The place you live in and the history of aviation (1 Viewer)

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live in East Kent - not far from Manston / formerly RAF Manston - home at one time to a frontline Typhoon squadron operated under a certain Mr Beaumont. Also home to the rather ill-fated Swordfish flights that attempted to disrupt the Channel Dash (erm...we don't talk about that.....).

Nice part of the country for an explore and Manston has its own aviation museum, of course, along with the Spitfire and Hurricane Museum...

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2307 RAF Manston History Museum Fi 103

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2307 Manston Spitfire and Hurricane Memorial 222 Sqn Battle Honours

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2307 Manston FAA Memorial

Just a wee point, it's Mr Beamont.
 
My town recently commemorated 100 years of aviation in the region. See this thread:

 
I'm from Marblehead, Mass. Not only the Birthplace of the American Navy but the home of WW!1s lesser known Burgess Flying Boats. The factory burned in 1918 so that was the end of that. The back room of Abott Hall ( Home of the Spirit of 76) has models of the hanging from the ceiling.
Burgess's daughter was author Tasha Tudor.
 
I live in Hunterdon County, NJ - which is in the northwest part of the state.
Most folks associate NJ with either the industrial/suburban eastern part of the state, or "The Shore".
NW NJ is often rugged glacial hills, beautiful farmland and horse farms. A hidden secret...

This aviation oddity is near me:

Eckel's Autogiro Port

No pita with this Gyro: Earle Eckel's hidden airport

La Posta Featured Article
 
I live on the perimeter of what was RAF Hibaldstow RAF Hibaldstow - Wikipedia

Two claims to fame not mentioned in Wiki (both admittedly trivial)

a) It was the only RAF fighter field with three runways as designed for bomber squadrons. Which probably explains why the Havoc Turbinlite was based there.

b) It had the only confirmed kill using the Turbinlite, where it led the Hurricane to the target and the target was shot down. Churchill was always in favour of unorthodox weapons, and was so delighted with the news, they decided not to tell him that the Havoc never tuned the light on. The Havoc used its radar to get within visual of the target, the Hurricane stayed within visual of the Havoc until it saw the He111 and then attacked.
Both the Havoc and the Hurricane were damaged in the attack
 
I am camping right now on the spot were Sterling BK657 crashed Accident Short Stirling Mk III BK657, 27 Apr 1943 a monument is put up recently. Although the rapport says everyting was salvaged there is still one engine in the ground. At 12 to 16 meters. Last week there was a crew pin pointing it with ground radar and they are going to dig it out. Still lots of small debry can be found. I have loaned a map with info from salvage team that dug up the Sterling. Has some letters from the war time officials in it and also pictures of the dig.
 
I live just outside Tucson, AZ. It has a great history with aviation. The local civil airport was inaugurated by Charles Lindbergh and we have Davis-Monthan Air Base where the "boneyard" is located. We also have the Pima Air Museum. There are a number of satellite airfields such as Ryan Field which was used for training in WW II. A number of other training fields around Tucson have fallen into disuse or are no longer in existence.
 
You guys get through the Hurricane Ian ok?
Yep, at my house, nothing more than a couple of big limbs down off the sweetgum tree in the front yard and the SE corner of the yard still with standing water. And it is 4X4 conditions preferred for the main road, with flooding in the usual places, but rather more extensive, as well as on some of the side roads. We got about 8 inches of rain. That sucker hit us dead nuts, coming right overhead, but fortunately the hurricane force winds were gone by then.

I hope our family's house in Columbia fares as well when Hurricane Ian comes through SC.

Time to go saw up some limbs!
 
The house in Minneapolis we lived in for 26 years was the site of a USNR F9F Panther crash in 1957.
A flight of Navy jets was doing flyovers of local cemeteries on Memorial Day. As they pulled off from a flyover of nearby Hillside Cemetery, one of the wingmen clipped the wing of the flight leader. Both planes went down. The wingman managed to eject. He landed safely, his plane crashed in a nearby ball field. The leader also ejected, but his chute did not deploy and he was killed. His plane crashed in the street, wiped out a parked car and sprayed burning jet fuel across three houses. There were no fatalities on the ground, though several people were injured. The house to the north of what would become my home was completely gutted, the next one also damaged. Our house was brick and stucco, so other than some smoke damage, and all the brick facing on the north side popping off from the neighboring house burning down, the most notable damage was from the 20mm cannon breaking loose, punching through the front door and leaving a 2" long divot in the living room floor. That mark is still there today, and when we had the floors redone prior to selling in 2019, I instructed the refinisher to preserve the spot, as it was a piece of local history.
 

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