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Anyone else like Birds AND planes? (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter wolfbirder
- Start date
crazyfingers
Well-known member
This being school vacation week I took my 2 teenage boys to the New England Air Museum https://www.neam.org/
A restored B-29 takes up one whole hanger. We have been through B-17s and B-24's in the past. The B-29 sure is impressively larger. We were able to look into the flight deck from the bomb bay doors.
The Sikorsky VS-44A flying boat is also very impressive.
It was fun to see a DC-3 and in front of it a Lockheed 10-A 'Electra'
Lots of other prop and jet fighters.
The link above has photos of their planes on display.
An A-10A Warthog is currently in the restoration hanger so we couldn't see it.
They also have some waiting to be restored planes out on the field. This Martin RB-57A 'Canberra' is looking a bit sad.
Looking forward to visiting again in maybe a year. It's a 2 hour drive each way.
A restored B-29 takes up one whole hanger. We have been through B-17s and B-24's in the past. The B-29 sure is impressively larger. We were able to look into the flight deck from the bomb bay doors.
The Sikorsky VS-44A flying boat is also very impressive.
It was fun to see a DC-3 and in front of it a Lockheed 10-A 'Electra'
Lots of other prop and jet fighters.
The link above has photos of their planes on display.
An A-10A Warthog is currently in the restoration hanger so we couldn't see it.
They also have some waiting to be restored planes out on the field. This Martin RB-57A 'Canberra' is looking a bit sad.
Looking forward to visiting again in maybe a year. It's a 2 hour drive each way.
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Farnboro John
Well-known member
Ah yes, the license-built version of the legendary English Electric Canberra! One USAF general is supposed to have commented, after Roland Beamont had first completed all the required manoeuvres in the fly-off in half the time of the American competitors and then beaten hell out of the airfield for the rest of his allotted time: "Kinda big for a pursuit ship, isn't it?" (The competition was for a bomber....)
Great photos BTW.
John
JWN Andrewes
Poor Judge of Pasta.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
There's been a few interesting tv programmes on aircraft recently there was a fascinating documentary on the history of British Airways which has always been my favourite airline (always was when I younger) and a programme about EasyJet Pilots. Just booked a ticket to this year's Airshow at The Museum Of Flight near Edinburgh.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Bravo Euan. Don't forget to keep some cash back for overseas journeys. Planes will get you to birds you never dreamed existed.
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
This year is the Royal Air Force's centenary: on 1 April 1918, in the middle of a war, the normally conservative British Establishment decided to heave its aviation arrangements - both Royal Navy and British Army had air arms - into the middle distance and create the world's first independent air force. There are a number of events taking place but for my money we may have already had the best celebration with the Shuttleworth Trust devoting its season opener to a celebration of the RAF.
As the weather gods decided to smile on their efforts I have a few snaps to share out of a very considerable album on Flickr. Rather than march chronologically through history the aircraft are presented simply in the order they displayed.
John
1. Avro Lancaster B1
2. Scottish Aviation Bulldog and Avro Tutor - ancient and modern(ish) the Tutor being a 1930s pilot trainer and the Bulldog its equivalent from the 1970s to just after 2000.
3. Hawker Hurricane Mk I
4 and 5. Sopwith Camel (this was the first time I had ever seen a Camel in the air, very close to a megatick!)
As the weather gods decided to smile on their efforts I have a few snaps to share out of a very considerable album on Flickr. Rather than march chronologically through history the aircraft are presented simply in the order they displayed.
John
1. Avro Lancaster B1
2. Scottish Aviation Bulldog and Avro Tutor - ancient and modern(ish) the Tutor being a 1930s pilot trainer and the Bulldog its equivalent from the 1970s to just after 2000.
3. Hawker Hurricane Mk I
4 and 5. Sopwith Camel (this was the first time I had ever seen a Camel in the air, very close to a megatick!)
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Farnboro John
Well-known member
Part 2 (of 2) and more variety plus some aircraft whose designs pre-date the RAF's existence. Hope you enjoy the show - I did!
John
1. Slingsby T21B glider. Many Air Cadets will have got their first taste of real flying (in a cockpit and even hands-on, rather than in a metal tube en route Costa sp) in a Slingsby glider of some kind and this would have been the model for some of them. Me, I'm not sure about the whole gliding thing and that cockpit looks quite exposed....
2. No RAF celebration could possibly be complete without a Spitfire and this one has accompanied my airshow-going down the last fifty years, on many occasions in the hands of the late great Ray Hanna who, when I was still in short trousers, led the Red Arrows in their original Gnats before a long and distinguished career as a warbird pilot responsible, among other things, for taking a Spitfire under a bridge for Piece of Cake and the legendary low run over Alain de Cadenet seen on this thread recently. MH434 is an old friend and one of which I've been trying to take the definitive photo for many years: finally I think I'm getting close.
3. Bristol Boxkite. A pre-World War One design that served the RFC as a pilot trainer. This is an accurate replica built for the film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. Even that means this aeroplane is over fifty years old....
4. Avro Triplane IV, also built for Those Magnificent Men and, as the legend below the pilot reveals, the mount of Sir Percy Ware-Armitage maintained by "Manservant/Mechanic" Courtney - Terry Thomas and Eric Sykes, respectively.
5. This is not a replica (though there may be something of "Grandfather's Axe" about it): the Blackburn Monoplane Type D dates from 1912, so it is 106 years old, and it still flies.
John
1. Slingsby T21B glider. Many Air Cadets will have got their first taste of real flying (in a cockpit and even hands-on, rather than in a metal tube en route Costa sp) in a Slingsby glider of some kind and this would have been the model for some of them. Me, I'm not sure about the whole gliding thing and that cockpit looks quite exposed....
2. No RAF celebration could possibly be complete without a Spitfire and this one has accompanied my airshow-going down the last fifty years, on many occasions in the hands of the late great Ray Hanna who, when I was still in short trousers, led the Red Arrows in their original Gnats before a long and distinguished career as a warbird pilot responsible, among other things, for taking a Spitfire under a bridge for Piece of Cake and the legendary low run over Alain de Cadenet seen on this thread recently. MH434 is an old friend and one of which I've been trying to take the definitive photo for many years: finally I think I'm getting close.
3. Bristol Boxkite. A pre-World War One design that served the RFC as a pilot trainer. This is an accurate replica built for the film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. Even that means this aeroplane is over fifty years old....
4. Avro Triplane IV, also built for Those Magnificent Men and, as the legend below the pilot reveals, the mount of Sir Percy Ware-Armitage maintained by "Manservant/Mechanic" Courtney - Terry Thomas and Eric Sykes, respectively.
5. This is not a replica (though there may be something of "Grandfather's Axe" about it): the Blackburn Monoplane Type D dates from 1912, so it is 106 years old, and it still flies.
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M Edgeller
Member
Hi John
Great photos as ever. I was one of those air cadets whose introduction to flying was in a Slingsby glider. A day goal hanging, waiting for conditions to improve, then catapulted into the blue with the wind whistling around the open cockpit. Magic! Kev Wilson (now warden of Gib Point) was also there and was lucky enough to have a longer flight involving a few aerobatics. He was a little shell-shocked on landing!
Will be at Yeovilton on July 7ty. Maybe see you there?
Mark
Great photos as ever. I was one of those air cadets whose introduction to flying was in a Slingsby glider. A day goal hanging, waiting for conditions to improve, then catapulted into the blue with the wind whistling around the open cockpit. Magic! Kev Wilson (now warden of Gib Point) was also there and was lucky enough to have a longer flight involving a few aerobatics. He was a little shell-shocked on landing!
Will be at Yeovilton on July 7ty. Maybe see you there?
Mark
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Farnboro John
Well-known member
Maybe... My airshow schedule from now is Shuttleworth again (today) then RIAT and Flying Legends the same weekend in July, leading immediately into Farnborough (for which I am not paying to go in, it's not what it used to be): however, unless the birds improve, I might add Yeovilton as well.
Nice reminiscence about gliding!
Cheers
John
wolfbirder
Well-known member
My God!!! That Spitfire photo is the best I have ever seen, so crystal clear and banking superbly - the perfect angle to display its so-sexy profile.:t:
wolfbirder
Well-known member
Norf Eeest London!.......It just appeared ''out-a fin'' air.
You sure that's a Sprawk Ken?
Whatever it is, clever stuff !!:t:
KenM
Well-known member
It was a photo op...that I couldn’t miss Nick...unfortunately Sprawk it was on that occasion. :t:
Cheers
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Mike Crawley
Emeritus President at Burnage Rugby Club
don't think I have ever seen an Osprey (of the Bell Boeing type) in the U.K.
KenM
Well-known member
Have to assume that they are scarce visitors to these parts, as were these 9 Merlins over Wanstead Flats yesterday marking the RAF Centenary. :t:
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Farnboro John
Well-known member
There are some based at Mildenhall, special ops types. This week was the first time I'd seen the HMX-1 Marine One bunch though
John
USAF CV-22 Osprey, based RAF MIldenhall.
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