What is the attraction to the top gun music when it is used on videos that have nothing to do with the F14..?

They were mimicking Top Gun itself… all the music was from the movie, and many of the scenes were parodies of it, with even very similar dialogue… very disturbing though, I must admit!

Cheers,
Richard

Thanks for your posts on this issue, and sorry to raise an old thread from the dead…

Davis, I’m interested in talking with you further about Imperial Airways and their Short Kent flying boat service from Anthens to Alexandria via Mirabella Bay on Crete. I tried to send a private message, but that feature doesn’t seem to work, sadly. My own grandfather flew on the Imperial Airways service from Croydon to Moshi, Tanganyika. I’ve been able to determine it was in October, 1936, leaving Croydon on the 13th (aboard HP.42 Heracles) for Paris, then taking the train to Brindisi, where he would have presumably boarded Short Kent ‘Satyrus’, which then flew to Athens, and from there to Alexandria via Mirabella. From there he flew aboard the HP.42 Hengist to Entebbe (via a number of stops), where he then picked up an Armstrong Whitworth AW.15 named Astraea. 

Based upon what I’ve read, they didn’t typically overnight in Mirabella by 1936, although I may be wrong. I have found a number of contemporary newspaper articles about the Scipio’s accident, including one describing an incident in the same plane at Mirabella in 1931 which had a less traumatic conclusion (obviously). Interestingly, the Greek civil war in 1935 caused all sorts of mayhem for Imperial Airways and their operations on Crete, as that’s where the rebel faction chose to hole up!

Oh, and the clock you referred to as having been salvaged from Scipio was likely one removed from the bulkhead in the passenger cabin… They had a large on there for passengers, along with other instruments, such as an altimeter and ASI. There’s a wonderful photograph of the bulkhead in the collection of the U.S. Library of Congress. I’ve included it here for you. In any event, I’d love to chat! 

Cheers,
              Richard Mallory Allnutt

KD431 Folks:

Good day!

A sample of the FAA Royal Navy ID cockpit plate. They were a bit diff than the US F4U Corsairs. In this case sample F4U-1 “JT289” is shown. It was flown by the late Lt. John D. Wallace c. 12/1943. Photo AEC via D. King. KD431 had one installed of the L/hand side above the console wall. For now..it remains missing!! Photo via AEC.

Interesting that you have a photo of my Corsair plate here… Vintage Wings of Canada used this to illustrate a story on the late Hugh Pawson, a Canadian Corsair pilot with the Royal Navy. What is AEC by the way?

Cheers,
Richard

Several aircraft have been heavily damaged in transit on the road… The Dakota in Europe a couple of years ago (Holland?) and the Arado Ar-196 now at Pensacola come to mind. Both received terrible damage when the vehicles they were being transported on went down routes which were too small for their cargo to negotiate.

Have a lovely photo of the 3 capital air survey beeches together for the first time in 30 years! 😀

Since you’re already on the website, why not look up the editor’s contact information. It’s on one of the tabs for the magazine. That would be the way to do it.

All the best,
Richard

Try an Epson Perfection V600 Photo flatbed. It’s not expensive (under US$250), and has transparency and negative adaptors. It also has digital ICE for dust removal, and a color correction feature for bringing back faded colors. I have had one for a few months now, and like it quite a bit. There probably isn’t anything significantly better for less than three times that price.

Cheers,
Richard

PS. If you’re looking for color accuracy, I strongly recommend getting a monitor calibration kit like a Spyder, or ColorMunki as well.

I have also been considering a drawing set (not P-38) from the NASM, but I’m a bit weary of committing to them sight unseen.

Was that price for all available P-38 drawings or just for a particular model?

How legible are the drawings? The quality of the original paper to microfilm transfer in the US seems to have been a mixed bag going by an F6F drawing set that I have seen (maybe 50% readable at best)

http://airandspace.si.edu/research/arch/collections/techdraw/mfilm.cfm

You are correct that some of the drawings were poorly copied, at least this was true on the F4U set. However, the bulk of the drawings should be useable, and there are often duplicate drawings from which you can glean the missing information (from the illegible drawings). It only cost $700 for the complete set of F4U drawings (-1 thru -4) a decade ago, so I imagine that $3500 would cover the whole set of P-38 drawings, rather than a small subset.

However, the archives division at NASM has really only just got back on their feet again after the hiatus of the move from Silver Hill, so I imagine there will still be a substantial backlog of work to catch up with even now. This is just a guess of course, but you should take it into consideration if you are ordering drawings from NASM. They will do their best to help you though, as they really are a terrific group of dedicated people.

Cheers,
Richard

There’s nothing ridiculous about those prices if they are indeed unique and original transparencies. If the right person sees them, then they will be snapped up quickly. It’s truly sad that they are being split up though. Things like this should be kept together, and properly preserved.

Richard