No bazv, I didn’t mix up the designation. I was posting a picture of a predecessor to the Skyraider, that’s what I meant by “would become”. I wouldn’t have said the XBT2D-1 prototype “would become” a Skyraider because it already was a Skyraider. According to Ed Heinemann, changing mission requirements from the Navy led them to to take the best features from the BTD-1 and what they had learned and apply it to the new mission. Nothing surprising about that really, just evolution. The BTD-1 first flew more than a year before the The XBT2D-1 and several months before the XBT2D-1 prototypes were even ordered. They didn’t start with a clean slate when they designed the XBT2D-1, they used what they thought were their best ideas at the time and applied them to the new mission requirements. Much of that came from the XSB2D-1/TBD-1 program, and allowed them to quickly develop the XBT2D-1 prototype.

The term “Sandy” wasn’t the Skyraider’s nickname, it was the call sign for the mission of CSAR helicopter escort in Vietnam. It became one of the Skyraider’s nicknames because it was so closely associated with that role and for the generation that served in Vietnam, if you heard the call sign “Sandy” on the radio, when you looked up there was a Skyraider. The A-7 Corsair II was called Sandy when flying escort for CSAR helicopters as well but even throttled back it was too fast to stay with the choppers and just wasn’t suited for the role. As a result, nobody associates the A-7 with the name “Sandy” anymore. In more recent years the Sandy mission has been filled by the A-10 Thunderbolt II and even the F-16. The F-16 Sandy mission is comprised of a 4 ship flight with the first 2 aircraft finding and protecting the downed pilot while the second 2 aircraft meet the CSAR helicopters and escort them to and from the area. Though unofficial the name Sandy will always be closely associated with the Skyraider by the people to whom it matters most, the brave men who flew and crewed them and those lucky individuals who were saved by the Skyraider’s ability to fly slow, loiter long, take a huge amount of punishment, and still protect the downed airmen and the chopper crews coming to save them.

If no other ground structures were involved, I can see where a Spitfire overtaking this aircraft from the rear would account for the damage seen in this picture. For example if AB247 overtook R7161 from the port rear quarter, its starboard wing could ride up over the tail of R7161 and then push the radio mast forward as we see here. Also the propellor of AB247 would then be in position to impact the port wing of R7161 from behind.

I believe that Spitfire R7161 was coded QJ-J in April of 1941. By August of 1941 Spitfire W3312 was carrying the code QJ-J, so that possibly helps date the accident photo showing R7161 as being post August 1941, which Mark12’s post above indicates regarding the incident at Northolt with AB247 on 13 March 1942. If this picture is of the collision with AB247, there are other photos of the event in the book “315 Squadron” by Mushroom Model Publications, ISBN #8389450003.

Thanks for more great shots Jim, very nice. And since you started this thread back when many people didn’t even know what a GoPro was, the title is both informative and accurate, not a generic term as was incorrectly implied. Well done on all counts. Keep them coming.

I heard that the Skyraider was purchased by Jim Slattery from Danny Summers in 2011. I don’t know what it looks like today. Not sure what happened to the Avenger.

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=39147

Here’s some old info on the TBM:

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/avengerregistry/avenger-69325.html

I believe that all of the survivors were fire bombers or at least used as fire bomber spares before they were finally retired. The AZ. wing of the CAF is restoring theirs to static.

Leeward’s Grumman Guardian was still sitting in Florida when I was down there in December. An impressive beast. I still have some hope that it will fly again. For such a rare type at least there are a lot of really good pictures of the last few survivors in various states of disrepair and restoration. So that makes 3 on static display at museums, 1 with a current registration that was airworthy recently, and 1 that could be made either static or airworthy with the right budget. Any more I’ve missed?

Your first picture is of the headstamp of an unfired 20mm round shell casing. The letters “DA” are from the Canadian Dominion Arsenal at Quebec, and the following stamp is their symbol, a letter “C” that encloses an upward pointed arrow. The “43” indicates 1943 as the year of manufacture, and of course the 20mm indicates the caliber of the round.