jet Qualified Flying Instructors. They hadn't been together at the same time since then. When they did, they shared some more stories.
Four QFIs then
Dave
A typical course photo
How Dave's Hawk might have looked!
The Hawk canopy showing the lines of Miniature Detonating Cord MDC
Dave after receiving his Green Endorsement
Dave's Green Endorsement
Nij
An F4
Barry
An RAF Canberra
Four QFIs now
Images shown under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Airwolfhound, the RAF and JohnnyOneSpeed.
Sadly there are also many who think that ‘Boy Scout’ honesty is something that should be left behind in childhood but luckily not many that do take on the responsibility of becoming a career pilot. When I discovered recently that there is a name for this capacity to openly admit guilt for one’s mistakes, it didn’t come as a surprise that it was named after a pilot. Captain Asoh.
Tokyo airport
A DC8 on approach
A JAL Captain's hat
The DC8 cockpit
The miraculous accidental landing of Shiga
The ditched JAL DC8, repaired and flying again for Okada Air
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to SAS, Felix Goetting, Werner Friedli and Pentti Koskinen.
Forty years ago, four RAF pilots graduated from Central Flying School and became fast jet Qualified Flying Instructors. They hadn't been together at the same time since then. When they did, they shared a few stories.
Four QFIs back then
The Hawk in close formation
The English Electric Lightning
The Lightning F3
Loch Ness
Four QFIs now!
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Mike Freer, Bob Adams, RuthAS and the Director General of the Ordnance Survey.
Defenceless, it relied on its unmatched performance to provide vital data for the USA and NATO on some of the most sensitive parts of the globe. One of the regular missions flown by the SR71 Blackbird out of a base in the United Kingdom, RAF Mildenhall, was East across the North and Baltic Seas towards the territories of the Soviet Union; these flights were known as the Baltic Express. All went until one day...
The SR71 at Mildenhall
The original A12
The Baltic Express track
The Saab 29, nicknamed the Tunnan
The Draken
The Saab AJS 37 Viggen
The Vig was also capable of operating from unusual locations
Shockwave formation during an unstart.
An SR71 pilot in his pressure suit
The Mig 25 Foxbat
Three of the 4 Viggen pilots involved receive their Air Medals
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Digital Public Library of America, USAF, John5199, Blockhaj, Alan Wilson, Guenter KONZ-BEYER Bad Erlach, NASA, Alex Beltyukov, Defence Imagery and the US Gov.
The crew come clean on some of their layover hotel experiences. After Part 1, the Good, comes Part 2, the Bad and the Ugly!
Capt Nick's hotel in Mong Kok, the epicentre of the SARS pandemic.
The New York hotel nicknamed the Transylvania!
The Kentucky Derby.
ACME B-727 Flight Engineer Jeff.
His room resembled a monk's cell.
Stouffers in its heyday.
Steph's famous A sign!
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Chong Fat, Maximilian Dörrbecker, Dr Fred Murphy, ArnoldReinhold, PandamicPhoto.com, Carol M. Highsmith, Zarateman and Oliver Pitzke.
Over their careers, airline pilots, and doctors come to that, will have stayed in a myriad of loggings during their overnight stays and the vast majority will have merged into a conglomeration of memories but every now and then one or two will stand out from the rest. In this tale, the crew have kindly shared some of their experiences starting with the Good… the Bad and the Ugly will follow on next week so be sure to tune in!
Capt Nick landing in Hong Kong
The Langham Place hotel
The amazing vertical mall.
The original Tim Ho Wan dim sum resturant
The Bird Market
The C141
American Samoa
The Rainmaker Hotel
The Boeing 767
The Intercontinental Tahiti Resort
The Leeward Island of Montserrat
Olveston house
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Langham Place hotel, the USAF, NOAA, Jerry & Roy Klotz MD, Intercontinental Hotels and Olveston house.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Vulcan bomber only had ejector seats for the two pilots... the rear crew made do with an escape slide, a level if inequality that killed many and resulted in questions being asked in Parliament. This is the story of the Vulcan and a look at the USN Skyknight which had a similar escape system.
The rear crew compartment of the Avro Vulcan
Malta
Malta
The Vulcan
The Vulcan air brakes
The crash site
Avro Vulcan XV770
The Vulcan rear crew escape hatch
The F3 Skynight
Skynight bailout trials
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Isaac Bee, Anton Zelenov, NASA, DFST, RuthAS, the RAF, Roland Turner, US Navy, Ultra7 and the USAF.
The noise of flying machines can be a source of joy or annoyance. Let's have a look at what makes that noise and how much progress has been made over the years!
The F-84F Thunderbirds team
The XF-84H 'Thunderscreech'!
The Boeing Dash 80, prototype of the B707
Noise creating vortices coming from an airliner's flaps
The Bypass section of a RR Trent
A possible Airbus blended body design
An APU exhaust
The Gyrodyne Rotorcycle
Images are displayed under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Dreamstime.com - Airbus, the USAF, Boeing Dreamscape, David Monniaux and the US DOD.
The final few letters of a look at aviation through the alphabet.
A model of the original Flettner 282 Helicopter
Flettner helicopters have the unfortunate potential to decapitate the unwary!
A cutaway of the Spitfire with it's remarkable Rolls Royce Merlin V12 engine.
The Allison V-1710 V12 engine
The Daimler-Benz DB600 V12.
The X Planes
The Napkin ring
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Raobe001, Ball wallpaper, the National Archives UK, the Smithsonian archive, the USAF, NASA,
After last week’s tale, here are a few more letters of the Alphabet to ponder on!
The Martin Baker Mk7A seat with adjustable rocket pack!
The US Army working under flares
Aircraft registrations
Working on the RR Merlin engine
The aircraft convenience!
Varig Flight 820
The Queen's Flight
Rolls Royce
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Martin Baker, US Army, Richard Stone, David, Sapeurs Pompiers de Paris and the MOD.
The language of aviation is treasured by those of us who use it, especially since it separates us from those poor earth bound souls who don’t spend their lives with their eyes cast skyward. In the spirit of fairness, particularly to spouses who stand impatiently, eyes rolling as we converse with our avgeek friends about how pretty that Wedgetail is, here are a few pointers to help you join in the conversation.
The axes of an aircraft
Flight Bag
Drag!
An Empennage
Flaps
A Chinese Follow-Me car
A world record hail stone
Hi is for Hangar
The angle of incidence
The F8 "Last of the Gunfighters'.
The Jetway!
Images under the Creative Commons licence with thanks to M9matr0902, ZeroOne, Comicship, Olivier Cleynen, NiD29, NOAA and Wallsworth.
I apologise to you all but it’s time for my tatty old RAF log book to come out of the cupboard again. It was a sad, sad situation but for the recently promoted Flight Lieutenant Anderson, his departure from flying the Phantom on 43 Squadron was a reality that he had to face up to. Central Flying School is an august establishment that will proudly inform anyone with an interest (or not) that it is the world’s longest existing flying training school. It was to this anachronistic institution that I was bound!
The crest of the Central Flying School of the Royal Air Force
The Staff of the Central Flying School
The Red Arrows
The island of Anglesey
The Britannia Bridge
The BAE Systems Hawk T1
Flying the Hawk
The Great Orme and Llandudno Pier
Llandudno Pier
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to CFS, the RAF, the National Library of Wales, Tim Felce, Defence Imagery, Google Maps, Noel Walley and images within the Public Domain.
The subject of UFOs became a very popular theme in the press, on the television and in film, something that Intelligence services quietly encouraged. There were many, very secret projects that the US Government was investing enormous resources in, and any alternative explanation was preferable than the truth. One such project was the Silver Bug, a US Black version of the Canadian Avrocar. However, the Silver Bug's true capabilities were about to be discovered! But beware... not everything may be as it seems!
Sightings given credibility by the Swedish Air Intelligence Service
Everyone was caught up in the new UFO phenomena
Henri Coanda, discoverer of the Coanda effect
Jack Frost of Avro, the designer of the Avrocar
USAF regulations relating to UFOBs
The Canadian Avrocar during tests
Groom lake in Area 51
Technical Report on the Silver Bug
The Silver Bug's special Jet Stream aerodynamics
The Silver Surfer
The Silver Surfer accelerates
The Silver Surfer crosses the coast
The Silver Surfer completes its secret flight around the planet
The Soviet Aпреля Один (Aprelya Odin)
Images under Creative Commons Licence with thanks to the USAF, Bzuk, National Archives UK, Instituto Geográfico, Invencion propia, Doc Searles, William Bill Zuk, Phylyp and the USGov.
It takes about 12 seconds for the human body to reach terminal velocity. At that speed they will see the earth’s surface approach them at 177 feet or 54 meters every second. These are the stories of a few survivors who have fallen from an aircraft, without opening a parachute... and survived!
The remarkable Juliane Koepcke
Nicholas Alkemade
RAF Lancasters
The Ju88 nightfighter
The Il-4
B17 Flying Fortress bombers on a mission over Europe
The B17 ball turret
Vesna Vulović and a JAT DC9
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, SDASM, IWM and clipperarctic. Other images are in the Public Domain or considered Fair Use.
The landing gear, or undercarriage, of a big airliner is a massive and powerful system. In modern times stowaways, have frequently attempted to hide within the undercarriage wheel-wells of airliners. The chances of surviving such an ordeal are remote in the extreme as the hazards are many. If someone attempting such a dangerous journey isn’t crushed by the movement of the gear as it stows or fall to their death when the undercarriage doors open to raise or lower the gear, then the environment will present an almost insurmountable hazard. Some, however, still survive!
The landing gear of a B747
The forces that the undercarriage assembly is subjected to are considerable
The landing gear assembly and doors of a B747
FAA guidance on times of useful consciousness
Stranded near Newfoundland in the ice
A Douglas DC8
The DC10
Japanese troops in Timor
A 1950's airport similar to Kupang
A Netherlands Air Force C47
Darwin Hospital
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Adrian Pingstone, Faisal Akram, Alf van Beem, Australian War Memorial, Fotoafdrukken Koninklijke Luchtmacht and kenhodge13.
The Hovercraft is something of a rare beast. This story examines the many engineers and scientists who contributed to the development of a vehicle that is lifted on a cushion of air and is capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, tarmac, sand and many other flattish surfaces.
The Swedish scientist Emanuel Swedenborg is known to have sketched the first hovercraft design in 1714.
Dagobert Müller von Thomamühl's Luftkissengleitboot, a surface effect boat.
How a hovercraft functions.
Ford's efforts at hovering cars.
The L1 hovering tank.
Charles Fletcher’s Glidemobile.
Cockerell's hovercraft patent.
Sir Christopher Sydney Cockerell.
SRN1.
SRN4.
The US Navy LCAC.
The Soviet Zubr class ACV, the biggest in the world weighing in at 555 tons.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to those in the Public Domain, Technical Museum Vienna, Messer Woland, the Ford Motor Company, Ad Meskens, GB Patent Office, The National Archives UK, USN, Andrew Berridge and Mil.Ru (LightZone).
Out of the gloom of thick cloud, through their windscreens, the pilots suddenly saw the tops of pine trees but it was too late to pull up. They ploughed through them as the branches smashed into the left wing shattering the navigation light. One of the passengers onboard was the President of the airline, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker... this is his story.
An Eastern Airlines DC3
Atlanta had poor weather and it was close to midnight when the aircraft crashed
Eddie Rickenbacker
The findings of the inquiry
Racing in San Francisco
Rickenbacker becomes CO of the 94th, the Hat in the Ring gang
After receiving many decorations, Rickenbacker returns to the US a hero
The Rickenbacker motor company
Rickenbacker survives a second crash, this time in a Boeing B-17
Capt. E.V. "Eddie" Rickenbacker wearing the Congressional Medal of Honor
Images published under Creative Commons Licence with thanks to Jack Delano, the Library of Congress, CAB, SF Public Library, NARA, Rickenbacker Motors, the USAFand the USAAF.
This is the final part of the Red Flag tales which carries on directly from Part II where we heard some exploits from participants of Exercise Red Flag. If you haven't listened to the previous taleson this subject, it would be worth going back them. My thanks to Jaguar Pilot Nij, Tornado pilot Gasher, Tomcat RIO Scott and RAAF F111 Nav Abs.
The E-3 Sentry AWACS.
Break Right Chuck, there's one in your 6 o'clock!
A Smokey SAM.
Live weapons being dropped during Red Flag.
A Tornado drops flares.
An RAAF F111 puts its wings back and goes!
The Jaguar pilot's favourite dance.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the USAF, Photo-Concepte.de, the RAF, the USN,
In the first part of the Red Flag tales we talked about the reasons for the formation of the USAF Fighter Weapons School and the subsequent creation of Exercise Red Flag. Now we get a chance to hear from some of the participants. Firstly there is Nij who took time off from his Nuclear QRA duties to fly his RAF Jaguar in Flag exercises. Then we have a Tornado GR1 pilot, Gasher, who also participated on behalf of the RAF. Jack was an F15 pilot who took part as a wingman, formation leader and also as a Fighter Weapons School graduate. Scott was a Tomcat RIO who was part of Red Air during Flag exercises and Abs, a navigator from the Royal Australian Air Force flew with the F111 force and was even a Blue Force Commander during the exercise.
An RAF Jaguar
An RAF Tornado at Nellis
The mighty F15 Eagle
The USN F14 Tomcat
The RAAF F111
The Nellis ranges with Area 51 marked in red
The Nellis Air Force Base
A Red Flag briefing
The symbol of Exercise Red Flag
The EF-111A Raven
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Steve Lynes, Finlay McWalter, the USAF, USN, Ken Lund, the National Museum of the Air Force and the MOD.
The Korean War had been a successful period for the US Air Force but a decade later in the Vietnam war their success rate had gone from 10:1 down to 1:1. Something had to be be done. This is the story of the creation of the USAF Fighter Weapons School and Exercise Red Flag!
The F86 in Korea
The F4 Phantom II
Wreckage of a B52 in Hanoi
The Weapons School graduate patch and an example of dissimilar combat between an F16 and Mig21
A Soviet Surface to Air missile system
A captured Soviet Mig in USAF markings
The F5 Aggressors
Richard Suter
The Nellis Ranges
A 'Smokey SAM'
IAF F15s, one of the many nations that are invited to take part in Ex Red Flag
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the USAF, Mark Limb, US DOD, US Gov, US Defence Imagery, USMC, Finlay McWalter, National Museum of the Air Force and Srđan Popović.
It is the beginning of 1981 but for me it was the conclusion of my first front line tour of duty. When my posting came I was devastated. I had been sent to instruct at No 4 Flying Training School, RAF Valley on the island of Anglesey in North Wales. A remote corner in the middle of nowhere doing a job I didn’t want.
An F4 Phantom FG1 of No43(F) Sqn.
The Hawker Harrier GR1.
Survival Scramble.
The A10 Warthog.
The BLC Malfunction emergency checklist.
Greek Gunboats!
My posting to become a QFI loomed!
My much loved Yamaha along with our poo coloured Rover!
Climbing Mt Snowdon.
Dave would perish during Exercise Red Flag when he crashed his RAF Jaguar avoiding a simulated SAM engagement.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Mike Freer, Senior Airman Matthew Bruch, CC BY-SA 3.0, the USAF, the RAF and myself!
The Sound Barrier was first broken in 1947... by 1949 Convair had submitted its initial bid for the USAF's first supersonic bomber. So much had to be learned in that time… the aerodynamics of supersonic flight, the construction materials that would be required and the engines that could power it were only part of the technological challenges that would be faced. It was truly a remarkable effort. The pilots that were chosen to fly this tricky Mach 2, 70,000 ft capable aircraft that could climb at over 45,000ft a minute, were highly skilled and Lt Col Henry, John Deutschendorf was one of them.
The opposing sides of the Cold War
The first generation of US and Soviet ICBM nuclear missiles
The B-58 Hustler
The Hustler's escape pod
The three B-58 cockpit hatches
John Denver
The Long EZ
Ghostbusters II
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Kingkingphoto, the USAF, NOAA and Impawards.
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather,
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not!
Nowadays, however, we are blessed with more ways to get the weather than one can shake proverbial sticks at and, certainly in the world of aviation, it's all remarkably accurate even if it’s presented in a rather archaic code. Of course even that is pretty advanced when compared with the early days!
Hippocrates
Galileo's thermometer
Early weather forecasting equipment!
The wrecking of the Royal Charter on the Island of Anglesey
Robert Firzroy, the father of met forecasting.
Gp Capt Stagg who forecasted the weather for Operation Chastise
The US Bureau of Metrology
An early radiosonde met balloon
A decode aid for aviation forecasts
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, NOAA, Fenners and the RAF.
The pride of the Air India fleet, their first Boeing 747 was named after the Emperor Ashoka. The first of the Maharaja-themed aircraft it epitomised luxury and was, “Your palace in the sky.” On this New Year's day, however, its flight would last only a few seconds.
The Emperor Ashoka Boeing 747
The cockpit
The Engineer's station.
The interior of a Maharaja-themed Air India aircraft
The famous Jharokha styled windows
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Air India PR, Oliver Cleynen, Snowdog, Mitchel Gilliand, Shahram Sharifi, Dharma and Searchtrail67.
'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
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.
The Westinghouse AWG 11/12 radar.
43 Sqn F4 Phantom FG1 on QRA.
Engaging a USAF EC130.
Engaging a USAF EC130.
My treasured Blue Peter badge.
The Boy Pilot, John, Ballex and Budgie... heroes of the Blue Peter Special!
The AEW Avro Shackleton.
Another Bear.
The F5 Aggressors in their distinctive Soviet camouflage.
You can't meander around a Leander! An RN Frigate.
Hunting Jags over the wilds of Scotland.
The RAF Piddle Pack!
An RAF goon suit (aircrew Immersion Suit).
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.
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 grew up helping his father out on gas drilling rigs.
Yeager joined the Air Force as a Private and became a mechanic but he soon made his way into pilot training.
He was initially given a P39 Aeracobra to fly.
He was sent to Europe to flight, flying the P51 Mustang.
He named his own aircraft Glamorous Glen.
He qualified as an Ace in one day and then shot down a jet powered Me262.
After the war Yeager qualified as a Test Pilot.
Even as a very junior Test Pilot, Yeager was offered the chance to pilot the Bell X1.
Yeager finally took the X!, now named Glamorous Glennis, over Mach 1 becoming the first to break the sound barrier.
Yeager completed a long and successful career in the USAF.
Chuck Yeager passed away in 2020.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to SMU Central University, USAF National Museum and the USAF.
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.
A US Army CH47A.
An RAF Chinook.
Argentinian forces invade Stanley.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Government House at Port Stanley.
HMS Invincible leads the task force out of British Waters.
The Atlantic Conveyor embarking aircraft.
The Argentinian submarine Santa Fe, previously USS Catfish.
An RAF Vulcan.
The sinking of the Belgrano.
The sinking of HMS Sheffield.
The sinking of HMS Antelope.
An Argentinian Super Etendard.
The Atlantic Conveyor ablaze.
Bravo November... the last Chinook.
Commandos marching across the inhospitable terrain of the Falklands... into battle.
A 105mm howitzer.
An upgraded BN during operations in the Middle East.
BN also served in the Afghan conflict.
Bravo November continues to serve to this very day.
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,
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.
An RAF pilot's annual assessment of ability.
Quételet, the man who invented averages.
The University of Ghent.
It was the study of Astronomy that gave rise to the first calculations of averages.
The study of the average Scottish Soldier.
Very few deaths during the First World War were due to enemy action.
The Second World War also saw an unacceptable number of deaths due to accidents.
The USAF conducted a large study into the size of their men to discover the dimensions of the average pilot.
Lt Gilbert Daniels discovered that not one USAF pilot matched the average!
The study of ergonomics let to better cockpit design.
Human factors also covers the limitation of the human body when flying.
Modern glass cockpits prevent many pitfalls from previous designs but bring their own problems.
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.
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!
Adverts for Boulton and Paul garden sunrooms.
The Wonderful Airfix Defiant model.
The ungainly Rhino parachute that the Defiant gunners wore.
The Sopwith Camel that Boulton Paul built under licence.
Boulton Paul had become well known as a turret manufacturer.
The ungainly Rhino parachute that the Defiant gunners had to cope with.
Boulton Paul Defiants lined up on the ground.
Taken out of front line operations the Defiant found a place as a target tug aircraft.
The large and slow Fairey Battle.
The Battle's bomb aimer's position.
Bombing up a Battle.
How many apprentices does it take to push a Fairey Battle?
The Fairey Swordfish.
The aircraft due to replace the Swordfish, the Fairey Albacore.
An Albacore departs from HMS Victorious.
The damaged and sunk capital ships of the Italian Navy after the Battle of Taranto.
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,
It was in the early predawn that Pilot Officer Richard Pryce Hughes crashed his aircraft on the heathland a little less than 500 yards from where I live. That was 78 years ago and I was yet to be born and where my house is was still a pine covered heathland. A marker has been erected to show the location of the crash and as we approach the 11th of the 11th my wife or I place a cross on the small monument in remembrance, lest we forget.
The heathland upon which Pilot Officer Richard Pryce Hughes crashed.
RCAF recruitment poster.
The Handley Page Halifax.
A painting depicting a 1,000 bomber raid.
The 10 Squadron winged arrow - approved by King George VI in September 1937.
The Bomber Command memorial depicting a typical crew.
A Halifax during a raid.
The fate of a heavy bomber hit by flak.
The Bristol Blenheim.
The De Havilland Mosquito.
The graves of the two brave Hughes cousins.
The Canadian memorial to their bomber crews at Nanton.
The marker placed in memory of Pilot Officer Richard Pryce Hughes.
Each year as we approach the 11th of the 11th my wife or I place a cross on the marker in remembrance... lest we forget.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Royal Air Force, the Ministry of Defence, Google Maps, the Royal Canadian Air Force.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A continuation of the stories from Capt Nick's RAF Form 414... his flying logbook.
BAe Nimrod MR2
The Old Pilot and a Bear
Norwegen F-5A
The Shackleton AEW2
A Canadian CL-28 Argus
The Avro Vulcan
The Skyflash semi active radar guided missile
An AQM37. The Stiletto was an air launched version.
A Skyflash missile firing from the F4 Phantom
Post missile firing treasure
Yours truly
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to The Old Pilot, Dale Coleman, Crown, Rob Schleiffert, USAF and an RAF Photographer.
Now a story about the US Navy Band may not seem to be my usual fare in Tales but bear with me and I must thank serving Band member and APG listener Tuba Tony for suggesting the topic for this story.
The United States Navy Ceremonial Band
The distant origin of the first Navy musicians.
The USS Macon
Eisenhower as a General and President
A DC3
A US Navy DC6
The Bandsmen lost in the tragic crash
Sugarloaf mountain
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to US Gov, Wiki Commons, US Navy, Library of Congress and the Washington Post.
There are many things that one might want to be remembered for. A fine physician, a pioneer aviator, a renown aeronautical researcher, an inspired inventor but perhaps not as the greatest charlatan ever to see his name associated with an airplane, even though his scout fighter the Christmas Bullet had a perfect kill record… it killed everyone who ever tried to fly it!
The AEA Redwing
One of Christmas's Patents
The Christmas Bullet
The Christmas Bullet
The Liberty 6 Engine
Dr Christmas
Images under creative commons licence with thanks to the Library of Congress, US Gov, US Patent Office and the USAF.
Back in 1997, on a sliver of land wedged between a gas station and a car park, a lone C130 Hercules could be found. It was mounted there near the entrance to the National Security Agency at Fort Mead in Maryland for a good reason. Not the original aircraft, as that crashed on foreign soil, it had been painted with the tail number 60528 to represent it.
The memorial to the crew of 60528
The C130 airborne
The plot of 60528 and the track of the intercepting fighters.
A Mig 17
Gun camera film from the attacking Mig17s
Gun camera film from an attacking Mig 17 showing the C130 in flames
The crash site of 60528
A USN Neptune
A Mig15
An LA11
An RAF Lincoln
The U2 spy plane
Gary Powers
The memorial to the crew of the C130
Arlington Cemetery
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the NSA, Soviet Defence Archives, 1Lt Kucharyaev, Soviet Air Force, Kirill Pisman, Adam Jones, Garry Goebel, RIA Novosti archive and IP Singh.
If you are anything like the usual aviation enthusiast you’ll have a list of famous names in your head that you can quote at parties to bore your friends like, Wilbur and Orville, Bleriot, Richthofen, Lindbergh, Sikorsky, Whittle, Yeager and such but I wonder if you can place some of the others who deserve recognition.
Charlie Taylor
Hans Von Ohain
Ohain's HeS8 jet engine
The He178
The He280
Gloster E-28
Olive-Ann and TravelAir
The Staggerwing
Doolittle and the Mystery Ship
Louise Thaden
Bessie Coleman
Mae Jemison
Houdini
Colin Defries
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the USAF, the Air Force Research Lab, Embryriddle, RAF/IWM, SDASM, Flugkerl2, BAC, NASA, Museums Victoria,
He is dead now but you’ll find no stone to mark his grave since he has neither grave nor marker, which is a little odd for a much decorated American hero who fought for his country with outstanding bravery... but it was his wish and his family accepted that.
Boeing B-17D
The 509th
Project Alberta
The Trinity Test tower
The world's first atomic bomb just prior to the Trinity Test
The Trinity Test fireball
Little Boy
The mission map
Detonation
Hiroshima just after detonation
The Hiroshima Damage estimation map
Enola Gay returns
Tibbits in Enola Gay
Tibbits is decorated by Gen Spaatz
Enola Gay in the Udvar Hazy
Paul W Tibbits
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the USAF, US Gov, Project Alberta, Mr98, Berlyn Brixner, US Gov DOD, Jack W Aeby, United States Department of Energy, George R Caron, U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Armen Shamlian and elliottwolf.
In 1941 the German Navy commissioned its latest submarine, the U-134 and as it slid out of harbour to join the 5th U boat flotilla, Captain-Lieutenant Rudolf Schendel keenly anticipated the mission ahead. You may be wondering why this Type 7C U Boat should feature in a Plane Tale but bear with me as I introduce the K-74. Built a year after the U-134, the K 74 came from a company with an interesting origin, the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation. This is their intriguing story.
The Type VIIc U-Boat
One of the few U Boats to survive the war.
Zeppelins over London
A British recruitment poster
The Goodyear Zeppelin Airdock
The Airdock interior
The Goodyear K Class blimp
K-Class blimp arrives in Gibraltar
The U-134's last patrol
The U-134 survives an attack
A K-Class on patrol
Attack report of the engagement between K-74 and U134
A K-Class is loaded with Depth Charges
The K-Class crew man their gun
HMS Rother finally sinks U-134 with all hands
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to NSA, UK National Archives, Darkone, US Library of Congress, the Goodyear Zeppelin company, USN, Grossnick Roy A, Royal Navy and the US Naval Institute.
The ejector seat is still a subject of fascination for a lot of pilots, mainly those who have never been strapped to one. It’s often the opinion of folk not part of the small fast jet community that an ejection is a simple matter, you just pull the handle and ‘boom’ you’re safe.
The B58 Hustler
An ejector seat from the B-58 Hustler
Smarter than the average bear!
North American Aviation test pilot George Smith.
The F100
Vought A-7E-5-CV Corsair II
The USS Constellation during her 1964–1965 WESTPAC cruise
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to J Clear, USAF, USAF National Air Museum, US Navy archives, US Gov, Hanna-Barbera and Robert L. Lawson.
On April the 1st 2011, a little known story of intrigue and tension within the usually calm and placid country of Canada came to light. This little known affair which brought the United States and Canada to a breaking point revolved around the purchase of an unusual Fighter for the RCAF. This drama of the 1960s has become notorious in government circles and is variously referred to as, “The Stab in the Back-yard”, “The Fishbed Flap” “The Redhawk Incident” or more ominously “The Canuck Invasion Crisis”.
The Arrow is rolled out.
The Arrow is cancelled and cut up into scrap.
Scrapped portions of the Avro Arrow.
The Mig 21.
The first Canadian CF-121, Redhawk.
441 Sqn, the Stratocasters, are reformed with their Migs.
441 Sqn deploy to their new home in Cold Lake.
The first Redhawk is lost.
A grainy photograph reveals the truth!
The story is out.
Little evidence remains of the CF-121 Redhawk.
The old Cold Lake gate guard.
The truth is finally revealed.
Images published under Creative Commons licence with many thanks to parfaits, the Government of Canada and the amazing Vintage Wings of Canada.
I’ve talked a lot about alcohol over the past few Plane Tales and mainly about the negative aspects but it remains one of the few socially acceptable drugs that we can imbibe. With our propensity for travelling the world, fighter jocks, trash haulers, airline crews and the rest, have always managed to find some fascinating watering holes to frequent to let the stress of the day gently drain away in convivial company over a drink or two. With that in mind I asked the crew to tell me about one or two of their favourite establishments.
The brewing and consumption of beer has a long and interesting history.
The Royal Navy rum tub of HMS Cavaller.
Steph's Ski Bar.
Inside Molly's.
Great views of the slopes.
The entrance to Rick's Aero Club of East Africa.
The smell of bourbon, cigarette smoke, aviation gasoline and Wood polish.
The walls are adorned with fascinating artifacts.
And memories of pilots long past.
Because old pilots never die...
One of Jeff's favourites the Diego Garcia Officer's Club.
And the Randolph Officers Club.
Under which is found the wonderful old Auger Inn.
The tall windows of the Big Room in the Royal and Ancient golf club.
An evening out in Narita started in the Flyers Bar.
Moved on to the Bon Cafe for all you can eat teppanyaki.
Then to the Barge Inn.
And finally the infamous Truck (Trailer).
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Library of Congress, Hammersfan, Steph, Rick, Jeff, Nick and Gordon McKinlay.
Flying is an environment where the pilot's senses, coordination and mental faculties are vital to the safe conduct of a flight. Getting airborne having taken something that might impair one’s flying ability is a complete anathema to the vast majority of aviators so it is vital that we look at ourselves and our fellow pilots to recognise those who might need help.
The route taken by Aero 311.
The Bay of Bothnia.
An Aero DC3.
The crash site of Aero 311.
The JAL 8054 DC8 Freighter.
The DC8 crash site.
The Aeroflot Flight 821 crash site.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the NTSB, Alma Media Suomi Oy, Jjm2311, Ritvara, Aktug Ates, MAK,
When the gentlemen aviators of the First World War were looking for protective clothing to wear whilst doing battle over the trenches of the Somme, they visited establishments such as Alfred Dunhill’s where they were invited to alight for the best equipment. This is the story of such wonderful flying garb as the Sidcot Suit, the Irving jacket and the classic American flight and bomber jackets.
A 1930 'Sidcot' suit.
The G1 Navy Flight Jacket.
Steve McQueen in his A2.
Chuck Yeager in his B10.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the FAST Archive, the Imperial War Museum, Solicitr, USAF, Dunhill's and Robinson and Cleaver.
Necessity is the mother of invention so it's often during war that the most amazing contrivances are developed... and some of the most ridiculous. This is a look at a few of the less successful wartime inventions!
The Bat Bomb.
During testing, a few bats escaped and disaster followed!
A slab of Pykrete with a bullet mark.
The proposed Pykrete aircraft carrier.
The Bat guided bomb used in Project Pigeon.
The Fu-Go hydrogen balloon bomb.
A Fu-Go balloon found near Bigelow, Kansas on February 23, 1945.
A rendition of the proposed Nazi Sun Gun.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to US Army, US Gov, USAF, CyranoDeWikipedia, Teramatt, US National Archives, and the US Navy Archives.
In this, the final part of the Ian Palmer interviews we find out about another life threatening concern that Ian had to deal with and how it led to a wonderful relationship. After my many years in the world of aviation there aren’t many people I have met who would be willing to open up their lives in the way that Ian has done. In doing so my regard and respect for him has done nothing but grow. Should anybody listening feel that they want to seek Ian out to ask for his help or advice then please contact him at Ian@ianpalmer.com
Brain surgery isn't for the faint hearted but Ian, with typical understatement, tackled it head on!
Ian, back on the flight deck of his beloved Airbus A330.
Images with thanks to Ian Palmer.
The third Ian Palmer interview deals with Ian's attempts to overcome his condition of alcohol dependance and how his life moved on.
Ian rehearsing with his friend and mentor, Steve Gadd.
Images with thanks to Ian Palmer.
In this, the second of the Ian Palmer interviews we continue with Ian's story and he describes his move from a career in music to one in aviation. We also find out how his condition of alcohol dependance starts to affect him.
Ian doing aerobatics in an Extra 300.
The unusual Piaggio P-180.
Ian meets the Iron Maiden drummer, Nicko McBrain.
Images with thanks to Ian Palmer and, under Creative Commons licence,Tibboh.
My father was beacon that led me into the world of aviation and steered me unerringly through my flying life more accurately than any gauge or needle on my instrument panel. He grew up on the white sand beaches of Western Australia, fought in the Second World War on the Sunderland Flying boats of No 10 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force and continued to fly in peacetime, plying his way around the world on firstly the DC2 and finally the B747. He became a restaurateur, avocado farmer and eventually learned to rest with an occasional game of lawn bowls. He even agreed to let me record some interviews about his life. Sadly, he is no longer with us.
A No 10 Sqn RAAF Sunderland flying-boat of Coastal Command sets out on patrol.
Flt Lt Andy Anderson with his Sunderland crew.
An Airwork Vickers Viking.
A Kuwait Airways Boeing 747.
His final years.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to RuthAS and Adrian Pingstone.
Ian Palmer's life has hardly gone as smoothly as he might have wished. Born into a family of musicians, particularly drummers including Carl Palmer of the band ELP, he started off as a very successful drummer himself. What he didn't know was that he suffered from a condition that carries great stigma and frequently leads to ruin and death... alcoholism.
This is the first part of an inspiring and brutally honest interview that follows his life from drumming into aviation.
Title image: Ian Palmer with Steve White of the Paul Weller band, Brian Bennett of The Shadows and Pete Cater.
Ian Palmer... drummer.
Images with thanks to Ian Palmer.
Born in Wales to immigrant parents he would grow to a height of 6’ 6” and climbing into the cockpit of a World War II fighter was going to be a problem… but he managed it and before long had earned the moniker Lofty. He would pen books that charmed children for generations and generations for Lofty, who was an army officer, fighter pilot and spy was better known as the renown author who sold over 100 million copies of his books, Roald Dahl.
Roald Dahl.
The Gloster Gladiator.
Roald Dahl's WWII flying helmet.
Roald Dahl in later life signing books in Amsterdam in front of an adoring audience.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Paramount pictures, the US Library of Congress, the British Government, DeFacto and Rob Bogaerts.
Fifty three years ago a man fell to earth. He came from space having survived the appallingly hostile conditions that exist there. Apart from the hard vacuum, the electromagnetic radiation, the intense cold, the cosmic rays and other damaging particles that exist there. Despite overcoming numerous failures on his Soyuz-1 spacecraft he had achieved the near impossible and piloted a manual reentry... all he had to do now was to wait for the life saving parachutes to deploy.
Colonel Vladimir Komarov
The Soyuz 1 capsule.
The aftermath of the Soyuz 1 crash.
The commemorative plaque and the Fallen Astronaut sculpture left on the Moon by the crew of Apollo 15.
Vladimir Komarov with his wife Valentina Yakovlevna and daughter Irina.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to NFCC, Smithsonian Institute, NASA and the US Gov.
The German name for the Shrike songbird is Würger, which also means Strangler and by coincidence, was also the name given to the Focke-Wulf 190, a World War II fighter which quickly became one of the most feared Axis fighters of the 2nd World War. Various dubious plans were made to get hold of one to reveal its secrets but then along came Oberleutnant Armin Faber.
Armin Faber's gift in RAF markings.
The Shoreham Aircraft Museum.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Imperial War Museum, FO Watkins and the Shoreham Aircraft Museum.
Dick Andrews was flying over the battle of A Sầu in Vietnam and feeling deja view as he saw what was going on beneath him. It took his mind back to the day in WWII when he landed his P38 Lightning in a field to rescue his leader who had crash landed there. Now he was watching the same thing happening below except a Skyraider was landing amongst enemy Viet Cong and not German troops. A remarkable coincidence and a remarkable pair of stories.
Bernie Fisher wearing his Medal of Honour in 2008.
Fisher and Myers after the rescue.
Fisher's damaged A-1E.
Dick Andrews and Dick Willsie squeezed into the same P38 cockpit.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the USAF and March Field Air Museum.
I was about to enter the Devil's Triangle, the Limbo of the Lost, the Twilight Zone or the Hoodoo Sea… more commonly referred to as the Bermuda Triangle. What dangers awaited, would I disappear like the famous loss of the 5 Avengers of Flight 19! Listen to this terrifying story of myth and mystery!
A fine example of a Pseudoscience.
The Bermuda Triangle.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Lt Cdr Horace Bristol, US Navy, Alphaios and People's Cyclopedia of Universal Knowledge (1883)
Boeing was the most successful aircraft manufacturing company on the planet but a European consortium thought they could take on the world's best selling airliner, the B737, with a design of their own. So was borne the A320 family of airliners with the most daring and radical of technological advances that the airline industry had seen since the advent of the jet engine. But the birth of the A320 was marred by a controversial crash that might sink the project before it had got going! A tale produced to celebrate the A320 Podcast’s 100th show.
The larger A321...
... and very much smaller A318.
Appendix 3 of the BEA final report into the crash of Air France flight 296.
The A320 and B737 in competition.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Ken Fielding, Bill Larkins, Austrian Airlines, Aero Icarus and the BEA.
What better day to celebrate the aviators of Ireland than on St Patrick's Day. From the crash of Alcock and Brown to a tractor maker and a flying olympic competitor, the Emerald Isles have a fascinating aviation history.
Henry Ferguson, perhaps better known as an agricultural machinery maker than a pilot.
Lilian Bland piloting her Mayfly.
Lady Heath featured top centre amongst the best known aviators of the '30s.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Joseph D. Eddy and The Queenslander.
The sequel to Passing Gas recalls what it's actually like to plug into a tanker and take on a fighter pilot's life blood... fuel! Of course not every tanker mission goes as planned and some have ended in tragedy and one, by the smallest of margins, was saved from further disaster on an epic scale.
Two MH-53E Super Stallion helicopters perform aerial refueling from a KC-130J Hercules tanker aircraft.
A K3 VC10 tanker of the Royal Air Force.
KC-135 Stratotanker refuels an F-16 during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The casings of two B28 nuclear bombs involved in the Palomares incident on display at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the US Navy, MCS James Turner, USAF, John E. Lasky, Marshall Astor and Chris Lofting.
The history of Air to Air refuelling and how the systems that we are now familiar with, the boom and the probe & drogue, came into being.
Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter receiving the first mid-air refueling on June 27, 1923.
The Question Mark receives fuel during its record breaking endurance flight.
A KB-50J refuels a F-101A Voodoo, B-66 Destroyer and F-100D Super Sabre at RAF Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire on Battle of Britain Day, 14 September 1963.
A TriStar K1 of the Royal Air Force refuelling two McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18C Hornets of the US Navy over Afghanistan, 2008.
An F15 Eagle takes gas.
A Boeing KC-135Q refueling the SR-71.
The Old Pilot flying an F4 and plugged into a Victor K2 tanker of No 57 Squadron RAF.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the US Air Force, TSRL, Tech Sgt Shane A. Cuomo, US DoD, Cmdr. Erik Etz, U.S. Navy, SrA Allen McArthur and Ken Hackman,
With the prospect of a new movie following the classic Top Gun in the offing, we take a largely 'tongue in cheek' look at the F14 and how Maverick got into a 'flat spin heading out to sea!"
F-14A Tomcats of Fighter Squadrons VF-51 "Screaming Eagles", the VF-111 "Sundowners" and F-5E/F Tiger IIs of the Navy Fighter Weapons School.
An F-14D Tomcat.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to PH2 Michael D.P. Flynn, the U.S. Navy, LCdr. David Baranak,
During the Vietnam war, the A6 Intruder was known for making daring, low level attacks in foul conditions and often alone. As such it had more than its fair share of losses. One such loss was due to a lone .303 bullet which gravely injured the pilot and would have killed him if not for the brave actions of his Bombardier Navigator... actions that would result in the award of a Navy Cross.
An A6 Intruder on deck.
USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63).
A pair of A-6As of VA-85 the Black Falcons in flight over the South China Sea.
Images under Creative Commons licence, with thanks to US Navy, Mike Corrado, ATR2 Randy Bender, PHCS Brown
If you've ever looked out onto a wing and wondered what the strange looking blades and plates attached to it are? Then wonder no longer! An explanation of Vortex Generators and Wing Fences and why we need them.
A fine set of wing fences on the Mig 17. This one can be seen on the deck of USS Intrepid in NY.
A line of vortex generators on the wing of an A4 in the hangar of USS Intrepid.
The wing of a Skyhawk on USS Intrepid displaying a number of boundary layer control devices.
Vortilons can be seen projecting from underneath the center leading edge of the wings of this Hawker and it also has neat little winglets.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Adrian Pingstone.
Visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Stonehenge and you will pass another stone monument. It's the Airman's Cross, placed by his comrades to commemorate the death of an early airman, Captain Eustace Broke Loraine and his Sergeant, who died when he crashed his Nieuport Monoplane near Stonehenge.
This pioneer aviator deserves to be recognised not just because of his own place in history but for his friendship with a very special officer who he encouraged to take up flying.
The Nieuport Monoplane
Stonehenge
Trenchard, the father of the Royal Air Force
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Garethwiscombe and William Orpen.
Fun in the Sun continues with part 2 of my first Air to Air Gunnery camp in Cyprus. The work has started and now it's time to become ACE (Allied Command Europe) qualified with the mighty M61 Vulcan cannon.
Before long, though it's time to return to reality and, as my first year on the squadron comes to a close, time for my first annual assessment.
An unmounted M61 Vulcan 20mm cannon.
The shells that the Vulcan cannon fires.
As pleased as Punch!
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, Rhodekyll
Delving back into my RAF Pilot's Logbook, Form 414, it's time for the annual instrument rating and prepare for our first deployment to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. Whilst the 'High Ups' sorted everything out for a major detachment, I'm left doing QRA but at last we are heading south for the Mediterranean. My journey, however, is in the opposite of a supersonic fighter jet!
The ancient island of Cyprus.
Our little corner of the ancient island of Cyprus.
A miniature and modern version of the usual meze that we often enjoyed.
Images under Creative Commons licence and others with thanks to Peri Reis and Cyprus Beat.
This story harks back to the 300th APG show and was rewritten for the Plane Talking UK live show near Heathrow Airport. It is the story of a crippled Airbus A300 that barely survives a missile attack and the excellent work by a phenomenal Flight Deck crew.
The DHL A300 that was struck.
The landing.
The damage done to the A300's left wing.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to dodmedia and Airbus Flight Safety.
The Convair 990 was a financial disaster that cost General Dynamics one of the largest corporate losses in history but thanks to some fascinating aerodynamics it was also the world's fastest subsonic airliner. This is the story of a little known airliner and the transonic design that allowed it to cruise at Mach 0.97!
Convair CV 990 displaying anti-shock bodies on the top surface of its wings as it sits on the ramp at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center.
Listener Ramiro Couto takes a selfie in front of the NASA Convair 990 that now resides near the Mojave Airport.
The Convair 990 near the Mojave Airport showing off its anti shock bodies which allowed the aircraft to take advantage of the Whitcomb area rule.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the San Diego Air & Space Museum, NASA and listener Ramiro Couto.
Growing up in poverty, life in Germany following WWII was hard, but for one young man, dreams of starting a new life as a pilot in America seemed beyond imagination. However, through strength of character and determination, Dieter Dengler would achieve his goal only to have his short career brought to an abrupt end when he was downed flying a secret mission over Laos at the start of the Vietnam war. The story of his subsequent capture, torture and his ultimate fate is a remarkable story.
Dieter after his escape.
Dieter and Colonel Eugene Deatrick, the man who spotted him in the jungle of Laos.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the US Navy and draykov.
From one of the lesser known Bee Gee's records comes a bizarre title for a seasonal song that brings to mind the story of Captain William Wincapaw, a native of Friendship in Maine. In his early days of flying float planes around Rockland Harbour he often used the many lighthouses of New England to help him navigate in poor weather. His fondness for the families who tended these lighthouses and Coast Guard stations, often in the most remote of situations, led him to begin a Christmas tradition that continues to this very day.
Captain William Wincapaw.
Delivering Christmas presents.
Images under copyright to the Friends of Flying Santa. To donate please go to the Friends of Flying Santa website.
After WWII many American pilots were employed by the growing Chinese airline industry flying from poorly equipped airfields in China. The weather was often difficult and the terrain dangerous but on Christmas day 1946, struggling to get back to their base at Lunghwa airfield tragedy would strike... not once but three times. This is the awful story of that night in Shanghai.
A CNAC Curtis C46.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to CNAC archives and National Museum of the USAF.
The very next installment of my flying logbook stories has me attempting my first arrester wire engagement, paying tribute to the Bell Rock Lighthouse and meeting the USAF's 527th Aggressor Squadron for combat training.
Armed Phantoms of No 43 (F) Squadron, RAF Leuchars.
Three F-5E Tiger II aircraft from the 527th Tactical Fighter Training Aggressor Squadron, RAF Alconbury.
Bell Rock lighthouse under construction.
Bell rock lighthouse as I remember it!
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Me, the USAF, Derek Robertson and Robert Stephenson.
In the 1970's, Germany was in the grip of a terrorist nightmare, led by a far left militant group known as the Red Army Faction or the Baader-Meinhof Gang. Their most audacious act was, with the aid of Palestinian terrorists, to hijack a Lufthansa Boeing 737 named Landshut. For the passengers and crew this was the start of a 5 day nightmare during which they were subjected to awful treatment and murder. This is the story of flight 181.
Hanns-Martin Schleyer in captivity following his abduction.
Landshut during the hijacking.
The route Landshut was forced to take.
The hostages and GSG9 team arrive safely back in Germany.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Ken Fielding, Devilm25 and the Bundesarchiv.
Wilheim Böing, emigrated to the United States in 1866 and, after becoming a wealthy lumber merchant, sent his son William to an elite school in Switzerland and then Yale University. Now named Boeing, William followed his father into the timber business and in his spare time became one of America's first pilots. Soon he was putting his wealth and engineering background to the development of his first aircraft, the Boeing and Westervelt B&W1. This was the start of the enormously successful company that was to conquer the world of aviation and develop such iconic aircraft as the B17 Flying Fortress and the Boeing 747.
A replica of the B&W seaplane.
A 1928 map of the USPO airmail routes.
The Boeing Model-40 airmail aircraft.
A prototype B-17, the Boeing Y1B-17.
Boeing's first commercial jet airliner, the 707.
The Boeing 747, being displayed to the public for the first time.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the San Diego Air & Space Museum Archive, KudzuVine, United States Post Office Department, Seattle Municipal Archives, USAF, Jon Proctor and Scandinavian Airlines Service.
Two men who risked everything to save their aircraft and, because of their bravery, were awarded their countries highest honour. These are stories which truly invoke the often misused sobriquet, hero.
Jimmy Ward of No 75 (New Zealand) Squadron.
The hatch that Jimmy climbed out of and the holes he made to crawl over to the blazing engine.
Henry Erwin, recipient of the Medal of Honor.
"Red" Erwin in 1995.
The B-29 Superfortress.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Arghya1999, the Royal Air Force, US Air Force, Senior Airman Christopher J. Matthews and the US Gov.
It was the year 1919 and Billy Hughes, the Prime Minister of Australia, was travelling to attend the Paris Peace Conference. He cabled his Government, “Several Australian aviators are desirous of attempting flight London to Australia they are all first-class men and very keen, your thoughts?” The undertaking was momental since the longest distance ever achieved by an aircraft to that point was only a third of the required 11,000 miles, let alone attempting the journey in less than 30 days! Regardless, the Great Air Race was on!
After an an epic 206 days, finally, Battling Ray landed in Australia.
The Vickers Vimy dubbed Gawd Elp All Of Us reaches Australian soil.
A monument to the Great Race erected in Darwin.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Benparer, State Library of South Australia, State Library of Queensland and Bidgee.
The Mig-21, NATO codename Fishbed, was to become the most produced supersonic fighter in aviation history. In the 1950s, its secrets were being tightly safeguarded and Western military forces were very keen to find out more. Here is a spy story, more dramatic and blood thirsty than most fictional ones but one that put the new fighter right into the hands of the Israeli Air Force.
Mig 007 in the Hatzerim museum.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Oren Rozen, US Gov DIA,
A narrow body of water separates England from the rest of Europe... between Dover and Calais it's only 21 miles wide. Crossing it has become a bit of a right of passage for many forms of transport and aviators, with or without moustaches, have been no exception. These are the stories of some of those early attempts!
Jean-Pierre Blanchard rows across the channel in a balloon!
Louis Blériot sporting a fine aviator's moustache!
Blériot completes the first crossing of the Channel by a heavier than air machine.
Harriet Quimby's very fetching flying gear.
A captured Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Drache.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Jmack361,
The Upkeep mine was at last working and 617 Squadron had worked up to a level of skill that was unmatched amongst the Bomber Command units. The waters of the Ruhr dams had reached their peak and the moon was waxing gibbous towards being full. At last, all the preparation and training was going to be put to the test and the Dambusters raid was on!
At last... Upkeep had proved itself capable of being successfully dropped.
A painting depicting the attack.
Air Vice Martial Cochrane, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, King George VI and Group Captain Whitworth discussing the 'Dambusters Raid' in May 1943
The day after the raid showing the damage done to the Mohne dam. Belatedly, barrage balloons have appeared over the dam.
A visit by King George VI to 617 Squadron after the raid.
The Möhne dam as it looks today. A photograph taken by APG listener Emiel Achterberg from a C172 although he is also a keen balloonist.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to 617 Sqn, the Imperial War Museum, Flying Officer Jerry Fray RAF, an RAF official photographer and APG listener Emiel Achterberg.
This is part three of a quadrilogy of stories about the Dambuster's raid on the great dams of the Ruhr valley by No 617 Squadron. Wallis faced an uphill struggle to convince the Air Ministry that his idea of bouncing a huge mine across the surface of the reservoirs, over torpedo nets and right up to the dam walls was feasible. When finally given the go ahead he only had a few months to complete testing and then build a successful weapon. In the meantime, a new Lancaster squadron had to be formed and trained. This is a remarkable story of genius and tenacity in equal parts.
A 1:50 Scale model of the Mohne Dam, blown up to demonstrate where the Upkeep mine should be placed.
Barnes Wallis watches a successful trial of Upkeep at Reculver.
A trail weapon recovered from Hearne Bay.
A surviving Upkeep mine.
Upkeep in position under Gibson's Lancaster with the spinning mechanism visible.
Images under Creative Commons licence, with thanks to the Imperial War Museum, Martin Richards, the RAF, the Crown and the UK Government.
A man renown for his genius as a designer and inventor, Barnes Wallis turned his mind to helping Britain to win the Second World War by creating weapons that could defeat the industrial might of Germany. From his ten ton bomb Tall Boy to the bouncing bomb Upkeep, his remarkable talent ran from designing Airships to supersonic aircraft. This is his story.
Barnes Wallis as a young man in Naval Service.
Wallis's geodesic design employed in the Wellington bomber allowed it to survive despite enormous damage.
The huge Tall Boy bomb, designed to penetrate deep into the earth before exploding.
The Swallow. Designed by Wallis as a variable geometry supersonic aircraft.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Royal Society on Twitter, The US Library of Congress, the Imperial War Museum, Royal Air Force and the RAF Museum Cosford.
This is the first of the four part story of Operation Chastise, the bombing of the great dams of Germany's Ruhr valley during the Second World War. This Tale examines the life of Wing Commander Guy Gibson, VC, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar who took on the task of forming the Squadron of Lancasters which would achieve world wide fame following the attack. Gibson was, to some, a flawed character but his leadership, skill and determination to achieve his aim was never in question.
Guy Penrose Gibson.
Gibson stands on the steps of his Lancaster with his crew around him as they depart on the Dambusters raid.
Gibson's final resting place, alongside his navigator who also died when their Mosquito crashed.
The English Heritage blue plaque that marks Gibson's house in St John's Wood, London.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Royal Air Force, the Imperial War Museum, Edward X, Pandaplodder and Steenbergen.
A break from Tales of death and destruction with a little bit of aviation word play. What was your score?
The North of Africa holds the world’s largest hot desert, known as The Greatest Desert, or more commonly by the Arabic word Sahara. The Lady be Good's WW2 mission hadn't gone well and crew of the were hopelessly lost and running out of fuel when the first engine failed. They decided to abandon the aircraft rather than risk a crash landing and they parachuted out over, what they believed to be, the sea… only to discover it was a sea of sand.
The Lady Be Good as it appeared when discovered from the air.
The aircraft was in surprisingly good shape, considering it landed itself.
The aircraft's weapons were still functioning.
Some of the guns were still able to be fired.
My apologies to the sharp eared amongst you as I misspoke when describing Lt Hatton's take off, "Pushing up the throttles of his two Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp supercharged radials..." The Liberator is, of course, a four engined aircraft.
Images used under a Creative Commons licence with thanks to the US Air Force.
It was a hot and sunny day at the United States Airforce Base at Ramstein near Kaiserslautern in West Germany… a perfect day for their 1988 annual air show. One of the best parts of the show was going to be the Frecce Tricolori, the Italian formation team, doing their stunning display. After several minutes of what was a great performance, the team started one of the most impressive manoeuvres, the pierced heart. What followed was a disaster beyond anyone's imagination...
The Frecce Tricolori.
The awful mistake that led to the tragedy.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the US Air Force, A Micheuand J Herzog.
As a military aviator he was exceptional. From a starting point that had him at a disadvantage, 40 seconds was how long it took him to get behind you for the kill! His flying skills weren't the reason we remember Colonel John Boyd as his ideas would change the whole direction of military aviation. A maverick who would lead a like minded group known as the Fighter Mafia, he was a brilliant as he was controversial. His lasting legacy would include the concept of fighter manoeuvre diagrams and the OODA loop. This is his story.
Colonel John Boyd.
An illustration of the OODA loop.
An example of an F4 Energy Manoeuvre diagram.
Images under Creative Commons with thanks to the US Gov, P E Moran and John Golan.
Lokichokio, is a dusty, flyblown, Kenyan frontier town that is a long way from the tourist images of African safari lodges. There’s an airstrip there with a few buildings, offices and compounds, one with a pool and a bar. At 6 o’clock sharp, an attractive blonde could be found there sipping a G&T while the ice tinkled in her glass. With her short, blonde hair, good looks and brilliant smile, she could easily have been mistaken for the hostess of an English garden party. Meet 'All Weather Heather' one of the most capable bush pilots you would ever want know... this is the story of her life.
Loki's airport as it looks now.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Guido Potters and an 'orphan image' photographer.
The loss of his father early in his life led to David Warren's fascination with electronics. Although he grew up to be a scientist who specialised in chemistry, particularly aviation fuels and early rocketry, his little invention, a flight data and voice recorder, made a contribution to flight safety that has left a lasting legacy.
David Warren with his original recorder device.
The NTSB recover a Flight Data recorder from a crash site.
A modern Flight Data Recorder.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Australian Government Department of Defence, YSSYguy, Meggar and the NTSB.
Captain Leul Abate was no stranger to hijackings… this was his third! An amazing story that ends in tragedy for many when, quietly sitting by the sea sipping cocktails, the residents of the beautiful Galawa Beach Hotel see a huge airliner plough into the water only 500 yards away.
Images under Creative Commons licence and fair use with thanks to JetPix.
This story has graphic references to violence and injury and may not be suitable for all ages. For the operating crew the flight started just as it had done many times before. They were departing from Memphis in Tennessee and flying to San Jose in California in their McDonnell Douglas DC10 freighter. After an uneventful start, taxi and takeoff the crew were settling down to the normal routine of the climb and chatting easily amongst themselves, as pilots do... and then a deadheading crew member reaches into his case and all hell breaks loose!
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Peter Bakema and unattributed media.
Geoff Lee started his career as an apprentice photographer for Hawker Siddeley Aviation and progressed to become the Chief Photographer for British Aerospace Systems. His specialty was air to air photography, a field that put him in the cockpits of some of the world's finest fighters. His photographs have graced the covers of aviation publications and major newspapers throughout the world. I was delighted when he agreed to talk to Plane Tales and tell us about his remarkable career behind the viewfinder.
In this final part of the interview Geoff brings us up to date, relating some of the more interesting situations that he been engaged to photograph. My heartfelt thanks go to Geoff for sharing his story with us.
Should you wish to look at some of his images, please follow the link that appears below.
Geoff Lee, Master Photographer - Part 3
All images are copyright ©Geoff Lee
Geoff Lee started his career as an apprentice photographer for Hawker Siddeley Aviation and progressed to become the Chief Photographer for British Aerospace Systems. His specialty was air to air photography, a field that put him in the cockpits of some of the world's finest fighters. His photographs have graced the covers of aviation publications and major newspapers throughout the world. I was delighted when he agreed to talk to Plane Tales and tell us about his remarkable career behind the viewfinder.
In this second part of the interview we discuss how his career moved into the cockpit of some fantastic fighter aircraft and into the world's best formation teams. Should you wish to look at some of his images, please follow the link that appears below.
Geoff Lee, Master Photographer - Part 2
All images are copyright ©Geoff Lee
Geoff Lee started his career as an apprentice photographer for Hawker Siddeley Aviation and progressed to become the Chief Photographer for British Aerospace Systems. His specialty was air to air photography, a field that put him in the cockpits of some of the world's finest fighters. His photographs have graced the covers of aviation publications and major newspapers throughout the world. I was delighted when he agreed to talk to Plane Tales and tell us about his remarkable career behind the viewfinder.
In this first part of the interview we discuss his early years. Should you wish to look at some of his images, please follow the link that appears below.
Geoff Lee Photos Part 1
All images are copyright ©Geoff Lee
Towering cumulous clouds can often be harbingers of destruction and for pilots they should be respected and generally avoided by a wide margin. There is, however, a breed of pilot willing to court the danger present in these meteorological monsters… the violent updrafts and downdrafts, the heavy rain and hail, the turbulence, the freezing temperatures and the lightning! This is the story of one such pilot.
Derek Piggott
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Ralph F. Kresge, TSRL and Thomas Bresson.
As part of the 75th anniversary of the D Day invasion of Nazi held Europe in 1944, Douglas DC3s, C47s and Dakotas came from around the world to reenact the Airborne troops parachute drops that first put Allied boots on the ground. In this second part of the story, I chat to Sherman Smoot, Betsy's Chief Pilot and Nick Comacho, a pilot of the C47, Betsy's Biscuit Bomber.
Nick does some work on Betsy before taking her up on her next flight.
Nick's father takes a look around Betsy before her next flight.
The reenactment paratroops embark before their flight over Duxford.
Betsy's cockpit.
Ready to go!
As part of the 75th anniversary of the D Day invasion of Nazi held Europe in 1944, Douglas DC3s, C47s and Dakotas came from around the world to reenact the Airborne troops parachute drops that first put Allied boots on the ground. In this interview I chat to Nick Comacho, a pilot of the C47, Betsy's Biscuit Bomber, that had flown over from the States to Duxford in England to take part.
Refuelling the C47 prior to a flight from Duxford.
The weather at Duxford was a trifle damp at times.
The reenactment parachutists gear up prior to getting airborne.
Betsy's Biscuit Bomber fires up.
A wonderful array of vintage aircraft... quite a sight to see.
I take another dip into my flying log book, RAF Form 414. We catch up with the young 'Old Pilot' as he joins his first operational squadron, No 43(F) Sqn, The Fighting Cocks! I was faced with a further 6 months of training to become a fully Combat Ready fighter pilot. Relying on my faltering memory I said that the jamming Canberras were on 100 Sqn... they were, of course, actually from No 360 Squadron!
The F4 Phantoms of The Fighting Cocks.
Air to Air refuelling.
The Q shed at RAF Leuchars.
My flying suit badges including the treasured Squadron patch that was only worn by combat ready aircrew.
The Falkland islands, a British Sovereign Territory, had been invaded by Argentinian military forces and in response the UK assembled a task force to sail the 8,000 miles required to dispatch the invaders and free the British residents there. Amongst the RAF Harrier pilots onboard HMS Hermes was Flt Lt Dave Morgan who took part in the first Harrier attack on the airfield at Stanley, the capital of the Falklands. This is the story of this mission.
Argentinian soldiers occupy Stanley.
The route of the British Task Force.
Royal Navy Sea Harriers.
RAF Harriers at Stanley airfield after the successful recapture of the Falklands.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Malvinas.talam, Stephen L. Batiz USN, USN Defense Imagery, Department of History United States Military Academy and Pete Butt.
Two of the most weird looking aircraft ever devised were actually immensely valuable in the development of the Hawker Harrier Jump Jet and in the training of astronauts! This is the story of two flying bedsteads!
The NASA Lunar Landing Research Vehicle.
The original flying bedstead, more properly known as the Rolls-Royce Thrust Measuring Rig.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Disney, User:Geni and NASA.
Lt David Steeves was living the dream. He was a USAF fighter pilot and instructor flying the T33A shooting star when his jet failed him as he flew over the Sierra's mountain range. He ejected and then survived a traumatic fight for survival amongst the rugged terrain... he ought to have been hailed a hero. Enter the newspaper man Clay Blair and David Steeves life abruptly turned into a nightmare!
DAYTON, Ohio -- Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
Mt Whitney of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
The Sierra Nevadas.
David Steeves on the day of his rescue.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the US Gov, USAF, Cullen328, Jeffrey Pang and Alejandro Pena.
The weird and wacky names that aircraft have don't usually include those of insects, particularly parasitic ones but there is no accounting for taste! From Gnats to Fleas, June Bugs to Crickets, aviation has them all and in this tale we find out about many of them.
The dainty but impressive Folland Gnat which was only slightly larger than the single seat version, the Midge.
The BE2, one of which was unsuccessfully launched from beneath a blimp.
The parasitic Sparrowhawk fighter suspended under the Airship USS Macron.
Another parasite, an F-84 is launched from underneath a modified B-36 Peacemaker.
Two parasites at once... the unlikely combination of a pair of F-84s being towed by the wingtips of a B-29.
The tiny Starr Bumblebee II which was, at the time, the world's smallest piloted aircraft.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Nick-D, H M Benner, the Royal Navy, Afcrna and the USAF.
Military pilots aren't the only ones in danger whilst cruising the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Passenger jets can be equally vulnerable with tragic results. These are the stories of two aircraft that sadly flew on to their destruction, with nobody controlling, carrying their unfortunate passengers to their death.
Payne Stewart.
The accident Learjet.
The Learjet's flight path.
A Helios B737.
The flight path of Helios Flight 522.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Alan Lebeda, Supergolfdude, NTSB and AAIASB.
Military fighter aircraft that fly themselves around without their pilot on board is unusual, to say the least. Sadly this is often a situation that has tragic consequences. This tale is of three such events; happily one has safe outcome for the pilot... the others were not so lucky.
An early Harrier prototype, the P1127.
The Sea Harrier.
A 75 Sqn F/A-18 in the foreground during a Red Flag exercise in the US.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Alan Wilson, Billy Bunting MOD, USMC and USAF.
So feared were these pilots, flying almost silently over the German positions at night to attack any movement or light, that the Nazis called them Night Witches. With just the wind whistling through the wires of their old Po-2 biplanes, again and again the brave young women of the Soviet Air Force flew with such skill that many were made Heroes of the Soviet Union.
Senior Lieutenant Irina Sebrova who flew 1,008 missions.
The wood-and-canvas Polikarpov Po-2 biplane.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Douzeff. Other images from public domain.
Recorded on the anniversary of the world's worst air accident. A enormous loss of life that highlights the vital importance of standard radio procedures and the pressures of command. A word that still puts an icy hand around my heart when I hear it... Tenerife.
The KLM 747.
The Pan Am 747.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Dutch National Archives, clipperarctic and Michel Gilliand.
The art of Skywriting began with an ex WW1 fighter, the venerable SE5a, saved from the scrapyard. This is the colourful tale of airborne advertising!
The last of Jack Savage's SE5a fighters that he used for skywriting, now to be found in London's Science Museum.
Traditional Skywriting over the EAA Airventure Oshkosh.
A novel marriage proposal on a flying banner.
Images used under a Creative Commons licence with thanks to Alan Wilson, Sky Ads, FutureUApilot and the U.S. Navy.
It's common for airline Cabin Staff to be treated will little respect and the travelling public assume that they are little more than waitresses. However, if you have a heart attack, suffer anxiety, need oxygen or directions in the case of an emergency evacuation it's these highly trained professionals who will be the ones to help you. Some are also brave and resourceful beyond all expectations. One of those was Neerja Bhanot and this is her story.
A poster for the film made about Neerja.
The hijacked Pan Am 747, flight 73.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Indian Government and aussieairliners.org
There is a particular class of Military personnel who, at least in my time, were referred to as Capture Prone. Whilst for me it was something that was treated as a mild annoyance, during conflict, being captured represents a true hazard. For the crew of a downed B-24 Liberator, Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am, during WW2 who faced the fury of the German people, it would be deadly.
A Consolidated B-24 Liberator
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Jerry J. Jostwick and the US Gov/USAF archive.
Six turning and four burning… what a sight it must have been to see the mighty Convair B36 Peacemaker fly. Less of a welcome sight would be watching a nuclear weapon being dropped by one in Canadian territorial waters only a few hundred miles North of Vancouver! This is the story of Bomber 075 and its sad ending!
The later marks of the Peacemaker had an additional 4 jet engines!
Convair XB-36 main landing gear.
The US Mk4 nuclear bomb.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the USAF and the US Gov.
A B17 crew training before deploying to Europe during WW2 managed to put a little town in Oklahoma on the map but not in the way they might like!
The M38A2 100lb practice bomb was no small device when dropped from a few thousand feet!
How the centre of Boise City might have looked on the night it was bombed!
The B17 Flying Fortress.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Doug Kerr, the USAF, Google World and Airwolfhound.
Hong Kong's old airport, Kai Tak, was always a challenging approach for any pilot, particularly during the Typhoon season but what was it like to actually fly around the Checker Board. Hopefully, this Tale explains all.
One particular Captain's very last Kai Tak landing.
Aircraft on the approach would just clear the apartment blocks of Kowloon.
How the airport looked in the late '60s before the IGS was built.
A 747-400 ran off the end of Runway 13 into the harbour. The military blew off its fin because it jutted up into the take off path.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Christian Hanuise, Barbara Spengler and Ywchow.
On the APG show we have been discussing why the percentage of airline pilots in a stable relationship is so much higher than the average population. In this interview we discover what it's like to be a pilot's wife.
The photograph I took of Mrs A on the day we met.
Taking the kids on their daly ride around the Base to see the kangaroos!
The Airline Pilot's Wife.
We have recently been listening to Adam Spink describe the sight of a Boeing 777 crash on the threshold of runway 27L at Heathrow airport whilst he was the Air Traffic supervisor in the tower. On this tale we look at the technical reasons for why BA38 lost power on its approach.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the NTSB.
The second part of the interview with Adam Spink, the Heathrow tower Supervisor and Birthday Boy on the day that Speedbird 38 crashed on the threshold of Runway 27L at Heathrow. In this final part we talk about the aftermath of the accident.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Maarten Visser, Alchetron, the AAIB and UK Gov.
Observing a large wide body airliner crash is, mercifully, a rare occurrence but to have one crash onto your airfield when working as the Air Traffic Supervisor in the control tower puts it in a completely different category of amazing! This is Adams story of the day it happened to him at London's Heathrow airport.
G-YMMM, the accident airframe a few years before.
Speedbird 38 after the crash.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Marc-Antony Payne, Aero Icarus.
Widow Maker is an epitaph attached to aircraft that present a particular risk to the life of the pilot. Many times this name is inappropriately used but in some cases, sadly, it is all too valid. This is the story of two such aircraft.
The Martin B-26B Marauder.
A USAF recruitment poster featuring the Marauder.
Chuck Yeager in the NF104, an aircraft that would nearly kill him after he lost control and ejected. His helmet was punctured and the oxygen within caught fire badly burning him.
The F104A.
The F104 was the first fighter to be fitted with the M61 Vulcan 20mm cannon.
Images under the Creative Commons licence, with thanks to National Museum of the USAF, Michael Wolf, Charles E Brown and the US Gov.
There are some sleek and elegant aircraft out there and some pretty ugly ones too! Despite gaining nicknames such as the Flying Bathtub and the Flying Potato, many of these amazing flying machines did a great job in furthering our understanding of spaceflight. This is the story of the Lifting Body aircraft.
Three of the NASA experimental lifting body aircraft.
The Mig105 Spiral, nicknamed the Flying Shoe.
Images shown under creative commons licence with thanks to NASA and Bernhard Gröhl.
Aeronauts, ducks, aviatrices, anhedral, terminals, slips and skids all have their place in aviation but where do these strange terms come from... particularly that old phrase, "He's flown West."
Luke Howard, the man who changed castles into Cumulus and mares tails into Cirrus. No weather forecast would be complete without his system.
Cumulus cloud.
Cirrus cloud.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Acabashi and PiccoloNamek.
An attempt to distill the crash of Air France 447 down to the the simple causes and dispel some of the fanciful and unhelpful theories that surround this accident.
The accident aircraft, an A330-200.
The location of the wreckage of Flight 447.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Pawel Kierzkowski, Valter Campanato/ABr and Roberto Maltchik Repórter da TV Brasil.
My first Plane Tale when they weren't really a thing... the story of Joe Gilmore remastered, re-recorded and revisited. This was the vital British addition to the Apollo mission to put men on the Moon!
Otherwise known as the Four Score and Ten... created for Sir Winston Churchill on his 90th Birthday.
The drink that the first Moon walking Apollo astronauts tasted after their mission quarantine ended.
Created to celebrate the Apollo-Souyz joint project to join up in space.
Joe Gilmore's supposed hangover cure!
Images under Creative Commons licence.
A conversation with Sir Richard Johns KCB KCVO CBE and retired Chief of the Air Force about his love of military history.
Images by NickAndersonPhoto.co.uk
An explanation of some of the strange terms that we bandy about in aviation.
Image under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Raff.
The poppies were some of the first flowers to grow over the churned battlefields and freshly turned earth of war graves during the First World War and on 3 May 1915 they inspired the Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae after witnessing the death of his friend and fellow soldier the day before, to write the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’.
Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae.
McCrae's poem, In Flanders Fields.
The funeral of Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae who was buried with full military honours.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to King W. L, MarnixR and the Guelph Museums.
W E Johns wasn't just a brave World War 1 pilot who survived being shot down over enemy territory but after the war he became an author who inspired generations of young people to become pilots. Under the pen name of Captain W E Johns he wrote over a hundred adventure books featuring a fearless pilot and his trusty crew. This is the story of Biggles and his creator!
Biggles fought in two world wars and several campaigns!
Like his author, he started off flying in WW1.
Perhaps his greatest success was on the radio in Australia!
Translated into many languages Biggles had world wide appeal except for the USA where he was thought to be too British!
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to those kind enough to supply them to Wikipedia and Wiki.
The tragic story of Southern Airways flight 242, a DC9 that lost both engines flying through severe weather and then performed a dead stick landing onto a road in New Hope with tragic consequences for both those onboard and those on the ground.
The approximate ground track of the stricken aircraft.
The accident aircraft.
Aircraft wreckage amongst the houses of New Hope.
Images used through Creative Commons licence with thanks to the NTSB, Crum357 and Clipperartic.
Its May 1942 and America has joined the Second World War, committing many of its combat resources to campaigns around the world. On the East coast of America, vital shipping are being sunk by German submarines. The losses had been so terrible that the figures were being withheld from the public and for a few humiliating weeks, all coastal vessels were ordered to stay in harbour until convoys could be organised. The stage was set for the creation of the Civil Air Patrol.
Two Oregon Wing CAP members walk towards their aircraft during a training exercise.
A Civil Air Patrol air search and rescue pilot.
Images displayed under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the US Gov, Fry1989, the CAP and U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Jacob N. Bailey.
In a desperate gamble to encourage the USA to come to Britain's aid during their most desperate of days of WW2, Churchill dispatched Sir Henry Tizard to America bearing a small metal box... Tizard's Trunk. Inside were some of the most closely guarded technological secrets that Britain had to offer.
John Cockroft (right) wearing his Medal of Freedom awarded for his services to the Manhattan Project.
An original cavity magnetron, 1940, developed by John Randall and Harry Boot at Birmingham University.
Images displayed under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Science Museum London and the MIT Museum.
The life of a pigeon can be a little mundane unless you are drafted into the Royal Air Force and find yourself on bombing missions, accompanying submarine hunters or parachuting into enemy territory with spies! This is the story of the humble homing pigeon, drafted into service!
The Photo Recon pigeon.
An RAF bomber crew member heads off with his pigeons.
Not to be outdone, Coastal Command shows off their feathered friend.
The Dickin medal winner, Commando!
A mobile pigeon loft of World War 1.
Photographs displayed under Creative Commons licence, with thanks to UK Gov, the German Federal Archive and the Imperial War Museum.
The tragic days following the demise of Monarch Airlines are recounted in this, the second and final part of an interview with Captain Al Evans.
Captain Al Evans with his Monarch A320 at Gibraltar.
Images under Creative Commons Licence with thanks to Capt Al Evans.
On 5 June 1967, Monarch Airlines was established with a rather aged Bristol Britannia and I doubt that many people had any great hopes for its longevity but, when it was approaching its 50th year of operation, it fell foul of a poor economic situation and collapsed. A year has gone by since then and Captain Al Evens recalls the events leading up to the demise of this much loved airline in this, the first part of two interviews.
A younger Al before he moved across to the Captain's seat.
Happier days with a much loved airline.
Images under Creative Commons with thanks to Sebastian Ballard and Capt Al Evans.
Many of us have past generations in our family who flew during the Second World War but few of us have a wonderful diary describing the lives they lived during the conflict. Nick Kidd's Uncle was one of the secretive pilots who flew agents into France and supplied the Free French Resistance and this is the fascinating story of his Uncle Geoff.
The Wellington under construction showing its unusual geodesic design.
The Pundit system that Geoff and his navigator used to help them find their home base.
How to fly the corkscrew evasion manoeuvre.
The original version of the Wellington.
Images under Creative Commons Licence with thanks to UK Gov, the RAF and HMSO.
He was the greatest fighter pilot that ever served with the United States armed forces. A quiet and unassuming man who, even when he had more kills than the fabled Eddie Rickenbacker, insisted on going back into combat. A remarkable pilot whose life was brought to a sadly early end.
Images under Creative Commons Licence with thanks to US Gov, USAF and Mikejfm.
To the primitive tribes of the Pacific Islands the sudden arrival of flying machines disgorging tons of wonderful cargo is beyond their understanding. Their attempts to make sense of what is occurring leads to the creation of a remarkable new religion.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the authors.
A gradual degradation of engine performance leads a Cathy Pacific crew into a dire situation, all due to Super Absorbent Polymer Spheres! This is the story of Cathy 780 and the excellent job that the crew did to get their crippled aircraft onto the ground.
The incident aircraft, an Airbus A330.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to SA 4.0 and Aero Icarus.
During World War 2, for the bomber pilots, getting shot down over enemy territory was far from the only risk that they faced. In England, Bomber Command and the Eighth Air Force suffered significant losses when returning to their bases only to find that they were fogged out. This is the story of FIDO.
A Lancaster comes to grief amongst the FIDO pipes.
Images under Creative Commons license with thanks to Goodchild A, the Imperial War Museums, the RAF Museum and UK Gov.
The Chief Pilot of the British Registration Board, D P Davies, wrote THE definitive book for airline pilots moving to the the big jets of the 70's and 80's. An acerbic, opinionated but incredibly talented pilot his life was full of fascinating stories.
With the Chinese forces under Chiang Kai-shek keeping over a million Japanese troops occupied, once America joined the Second World War, they were keen to prevent those troops from becoming free to engage them in the Pacific theatre. Supplying the 10th Air Force and the Chinese forces became a priority. So began an enormous effort to air lift thousands of tons of supplies over some of the most treacherous and difficult terrain in the war. This the unsung story of the crews that flew the Hump.
The C46 Commando.
The C54 Skymaster.
Pictures under Creative Commons Licence with thanks to the US Gov and the USAF,
An American analyst poured over a satellite image of a vast and strange aircraft being built on the shore of the Caspian Sea. What was this monster of a machine? The Russians had delved into the world of ground effect vehicles and this is the story.
The KM (Korabl Maket) Ekranoplan.
The successor to the Caspian Sea Monster, the Lun Class missile carrier, NATO code name Duck!
The Duck being decommissioned.
The more successful A-90_Orlyonok.
The Boeing Pelican ULTRA concept aircraft.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Fred Schaerli, the Stock Archives of Soviet Navy, Mike1979Russia, К.Е.Сергеев and Boeing.
In the post WW2 era the Farnborough Airshow was a fabulous and exciting window into the amazing world of advanced jet fighters and in 1952 test pilot John Derry was flying one of the most advanced prototypes there. This is his story.
Test Pilot John Derry.
The Sea Vixen with it's unusual offset pilot's canopy.
The aftermath of the DH110 crash.
Images through Creative Commons licence with thanks to the National Library of Austria, the United States Navy, The Crown (Gov UK) and Kaboldy.
Following my previous story concerning the tragic murder of both pilots on the flight deck, the son of First Officer Ray Andress wrote and told me the story from his side. Steve Andress went on to become a USAF pilot and is now flies for a major legacy airline. He also tells us of the work his mother undertook to ban the use of flight insurance vending machines at airports to deter others with murderous intent and we hear of a couple of other awful murder cases involving air travel.
Captain Steve Andress
With thanks to Steve for the photographs of his father which heads this story and of himself. The image of a flight insurance vending machine under a Creative Commons licence.
Two dramatic and awful incidents when unsuspecting pilots are attacked on the Flight Deck, enough to put shivers down the spine. The title image is of Francisco Paula Gonzales, one of the murderers.
The Pacific Air Lines F27 that was involved in the tragedy of flight 773.
An Eastern Air Lines DC9.
The Eastern Airlines Training Centre plaque.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to The Beaver County Times and Jon Proctor. The EAL plaque image is, unfortunately, unattributed.
The dream of flight began with makeshift wings bound to men's arms which, like Icarus from Green mythology failed, often with deadly results. This is the story of the pioneers who took to the air under their own power.
Zaschka's Human-Power Aircraft, Berlin 1934.
SUMPAC was the first successful human powered aircraft.
The Gossamer Albatross II is seen here during a test flight at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Centre, Edwards, California.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Madrid, Museo del Prado, Popular Science, Nimbus227 and NASA.
The Vickers VC10 was an aircraft that was ahead of its time. Sleek, fast and powerful it was designed to please an airline which then turned its back on it. However, the VC10 won the hearts of many.
The RAF version of the VC10, the K3.
The VC10 flight deck including the 'voice activated throttles'!
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Bahnfrend, Steve Fitzgerald and Chris Lofting.
Despite being injured during a civil war and losing the sight of an eye, Carlos Dardano became a B737 Captain for TACA. On descent into New Orleans, he strayed into a thunderstorm with disastrous consequences. The fate of the aircraft its crew and passengers now depended on the flying skills of the Captain.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to US Gov, NTSB and other sources.
During the height of the Cold War, a most unlikely spy plane gathered intelligence over East Germany on behalf of the Western allies. This is the little known story of the British Commander's in Chief Mission to the Soviet forces in Germany!
The BRIXMIS logo.
The de Havilland Chipmunk.
A Soviet BMP photographed whilst a soldier aims at the Chipmunk!
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to UK Gov (BRIXMIS) under Crown Copyright, Peter Farey, Adrian Pingstone and Roy Marsden.
A rookie B17 pilot on his first mission over Germany struggling home in his crippled aircraft and a veteran Me109 fighter pilot with 27 kills and over 400 combat missions flown, meet in the air. The result should have been obvious but...
Boeing B-17F radar bombing through clouds over Bremen, Germany, on Nov. 13, 1943. (U.S. Air Force photo)
A B17 formation over Germany.
An Me109 of Jagdgeschwader 27.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the US Gov and the Bundesarchiv.
Two tragic stories of aircraft losses that, in the most benign of circumstances, may well have resulted from letting a family member sit at the controls.
An EC135.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Michel Gilland and the US Gov.
Hansard in the document that contains, what is referred to as, the substantially verbatim account of every speech made in the Houses of Parliament since 1909. It's pages reveal some remarkable stories such as these military aircraft that were stolen... they included the purloining of a USAF B45 Tornado nuclear bomber!
North American XB-45 cutaway drawing. (U.S. Air Force photo)
A pair of A4 Skyhawks.
The Bell UH-1 Iroquois, nicknamed the Huey.
The missing B727 registration N844AA.
Photographs under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the US Gov and RuthAS.
Stories of aircraft that vanish without trace are bound to fascinate us. The controversial disappearance of House Majority Member Boggs, seen in the title image with President Lyndon B Johnson, gave rise to much speculation as he was part of the Warren Commission which was investigating the assassination of JFK. In another story we look at the life of the Flying Bandit... a gentleman Canadian gold thief!
A Cessna 310
The Flying Bandit
Images shown under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the US Gov, Rob Hodgkins and Skol fir.
The Modernist dream that was the Bijlmermeer had its problems and the last thing it needed was for a crippled aircraft to wreak destruction amongst its dwellers. This is the tragic story of El Al 1862 and the fate of the Amsterdam neighbourhood it fell into.
Images made available under a Creative Commons licence and GNU Free Documentation Licence by Maaike98, D Frame and Torsten Maiwald.
The last of the 3 part interview with Sir Glen Torpy. We chat about his work in some of the most demanding jobs to be found in the RAF, culminating with his appointment as the Chief of the Air Staff. If you want to find out about the decision to remove the Harrier from service or what's happening to the RAF Museums then this is one to listen to.
We get to the point in Sir Glen's interview where he is heading to the Gulf to start flying operations and he recalls the the words spoken by Recce pilots of old, "Alone, unarmed and unafraid!" If you want to hear what it's like hand flying a Tornado over enemy territory, facing multiple air to air missile and AAA threats, at 150 feet above the ground, in the pitch black, at over 500 knots then wait no longer!
Photograph courtesy of Sir Glen Torpy.
Sir Glen Torpy GCB CBE DSO started his life within the Royal Air Force as most pilots do. At the end of his training, he was posted to a Jaguar reconnaissance squadron, the start of a great career. In this interview, he gives us a chance to follow his progress to the point where he takes Command of No.13 Squadron, flying the Tornado GR1A, and is about to deploy to the Gulf on operations.
Sir Glen during his basic flying training at RAF Linton on Ouse, middle rank under the U and 3 heads to the right of the Old Pilot!
Sir Glen after his Wings parade the furthest on the left of the photograph.
Sir Glen Torpy Chief of the Air Staff.
The 1st of April 1918 saw the formation of the world's first independent Air Force. Capt Nick takes a look at the Royal Air Force’s history and is joined by Sir Glen Torpy GCB CBE DSO past Chief of the Air Staff who gives his thoughts on the past 100 years and the upcoming celebrations.
Suspicious of the Polish pilots who, after their country was invaded by Nazi forces during the Second World War, had fled to the UK, the high command of the RAF eventually allowed them to become operational. No 303 Polish Squadron joined the RAF fighter units desperately fighting the overwhelming forces of the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. The results stunned everybody.
The score of German kills (Adolfs) claimed by No 303 Polish Squadron during the Battle of Britain.
Images under creative commons licence from the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum London.
The billionaire explorer Paul Allen rediscovers the aircraft carrier Lexington and an F4 Wildcat deep under the surface of the Coral Sea. This is the story of the Lexington and the Wildcat's last pilot.
USS Lexington shortly before WWII.
F4F-3 Wildcat in non-reflective blue-gray over light gray scheme from early 1942.
Images with thanks to Paul G Allen, via Creative Commons, the US Navy and Felix c.
Air travel is, statistically, the very safest form of transport but it wasn't always that way. Imagine living in Elizabeth, a suburb near New York's Newark airport in 1951 when, within a period of only 3 months, aircraft began raining from the sky onto your neighborhood.
The crash site of Flight 1678M.
An American Airways Convair CV240.
A National Airways CD6.
The City of Elizabeth today.
Images under Creative Commons licence, US Gov Bureau of Aircraft Accidents, Dagrecco, Jon Proctor, Bill Larkins.
Towards the end of the Second World War, Nazi scientists developed a series of futuristic weapons to use against England aimed to bring the British people to their knees. Named Vengeance weapons, their presence in the skies over London was another German threat that had to be dealt with.
A German Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111 H-22. This version could carry FZG 76 (V1) flying bombs, but only a few aircraft were produced in 1944. Some were used by bomb wing KG 3.
A cutaway of the V1 created for the USAF.
An image of a Spitfire using its wing to turn over a V1 flying bomb.
A recreation of a V1 launch ramp on display at Imperial War Museum, Duxford.
Images shown under a Creative Commons licence with thanks to Nick D, the Imperial War Museum, the Bundesarchiv and the US Gov USAF Museum.
President of France, Charles de Gaulle is on a state visit to the United States of America and he asks to meet a French hero who holds the Légion d'honneur and who lives in New York. Eventually, retired lift operator is found and brought to the President. The man is Eugene Jacques Bullard and is almost unknown in the country of his birth but he holds a remarkable place in the history of aviation.
Bullard in his Corporal's uniform during the WW1.
Bullard in 1917 beside a Nieuport while with Escadrille 93.
Bullard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris, 1954.
Title image by APG listener Jonathan Alexandratos who lives near Flushing Meadows cemetery and who took the time to visit the grave of Eugene Bullard which can be found in Section C.
Other images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Sus scrofa, Wikimedia Commons, US Gov USAF.
Watch the movie 'The Right Stuf' and you will see, portrayed, a desert bar near Edwards Air Force Base where a generation of great Test Pilots drank whisky and bantered with the bargirl. The lady was Pancho Barnes and she was much more than a bargirl!
Pancho and her Travel Air type R Mystery Ship.
Barnes in 1928, the image used on her pilot's license!
Pancho serving at the Happy Bottom Riding Club.
Images under Creative Commons licence; with thanks to the San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives and the Pancho Barnes Trust Estate Archive.
After the Second World War, a tall lanky RAF pilot undertook clandestine missions from Hong Kong in a photo reconnaissance Spitfire FR Mk XIV. At the absolute limit of its range and despite being pursued by Chinese fighters Flt Lt Ted Powels undertook some remarkable flights. This is his story.
Images made available under a Creative Commons licence. Photographer unknown.
An aircraft for the people, the ubiquitous Cessna 172 became, by far, the most produced aircraft in history and secured a place in many pilot's hearts. This is its story.
Images under a Creative Commons licence by Daniel Piotrowski, P Alejandro Díaz and Adrian Pingstone.
The loss of Swissair Flight 111 in the most appalling circumstances wasn't just a tragedy for those onboard and their loved ones, but for a whole community of people in the quiet town of Halifax and even more so for the folk near Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia.
The memorial at Peggy's Cove.
Images under Creative Commons licence, by Aero Icarus and Aconcagua.
Every document or book within the Royal Air Force has a Form number. One of the most precious to a pilot is Form 414, the PILOTS FLYING LOG BOOK. Inside is a record of every flight a pilot undertakes. Looking back through a log book brings back many memories. These are a few of mine.
In the world of aviation, accurate communication is vital and when it breaks down the results can be catastrophic. In poor weather, the crew of an Avianca 707 struggle to land at New York's JFK airport.
An Avianca B707.
Images under Creative Commons licence, with thanks to Felix Goetting, Veggies and the NTSB.
Not every Plane Tale recording goes quite to plan! A Merry Christmas to all my listeners!
Image under Creative Commons, with thanks to Soerfm.
Landing at the wrong airport is usually considered a bit of a blunder but for One Way Ferguson it was a way to put Buffalo onto the map!
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Eduard Marmet, US Gov and Atkach24.
A humorous look at the history of the Phonetic Alphabet and brevity codes.
Image with thanks to https://m.johnlewis.com/mclaggan-smith-educational-'nato-alphabet'-mug/p2725715
The tragic loss of Alaska Flight 261 and the negligent events that led up to the crash.
The recovered jackscrew. The spiral "wire" wound around the threaded portion is the remains of the acme nut internal screw thread that was stripped from the nut.
Images under Creative Commons with thanks to Ken Fielding and the NTSB.
A special Plane Tale to celebrate the Airline Pilot Guy's 300th anniversary show, centering on the Airbus A300.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Alex Beltyukov, Eduard Marmet and Warner Bros.
The story of the development of the first Supersonic airliners. The non existent Boeing, the successful Concorde and the disaster that was the TU144, Charger!
Boeing 2707 mockup.
The TU144 flying at the 1973 Paris Air Show the day before it crashed.
The last ever flight of Concorde G-BOAF.
Images under Creative Commons licence, Arpingstone - Adrian Pingstone, Ralf Roletschek, RuthAS and Bill Abbott.
The remarkable exploits of the Canadian fighter ace who fought in World War 1. He remains the most decorated hero in the history of the Canadian armed service.
Col Barker, VC, in one of the captured German aeroplanes against which he fought his last air battle in 1919.
Images under Creative Commons licence, Canadian Copyright Collection held by the British Library, Barker, Wm. G and For Valour - The Air VCs Chaz Bowyer.
A late night take off dissolves into a nightmare for a cargo crew flying a venerable Lockheed Electra as, one by one, their engines fail.
Image under Creative Commons licence, RuthAS.
A union dispute against an aggressive and ruthless employer can result in sadness, bitterness and broken lives. Nij Demery was a senior union representative and then president of such a union during the longest industrial action in aviation history. This is the final part of his story.
A union dispute against an aggressive and ruthless employer can result in sadness, bitterness and broken lives. Nij Demery was a senior union representative and then president of such a union during the longest industrial action in aviation history. This is the second part of his story.
A union dispute against an aggressive and ruthless employer can result in sadness, bitterness and broken lives. Nij Demery was a senior union representative and then president of such a union during the longest industrial action in aviation history. This is the first part of his story.
The second part of a two part Plane Tale about the ex fighter pilot and aviation photographer and publisher, Ian Black.
The first of a two part Plane Tale about the ex fighter pilot and aviation photographer and publisher, Ian Black.
Many might know this story of survival against all odds when a Uruguayan team from the Old Christians Rugby club fail to arrive at their destination. Abandoned by the authorities high in the Andes, they choose life over death but only at a terrible cost to their consciences.
Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, sitting.
Images under Creative Commons licence, Pedro Escobal and Héctor Maffuche.
A steam pipe fitter from New York manages an incredible feat of flying skill, whilst under the influence, not once but twice! So famous was he that they made a cocktail in his honour!
9/11 had devastating consequences but for those who were trying to get home, into the closed airspace of the United States, their diversions to unexpected destinations opened their eyes to the generosity of strangers.
Images under Creative Commons licence, Wally Gobetz and CFB Gander.
The Nazi Germans in the Netherlands were using starvation as retribution and air drops were the only way to save thousands. The RAF and American bomber crews provide the solution.
A Lancaster bomber drops relief supplies to the Dutch people.
The people of the Netherlands spell out their thanks.
By for the most successful vertical take off fighter ever built. The Harrier was a technological success for Hawker Siddeley that produced a fast jet fighter that could land on a runway and in a ploughed field!
Images under Creative Commons licence by Alan Wilson and Anthony Noble.
An eclipse of the sun moves over the earth at an incredible speed and no aircraft could possibly keep up with the shadow it casts whilst carrying a whole team of expert observers... except perhaps one!
Images through Creative Commons licence, Sunil Gupta, Natarajanganesan and André Cros.
America is keeping the Second World War at arms length whilst a Pan Am Clipper is wending its way from San Francisco down to Auckland in New Zealand. What happens next is a remarkable achievement for a civilian airliner but it remains an almost unknown story.
The tragic death of a friend leads to a life saving technology that has saved so many pilots. Martin Baker.
Images through Creative Commons licence, StromBer and US Gov US Navy.
A faulty jet engine combustor leads to a tragic disaster but much is learned from the Manchester air disaster.
Images through Creative Commons licence, UK Gov Crown copyright.
In aviation we use a bewildering array of measurements, enough to confuse, baffle and discombobulate the average pilot.
The second of a two part tale which examines two bombers from the Second World War, their successes and their loss rates. This tale is the story of the de Havilland Mosquito.
The bombing of the Gestapo HQ in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Mosquito FB Mk XVIII carrying the 57mm Molins gun.
Images under Creative Commons licence, UK Gov, Crown copyright.
The first of a two part tale which examines two bombers from the Second World War, their successes and their loss rates. This tale is the story of the Boeing B17.
Boeing Y1B-17 in flight. (U.S. Air Force photo)
Images under Creative Commons licence, US Gov.
An unusual pilot helps to defend the island of Malta during its darkest period. A brave man who excelled at Photo Reconnaissance.
Image under Creative Commons licence, UK Gov Imperial War Museum.
The race across the Atlantic and those adventurous first aviators who tackled the huge body of water that separates Europe and America.
Charles Lindbergh and his aircraft, The Spirit of St Louis.
Images under Creative Commons licence, US Gov and Library of Congress.
Balloons, Air Ships, Dirigibles, Blimps, Aerostats and all things lighter than air.
Tethered Aerostat Radar System.
Images under Creative Commons licence from the US Gov Library of Congress and farrider.us.
One of the most amazing aircraft to make it out of the Skunk Works, the SR71 Blackbird.
Some personal recollections from Air Force service men who took part in D Day.
Image under Creative Commons licence, UK Gov, Crown Copyright.
Some of the lesser known but vital parts played by the Allied Air Forces during the D Day invasion.
Title Image under Creative Commons licence, UK Gov, RAF crown copyright.
The history of the B52 Buff and some of it's more memorable moments.
One of two Mk.39 thermonuclear bombs rests in a field in Faro, NC after falling from a disintegrating B-52 bomber.
Boeing B-52D-40-BW (S/N 56-0695). Note the GAM-72 Quail decoy missile and trailer near the nose of the aircraft. (U.S. Air Force photo)
Image through Creative Commons licence, US Gov and USAF.
The crash of Papa India, a Trident, near Staines. A disaster which brought to light the need for Crew Resource Management in the cockpit environment.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Images under Creative Commons licence by TSRL and Nimbus227.
Capt Nick's final conversation with Andy Anderson, holder of the Legion d'Honneur and Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Association.
The second part of Capt Nick's most recent interview with Andy Anderson, holder of the Legion d'Honneur and Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Association.
Capt Nick continues his Conversations with Andy Anderson, holder of the Legion d'Honneur and Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Association.
July 1967 and USS Forrestal is preparing for a major strike against North Vietnam. All goes well until a combination of a change in arming procedure, a batch of old unstable bombs and a few loose electrons combine. The result is devastating for the men of Forrestal.
Images on Creative Commons licence by US Gov and United States Navy.
All commercial pilots just LOVE getting into the simulator!
Title image of a Link Trainer under Creative Commons licence.
The DH Comet was the first jet airliner and was going to be a world beater until there were unexplained and sudden losses. The investigation that followed opened the eyes of the entire industry to the dangers of aircraft pressurisation and metal fatigue.
An enormous water tank was erected test the fuselage during repeated pressurisation runs.
The fuselage of G-AYLP which broke up in mid air.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to UK Gov, Imperial War Museum and Krelnik.
An opportunity to set the record straight about Japanese suicide missions in the final days of the Second World war
Images under Creative Commons licence, US Gov.
The Fairey Swordfish. In a war of high speed monoplanes, a biplane from a previous generation of combat aircraft could hardly change the face of the Second World War... could it?
Title image under Creative Commons licence by Beadell, S J (Lt), Royal Navy official photographer.
The C-130 Hercules; the longest continuously produced military aircraft in history!
An early version of the C130 lands at Kham Duc during the Vietnam war.
A C130 lands aboard USS Forrestal during trials.
C130 captures a satellite payload after reentry.
The Blue Angels C130 demonstrates a JATO takeoff.
The Hercules... a perfect all terrain work horse.
Images through the Creative Commons licence from US Gov.
The 1958 Munich plane disaster which decimated the Manchester football team and a look at some other sporting aviation tragedies.
A nostalgic look back at the aircraft that Capt Nick flew.
Capt Anderson the First.
The Slingsby T31 (flying brick) glider.
The ubiquitous Cessna 150A trainer.
The Jet Provost T Mk3.
The slightly pointier Jet Provost T Mk5.
The very pointy Folland Gnat.
The wonderful Hawker Hunter.
The mighty F4 Phantom II.
Yawn, the BAe Hawk T1.
The Ozy McDonnell Douglas F/A18.
Another yawn, the BAe Tornado F3.
In the aftermath of the Second World War, Russia attempts to take control of Berlin by cutting off access to the West but an audacious plan to supply the beleaguered city from the air is mounted. One special American pilot becomes famous amongst the people of Berlin.
"OPERATION VITTLES" (Berlin Airlift)Berlin youngsters who live near the Tempelhof Air Force Base, where the U.S. Air Force transport planes unload their airlift supplies, play at a game called "Luftbrucke" (air bridge). They use model American planes which are sold in German toy shops throughout the western sector of Berlin.
Images under Creative Commons licence by US Gov, National Museum of the USAF.
Fundamental errors in dealing with the dangers of winter operations brings a B737 down into the Potomac river, just after take off from Washington National airport. An apaling accident which was compounded by a poorly organised rescue which occured in the full blaze of publicity.
An Air Florida Boeing B737.
The flight path of Flight 90 taken from the NTSB report.
Images under Creative Commons licence by Peter Duijnmayer, the US Gov NTSB and the Washington Post
February 1956 and the RAF is proud of it's fine new jet fighter, the Hawker Hunter. Of course the occasional loss is to be expected but this day's work ends up with questions being asked in Parliament and a surprise for the people of Swaffham!
Images under Creative Commons licence, by Alan Wilson and UK Gov OS.
A hijacking of an Air France A300 ends up in Uganda which is ruled by the despot Idi Amin. The Israeli Commandos mount a rescue that stuns the world.
The survivors disembark at Ben Gurion airport.
Images under Creative Commons licence by SRA Andy Dunaway - DefenseImagery.mil and the Government Press Office (Israel).
How something small and insignificant distracted a crew to the point of disaster. The story of Flight 401.
The flight path of Flight 401 recreated for the NTSB accident report.
Images under Creative Commons licence by Jon Proctor and US Gov NTSB.
For most of the holidays around Christmas are a time to enjoy and celebrate but during the World Wars the fighting never stopped. This is the story of three brave pilots, each holding their countries highest awards for valour and each killed during Christmas in pursuit of the same aims, victory.
The Victoria Cross.
The Air Force Medal of Honor.
The Knight's Cross.
Images under Creative Commons licence, Crown Copyright Commonwealth War Graves Commission,
To survive falling thousands of feet from a disintegrating airliner is a remarkable feat but that was just the start of the story!
A similar Lockheed Electra L-749 to LANSA flight 501.
Title image under Creative Commons licence by Trotterjt.
At Kitty Hawk the Wright Brothers take their first hops into the air but elsewhere in the world others were striving to be first!
Image under Creative Commons licence by W. B. Robinson.
A routine flight turn into desperate fight for survival as the Captain dangles precariously from the cockpit with his cabin crew doggedly hanging onto his legs.
A British Airways BAC111.
Image under Creative Commons licence, UK Gov, AAIB and Przemysław Jahr, Poland.
The RAF desperately needed a modern fighter to counter the Luftwaffe in WWII.. Reginald Mitchell, despite failing health, steps up.
R J Mitchell.
The Supermarine SB6.
Images displayed under a Creative Commons licence. Imperial War Museum and unknown sources.
The West is stunned by the appearance of a new Soviet fighter capable of a huge altitude and incredible speed. Suddenly, one is placed right into their laps!
The passport of Viktor Belenko.
Images courtesy of Creative Commons licence, US Gov.
During the fall of Saigon in 1975, Major Bung Lee escapes in a Bird Dog.
Images attributed to USN and used under a Creative Commons licence.
An interview with C130 pilot, the amazing CJ Hemmer, who reveals what those Special Forces Hercules pilots get up to!
Amongst the rafters of Colditz Castle during the Second World War an audacious escape plan is being prepared!
The title image by Lee Carson is the only known photograph of the actual Cock and is used under the Creative Commons licence.
Two brothers both become fighter pilots and serve at the same time in the RAF during the Second World War, their fates are linked in more ways than one.
A remarkable piece of navigational deduction by Air New Zealand Capt Vette rescues a lost aircraft over the Pacific ocean.
Title image by Dtom under Creative Commons licence.
The second half of Capt Nick's interview with Elyse Anderson, an Australian flying instructor, on how she got started in aviation
A young Air Cadet receives a hard lesson on the dangers of flying and how a stall happens.
Title image under Creative Commons license - Photographer Barry Lewis.
Capt Nick interviews Elyse Anderson an Australian flying instructor on how she got started in aviation.
A Phantom crew make a small, little, indeed tiny mistake whilst carrying live missiles on an exercise... unfortunately the results are fairly dramatic!
The life of Sir Frank Whittle and his development of the turbojet engine.
The Gloster E28-39.
Images through Creative Commons - Crown Copyright.
Operation Black Buck. The remarkable effort made by the RAF to attack Stanley airfield from Ascension Island, using aged Vulcan V Bombers, during the Falklands war in 1982.
A Vulcan bomber over Ascension Island.
The refuelling plan for the Black Buck mission.
The damage assessment of Stanley airfield.
Images licensed by Creative Commons. Vulcan by Ken Griffiths, Stanley airfield Crown Copyright.
Capt Nick recounts his past and describes how Quick Reaction Alert functioned and follows an RAF Phantom through a scramble to intercept two Soviet Tu144 Bears.
A Phantom FG1 is armed up ready to be used on QRA.
Q1 sits quietly in the shed after being 'cocked' by it's crew.
Intercept complete.
The dangers of spatial disorientation for the pilot community.
Title picture by Alain R under Creative Commons licence.
Preparation for the APG meetup at Farnborough with a little history of the area.
Title image The Posting House Tumbledown Dick, a watercolour of the pub painted in 1782 by Thomas Rowlandson. Creative commons image licence.
Years before Sully ditched his A320 in the Hudson, Captain Ogg performed a similar feat in his Pan Am Stratocruiser in the open ocean between Honolulu and San Francisco. A remarkable story.
Images by William Simpson, US Coast Guard - US Coast Guard Photo, Public Domain.
Some history of Farnborough prior to the 2016 Meetup, including the delightful story of Miss Tilly's Orifice!
Title image by JAW at English Wikipedia - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
The first men to land at Normandy on D Day flew in Horsa gliders as part of a daring raid to capture a bridge. This is the remarkable story of their mission.
Title image created and released by the Imperial War Museum on the IWM Non Commercial Licence.
A disgruntled RAF officer flys his Hunter up the Thames and round Parliament before finishing up with a spectacular stunt.
Wiki Creative Commons Licence. CC BY-SA 2.5
The story of the quiet hero of a Sabena DC4 crash in a remote part of Newfoundland. US Army Doctor Sam Martin organised one of the first ever helicopter rescues and treated the injured survivors in the most dire of circumstances.
The story of Hanna Reitsch the Nazi test pilot who flew the V1 flying bomb.
Image via Wikimedia Commons licence, Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-B02092.
Nick reads a passage from Ian Black's book The Last of the Phantoms - Nick's Scottish Phantom.
The crew of a BOAC B707 finds out the hard way how dangerous mountain wave effect can be, as they fly past Mt Fuji in Japan.
Image by By Jon Proctor - Gallery page https://www.jetphotos.com
A new way to look at the sky from an ACME Red Airbus. A story written at the beginning of April!
Lost over East Africa, Captain Alcock takes the only course of action available and lands in a narrow river, ripping open the hull of his Imperial Airways flying boat Corsair. This is the story of how a small team of engineers brave the African jungle to repair the aircraft, not once but twice!
During the Vietnam war, Captain Bob Pardo finds an unusual way to help his buddy after being hit by anti-aircraft fire.
Title image, “Pardo’s Push” by S.W. Ferguson
The story of three lone Sea Gladiator biplanes and their brave pilots who defended the besieged island of Malta during WWII.
The year was 1976 and, for the RAF, it wasn't a good year and it wasn't a bad year. However, in that year the RAF lost 43 aircraft and 27 personnel, one of which was a fellow student.
Major Andrei Durnovtsev was about to get airborne in his TU95 Bear. Hanging from the white painted aircraft was a 27 Ton monster, the largest nuclear bomb ever devised. It was so vast that he didn't even know if he would survive the explosion when he delivered the Tsar Bomba.
The site of the detonation.
The Tsar Bomba's fireball which reached 5 miles in diameter.
The mushroom cloud of the Tsar Bomba the crown of which reached 45 miles up into the atmosphere.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Croquant, Minatom, SA3.0 and atomicforum.com
A tribute to one of the most remarkable pilots who ever lived. Qualified on 487 types of aircraft he also completed an unmatched 2,407 carrier deck landing... a record that is never likely to be bested.
The RAF Wing Commander who flew a Lightning jet fighter. An unremarkable event except for the fact that he wasn’t a pilot!
Taffy Holden’s Mk1A Lightning XM135 can be seen at the Duxford Aircraft Museum in Cambridgeshire in the UK.
The Moonwalker and Joe Gilmore.
The story of how a barman from a London Hotel become involved in the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first men on the moon?
1 measure of grapefruit juice
1 measure of Grand Marina
2 dashes of rose water
Shaken well and drained into a wine glass which was then filled with champagne