I would not expect anything to be published from the talk, but I do know Greg has published a book “The Rise of the Bomber” (which was the title of the talk). So apologies as I’m condensing from memory an hour’s talk which is condensed from a 300 page book. The subtitle could be”..and its effect on fighter design”.

The basic premise was that between the wars, a major belief of the Air Ministry was that the bomber was the future of warfare. It would, when operated by the RAF, cause devastation from above. To defend ourselves from those poised against us,we needed to stop the hoards of enemy bombers. As they were thought to be slow, there wasn’t perceived by those in high places to be a pressing need for air superiority fighters, but instead for heavy fighters, a bit faster than the bombers, which could fly alongside and destroy them with powerful canons. This led to the spec above (and others), ideas to use bombers as defensive gun platforms, ideas to develop other heavy twin engined fighters (which eventually appeared as the Beaufighter and, a lot lighter, the Whirlwind, and as a single engined bomber destroyer, the Defiant. Day and night weren’t treated separately.

Definitely interesting stuff, he’s a very engaging speaker. I emphasise that I’m just reporting what he said and I’m not qualified to pursue any arguments. I know he’s done the talk elsewhere, so will doubtless repeat it. I would recommend it, whether or not you agree with him.

Have an original copy of the Military Herald brochure at home… will dig it out later…

Altitude boost pods? Was it proposed with extra jet engines then?

(Sorry it’s a bit off subject)

By a remarkable co-incidence, I saw that image on Friday too and was a bit stumped. The person who showed it me says it is from a talk on bombers (though it might not be a bomber) which aviation historian Greg Baughen is giving this Thursday (7.00, 17.11.16) to Royal Aeronatical Society Birmingham Wolverhampton & Cosford at the RAF Museum (Cold War Hangar) Cosford. I understand visitors can attend. I’m looking forward to finding out and will post then if the answer is still outstanding.

Cosford have a test specimen by the side of their Comet1 which shows an example of the decompresson. Worth looking at for this sort of discussion.

Around 25 years ago as memory serves I stopped off on a trip to Northern Ireland at the museum and saw a Spitfire fuselage in an upstairs room under restoration – would this be the same one? I recall that there was of necessity a fair few new panels on it? I also remember the people as being very hospitable.

He was not mentioned on todays “Last Word” on Radio 4 at 16:00……….

They don’t always do the deaths of the last 7 days (one of today’s died early Jan), so I suspect he will be on in the next week or so.

Around 10.30 Saturday 26 Sep over Mallory Park Race circuit in Leicestershire a big piston job and a twin boom jet heading North. Ideas anybody? I’m sorry to be vague but a full face helmet, a Hans device and a 6 point harness are a right nuisance when you’re trying to work out where the interesting noise is coming from.