World's Oldest Independent Air Force

Topspeed,

This is a Boomarang, a piece of wood, beautifully and lovingly carved by man into an aerodynamic shape, designed as a weapon that when thrown, will return to the thrower if it misses it’s target.

Indeed..that is a genuine abo boomerang !

The Kierikki “boomerang” was also a bent piece of wood..looked as if it was made thinner to fly better..it possibly kept it better in course and abled to increase the impact energy stored at throw. It left me wondering what a boomerang really is/was.

Those people in Kierikki 6000-4500 years ago lived outa forest and sea 40-50 km more inland on the coast ( where the coast used to be ) on the river delta and had semidetached central heated log/hey/branch houses. The weather pattern has changed since a lot..I recall also in northern Norway there used to be nut trees…some few thousand years ago. I wonder if these people hunted down the mammoths 10 000 years ago ? They had also speers + bows and arrows. Obviously they did not know how to write…or did they..there are no written artifacts left. How and why did they culture die 2500 bC..or did they just move where the coast moved..like egyptians had to move from Piramese to Tanis due to river changes ( old river dried out ) ? They also had already buttons made of amber…and some boomerangs..kinda puzzle isn’t it ?

irretrievably silly?

smiles – “Yes”, but far better than pistols at 10 paces

regards

Mark Pilkington

The non-returning ones are a bit more than sticks though in design, they have the same basic “Boomerang” shape, and are thrown much the same way, but the aerofoil/blade is only used to ensure a straight line path from the thrower, rather than to create lift and turn.

Regards

Mark Pilkington

So did the Aboriginal Air Ministry have an assistant to the Deputy CAS who was responsible for planning and development of airborne sticks? And given its construction could the Mosquito be seen as the ultimate development of the airborne stick?

But above all the question remains was any Finnish timber used or was that all a veneer put on it at a later date for propoganda purposes. 😀

Ummmm…… has this thread become irretrievably silly? 🙂

As another aside from the serious side of Boomerangology 😎 there are many different types. The familiar returning kind is one but most are of a non-returning kind and are just throwing sticks.

Wooden rocks if you will.

🙂

The non-returning ones are a bit more than sticks though in design, they have the same basic “Boomerang” shape, and are thrown much the same way, but the aerofoil/blade is only used to ensure a straight line path from the thrower, rather than to create lift and turn.

Regards

Mark Pilkington

As another aside from the serious side of Boomerangology 😎 there are many different types. The familiar returning kind is one but most are of a non-returning kind and are just throwing sticks.

Wooden rocks if you will.

🙂

Hardly independant of other services.

RAF on the other hand on the 1st April 1918 subject to CHIEF OF THE AIR STAFF and AIR MINISTRY, not Chief of the General Staff and War Office.

Well, the Army and the (lake) Navy were also subjected to the Chief of General Staff who in turn was subjected to Mannerheim. I’m pretty sure the Army was an independent branch.

Note bold text….

Hardly independant of other services.

RAF on the other hand on the 1st April 1918 subject to CHIEF OF THE AIR STAFF and AIR MINISTRY, not Chief of the General Staff and War Office.

Yeah I think this makes your RAF extremely independent AF. FAF had still at the start of the WW II general major Ljunqvist as chief an he was artillery officer by training..he remained as chief during the whole hulabaloo if I not mistaken.

Ah yes but it is a little known fact that the first CAS of the RAF’s Great great great great grandmother had a Finnish friend.

😀

Ok you guys are killing me…but I give in a bit..the boomerang in Kierikki-museum is not that state of the art as the ones with abos in Australia. It is a highly suitable device to take living daylights outa someone, but hardly returns to sender even if it misses the target. It was still labelled as a boomerang in the museum.

Note bold text….

Hardly independant of other services.

RAF on the other hand on the 1st April 1918 subject to CHIEF OF THE AIR STAFF and AIR MINISTRY, not Chief of the General Staff and War Office.

Ah yes but it is a little known fact that the first CAS of the RAF’s Great great great great grandmother had a Finnish friend.

😀

Finnish Air Force was founded after the first aeroplane was donated to it and flown to Finland. In his the Order of the Day No. 20 (12 March 1918) Commander-in-Chief Mannerheim appointed Swedish officer John Allan Hygerth to “the Chief of Aviation Department” and subjected him and the department directly to the Chief of General Staff. In special cases part of the department could be subjected to front commanders. [1]

Note bold text….

Hardly independant of other services.

RAF on the other hand on the 1st April 1918 subject to CHIEF OF THE AIR STAFF and AIR MINISTRY, not Chief of the General Staff and War Office.

Well…Also Pamela Andersson and Jessica Lange + Rene Zellweger are finns by their origins. This has got to very little with formula 1 but in good form and well built and constructed anyhow.

well now that you mention it, after excelling at Coastlines and Fjords it is rumoured that Slartibartfast took his eye for curves etc into Plastic Surgery!

smiles

Mark Pilkington

Please……Stop……my ribs hurt…..I can’t take anymore…………

Well…Also Pamela Andersson and Jessica Lange + Rene Zellweger are finns by their origins. This has got to very little with formula 1 but in good form and well built and constructed anyhow.

…..I’m now wiping coffee off my monitor………..

White Lightning was capable of the same as Questair Venture but with 2x the crew and 100 hp less. 3 x FAI class winner.

Bill Falck is genuiely a hero in Eastern Finland in his hometown ( his original name slips my mind ..Viljo ?).

You’re having me on! You had the first independant air force and invented the boomarang? You’ll be telling me next that Finland sported some of the best F1 and rally drivers the world has ever seen!………whatever next.

Not quite but Bill Falck did win several F1 predecessor races with his small racer Rivets. Len Niemi did Sisu 1-A sailplane and was behind the White Lightning sports plane and AJ-2 Oskosh 500 winner. They either moved from Finland or were born in finnish origin family in USA.

I know Slartibartfast designed Norway (one of his favourites), but Finland?

Thanks Mark……its a total education coming on to this forum.

cheers Baz

Baz,

The coastline work on Finland in the area of Turko bears great resemblence to his later coastline work on Norway in the Oslo area, of course he had’nt as yet perfected fjords when working on the much earlier Finland design.

Of course he is also suspected of at least helping on the coastline of the adjoining Sweden, and both Finland and Sweden were completed well before Norway was added as his final crowning coastline work, fjords and all, leaving his best and favourite work till last.

And if Finland had remained in the Tasman Sea, Stockholm would have been a simple 2 span bridge away from St Petersburg!

smiles

Mark Pilkington

You’re having me on! You had the first independant air force and invented the boomarang? You’ll be telling me next that Finland sported some of the best F1 and rally drivers the world has ever seen!………whatever next.

No, you have got it all wrong, Australian Aboriginals invented “Finland” to a design by Slartibartfast, but unfortunately it floated away to the Northern Hemisphere over 40,000 years ago etc, Of course then reclaiming the boomerang, the stick and the Finnish Air Force to downunder!, it was meant to remain tethered next to Tasmania, but towards New Zealand.

When designed, Finland was intended to be the largest country for its size in the world, a title it retains through to this day!

smiles

Mark Pilkington

If it doesn’t come back…..is it not ..a stick?

That is how they look. They threw a stick first and at same stage they discovered that some shape sticks return.

I was very surprised too about the village that was found in the sixties when a hydropowerplant was being built in Finland in Kierikki. It was dated 4000-2500 bC.

Perhaps we need a little traveling music –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgTyVkpJY3g

😀

Speaking as an archaeologist (yes I know !!!! Hiss !!!!!! Booooooo !!!!!!!, how dare you inject some scientific training into the debate !!!!!! blah, blah blah, been there got the T shirt 😮 ) there is some quite convincing evidence that China and not Australia may be where boomerang type artefacts first appeared. This news was received with some amount of angst in my home country, but one cannot argue with evidence if it is properly presented, well one can as this forum demonstrates regularly 😀 .

Therefore the home of the world’s oldest airforce may be China, more specifically a small restaurant in Beijing where the boomerang is Number 38* on the menu, very nice with the fried rice.

Others will probably care to differ but fortune cookies never lie.

🙂

* I might add that in Istanbul, the last time I was there, is a bus line called Bumerang Tours. I know what they mean but although the name suggests something else it is reassuring to know that you will be returned to where you board the bus. The implied route, however, is a little worrying.

I was very surprised too about the village that was found in the sixties when a hydropowerplant was being built in Finland in Kierikki. It was dated 4000-2500 bC.

http://www.kierikki.fi/sivu/en/kierikkikeskus/

Speaking as an archaeologist (yes I know !!!! Hiss !!!!!! Booooooo !!!!!!!, how dare you inject some scientific training into the debate !!!!!! blah, blah blah, been there got the T shirt 😮 ) there is some quite convincing evidence that China and not Australia may be where boomerang type artefacts first appeared. This news was received with some amount of angst in my home country, but one cannot argue with evidence if it is properly presented, well one can as this forum demonstrates regularly 😀 .

Therefore the home of the world’s oldest airforce may be China, more specifically a small restaurant in Beijing where the boomerang is Number 38* on the menu, very nice with the fried rice.

Others will probably care to differ but fortune cookies never lie.

🙂

* I might add that in Istanbul, the last time I was there, is a bus line called Bumerang Tours. I know what they mean but although the name suggests something else it is reassuring to know that you will be returned to where you board the bus. The implied route, however, is a little worrying.