True, I was very disappointed. I picked up "Spitfire - Portrait of a Legend" by Leo McKinstry at the same time - The exact opposite, full of original research and insight.
Yes indeed, it was used by Sidney Cotton (see link above). - The cameras were hidden inside the aircraft and could be operated remotely. But he operated it on cleared flights into Germany. There was always the threat that some nosy German customs official would discover them. - I'm talking about...
Anyone who hasn't seen a DH88 close-up often does not appreciate just how small it was. It's really cramped and those wings are very thin. Here is the Shuttleworth comet with a Hurricane and Spitfire.
Of course - compared with some aircraft the DH88 appears quite large... Here's Alex...
Cheers! Interesting idea! - With the "cover story" of an air charter/ flying school, a DH Dragon Rapide or two on the books and a few Tiger Moths or Blackburn B2s you'd have a lot of scope for sub-plots involving all kinds of figures from the 1930s. Who might book a flight or hire a plane from...
Thats exactly it - See this article Propeller synchronization - Wikipedia
German aircraft bombing Britain also used to unsynch their engines - It was though to make it harder for sound-locators to zero in on them. -Acoustic location - Wikipedia
The British had a slightly different approach to...
Great idea for a thread- any excuse to post a photo of the most beautiful aircraft in the world (IMHO) :)
Gotta admit I'm getting withdrawal symptoms from not getting my annual "fix" of seeing the Comet in flight at Shuttleworth.
However, I'll now put on my "contrarian" hat for a while and...
The South African Air Force did use a small number of Battles quite successfully against the Italians in East Africa (with No 11 squadron). The outstanding success of the Wellesleys in the East African campaign shows what could be done if older "obsolete" designs are redeployed to theatres where...
I don't think any of the US-supplied twins could be described as "rubbish" - they were all good flying machines. Britain was lucky to get them. Even such types as the B-18 Bolo used as the "Digby" by the Canadian air force put in sterling work. - If there was one type I think the RAF rather...
I've looked up Miles' proposal for fighters based on the Miles Master in Peter Amos's mighty tomes on the history of the company. It's a convoluted story, not helped by Miles' fractious relationship with the Air Ministry and the Ministry of Aircraft production. There are at least 3 attempts to...
WOW! There are some incredible pictures in that album! -Hurricanes, Whirlwind, crashed Skua etc etc. I see bidding is already high, and rightly so. Sumburgh is on the Shetland islands, way up north of Scotland. Would not have fancied living in those bell-tents in that climate! Interesting that a...
Totally agree about the racers being not stressed for military work - You are going to repeat the errors of the French producing the C714 Cyclone developed from a racer. However, isn't one of the benefits of wooden construction the speed with which you can introduce changes? Miles knocked up an...