A good friend to this blog is Leigh Smith. Leigh is a tremendous photographer and has kindly shared these images of a recent excursion to RAF Lakenheath;
" As the forecast was good, I decided to visit Lakenheath for "Quick Climb Friday". I arrived just before 09.00 and was astounded to see how busy the forest entrance area and official viewing area was! I found out that the 1st FW Langley-Eustis Raptors are still in residence! I missed the launch of five Raptors, but decided to hang around for their return! I saw four of the home-team F-35As launch as 2 pairs and all of them did quick climbs from Runway 23, which meant that I didn't get the hoped for shots!.."
The 1st Fighter Wing, stationed at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, operates and maintains nearly half of the U.S. Air Force's F-22 Raptor fleet. The wing's primary mission is to provide air superiority through the F-22, including maintaining readiness, deploying globally, and training F-22 pilots. The 1st FW is composed of the 1st Operations Group, the 1st Maintenance Group, and other supporting units.
The Poseidon Force welcomes its sixth aircraft, ‘Guernsey’s Reply’, to a growing Maritime Patrol fleet that is enhancing security in the North Atlantic together with @RoyalNavy and the UK’s allies. #NextGenRAFhttps://t.co/OluP0z4Psf
Squadron Prints Lithograph No. 1340 - 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Spitfire / Typhoon Synchro Display 2015.
To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, the iconic Supermarine Spitfire flown by Flight Lieutenant Antony ‘Parky’ Parkinson together with the powerful Eurofighter Typhoon flown by Flight Lieutenant Ben Westoby-Brooks join to create a unique synchronised display. The stark contrast between the aircraft is highlighted in line astern formation with the elliptical wing of the Spitfire immediately pursued by the piercing delta of the Typhoon before the pair split to complete mirrored wingovers, rolls, derry turns and head-on low level passes. Though generations apart, these seemingly disparate world class fighters have a rare harmony connecting the past and the present, serving as a living memorial to ‘The Few’. Spitfire MkIIa P7350 is the oldest airworthy Spitfire in the world, and the only Spitfire that fought in the Battle of Britain still flying. P7350 is painted to represent Spitfire MkIa N3162 ‘EB-G’ flown by 21-year-old Pilot Officer Eric Stanley Lock of No. 41 Squadron. Lock became the RAF’s most successful pilot of the Battle of Britain with 21 kills during the period of the Battle. During his service with No. 41 Squadron, Lock was awarded the DSO, two DFCs and a Mention in Despatches. Sadly, Lock died on 3 August 1941, at the age of only 22, when he failed to return from a strafe attack on troops and gun positions at Calais. His body have never been found, despite extensive searches, and he has no known grave. Although Eric Lock faced the enemy for only a limited period of time, he remains one of the RAF’s top 10 Aces of World War II, credited with some 26.5 aircraft destroyed and 8 probable, most of these achieved with No. 41 Squadron. Typhoon FGR4 ZK349 ‘BZ’ wears the No. 249 Squadron markings of the Hawker Hurricane flown by Flight Lieutenant Eric James Brindley Nicolson during the Battle of Britain. Nicolson, aged 23 was to become RAF Fighter Command’s only Victoria Cross recipient.
An in-depth interview with David Gledhill on his life as a navigator in the RAF flying the F-4 Phantom and the Tornado F2/F3. He looks at his training, squadrons, flying, exchanges and his career as a successful author.
The back drop of Newark Air Museum and FGR 2 XV 490 gives the interview a great feel.
A Rolls Royce Spey engined Phantom of 56 "Firebirds" Squadron is scrambled to intercept a Russian Tu 16 Badger with support from a Shackleton AEW from 8 Squadron...
Here’s another neat youtube video — 9min long — depicting the RAF in the 1960s, featuring Lightnings, a Valiant tanker, Javelins and Canberras. A single click to watch here. Features 111 Sq Lightnings at Marham and a brief shot of the red-tailed Lightnings of 56 Sqd. The Javelins and Canberras are filmed on Akrotiri.
Britain's Greatest Pilot - The Story of Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown. Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown recounts his flying experiences, encounters with the Nazis and other adventures leading up to and during the Second World War. Illustrated with archive footage and Captain Brown's own photos.
The recent BBC 2 documentary devoted to Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown was an absolutely fascinating programme. Brown must rate as one of aviation's leading test pilots of all time, a man who was there at the forefront of the development of aircraft from biplanes to supersonic jets. With his love for danger - as a teenager he enjoyed earning some spare cash as a wall-of-death motorcycle rider- and having a father who had been a WW I fighter pilot - Brown's love affair with flight began in 1936 when he was taken up on an aerobatic joy-ride by German WW I ace Ernst Udet who made him promise " to learn to speak German and learn to fly.. it was a pivotal point in my life ".
Much of the programme was taken up with 'Winkle' Brown's subsequent dealings with the Nazis, from his own early imprisonment in Munich on the outbreak of WW II to his interrogation of Luftwaffe chief Goering, test flying the Luftwaffe's jet and rocket aircraft to 'liberating' Belsen concentration camp and interrogating the notorious camp Kommandant Franz Kramer and Kramer's 'deputy' Irma Grese " the most evil person I've ever met ". Brown's war started as a Fleet Air Arm fighter pilot flying Martlets (Wildcats) deployed on HMS Audacity which had a terrifyingly short flight deck and carried six aircraft..
Audacity (above) was a 'flat-topped former German 'banana boat' converted for Atlantic convoy escort duties protecting against bomber attack from the "Focke Wulf Kurier" (sic) or Condor, the most heavily armed German aircraft in the sky.." Audacity was torpedoed and sunk and Brown and twenty-four of his ship-mates were left for dead- only Brown and one other survived. Audacity's captain had already noted Brown's competence at carrier landings and reported this fact to his superiors, which marked Brown for some highly dangerous test flying ...
Brown was the first man to land a twin-engine aircraft (a Mosquito)on a carrier and as a result became the chief naval test pilot at RAE Farnborough for the Fleet Air Arm.
He flew a world record 2,400 carrier landings, probably flew more types of aircraft than any other pilot, was the only Allied pilot to fly the rocket-powered Me 163 and als flew the Me 262.
Post-war he was the first man to land a jet on a carrier. The clip depicts Brown's first landing of a jet powered aircraft on aircraft carrier. "..The music is excellent. I feel slightly emotional watching it. I love the part about warming hands in front of the jet especially..."Where does the urge come from? Feeling's believing."
'Winkle' Brown was a test pilot as aerodynamics moved from bi planes to supersonic fighters - indeed supersonic flight was the 'holy grail' of aviation during this period. Brown was tasked with ascertaining why Geoffrey de Havilland died at the controls of the tail-less Dh 108 Swallow as it was attempting a new world air speed record.
The only shortcoming of the documentary was possibly the fact that it was an impossible task to condense this man's life into a one hour programme. Three hours and they may have done the man justice. I enjoyed his comment about Geoffrey De Havilland "..a Hollywood test pilot"; few people living or dead would have said that about him.
What he did as a pilot very few - if any - have equalled. not only for the 487 types flown (!). From interrogating Goering, flying as a young lad with WW1's second highest scoring ace Udet AND then testing the Luftwaffe's most advanced planes...and ending his career on the Buccaneer nuclear strike bomber.
This recently conserved de Havilland Vampire T.11 went on display at the IWM Duxford last year in the Battle of Britain exhibition.
" Wonderful day at IWM Duxford - the sun has shone, we've had the buzz of a busy day with lots of visitors and Colonel Richard Graham has been thrilling audiences with tales of the SR-71 Blackbird..." reposted from the IWM FB page
