Can someone remind me of the number of vintage aircraft accidents we have had in this country, at airshows, in the last ten years? Also, how many of these tragic losses were caused by aircrew error and how many due to technical failure?

Perhaps after looking at these figures we may understand why the press are so quick to react to any accident to ‘old’ aeroplanes. This situation will not change no matter how many of us complain about it.

The only way to avoid bad press such as this latest offering, is for something to be done to reduce the number of accidents.

Now before you all bite my head off, I love to see warbirds being flown hard. The late, great maestro Ray Hanna was certainly spectacular to watch but any experienced pilot could see he was nowhere near his own limit or the aircrafts’. Look at Alistair Kay displaying the OFMC Mustang hard but smoothly and you can still see the Hanna influence. Unfortunately, I have seen so many vintage aircraft being flown spectacularly but with the feeling that either the aircraft limit or the pilot’s limit was being pushed too close to the edge. I remember watching a certain american fighter at Biggin and getting that horrible feeling of tragedy two whole minutes before the crash occured. I had seen the Mossie display four times that particular year and each time thinking that it was getting a bit too punchy.

I am not trying to be clever but there must be a sensible way to improve safety from within the vintage aircraft movement before the Press fueled CAA force it upon us.
I would like my son to still be able to see these wonderful aircraft flying when he’s my age.

Now where’s my tin hat?

Not just the Yanks. I know that the Tonkers destroyed at least three. I,ve seen the pave films!

Interesting.

I wonder if Tony Blair would like to take up acting when he (allegedly) steps down soon.

Sounds like he would be ideal to play Gibson.

Airfix produced a TSR2 so what did you expect.

The government must be behind this!

The PT Flight aircraft are mostly still at Cosford in a Lamella hangar on the SW side of the airfield. I had a look in there a couple of weeks ago and was distressed to see the condition of some of them. The Vultee Valiant in particular sat there on flat tyres covered in Guano. No sign of any engine or airframe inhibition was evident. No sign of the Cornell or one of the PT22s either. I am flying at Cosford next Saturday so I will try and get some pics if the hangar is still open.

From my references I found that the JU87 could carry a 1400kg AP bomb on its centreline station. These were used to bomb Belgian forts just a few weeks previous. Surely these weapons would’ve done a battlewagon a bit of no good? Indeed these same bombs almost sank Illustrious a few months later.

Jonathan

Thanks for putting me straight.

Handbag’s back in the cupboard.

Still think these historians have got it wrong though. If the navy were so confident about operating in the Channel, why couldn’t they protect the convoys off the south coast that had to be re-directed to the Western ports? If the Luftwaffe had no AP bombs or torpedo bombers then the big ships sitting at Scapa had nothing to fear.

Just remembered – didn’t Germany have a few U Boats knocking about?

If you have read Geoff Wellum’s book ‘First Light’, it seems that James Nicholson, after baling out of burning Hurricane, was shot and badly injured in the legs and buttocks by a British Soldier just before landing.
As if he didn’t have enough to cope with!