Aviation Videos.

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.

Somewhere, I may still have a 'Restricted' document, that I once got arrested at bayonet-point for possessing*. It included some crash reports**. One involved some Jordanian Hunter pilots being trained to attack gun sites in Wales. The "attacks" were being filmed by two chaps in a pretend sandbagged enclosure just below a hilltop. They were also in radio communication with the "attacking" Hunters - the general technique was to fly directly at the gun site, so that your fire would '"suppress" the fire from the lads in the gun site. Most of the initial "attacks" broke off far too early. People were repeatedly advised to press home the attack until the last possible moment, to maintain the fire-suppression. The final pilot decided that he was going to be the best - but this ended up with him taking the top two rows of sandbags off, removing the cine camera and burying the two chaps, who had elected to lie down on the floor by this stage, under a deluge of sand.

One of the statements to the board of enquiry was along the lines of "By this stage, I had ceased to directly observe the situation, as I was lying face-down in the bottom of the gun pit".


* There were other potential offences at the time, but I was never actually charged.

** RAF crash reports of the 60s and 70s could be quite 'entertaining'.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
A Pembroke - not sure if I ever saw one fly, though there was a crashed one near our house, almost complete and not heavily damaged - great fun (though it's possible it was a Twin Pioneer - Google shows that it, and all our other "play wrecks", are gone now).

 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
I'm presuming that wailing sound of the Boomerang was the rotary engine. It reminds me a bit of the sirens mounted on the undercart of the Stuka (Ju87) designed to instil terror and panic on a bombing dive.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Another use for a radial engine. Not sure how practical this is ... but it is impressive. (And kicking it up would be fun ... :eek: )

BikeRadialEngine.jpg
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Ground clearance looks a bit questionable too. Possibly built as a project ? ... (but I think we need people who do things like that.) :P
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Great to see a mention of an unsung heroine of aviation Beatrice Shilling who developed an easily fitted fix for the Merlin cut-out carburettor problem. She was known to turn up at fighter stations on her Norton motorcycle to fit the device so that the aircraft didn't even go out of service. Her little fix was very popular with pilots until the new pressure carburettor was developed a couple of years later.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-40267364
 
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