Wrights’ European triumph in 1908, BTW?

William

I think this point is debatable. Many in the European community at the time pored scorn on the fact that the Wrights were still having to use a gravity catapult to get airborne!

[QUOTE=Airfixtwin]A copy of the halifax photo was given to me by a now retired member of BA groundcrew at Aldergrove. Its a photo of a photo ( no digital technology available in the 80’s when I got it) I’ve no idea of its original source unfortunately. I’m assuming a member of the salvage operation took it, being postwar with less restrictions possibly. I’ll investigate a liitle further myself to see what info I can get.
QUOTE]
Interesting to see the parallel chat going on with the “Aircraft in Lakes” thread. After over thirty years I finally see a shot of that bl..dy Halifax!
And its my double century post.

It is an icon of its time. I still have my Tupole/Aeroflot publicity booklet of it squirreled from the Russian delegation supporting the exhibition in London of 1961. Soviet dreams!

And that’s a much more useful question. An aircraft changes designation when it suits a paper-pusher or accountant for it to do so, and almost never when it makes sense from an engineering or maintenance point of view.

There were a couple of examples when ‘on the shelf’ names/designations which had been passed were re-used for a real aircraft by the USAAF/C to ensure they got a ‘plane. A new name or designation would require new funding permission, or public scrutiny – much better to slide it under a previous code and get on with it. Once was for parsimony, another time was for a top secret and revolutionary engine-powered type, IIRC.

Then of course the trick was sometimes played the other way round in the USA in order to give the impression that the service was actually getting a more up-to-date type than was the case – I’m thinking of the B29/B50 in particular.
Then in U.K one could possibly argue some similar cases exist ( e.g Lancaster Mk5 /Lincoln etc…)

The No. 1 Mess of the Royal Air Force was at Farnborough. The design was taken from that of an Indian Army Mess (legend has it Poona) and thus it has covered walkways and storm drains. Cody took off from what became the front lawn (I used to wonder how he cleared the fence).

I had a recurrent fault identical with that of EGPH.
Without any technical justification whatsoever ( just bl**dy annoyed) I pulled out the battery pack for a second whilst it was mains connected,then clicked it back in again. Hey presto! It woke up and subsequently initiated every time since with this treatment until it was stolen -thus ending my involvement with the situation and providing a South African solution to the problem.

Found these:

MiG-21 taken from RC-135 flight deck

and MiG-17s from RC-135. Vietnam time

The totally “clean” MiG-21 from that angle makes we wonder the provenance.

Just a few oddities on the subject:
The patterns ,such as spirals ,on German Fighter Aircraft spinners in WW2 were allegedly to confuse defensive gunners.
Apparently the tail guns on the Doolittle raid B-25s were replaced with broomhandles as a weight-saving measure.
A Wessex in Northern Ireland in 1974 chased and eventually dumped fuel over a car fleeing a Vehicle Check Point. The car then stopped and the bemused occupants surrendered.