RAF Lockheed Hudson FK 747 -ebay photo find #98

Mustang I - ebay photo find #97

Mustang I AG 349  -1941 original 'The Aeroplane' photograph

Seen at Speke on the 5th December 1941 at a press day for new American types.

Kittyhawk I AK575 1941 original 'The Aeroplane' photograph

An original 'The Aeroplane' photograph of Kittyhawk I AK575 in 1941. Possibly seen at Speke on the 5th December 1941 at a press day for American types. It left Speke on the 10th December to return to Scottish Aviation at Prestwick but was never seen again presumed lost in the Irish Sea.

Why is the U-2 still in service while the SR-71 is not? - Quora opinion piece

C Stuart Hardwick

When you fuel up an SR-71, sitting on the ground in the hot sun, the fuel dribbles out on the tarmac. That’s not an apocryphal tale, it’s really true.

When you want to start the engines on an SR-71, you can’t use a standard airport start cart, you have to shackle each engine up to a pair of big V8 muscle car engines. Then, to get the fuel to ignite, you have to inject a special, toxic, high temperature hypergolic chemical mix similar to rocket propellant.

So you do all that, and you get the thing into the air, and you have to have a tanker waiting, just for you. You can’t take off with full tanks, and you can’t fly very far without them—or with them for that matter.

So you fill ’er up and accelerate to cruising speed. Only then do the tanks heat up enough to expand and seal up the leaks.

So you refuel—a few times—and you get to wherever you need to go—which is going to be deep inside the territory of somebody who wants you dead, because otherwise, why are you up there? And while you are flying around at bat-outta-hell speed, if you pull off your glove and touch the wind screen, you’ll burn your hand.

And if you flame-out for any reason, you only have three shots per engine at restarting, because it’s not like you can do it by clicking an igniter plug. You have to carry enough of that hypergolic restart mix to handle contingencies, but not enough to turn the aircraft into a bomb.

Flying the SR-71 was dangerous and fabulously expensive. So as soon as the military decided they could get by without it, they retired it.

That’s a shame too, because the SR-71 is the closest thing to a space plane ever built.

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If you like science, you might enjoy my free award-winning scifi sampler.

".. the Spanish Harriers have arrived .." RIAT 2019

embed code via the Air Tatttoo FB page and below, Dirke Dodar photo

Phantom FGR.2 - XV470 / V RAF 92 Squadron, 1978 - ebay photo find #96

Two views of Phantom FGR.2 - XV470 / V. Image below taken in 1978 shows the machine in RAF 92 Squadron. Sold for £21 during July 2019.  Bottom XV 470 in 56 Sqd colours..

Many more British Phantoms on this blog. See links and posts on the right hand side of this page..

Blackburn Buccaneer S.2B XN 976 and Buccaneer S.1 XK 523 1960 - ebay photo find #95

XN 976, a Blackburn Buccaneer S.2B - the aircraft was lost when it crashed into the North Sea in July 1992 while flying with No 208 Squadron.

Buccaneer S.1 XK523 1960 Original Blackburn Photograph

Buccaneer S.1 XK523 on HMS Victorious in January 1960. First flown in July 1959, XK523 was the first in a second batch of fourteen development aircraft. Used for trials work until withdrawn in August 1963 to be used as a spares source for XK525. Remains to the P&EE at Shoeburyness for use as a target. Photo is dated 20th January 1960.

Blackburn Buccaneer XN924 Yeovilton May-64

Fleet Air Arm 1962 'Sea Vixen' flight deck launch procedure in 'British Cold War Stories' - recommended aviation books

Practising carrier deck launch procedure on 'Sea Vixens' at Lee-on-Solent, 1962......

or all is not what it seems. These 'modified' Vixens are in fact 'converted Sea Venoms filmed at Lee-on-Solent for the Rank Organisation's 'Look at Life' series (1962).  Video below. They were prepared for participation in the Royal Tournament at Earls Court, a venue that could not cater for the weight and size of a 'real' Sea Vixen.

The full story is published in " British Cold War Stories " currently in UK newsagents published by Mortons Media in association with "The Aviation Historian" - a compilation of (previously published) articles that have presumably appeared in the TAH - although nowhere is this stated.

Phantom FGR.2 and Lightning F.3 29 Squadron 1975 -ebay photo find #94

Phantom FGR.2 and Lightning F.3 29 Squadron 1975

An original (probably RAF/MOD) photograph of Phantom FGR.2 XV438 and Lightning F.3 XP757 both in 29 Squadron markings. The squadron transitioned from the Lightning to the Phantom at the start of 1975. Lightning F.3 XP757 was retired to Leconfield in January 1975 and sold for scrap in December.

on offer here

F-4 Phantom FGR. 2 XV428 "CC" Abingdon crash 1988 - Flt. Lt Chris Lackman

Phantom FGR.2 of 228 OCU, XV428 CC, seen at Leuchars during the first half of 1988. This special livery was applied for the airshow circuit. Sadly the aircraft was destroyed in an accident at RAF Abingdon in Sept. 1988

Above; Mark Smith photo, Wethersfield, June 1988. Posted on the British F-4 Phantom group on FB.

 On 23 September 1988, the crew of XV428 flew to RAF Abingdon to carry out a display practise prior to the air display the next day.. On arrival at Abingdon, they overflew the airfield at 2000ft before running in for their practice. During this overflight, they confirmed that the minimum height for the display was to be 500ft and they discussed the position of the display line and crowd centre. They were passed the surface wind as being between 240 & 330 degrees at 10 to 20 kts with occasional gusts to 30kts. Having cleared the airfield area, XV428 then ran in from the west along the display axis parallel to and north of runway 08 with the crowdline 780ft to their right. The aircraft was well to the right of crowd centre after completing a left 360 degrees hard turn since no allowance appeared to have been made for the strong wind. It was seen to roll out of the turn and immediately enter a very hard pull up using full reheat. As it approached the top of the loop, the aircraft appeared to be slower and lower than usual and at the apex, it was seen to fly in the inverted position for several seconds; the pilot appeared to be 'pushing' and maintaining level flight. During the second half of the loop, the initial pitch rate to the vertical appeared slow and at the vertical the aircraft was alarmingly low. From there on the pull became increasingly hard and some wing rock occured and just before impact the aircraft achieved a nose up attitude of 10-15 degrees but with a massive rate of descent. The Phantom impacted tail first some 819ft from and parallel to the crowd line. It disintegrated immediately and wreckage came no closer than 400ft to the crowd line. The crew were killed on impact with the ground. A very sad day indeed at Abingdon, RIP Flt  Lt Chris Lackman and Flt Lt Thompson..

Mark Smith photo

 Incidentally, Chris Lackman had converted to the Phantom from Vulcans, he was one of the 'Black Buck 6' crew during Falklands.



 Chris Lackman was also the Vulcan copilot on Black Bucks 4, 5 and 6, the defence suppression missions flown from ASI to the Falklands. Black Buck 6 resulted in an emergency diversion into Rio International. Chris's captain was awarded the DFC for that mission but Chris also played a big part in the recovery, which was touch and go all the way in with the aircraft de-pressurised at 45,000 ft, the door hatch open and difficult to re-close, the crew on pressure breathing for 30 mins, and with 2 Northrop F-5s in chase. The aircraft landed with only 1500 lbs of fuel (insufficient for one visual circuit). For the very first time (and after some 34 years) this story has now been told in its entirety in Tony Blackman's book, Vulcan Boys. This story has never been told before, which includes technical detail of how the Shrike missiles were launched against Argentinian radars, the diversion into Rio, and the involvement of the CIA and Pope John Paul VI in the crew's release. A riveting read.

artwork by Fenris at https://live.warthunder.com/post/868441/en/

More on the Lackman crash via the web archive of the National Archives here

EE Lightning T.5 -ebay photo find #93

EE Lightning T.5 - RAF XS454 226 OCU 2T Sqdn, 1974

EE Lightning F.3 - RAF XP759 / F 111 Squadron, 1974

Lightning T.4, XL629, poss SBAC, Farnborough

English Electric Lightning Formation 55-713 55-714 and 55-711 RSAF

English Electric Lightnings of RAF Gutersloh refuel from HP Victor

ramp scene at NAS Oceana 1961, Jaguar display - picture of the day #4

USAF Thunderbirds F-100 Super Sabres, Royal Canadian Air Force F-86's of the Golden hawks, and F11F-1's of U.S. Navys' Blue Angels. An F-8 Crusader and 2 x T-2c Buckeyes thrown in for good measure on a busy ramp at NAS Oceana in June 1961 (S). Mark Taylor collection

Harry Tranter and Colin Collis photos - Jaguar display getting airborne at BAe Woodford and IAT 95