Plane Tales

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).