Anyone else like Birds AND planes? (1 Viewer)

MJB said:

Richard,
You mean the Horten Ho II L Habicht, the test prototype for the Horten series of tailless designs in WWII? Or not...
MJB

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MJB said:

John, just to add to your neat summary, from the Mk 21 onwards, the Spitfire (and Seafire) had a new design of elliptical wing, elegant, but not as much as the early Marks. It was this design that was revised to add extended wingtips for high-altitude work.

Keeping to the theme of extended wings for high altitude, the Mosquito PR32 had extended wings and, I seem to remember, Hamilton Standard 4-blade propellors for excellent high-altitude performance. Eight were built, and were lightened as much as possible, although additional fuel capacity was added. Three were at RAF Leuchars for some time, and undertook several long-distance recce missions along the Russian front, landing in Italy where the allies had secured airfields south of the Gothic line. After refuelling, the next day they returned to Leuchars, usually filming over the western front and probably via RAF Benson, which had air film processing capabilities and was close to RAF Medmenham where the Allied Reconnassance Interpretation Unit could analyse the images.
MJB

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Farnboro John said:

Mmm. I think you will find that when the Luftwaffe started flying Ju8Ps over Southern England above 40,000 feet early in 1942 the RAF first deployed the Spitfire HFVI, which was a specially lightened Mk V with extended wingtips. Hampered, inevitably, by the Merlin 45, it couldn't cope. The planned upgrade - as for the standard fighter - was to be the Mk VIII, but the posh upgrades including retractable tailwheel took too long and I think the HFVII was next out of the box, with the very pointy wingtips first seen on the VI and a Merlin 61 forced into the Mk V airframe as for the Mk IX. It also featured a pointed tailfin which actually looks very nice and features on some restored aircraft.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Spitfire_VII_Langley_USA.jpg

The Mosquito was planned to have wingtips extended to some 65 feet but strength considerations limited it to just over 59 feet. The bomber (two-stage Merlins of course) was first out of development, intended to make use of OBOE at the maximum possible range - but de Havilland were asked to contribute to anti-Ju86P measures and in a week (!!) sawed the bomber nose off their high-altitude aircraft, installed the four-Browning one they'd previously sawed off an NFII to install one of the first dish antenna airborne radars, and MP469 became the first NFXV high altitude fighter. It and some slightly more refined production examples were given to 85 Squadron, then under John Cunningham, who took them up beyond 45,000 feet. A description of one of these flights is in CF Rawnsley's Night Fighter. http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/album/watermark.php?file=5046&size=1
Unless I'm much mistaken the PR32 post-dates these shenanigans.
I'd love to see one of these delicate pointy beauties but right now I'd settle for any flying Mosquito variant in Britain! John

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MJB said:

I think you've got that pretty well right, John. My father was officially grounded on his inability to distinguish pale blue lights from pale green at night, in late 1943, but being an Observer and a whizz at figures (he could add up a bank balance sheet in £sd from a ledger and carry it over to the next page and write down the correct total in about 30 seconds), he constantly filled in when navigators called in sick. His logbook, which vanished when his house was cleared after he died, listed three late 1944/early 1945 sorties from Leuchars in PR32s (which had been refitted on-base with extra heating footsprays). The only time he talked about that simply reflected his sense of wonder on a cloudless day when from around 38,000 feet he and his pilot could see the flashes of artillery from both the Russian and western fronts...
MJB

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Barred Wobbler said:

Still winding down from the four hour drive back from Duxford.

The day was rather good.B

A few early edits, chosen more or less at random. Bare varnished metal seems to be very much in fashion.

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Farnboro John said:

Beat me to it, I'm currently having a break from deleting the dross from my camera before downloading ones to consider to working on. I've been at it since 0730 this morning.....

Best Legends in years. Non-stop piston action for hours, multi-aircraft scrambles, big formations, immaculate aerobatics, tailchases.... my head is still spinning!

I was on the tank bank. Where were you?

John

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Barred Wobbler said:

We were opposite the flight line, near the west end in front of the corsairs and sea furies, next to the 'Monarch' airliner. As you say, a brilliant show. It's the first time I've been down to the Flying Legends since 1998, I think, but I've been to Duxford at other times, most recently for a Tiger Moth flight for a 2008 birthday present. Time flies. where did those years ago? It seems more recent than that.

Notable absences from the flight display this year were swordfish and Lysanders. What's happened there? Loved the stuff that did take part, mind.

My wife loves the Lysanders. She calls them 'Gremlins' because on the ground with the shape of their cockpit and high wings they remind her of the faces of the little beasties in the film 'Gremlins'. I was surprised at how big they are when I first saw them back in those days.

I've just finished going through the first cull. I've dropped the number of photos to bang on 1800 from just over 2500 taken and downloaded last night. There's still a long way to go. I filled two and a half 32GB cards. To think I was considering that I'd only need one, because I thought there was no way I'd take more than a thousand photos in a day. Dream on. I'll organise them into files of each type, then I'll go through again getting rid of the ones I've given the benefit of the doubt to on the first cut. To put the numbers in context, 2500 is about what I'd expect to bring back from a two or three week birding holiday in Spain.

One criticism of the display: I was delighted when the commentator announced as the first take-offs were going on that he was going to shut up now, and cut down on the interruptions to let us enjoy the engine noise. Five minutes later he introduced his co-commentator who then proceeded to not shut up long enough to draw breath for the next three hours-plus!

There was just enough cloud in the afternoon to make for interesting backgrounds, although that meant some inconvenient shade at times when I didn't want it.

I left it until Wednesday to decide on which day to visit and Saturday won when I saw that rain was forecast for today.

Three Mk Is

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Farnboro John said:

I'm not sure why the Lizzie wasn't there, its only at Old Warden after all. Shuttleworth do have a full airshow programme of their own all summer, so perhaps they couldn't spare the flying hours or something.

The RNHF has only just got one Swordfish airworthy again and Legends clashed with Yeovilton Air Days, so that was never going to turn up, unfortunately.

I've spent all day culling 4800 down to 1050 on the back of the camera before considering uploading for a further cull. What worries me is I'm going to RIAT next Saturday and the flying programme is 1000 until 1730, not 1400 till 1730!

I agree about the inconvenience of the afternoon clouds. Always exactly when you don't want them!

John

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Farnboro John said:

I think we've had this one before, but Saturday at Duxford was rather special. So courtesy of Flight Lieutenant John Magee, Royal Canadian Air Force:

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

The reader may attribute the illustrations as they see fit.

John

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West End Birder said:

I had a choice, Flying Legends or 50th Wedding Anniversary at the in-laws in France. Guess which I chose (where chose = told to go to), still did see a Hummingbird Hawk Moth - woooo.

I must got the FL again, looks like it was fabulous, were there plenty of P51s?

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