Plane Tales

Visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Stonehenge and you will pass another stone monument.  It's the Airman's Cross, placed by his comrades to commemorate the death of an early airman, Captain Eustace Broke Loraine and his Sergeant, who died when he crashed his Nieuport Monoplane near Stonehenge. This pioneer aviator deserves to be recognised not just because of his own place in history but for his friendship with a very special officer who he encouraged to take up flying.         Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Garethwiscombe and William Orpen.

Fun in the Sun continues with part 2 of my first Air to Air Gunnery camp in Cyprus.  The work has started and now it's time to become ACE (Allied Command Europe) qualified with the mighty M61 Vulcan cannon. Before long, though it's time to return to reality and, as my first year on the squadron comes to a close, time for my first annual assessment.         Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, Rhodekyll

Delving back into my RAF Pilot's Logbook, Form 414, it's time for the annual instrument rating and prepare for our first deployment to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.  Whilst the 'High Ups' sorted everything out for a major detachment, I'm left doing QRA but at last we are heading south for the Mediterranean. My journey, however, is in the opposite of a supersonic fighter jet!         Images under Creative Commons licence and others with thanks to Peri Reis and Cyprus Beat.

This story harks back to the 300th APG show and was rewritten for the Plane Talking UK live show near Heathrow Airport.  It is the story of a crippled Airbus A300 that barely survives a missile attack and the excellent work by a phenomenal Flight Deck crew.       Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to dodmedia and Airbus Flight Safety.

The Convair 990 was a financial disaster that cost General Dynamics one of the largest corporate losses in history but thanks to some fascinating aerodynamics it was also the world's fastest subsonic airliner.  This is the story of a little known airliner and the transonic design that allowed it to cruise at Mach 0.97!         Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the San Diego Air & Space Museum, NASA and listener Ramiro Couto.  

Growing up in poverty, life in Germany following WWII was hard, but for one young man, dreams of starting a new life as a pilot in America seemed beyond imagination.  However, through strength of character and determination, Dieter Dengler would achieve his goal only to have his short career brought to an abrupt end when he was downed flying a secret mission over Laos at the start of the Vietnam war.  The story of his subsequent capture, torture and his ultimate fate is a remarkable story.         Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the US Navy and draykov.

From one of the lesser known Bee Gee's records comes a bizarre title for a seasonal song that brings to mind the story of Captain William Wincapaw, a native of Friendship in Maine.  In his early days of flying float planes around Rockland Harbour he often used the many lighthouses of New England to help him navigate in poor weather.  His fondness for the families who tended these lighthouses and Coast Guard stations, often in the most remote of situations, led him to begin a Christmas tradition that continues to this very day.       Images under copyright to the Friends of Flying Santa.  To donate please go to the Friends of Flying Santa website.

After WWII many American pilots were employed by the growing Chinese airline industry flying from poorly equipped airfields in China.  The weather was often difficult and the terrain dangerous but on Christmas day 1946, struggling to get back to their base at Lunghwa airfield tragedy would strike... not once but three times.  This is the awful story of that night in Shanghai.           Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to CNAC archives and National Museum of the USAF.

The very next installment of my flying logbook stories has me attempting my first arrester wire engagement, paying tribute to the Bell Rock Lighthouse and meeting the USAF's 527th Aggressor Squadron for combat training.             Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Me, the USAF, Derek Robertson and Robert Stephenson.

In the 1970's, Germany was in the grip of a terrorist nightmare, led by a far left militant group known as the Red Army Faction or the Baader-Meinhof Gang.  Their most audacious act was, with the aid of Palestinian terrorists, to hijack a Lufthansa Boeing 737 named Landshut.  For the passengers and crew this was the start of a 5 day nightmare during which they were subjected to awful treatment and murder.  This is the story of flight 181.           Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Ken Fielding, Devilm25 and the Bundesarchiv.  

Wilheim Böing, emigrated to the United States in 1866 and, after becoming a wealthy lumber merchant, sent his son William to an elite school in Switzerland and then Yale University.  Now named Boeing, William followed his father into the timber business and in his spare time became one of America's first pilots.  Soon he was putting his wealth and engineering background to the development of his first aircraft, the Boeing and Westervelt B&W1.  This was the start of the enormously successful company that was to conquer the world of aviation and develop such iconic aircraft as the B17 Flying Fortress and the Boeing 747.               Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the San Diego Air & Space Museum Archive, KudzuVine, United States Post Office Department, Seattle Municipal Archives, USAF, Jon Proctor and Scandinavian Airlines Service.

Two men who risked everything to save their aircraft and, because of their bravery, were awarded their countries highest honour.  These are stories which truly invoke the often misused sobriquet, hero.           Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Arghya1999, the Royal Air Force, US Air Force, Senior Airman Christopher J. Matthews and the US Gov.

It was the year 1919 and Billy Hughes, the Prime Minister of Australia, was travelling to attend the Paris Peace Conference.  He cabled his Government, “Several Australian aviators are desirous of attempting flight London to Australia they are all first-class men and very keen, your thoughts?”  The undertaking was momental since the longest distance ever achieved by an aircraft to that point was only a third of the required 11,000 miles, let alone attempting the journey in less than 30 days!  Regardless, the Great Air Race was on!         Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Benparer, State Library of South Australia, State Library of Queensland and Bidgee.

The Mig-21, NATO codename Fishbed, was to become the most produced supersonic fighter in aviation history.  In the 1950s, its secrets were being tightly safeguarded and Western military forces were very keen to find out more.  Here is a spy story, more dramatic and blood thirsty than most fictional ones but one that put the new fighter right into the hands of the Israeli Air Force.   Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Oren Rozen, US Gov DIA,

A narrow body of water separates England from the rest of Europe... between Dover and Calais it's only 21 miles wide.  Crossing it has become a bit of a right of passage for many forms of transport and aviators, with or without moustaches, have been no exception.  These are the stories of some of those early attempts!           Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Jmack361,

The Upkeep mine was at last working and 617 Squadron had worked up to a level of skill that was unmatched amongst the Bomber Command units.  The waters of the Ruhr dams had reached their peak and the moon was waxing gibbous towards being full.  At last, all the preparation and training was going to be put to the test and the Dambusters raid was on!               Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to 617 Sqn, the Imperial War Museum, Flying Officer Jerry Fray RAF,  an RAF official photographer and APG listener Emiel Achterberg.

This is part three of a quadrilogy of stories about the Dambuster's raid on the great dams of the Ruhr valley by No 617 Squadron.  Wallis faced an uphill struggle to convince the Air Ministry that his idea of bouncing a huge mine across the surface of the reservoirs, over torpedo nets and right up to the dam walls was feasible.  When finally given the go ahead he only had a few months to complete testing and then build a successful weapon.  In the meantime, a new Lancaster squadron had to be formed and trained. This is a remarkable story of genius and tenacity in equal parts.             Images under Creative Commons licence, with thanks to the Imperial War Museum, Martin Richards, the RAF, the Crown and the UK Government.

A man renown for his genius as a designer and inventor, Barnes Wallis turned his mind to helping Britain to win the Second World War by creating weapons that could defeat the industrial might of Germany.  From his ten ton bomb Tall Boy to the bouncing bomb Upkeep, his remarkable talent ran from designing Airships to supersonic aircraft.  This is his story.           Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Royal Society on Twitter, The US Library of Congress, the Imperial War Museum, Royal Air Force and the RAF Museum Cosford.

This is the first of the four part story of Operation Chastise, the bombing of the great dams of Germany's Ruhr valley during the Second World War.  This Tale examines the life of Wing Commander Guy Gibson, VC, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar who took on the task of forming the Squadron of Lancasters which would achieve world wide fame following the attack.  Gibson was, to some, a flawed character but his leadership, skill and determination to achieve his aim was never in question.         Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Royal Air Force, the Imperial War Museum, Edward X, Pandaplodder and Steenbergen.

A break from Tales of death and destruction with a little bit of aviation word play.  What was your score?