Aircraft General Discussion

No doubt, they know I want one and are just rubbing it in that I can't afford one!

Probably more to do with the fact that I'm north west of Duxford and in clear airspace. To the south you've got Stansted and to the north and east Cambridge city and Cambridge airport. I also happen to be right on the edge of Bourn airfield, which is handy if things go pear-shaped. And they do:

**LINK**

Andrew

Edited By Andrew Johnston on 19/09/2015 10:49:07

Clive, sorry to say the shell cases, if they came from a Mustang were .50, they were never fitted with cannon.

I well remember Mums flash back to war time. In 1958 we moved to a small town with a volunteer fire brigade, the signal in NZ is a rising and falling sound on a Klaxon siren, about two days after we arrived the siren went off in the wee small hours, Dad found mum under the bed, slowly waking up. She had been a WAAF radar operator. It shook her up for a few days, but was OK next time the siren went in the night.

Ian S C

Watched B of B service on telly this morning & saw the Flypast as little dots . This afternoon had a rather large hot air balloon drift over the house about 17.25hrs heading east towards Cambridge. About 2 minutes later the unmistakeable noise of Merlins & 2 vic formations, Hurricane`s in the lead with a Spitfire on each side flew over at about 1500 Ft. Magnificent sounds & sight. Certainly made my day !

Alan

I've been outside most of today and all I saw was a pale grey high winged radial powered aircraft heading towards Old Warden.

Martin P

I`m up the A1 a bit from you Martin in Huntingdon & I would say they were heading towards RAF Wyton from me.

Nothing flew over heading London way this morning so can`t say where the two vics came from but they must have landed somewhere after the London flypast as it wouldn`t take about 4 hours to fly up to here after the flypast. Certainly was a magnificent sight & sound almost as good as the last flypast a good few years ago by the Lancaster. Have a look at Huntingdon on Google earth the Lanc is flying just to the left of my house.

Alan

That'd probably be the hot air balloon I saw passing east of Cambridge at about 18:30. Fortunately I was at least 2000 feet higher than him, heading west and with a glider on the rope behind. We were on our way back from the airstrip alongside the race course at Newmarket. Nice strip, but the A14 is right on the northern end of it. Must have surprised a few motorists when we popped into view over the banking at a couple of hundred feet.

We also saw the 2 vic formation from Gransden Lodge. Too far away to tell exactly what they were, but definitely Merlin engines. Just before that we'd seen the Red Arrows to the south of us, bang on time and track as specified in the Notams this morning. The Red Arrows must have dropped into Cambridge on the way back from Duxford, as well as the way in. On the way back from Newmarket I was keeping a listening watch on Cambridge Approach and the controller was giving traffic details of a Hawk (Red10) about to take off and clear right.

Andrew

A Focke Wulf 190 flew over last week. A quite rare event in Australia until I discovered that a local enterprise bought one. This linky gives more background info **LINK** but it was interesting to view as I was quietly catching a few trout from Lake Hume. Albury airport is just up the road.

* Danny M *

Edited By Danny M2Z on 21/09/2015 08:32:56

Ian, according to MustangMustangs. some P51's were fitted with both 20mm Hispano and .303 guns and later 4 x 20mm.. The planes were sent over under Lend lease and the RAF received some 150 approx, Pearl harbour curtailed the sending of any more. The cases i picked up were definitely 20mm. Even at 7 years of age I was well versed in war munitions etc. We had a Boston crash about 400 yards away from us with a full bomb load on D-day morning at 0500 hrs. This also scattered shell case all over the place as it exploded. We found pieces of the aircraft some half mile away from the crash site. The crash was caused by 2 planes colliding, the other crashed in woodland about 10 miles to the West.. We lived in Doodle Bug alley as any that got past the fixed guns on the coast were then fair game for the aircraft. One Doodle Bug crashed on a hill and wiped out a REME workshop and to this day there is a cross on the hill.

Clive

The Mustang Mk-1A (these pre dated the P-51) of the RAF had 4 x 20 mm Hispanio Canon (93 aircraft). the reason the Americans used the .50 cal was that they didn't have anything else, so it became the standard weapon. A small number of photo reccy aircraft of the USAAF F-6A had 20 mm canon fitted.

Most of my information is of the American P-51, and the Australian built Mustangs. Due to some attempted under hand dealing, the Mustang almost never made it to production.

Ian S C

Edited By Ian S C on 21/09/2015 15:08:05

Today the pilot of an Air New Zealand A-320 climbing out to the north from Christchurch, over Kiapoi, reported a UAV/drone, at 6000ft, about 60 meters away.

Ian S C

Edited By V8Eng on 26/09/2015 16:39:42

Edited By V8Eng on 26/09/2015 16:52:40

I have just seen the Vulcan flying over the village, on it's way back to it's final destination, following it's alleged final display EVER at Church Fenton. A sad day for such a beautiful aircraft (even though it was built for the wrong reasons)

Anyone fancy one of these. Take a look at summersplaceauctions.com (no connection) item 75 I think.

Not that expensive and a nice restoration job for the winter. A bit faster than a traction engine and the boiler test might be a bit exciting.

I thought I heard on the BBC Radio2 news today something about XX558 will be having its last flight soon (although it will still be able to taxi) and then be used for training tomorrow's engineers.

Ed. ...recovering from a molar extraction.

Yes I think that's pretty much the situation, read about the final chances to see it flying, and its future here:-

**LINK**

Hope the jaws settle down quickly.

Edited By V8Eng on 29/09/2015 21:09:50

the reason the Americans used the .50 cal was that they didn't have anything else

I don't think they really needed anything else. Even in Vietnam they used it a lot.

A single gun on a half track could be used to chop down trees and a mustang had 6 of them

The 50 is one of the most famous and reliable guns ever made

The quad mounted unit was known as the Meat Chopper or Krautmower

Snipers firing from trees were engaged by the quad gunner at trunk level - the weapon would cut down and destroy the entire tree, and the sniper with it.

The M45 Quadmount was still in use during the Vietnam War.

Edited By Ady1 on 29/09/2015 21:37:16

Vulcan XH558 to make final public display flight on Sunday

The UK's last flying Vulcan is making its final public display flight on Sunday.

The XH558 bomber, which saw action during the Falklands War but was withdrawn in 1984, is to appear at Shuttleworth, Bedfordshire.

Edited By JasonB on 03/10/2015 13:01:53

Sadly I will miss the Vulcan, I'm local to Shuttleworth, because I'm displaying an engine at Twyford Waterworks tomorrow at the end of season rally, Twyford is worth a visit particularly to see the large triple expansion engine, currently the boiler, an original, is being referbished and overhauled.

This afternoon what I think was MH434 a Spitfire mk9, originally owned by Ray Hanna a Red Arrow leader in his day, flew low and slow over the house and then later a Chipmunk and a Tiger Moth in close formation flew around for ten minutes. The airliners have also been busy, what with Heathrow, Stansted, Luton and Birmingham all within fifty miles of me.

Martin P

I think the Vulcans final public display flight is to occur over next Weekend, 10 / 11 Oct.

There is a two day tour of Britain planned, see my link for the details, which have yet to be fully announced:-

**LINK**

I hope to see it somewhere near,  having missed all its other displays this year.

Edited By V8Eng on 03/10/2015 18:51:32