Hello and hope you all had a good Christmas, received two books, Kent Airfields in the Second World War and Wings On My Sleeve by the remarkable Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown who is the only man alive to have flown every major (and most minor) combat aircraft of the Second World War as well as all the early jets, and he is occasionally seen on aviation/war programmes on the ‘Discovery’ channels. I believe he has long held the record for the highest number of landings on aircraft carriers, is an excellent read judging by what I have read so far, landing a Mosquito on a carrier deck for one example!

How about the Vulcan in Thunderball?

We know the Vulcan is a sturdy piece…but landing on the ocean at over 100mph (what is the landing speed of a Vulcan anyway?) with no damage…then lowering its landing gear once it’s in the water…

Speaking of which when Sean Connery, or his diving double goes down to the submerged Vulcan was a grounded fuselage sunk in a tank for this or was it a (very) large model? Not seen the film for a while, no doubt coming to an ITV region near you soon, he does get to the cockpit from the bomb bay having visited Newark’s XM594 didn’t think it was possible. Another movie mistake is that 747’s etc always have tunnels from the undercarriage bays to the passenger cabin!

One of the engines complete with nacelle and prop which had fallen off the wing was raised to the surface a year or so ago by the divers in the ‘Wreck Detectives’ programme, remember watching the diver looking at the engine still on the wing when they were trying to identify the mark and serial of the aircraft and spotting the de havilland ‘bracket’ propeller in the murk. At least only the aircraft was lost on this occasion. . .

Excellent pictures Martin, yes would be wonderful to see ‘Just Jane’ leaving the ground completely but the costs would be huge, insurance too has risen massively since 9/11 Sally B was nearly grounded due to this a few years ago until Sir Richard Branson came to the rescue I think. A gentleman in my village flew from E.K. with 630 Squadron and completed a tour in the rear turret just as the war ended. He is a member of a motorcycle club my father is in and gave us a talk about his experiences which was very well received by all. I hope he will get his story down on paper or tape for future generations to appreciate. . . .

Hi to you all, on page 43 of the book ‘Hurricane-A Fighter Legend’ is an excellent shot of the late Bill Bedford at 15ft and 250kts at the 1967 RAF Wattisham Battle of Britain Day in PZ865 ‘The Last Of The Many’ between rows of Shackletons and Lightnings! He had earlier walked down the ramp to check there was adequate clearance to perform the pass and later summed the display up as ‘Do as I say, don’t do as I do!’
On the same thread the original 1954 ‘Dambusters’ film had a couple of sequences that may qualify. On the way to the dams there are two 10 second clips of the three Lancasters on the starboard side where the camera ship (think it was a Varsity) seems very low, as the Lancs are slightly above it and the treetops etc. can be seen at the bottom of the picture. I remember when I first saw the film twenty odd years back it impressed me then and still does now.:cool: