As the year draws to a close it is time for a look back at a number of individual moments from airshows across the season that I feel deserve a more detailed report than the original event reviews allowed. This gives the chance to share more photographs from specific displays and expand on the significance … Continue reading Airshow Moments 2018 1 – Anniversary Avros – Anson & Lancaster at Old Warden
The Percival Provost (commonly known as “Piston Provost” thanks to its well known jet powered development) first flew in February 1950 and was designed as a training aircraft for the Royal Air Force. The Provost featured all metal construction and a tailwheel configuration. A notable change from the iconic trainers of the interwar and war … Continue reading In Profile: The Percival Piston Provost
Continuing on from the previous post based around the P-47 operations manual and how a new pilot would have been expected to approach that type. This post adds to the Curtiss series of this site with an insight into how a new pilot would approach the P-40. It should be noted that though this post … Continue reading Learning the Legends – Flying the Curtiss P-40 “By the Book” – WW2 Pilots Notes Review
A long time fixture on my wish-list, I finally got the chance to take a tour of the reserve collection at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton. The museum has too many large artefacts (aircraft) to display on a regular basis and while they rotate aircraft through on a more regular basis than other … Continue reading Fleet Air Arm Museum Reserve Collection – Cobham Hall
The de Havilland Canada Chipmunk is well loved by pilots and considered to be one of the finest flying machines every built. The original Chipmunk design is now over 70 years old, with the type first taking to the skies in May 1946. https://www.flickr.com/photos/127965535@N04/45944034981/in/dateposted/ The Chipmunk was designed, developed and initially manufactured in Canada with … Continue reading Aircraft Profile: de Havilland Canada Chipmunk
2018 (or early 2019) looks set to see the third airworthy Mosquito to emerge from the incredible talented team at AvSpecs in New Zealand. It's hard to even conceive that six or seven years ago we had been without that iconic shape and sound in the sky for over a decade. With KA114 now being … Continue reading Mosquito Revival
This time 73 years ago saw an historic feat take place on Royal Navy carrier HMS Ocean. Ocean, which was originally completed in November 1945, clearly missed out on any wartime service. However, it did have the honour of being the last carrier to operate the Fairey Swordfish before retirement. It also saw the early … Continue reading First Jet Carrier Landing Anniversary – December 1945
The P-36 design showed great potential in its early testing, but it quickly became apparent that the airframe was limited by the radial engine up front. The basic Hawk airframe was always designed with speed as a target, with the wing design having great development potential. This potential was tapped as part of the testing … Continue reading The Curtiss Story Part 9 – Birth of the Underdog: the “Long Nose” P-40s
After a low-key event in 2017, 2018 saw Headcorn return as a contender on the display circuit with a busy flying programme across the weekend of 30th June and 1st July. https://www.flickr.com/photos/127965535@N04/32327960818/in/photostream/ Unsurprisingly, given the hosts of the event, the flying was largely made up of Aero Legends' machines. The company now boasts an ever … Continue reading Headcorn Battle of Britain Airshow 2018
The Avro Anson first took to the skies in March 1935, following a new specification issued by the Air Ministry for a maritime reconnaissance aircraft. Avro were already working on an airliner design project which fitted the requirements well. The Anson (or Avro652a as it was then known) successfully outperformed the DH89 in trials and … Continue reading In Profile: Avro Anson/Avro XIX
