UK and US Aircraft

Intro

     With a house full of memorabilia, flying has always been more than a passing interest to me. Taken along to airshows or sitting in front of films like "633 squadron" or the "The Dambusters"*

     At 13 I was in the "A.T.C."(336 (Hammersmith) and 393 (Finchley) squadrons)-Air Training Corps and the 3 years I spent there were meant to orientate me towards the RAF had it not been for a number of factors, one of these being the slackening off of the parental influence and a natural, inherent tendency to be independent, if not anti-social, that made me, passively, rebel against the rigidity of the Armed Forces. Apart from that there's a big difference between liking planes and flying and being a soldier with the slightest possibility of having to go to forsaken places such as the Falklands, the Gulf and who knows where else and not necessarily having the chance to do what I really would have liked to have done... go flying!!!

They eventually let me go up...

...in a Chipmunk!*
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     Adolescence and independence won the day and life continued on "It's" own sweet way, as if nothing had happened, and took to the task of polishing off a few rough edges, packing me to corners of Europe I never thought I would visit. Still interest in flying stuck and occasionally emerged in the strangest of places and the strangest of manners. Flying over the Swiss Alps from an airfield with a disc jockey from an Interlaken night club was one of these experiences

      A couple of years ago I visited the UK's Imperial War museum at Duxford. A flight in a 1930's something monoplane was another memorable experience as it was the first time I went up in a plane with my then ±13 year old son. A crouched stroll through Brian Trubshaw's Concorde-1 left nothing to suggest that this was the first and last time I would probably set foot in one, now that Concorde (like the cross channel Hovercraft) seems destined to for the Museum! It was also at Duxford that I set eyes on a U2 (of Gary Powers fame), suspended from a hangar roof...all was that was missing to top the day was a look at a Blackbird but I suppose a visit to Edwards air force base will be the only way to answer that wish!

*Nb. Some years later it was with enormous pride the I took my son up for his aeronautical baptism in a ...DH-89A Rapide called "Proteus"....

...it was just a "Circuit & Bump" flight. The old cuckoo creaked and was a long way from the Boeing 777 we later took together to go to New Orleans but it was magical and something a dad just has to do with his son!!!

Avro Lancaster*
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"The Dambusters"*
* A date to remember: 16 May 1943. The day 617 Squadron flew their famous and costly 'Dambuster' mission to the German Ruhr district. 617 Squadron was formed at RAF Scampton, 21 March 1943 with the specific aim of breaching dams* in the Ruhr area of Germany that provided vital power to key German industrial centres.
(* 617 was to breach the Dams using the famous bouncing bombs invented by Barnes Wallis (Barnes Wallis designed the bouncing bomb to spin backwards at 500rpm, skipping over torpedo nets, before detonating against dams))

Crack flyers and airmen were recruited from other Lancaster squadrons to make up a team of 19 Lancaster bombers, each with a crew of seven men, for the dangerous night-time mission lead by Wing Commander Guy Gibson.

On the night of 16-17 May 1943, the Mohne and Eder dams were successfully breached as Wing Commander Gibson's 617 squadron drew fire from enemy aircraft but two other attacks on the Sorpe and Schwelme dams failed. The raids, however, came at a cost: eight aircraft and 53 crew were lost during the night.
In 1954 the story was made into the famous film staring Sir Michael Redgrave.

From History to today. The famous 617 'Dambuster' Squadron is still active today and are based at RAF Lossiemouth where they have just returned home after a tour in the Gulf and Iraq with their Dambusting...Tornados.

For more World War II aircraft photos

 Looking the monster in the eye!!!

 They did it! I did it! I'd heard that The Imperial War museum at Duxford had finally got their hands on a SR-71. I couldn't get to Edwards AB as easily as Duxford, which is just down the road from the family, so as soon as I was back in the UK and soon as my brother asked me I jumped at the occasion to go and see it.

The Imperial War museum had put the SR-71 in the US hangar of the Duxford Musuem, right next to a B52 and a B29, watched over by an A10 and a U2. What illustrious company!!!
After a trip round the other hangars we finally got to the US Hangar and there she was...the beast. Yes folks! my all time favourite bird, the SR71 Blackbird!!! I got right up close to it, underneath it , around it and above it and snapped away to my hearts delight and if I had had 2 tails they would have been awagging!!! I think I rather worried the security guards with all that exuberance as I soon saw 2 of them working their way over to the plane to make sure I wasn't chipping and chopping pieces of the bird off. Imagine actually running my hands over the plane I had only just recently seen on a Jeremy Clarkson documentary on TV!!!

Reconnaissance

Fairey Delta2
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Bristol T 188
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BAC TSR-2
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McDonnell Douglas Phantom II F-4
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Lockheed Martin F-104 "Starfighter"
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F-104 over the clouds
F-104 take off

F-105 Thunderchief
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F-111
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F-14 Tomcat
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F-15
( In a test flight an F-15 rose to the height of 80k' and
knocked out an American missile )
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F-18 Hornet
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f-117 Nighthawk
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A6 Intruder
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A10 Thunderbolt Warthog
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f-35b (Lightning 11) (SVTOL)
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F-23 Stealth
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B-2
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U2
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SR-71
(SR = Strategic reconnaissance)
Initially designed to be an interceptor for political reasons
the SR-71 took on a pure reconnaissance role
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YF-12
(initially destined as a long range bomber only 3 copies
where ever made and were used for reconnaissance)
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