A bit of British Aviation History - re-discovered pics

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

Cool photos!

Sad about the Blenheim. It was the last known airworthy Blenheim. It was restored though, but not to flying status. Now the only remaining ones are in museums.

The Vulcan picture is inspirational, and the Harrier photo is a spectacular picture!

a reply to: pikestaff

This is true about the Mustang and the Merlin; it had to do with the supercharger design. The K-14 gyroscopic gunsight I knew was made by the British, but I guess I didn't know it was in the Spitfire (makes sense though).

Regarding the B-17's (something I know a bit about), I intentionally didn't compare the Lancaster to the B-17 simply because it's almost impossible to do accurately. There were far more B-17's over Europe than Lancasters and the British tactics of bombing at night versus US daylight missions are not readily comparable. Secondly, while the Lancaster could indeed get more weight in the air, neither could get maximum bomb loads very far. And while the Lancaster could lift more, the B-17 had a service ceiling fully 14,000 feet higher at any weight. Consequently, the B-17 was less vulnerable to all but high performance fighters whereas the Lancaster, at 21,000 feet was vulnerable to lower performance fighters (which drove part of the decision to only use them at night).

ETA - The reality is, the missions of the Lancaster and the B-17 were entirely different, and actually complimentary to each other. They were not designed to fill the same role.

And, on a more somber footnote...

While some of the aircraft from WWII may still survive, there aren't many of the guys who flew them left. Not many at all.

My Dad is among those who have passed.

381st Bombardment Group (Heavy), 533rd Squadron, based in Ridgewell, England - "Big Mike" and "Frenchy's Folly" among others, some lost so fast they never even got a name. 1941-1945 77 missions in all (3+ complete campaigns), shot down twice. And he lived to tell about it, else I wouldn't be writing this.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

Cool photos!

Sad about the Blenheim. It was the last known airworthy Blenheim. It was restored though, but not to flying status. Now the only remaining ones are in museums.

The Vulcan picture is inspirational, and the Harrier photo is a spectacular picture!

There is a Blenheim still flying in the UK. It was used in the recent film Dunkirk.

Displaying at RAF Cosford Airshow 2018



Warbird News Link

Wiki has the background.

An airworthy Blenheim was rebuilt from a scrapped Bolingbroke over a 12-year period, only to crash at an airshow at Denham within a month of completion in 1987. A replacement Bolingbroke Mk IVT was rebuilt to flying status in just five years and painted to represent a Blenheim Mk IV in RAF wartime service. It began appearing at air shows and exhibitions in the UK, flying since May 1993 and was used in the 1995 film version of Shakespeare's Richard III. This aircraft crashed on landing at Duxford on 18 August 2003; the crash was feared to have made it a write off.[56] but after extensive repair and conversion to the Mark I "Short nose" version by The Aircraft Restoration Company (ARC) at Duxford, was displayed to the public on 30 May 2014, and first flew for 29 minutes on 20 November 2014, following restoration at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, Cambridgeshire, England.[57] The aircraft appeared in the 2017 Christopher Nolan film Dunkirk.

Bristol Blenheim Wiki Link

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

Awesome pics and Its always great to to see the Vulcan up in the air!

The British gotta wonder how they got from building their own straight to F-35. Hmm I wonder.
Oh right they shutdown Canadians Avro industries.

The only three major power next gen aircraft players are USA, Russia and China. You can forget the French with its dumb Rafale, that isn't even remotely 5th gen let alone 6th gen. Even Sweden is having trouble with its own air industries.

a reply to: makemap

Fifth gen is expensive as hell. It makes a lot more sense to let someone else shoulder the lions share of development costs than to spend it yourself and end up with a fleet too small to do any good, or outright canceled due to costs.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Everything cost a lot because of the American dollar. Every time the price rises in America they drag rest of the world with it. The 1% will keep getting richer til all industries are controlled in a corporate way. MIC bro. Also don't forget US spies in European companies stealing everything.

They can keep blaming China(of different race). But, they won't say anything about white infiltrating white.

a reply to: makemap

Of course, it's all because of the US. I keep forgetting.

A good read about the crew behind the Blenheim.
ARCo

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Huge respect for that FCD.

originally posted by: Blackfinger
A good read about the crew behind the Blenheim.
ARCo

And one about Allied Pilots downed in occupied Europe.

One of the best books I have read in a long time ...

www.waterstones.com...

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

Good for her, I wish her well.

If anyone is going near Omaha, the SAC museum has a Vulcan sitting out back waiting to be restored.