Aviation images

In Reach of The Skies: Aviation related stories from a life long enthusiast

Wednesday, 17 May 2023

80 years on

The night of 16/17 May 1943 was the night of the famous Dambuster raid during which a low level mission by Avro Lancaster bombers of the RAF destroyed the Mohne and Eder dams in the Ruhr valley. None of the original aircraft have survived and the last crew member George 'Johnny' Johnson passed away six months ago. However, the memories of the bravery of the mission and the lives lost live on and so, to mark the 80th anniversary, here are a few Lancaster related images from my travels.

Sunday, 14 May 2023

V Bombers

The 'V bombers' were nuclear armed jet bombers of the 1950s and 60s. The three were Avro Vulcan, Handley Page Victor and Vickers Valaint. The latter proved to be the least successful following the discovery of fatigue issues with the wing spars. The government of the day decided that the expense of carrying out repairs could not be justified and Valiants were withdrawn from service in 1965 whilst the Vulcan carried on until 1984 and the Victor, in tanker form, until 1993. The Vulcan has survived in the greatest numbers with 19 airframes extant. With the recent scrapping of the RAF Marham gate guard only 4 Victors remain but the Valiant only has one complete survivor and this can be found at Cosford. Also at Cosford are a Victor and Vulcan so all three airframes can be seen at just one location. There are also a handful of Valiant nose sections in existence one of which has recently been acquired by the IWM at Duxford. Since Duxford also has a complete Victor and Vulcan on display this is the only other place where it is possible to get a flavour of the three aircraft in one location. The Valiant is a bit weather beaten and will be restored in due course.

Saturday, 13 May 2023

De Havilland Mosquito B.XVI

Not the real thing of course but an Airfix 1/72 scale kit. Just completed and a world away in quality to the Airfix kits I made as a youngster. The parts fit and the detail are now pretty impressive.

Monday, 8 May 2023

Duxford VE Flying Day - part 2

As mentioned in part 1 the flying display was tenuous in its connection to VE Day other than it was almost the anniversary. I certainly don't think the Turbulent Display Team can associate themselves with it not the Super Decathlon but for an early season event which was free to us as museum members it was fairly entertaining and there were some genuine warbirds in the air too.

Sunday, 7 May 2023

Duxford VE Day Flying Day

Although I was last at Duxford a couple of months ago not a lot was happening and as today was effectively the start of the flying season it was a good excuse for a return visit. The event was a VE Day Flying Display although much of the content had little to do with VE Day as such but it was good to see some flying action and the weather co-operated as well which made it a pleasant day out.

I'll start with some hangar images from the resident flying and non-flying aircraft. Not too much to report here. The Avenger has gone since my March visit but nothing new is in its place as yet. The Conservation Hangar was actually open this time and the current major project is the Shackleton. The hangar as been rearranged so you can walk around the whole aircraft. The Salamander and Pucara are also being worked on and the Valiant and Victor nose sections acquired fairly recently are also in this hangar.