Actually, the incident with the 262 was gear related. The starboard main gear collapsed due to a manufacturing-related problem, and the aircraft slewed off the runway. Makes you wonder though, with both of these accidents, as to the difficulty of making brand new landing gear. Hope they solve this thing quickly, and publicly, otherwise it’s going to be hard to move these babies… beautiful as they are.

Richard

A version of the skyhook was going to be used on a helicopter to recover that NASA probe last year, as it parachuted back from space…. trouble was that the parachute didn’t open.

SPLAT! 😮

Richard

Nice photos, thanks for posting. Incidentally, what is the Hawker biplane fuselage image? Is this an original under restoration, or a replica/mock-up? Very curious.

Cheers,
Richard

While the war is a comlplete and utter travesty, it must be said that those furies that have not been recovered already, are by now more than likely scrapped. The looting which took place at many of the former military bases was so complete that in many cases all that remained of the buildings were the concrete foundations. Not a brick was left un-taken. Sad to say that all this talk of “those were the Iraqi’s furies, and they should have been left where they were” is pretty much irrelevant now… they are either in allied hands or shredded.

Such is the way of things.

Richard

Doesn’t a substantial amount of remains for the forward fuselages of a couple of these guys still exist somewhere? I’m sure I have read that on these pages before. Does anyone have photographs of these remains, or at least a detailed description of what they are?

Cheers,
R.

On occasion I have seen kids, and even adults, waggle control surfaces vigorously at airshows. They don’t like being told not to do it either!

Also, there was a nutter who torched the San Diego Aerospace Museum back in the early seventies. Many really rare aircraft were lost, including a Ryan Fireball. I think he was a peace activist. I have nothing against people working for peace, but the oximoron of committing violence in the name of peace seems lost on some people!

Cheers,
Richard

First of I must say I am so sorry to hear of Frank Carey’s passing. He was a real character by all accounts, and a very brave and courageous warrior.

That being said, in my opinion the photograph is a totally faked composite of plane and pilot.

As just one example of the inaccuracy of scale between the pilot and the aircraft you just have to use the propeller. It should be 11’1″ in diameter on a typical four bladed prop. Which means that each blade is roughly 4’6″ long, given a spinner roughly 2′ in diameter. This would make Carey barely 5′ tall! Could he have passed the RAF pilot height requirements of the day at 5′ tall? Also, I’ve looked at modern day photos of people standing next to spitfires, and the tops of their heads usually come up to the base of the spinner.

The shadows caste by Carey’s legs, as already pointed out, are totally inconsistent with those of the spitfire (they are very sharp, and long, whereas the spitfire’s are short, and fuzzy). They are also broken by the grass blades which makes no sense either.

Also, look at his right knee… it’s been fiddled with. It looks like his leg has been amputated, and another leg glued on.

His right arm seems clearly painted in after the elbow…. there is no definition, and it is angled awkwardly.

The “go faster” stripe is also inconsistent too. It does not conform to the shape of the aircraft (as has already been pointed out) and the texture does not match that of the rest of the aircraft. There’s also no dirt on it, when the rest of the aircraft is heavily soiled and worn. Why go to the trouble of painting it in without cleaning the rest of the aircraft? The perspective is wrong on the stripe too, and doesn’t line up properly with the isometrics of the aircraft.

I wonder when this re-touching was done? My guess is that it is a wartime kluge. They were looking for a good promo photo to celebrate a worthy pilot, and didn’t have an appropriate photo with him and a spit… so the combined a couple of images, and painted in the extra markings to make it look special, and perhaps confuse the enemy with the odd styles.

What do the rest of you think?

Cheers,
Richard