Plane Tales

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,

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.

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.

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.

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.