XN923Of course, none of those aircraft ever flew with the Fleet Air Arm – technically, they flew with the Air Branch of the Royal Navy. The name was changed after the Inskip Award (because it was no longer the Fleet Air Arm of the RAF) but the new name never stuck, and was scrapped in the fifties to become Naval Aviation, then finally FAA was reinstated in the 60s – what most people had been calling it all along.
So there!
(Well done Kennet by the way, what a wonderful addition to the circuit)
XN923I watched the two day event from my back garden and was impressed. There’s one question I have for the people that actually attended the show:
What were the pyrotechnics for that went off just before Sally B displayed?
There were some of these for Ferocious Frankie ‘strafing’ the airfield as well – very impressive. Deeply silly, but wonderful.
XN923Aha! Dramatic license!
I was listening in on the radio for what was “up next” and swear I heard one of the presenters saying how the Lancaster played a key role in the Battle of Britain. I hope I was wrong and it was the hayfever tablets making me hear things. He probably meant a key role in the BBMF.
I remember a bit where the commentator was saying that some people thought that the BBMF should become the ‘RAF Memorial Flight’ because the Lancaster didn’t play a role in the Battle of Britain…
XN923It was a good show. I got burned to a crisp, spent far more money than I should have on vacforms I will probably never build and mis-timed my leg-stretching moment to miss the start of the Harrier display and the start of the Red Bull aerobatic team. I had a fantastic day, made perfect by the unexpected arrival of the Sea Vixen. Top stuff.
This was only the second airshow I had been to since the late 80s and I can safely say the performance of those aerobatic aircraft has come on leaps and bounds. Unbelieveable stuff.
And the very moving tribute to Ray Hannah would have moistened the eyes of even the stoniest-hearted. Nice to see MH434 dropping below the trees at the end of the runway in true Ray H style. With the sound of that Merlin, the last post playing and the commentator sounding tearful… Well, it was something.
Hard to pick a highlight. I enjoyed it all.
XN923I don’t know, I think the early Griffon nose with the Fury tail makes for the prettiest of the breed. Then again, if you want pretty, look at a Spitfire. If you want sheer, burly, knock-your-head-off-soon-as-look-at-you aggression, you go for a Tempest.
The Griffon-nosed Fury has something of the Supermarine Spiteful about it to my eye.
XN923There were other versions that were less… well, ugly.
XN923Hi All;
I Know, title should read Sunday….but anyhoo…
Just had to ask who else saw that fantastic arrival by G-CVIX back at Southend Airport after it’s display on Sunday?
To say it took me by complete surprise was an understatement and was one of the best airshow moments I’ve had for a long time. I’m actually surprised it’s not raised a comment here so far.For those who weren’t there it went something like this…After doing his display over the seafront, I was keeping an eye out on the circuit for CVIX’s return but couldn’t spot the aircraft. So I got sidetracked by something else going on. Big mistake. I hear a very loud noise behind me and glance backwards just in time to see the sky filled with Sea Vixen bombing in from behind the crowd and car park at what appeared to be about 100 feet (open to correction there) right over the top of us at full pelt. Incredible noise and sight as the vixen pulls a turn to line up with the remainder of the runway and break to land. It was absolutely bl**dy marvelous. Even the commentator was lost for words and I don’t mind admitting that I jumped a bit. Totally unexpected!!
Question is, was that a bit of a naughty thing to do? I thought busting in from behind the crowd like that was a bit of a no no these days. Mind you it was damned impressive and I’d pay good money to see it again!!
Wow! Didn’t know CVIX was flying again this year. Anyone know if it’s booked anywhere else? (Unless that stunt has had it grounded for the next millenium 🙁 )
XN923Hi,
I´m looking for photos of the Fairey Battle´s cockpit and rear gunner station. Google didn´t turn up with any useful pictures … Are there significant differences between the early bomber versions and the target tugs?
Regards
…chris
There is a modellers datafile by SAM publications which should have all the photos you need for about fifteen quid. Should be available on Amazon.
I don’t think the target tugs differed too much in the rear cockpit area other than to have their armament deleted and towing equipment installed. The trainer versions were heavily modified however, with a separate rear cockpit.
XN923Might be easier to get a Griffon-powered Sea Fury replica into the air than a Sabre powered Tempest or Typhoon, and in that sense might be worth doing. The Griffon powered Fury is significant as (is often quoted, anyway) the fastest Hawker piston engined aircraft.
If you had a lot of time, a spare workshop and a few million quid burning a hole in the Caymen Islands it might be worth doing, but I can think of some worthier projects.
It always interests me in the context of the pace of development of aircraft in this period that the Griffon powered Fury prototypes were considered a ‘lightweight’ development of the Tempest. All things being relative of course, but you are still talking half as much again as the loaded weight of a Blackburn Skua which was considered a massive and overweight aircraft in its day (although the aircraft itself might have protested ‘I’m not overweight, just underpowered!’)
XN923Then what’s the point of this exercise? You don’t know that the UK isn’t getting exactly what it agreed to and I don’t know that LM isn’t trying to rape them blind so let’s just leave it at that.
I suspect the contract itself will be quite open-ended and high level (read vague) and the ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ that is to be signed providing the ToT issues get sorted to everyone’s satisfaction will hammer out a lot more of the detail. These things happen in stages – it’s not just a case of signing on the dotted line at the beginning of the project. The F35 is rather a different animal now to what it was four or five years ago, and the partners will have a better idea of the specifics they need from it.
After all, when the project began it had a choice of two powerplants for example… Though I don’t know, I strongly suggest that what was ‘agreed’ at the start of the project was not especially specific and was designed to be firmed up at various stages. It’s before each of those stages comes to be signed off that each party will jocky for position and try to get as much out of it as possible. Only it seems that both parties are further apart than they thought.
Just my opinion, but contracts are rarely simple things.
XN923JDK,good to hear about Tolga Ornek receiving an award from Australia.Turkey is pretty much a brother country now to us due to the effort and sincerity they have shown us Australians each ANZAC day at Gallipoli.Gotta remember they share the same sorrow as tens of thousands of them were lost defending their country against the efforts to grab a few fortresses along the coast.And for Maori courage you can,t go past Monte Casino… 😉 I will go and see Flyboys and make up my mind after I have seen it. 😎
Yes, never be in any doubt as to who the real enemies at Gallipoli were…
The Dardanelles campaign was, I believe, more than simply an attempt to grab a few fortresses… If the straits could have been forced, there was nothing standing between the Allies and Constantinople – which was almost ready to fall by itself. An army could have joined with the Russians on the Germans’ eastern flank, robbed them of a valuable ally, opened up the supply chain for Russia and ended the war two years early. Incidentally, the Turkish forces at Gallipoli were all but out of ammunition. Another few days and they might have had to retreat. But there were no doubt some appalling tactical errors mainly down to the standard of senior officers – several had been brought back from retirement because the experienced and battle hardened generals in France could not be spared.
Churchill’s ‘victory within a deliverance’ far better applies to Gallipoli than to Dunkirk: unlike the rest of the campaign, the evacuation was flawlessly run, and there were no further casualties. The allies had gone before the Turks knew they were pulling out.
Before I get too much further off-topic – I will look out for that film, sounds well worth watching.
XN923C’mon chaps, it’s not worth trashing Ryan because of using Mustangs at the end, more impressive than those camo Harvards in ‘Bridge too Far’.
I always felt that the film ‘Patton’ tends to knock the Brits anyway, I love the film, but there are some embarrasing moments, ie, with reference to Monty, quote, ‘We’re both Prima Donnas, but I’m the only one that knows it.’
Cf. A Bridge Too Far: ‘I wonder who will attack. Montgomery or Patton?’ ‘I would rather face Montgomery.’ ‘Yes, but even Eisenhower isn’t that stupid!’ ‘Ha ha!’
Flyboys may be rubbish, it may not, who knows, we can’t judge it till the film is available, lets leave it at that and report back when the DVD is out, sorry, I prefer lying on the settee watching my widescreen TV with surround sound than going to the local Braintree multiplex with it’s noisy, bellicose population.
I will hope for great things, but not too hard.
XN923[QUOTE=J Boyle]
No, Cliff Robertson played a Canadian or at least an American in the RCAF…I don’t think they ever really say which.
You missed my point, expecting Brits in a film about an American unit makes about as much sense as having a token American in “Reach for the Sky”….
(how about one as Bader’s long-lost American half-brother…) 😀
Your point is a fair one, in the extremely narrow terms in which you set it. I do not expect Brits in a film about an American unit, but I do expect recognition of the other nations that were involved in whichever particular part of the war. Things are rarely simple in wartime – to stick to the example of Saving Private Ryan, not showing the RAF providing air cover is more or less changing history. And did the film about Patton show Fighter Command Typhoons bailing him out of a tight spot when he’s overreached his supply lines?
I don’t want token Brits, I want fair representation!
XN923Another myth I’m afraid.
Over fifty British (and Commonwealth) General Officers were killed in action in The Great War, which is a much higher figure than WW2 and over twenty of that number were killed by small arms fire, which means they were damned sight closer than your one hundred miles.And Daz, I don’t need to write the book, it’s already been done.
Turn Yeates’ ‘Winged Victory’ into a film and you’d have a Great War story that’d blow the heads off most of the audience.
Andy
Sorry, I forgot my sarcasm tags – I’m broadly aware of this and was reflecting the traditional view of Lions led by Donkeys which as, in the case of most popular history, is tripe. Australia deserves its ‘birth of nation’ myth like everyone else – we have King Arthur, the Serbs have Vuk Drascovic and the Aussies have Gallipoli, partly based on the idea that the flower of their youth was slaughtered because of appallingly myopic strategy. Not entirely untrue but also not nearly representative of British command.
Yes, but I’m trying to make the point that if we hadn’t declined as a world power, we would be just as bad, possibly worse, and incidentally, we have’nt declined completely away.
..But we have declined, in large part voluntarily. If we had bloodily fought to keep hold of our Empire we might still make dreadful chest beating films, but we didn’t and we don’t. I like to think Britain has grown up a bit since then, though maybe I’m kidding myself.
XN923Daz
Stop knocking the Yanks, would’nt we do the same with films if given the same money and power, with traditional British arrogance, they would probably be unbearable.
A moot point. However, the prevailing mood in the British film industry seems to be often more about exploring Britain’s decline as a world power, and finding our new place in the scheme of things. I think it’s telling that ‘Land and Freedom’ was not about a bunch of lads from Liverpool who single-handedly win the Spanish Civil War. If we had more money things might be different.
I’ve not seen ‘Jarhead’ but that looks interesting – the trailer seems to show a ‘Blue on Blue’ and suggests that joining the Marines might not be the best career move.
Ah, British director though.
I feel like I’ve opened a can of worms. However, Dean Devlin’s back catalogue does seem to be filled with the worst kind of flag waving nonsense. Even ‘Godzilla’ replaced the Japanese original’s American A-bomb testing with French.
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