A step into the Sabre

Having looked through ‘The Canadair Sabre’ by Larry Milberry (CANAV BOOKS)
the following information was obtained. Examining the aircraft mentioned is impossible! The US Army crashed it on landing at White Sands 22/5/79 where it was used as a Drone:eek:. But photos of a Sabre 3 at Edwards US Airforce experimental base where Canadair provided the pilot Jacqueline Cochran with an aircraft for the fastest womans speed record (670 mph was her fastest!) show Canadair provided a step. Was it a one off for this mission? In the book there is no other picture showing a step that I can see. Also ejection seat warnings are conspicuous by there absence.:confused:

Alaskan Twin Pins!

Been looking at the Alaskan Dept. of Transport site just lately and it has three pictures of Twin Pins, one with a new engine modification.[ATTACH]181746[/ATTACH]

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N9965 (The engine change photo) died on 31/8/1979. Here is the NTSB report care of the Aviation Safety Network. RIP:D[ATTACH]181800[/ATTACH]

Diamonds in the sky.

One series I would like to see again was ‘Diamonds in the sky’, if I remember rightly it was a BBC production. Colour so it wasn’t from the old days and went the whole gamut of aviation military and civilian from all over the world.
One part I liked was the USN Buckeye trainers doing at sea deck landing and takeoff practice.

When I served at RAF Syerston 63-67 some of the line crew lived in Married Quarters at Winthorpe Which is how I came to be a passenger in a sidecar after damaging my ankle when refuelling a JP and was taken to my home in Newark and the combi. carried on to Winthorpe.

FIGHTER PILOTS HEAVEN (flight testing the early jets) by Donald S. Lopez.
No one seems to have read this book printed in the US and distributed in GB by Airlife in 1995. The inside front cover gives the following details = Fighter Pilots Heaven presents the dramatic inside story of the American military’s transition into the jet age, as told by a flyer whose life depended on its success. With colourful anecdotes about fellow pilots as well as precise technical information, Donald S, Lopez describes how it was to ‘behind the stick’ as a test pilot from 1945 to 1950, when the U.S Military was shifting from war to peacetime operations and from propeller to jet aircraft.
An ace pilot who had served with Gen. Claire Chennault’s Flying Tiger Fighter Group, Lopez was assigned at the close of WW2 to the elite Proof Test Group of the Air Ground Command at Eglin Field (later Eglin Air Force Base) in Florida, the group determined the operational suitability of Air Force weapon systems and aircraft and tested the first operational jet, the P-80 Shooting Star.
Jet fighters required new techniques, tactics and weaponry. Lopez recounts historic test flights in the P-59,P-80, and P-84, among other planes, describing complex combat manoeuvers, hair raising landings in unusual positions, and disastrous crashes and near crashes revealing how airmen coped with both exhilarating successes and sometimes tragic failures. If you can find it buy it! Ray

Blue Moon Over Cuba

The above title is about ‘aerial reconnaissance during the Cuban Missile Crisis’ and the Blue Moon is its cover name. Written by Captain William B.Ecker USN (retired) & Kenneth V. Jack it gives the lowdown on how the lowlevel USN Crusader RF8A (Formerly F8U-1P) obtained the proof that the Russians were equipping the Cubans with Nuclear armed missiles plus bombers and fighters allowing President Kennedy to order a quarantine of Cuba. I bought the book late last year after having a book token for a birthday present and obtained it from a local bookseller. Captain Ecker was the commanding officer of US Navy Light Photographic Squadron 62 ( VFP-62, colloquially known as “Fightin’ Photo”) at the time of the crisis and participated in some of the missions the squadron undertook. All the usual rigmarole that takes place behind the scenes to ensure secrecy with the photos being delivered to Washington is fully covered, the book is entertaining and informative at the same time. Published by Osprey Publishing 2012.

The RAF had no trouble with its aircraft when everybody used Brylcreem. 😀