Booomb..

There are plenty of hangars at Duxford, – I’m sure no one would mind a bit.:)

!!!!

Blimey, these must be the guys behind 9/11….. Really, who thinks this stuff up… that said……. if the Chinese don’t want to step in to bail the E.U. out, Germany is going to own most of Europes ass again anyway…:confused: …And not a single airship to defend us…:eek:

Call Me Mier.

It’s a good job there was no CGI in the 1960’s, as most of those airframes might have rotted away….! Seriously though, whilst CGI has come on a lot, and it’s great for saving material from unnecessary destruction, it never really looks right. Pearl Harbor, Flyboys, The Red Baron etc. Yak. Mind you, Tintin looks a gas…:)

Underwhelmed.

I watched this too. The aviation side was OK. On the more ‘political’ side, in terms of new evidence, the program seemed to have very little to say.

Noooo….

….’69 seemed so very modern….but it was ‘only’ twenty-odd years after the event. Many of the participants were still around. I was at the premier. Watching the film now….it has, despite it’s obvious faults, a remarkably authentic feel. It could only be a British film. For a start, there are the voices. The buildings…even the ones that were destroyed for it. Then there is the inevitable CGI that would be inflicted upon the story….which can be either angel or demon. There are many other films that could tell cinematically untold stories. Look at the Jericho story for one example. Do we really need a retread of the BoB and the Dambusters..? Personally, I think not. How unimaginative. Look at the exploits of the Mossies in all those precision low-level attacks. The alternatives are endless. OK, I’m just an old curmudgeon….:p

Mental Sludge….’Moonflight’ anyone..?

Reading through this thread has really stirred-up some almost forgotten mental sludge. Whirlybirds….I can still recognise the sound of a Bell 47G without seeing it.. I can still remember being astonished at the utility of chewing-gum to stop-up a bullet-hole in the fuel tank…! That Gary Halliday series….what was it called really…? There was another about that time called ‘Moonflight’, which was all about secret Lysander ops’ into occupied Europe. Lots of flickering flarepaths et al. Has that one survived I wonder..???? I do recall that our tiny B&W TV meant that much of the action was rather difficult to make out…!
‘The Plane Makers/ The Power Game’…..Patric Wydmark (?) I think. It was a bit naff, but they built a huge mock-up of the ‘prototype’ whatever-it-was…and it used to appear at a few airshows, as I remember seeing it in the flesh being towed around.
I never liked ‘Piece of Cake’. It was worth watching for the a/c and the flying, but like ‘Bomber’, it portrayed a rather wonky idea of widely dysfunctional aircrew. The recent ‘First Light’ was in another league.
It’ll probably be better if I don’t re-watch that really old stuff, I might have my golden memories shattered by wobbly cardboard sets etc…
If only it was commercially viable to make books by actual participants such as V.M.Yeats ‘Winged Victory’ into a film or series….

Not new…

This was done with a huge Danarm-powered model 1:3 Spit back in the 1970’s. Jim Davis Models of Erdington, Birmingham built a bunch of huge models. Three Spit’s, a ‘109 and a Lanc’. The pilot was Dave Wright, I remember he flew it from a Jet Ranger, performing the Take-off & landing on the deck. I’m guessing this was 1975. Many fewer rules and formalities in those days of course….which is just as well as they’d have ignored them all anyway. I’ve just discovered that Jim passed away last month.

An Old Chestnut.

There are some very well rehearsed arguments on the question of whether or not to fly old aircraft. Certainly, if a machine is very original and unique, there must be a strong argument to keep it original and on the deck. On the other side of the coin, a MkIX Spit ‘dataplate special’ will give a lot of people huge amounts of pleasure and help to keep the legend alive, so it’s a no-brainer.
A/c like the Comet present a more complex case. Black Magic will be an excellent replica, as only, as far as I’m aware, the pilots seat (..and the Reg’.) is original. That is not, for any smart-alecs, in ANY way to denigrate it, but obviously, it’s whole raison-detre of that machine is 100% for flight. Likewise, whilst in no way denigrating ‘SS, it’s was in such poor repair and stripped-out when O.W. acquired it, rebuilding it to airworthy status meant a very large part of the a/c was new or replacement material or parts.
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I know that there are some very switched-on folk in these forums who are fully aware of the ongoing effect of restoring and maintaining a/c in an airworthy status. Some enthusiast might not be aware of this however. Thus, the ‘to fly or not to fly’ issue primarily applies early on, because sure as hell, as time goes by an inevitable transmutation will occur. I’d suggest ‘SS is well past that point. It’s worth recalling, she’d been crashed, rebuilt, re-engined and re-propped before the war, had sat-out rotting under tarps for the duration, and was basically just a shell when tarted-up for the FoB after the war. (I hope the experts on ‘SS will forgive me if I’ve only quoted a couple of details from distant memory.) The restoration to flight was a herculean task with a clear purpose; Flight.
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Is there a risk? Sure, but TSC have a wonderful record and reputation for operating such a/c with great professional rigour and safety. In the case of ‘SS, flying her makes sense. Where she operates from is really just an operational detail.
.When I saw her fly after her restoration, I was very moved, as it was a sight that I never though realistically possible. Now that Hatfield has succumbed to the bulldozers, the remaining a/c are the most visible memorials to the magic of D.H. ‘SS must’ surely take pride of place as a reminder of those heady days.