sweasel.com

It’s a great picture. I can’t imagine how that Lancaster must have sounded. Is that a hammer on the tail of the Hurricane?

I have only seen a flying Spitfire once, at the Long’s Peak Highland Games. There was a flyover by a DeHaviland Venom and a Spitfire at the opening ceremonies. This Games was just before we went in to Iraq. The Scots Guards Pipes and Drums were the Guest of Honor band, and I spent more than a little time talking with them. I remember one piper insisting, in a barely understandable accent, very strongly that if we went in they they would be alongside us, AS ALWAYS. And that was not a complaint, that was a declaration of pride and loyalty to an ally.

In July, my son and his wife took me to the Wings of Victory fly in at Colorado Springs airport, and I spent several hours crawling through a B-17, a B-24, and a B-25. Could not afford the price of a flight on one of them. But I would love to get a close up view of those Brit planes.

Funnily enough there was a B-25 at this event on Saturday, Subotai Bahadur – and I’d never set eyes on one before. Sadly, it didn’t fly. It just sat there looking very impressive.

There was also one of my favourite planes ever – the exquisite US designed Catalina flying boat.

For a creature that sleeps underground, this badger certainly loves flying machines.

Lancasters are quite noisy—that’s four 1600hp Merlin engines you’re looking at. I imagine if 600 of them were flying over you dropping 12,000lb light-case blast bombs and strings of incendiaries they’d have been even more impressive. Blowing up individual Jihadis with bombs that cost more than a Porsche 911 is all very well, but there’s something to be said for trundling wave after wave of aircraft overhead and making the rubble bounce.

There’s a B-17 in Oshkosh, it frequently flies over my house during the EEA convention and airshow in July. Very cool. Sounds like a whole thunder of Harley-Davidsons coming down the road. You can get a ride for something like $500. One of these days ……….

The Lancaster went into service in February 1942, which was long after the Battle of Britain. Still, I can see why they’d keep one. I saw an AVRO Shackleton once (a postwar long-range patrol variant of the Lancaster).

Uncle Badger: “the exquisite US designed Catalina flying boat”???

Of all the adjectives ever applied to the Catalina, I never expected “exquisite”. “Peculiar”, “distinctive”, “unusual”, even “grotesque”, but not “exquisite”.

Nothing like the sound of Merlins and Griffons flying fast overhead. Most of the fastest Unlimited planes at the National Championship Air Races in Reno run souped-up Merlins. The sound as they scream by at near 500MPH makes the hair on your neck stand up.

The heritage flights I saw at the Oshkosh EAA air shows on Saturday and Sunday were an F-16 Viper and a P-51 Mustang. I think there was a Lancaster there in 2015, but I didn’t see one there this year. Sounds like it would have been fun to see the show you went to.

” … Makes you nostalgic for a time when our leaders not only acknowledged a war for the survival of Christian civilization, but actually were on our side in it. …”

AMEN! I’ll be amazed if any speech by our current crop of utter nitwits is remembered by anyone 40-50 years from now.

Sadly, I probably won’t be here to make note of it. Maybe if cryogenics gets WAY better.

Uncle B:

I’d love to see a Catalina. And for that matter, the Short Sunderland. Monstrous huge thing that it was. I and my scale model making friends used to joke to the effect of ‘if that was a Short Sunderland, what would a Big one look like?’

Cousin Badger, my uncle, Darrell the Badger, flew F6Fs during The War. Badgers belong in the air, in Grumman Products.

Is that a hammer on the tail of the Hurricane?

No, country and squadron markings. Color (or colour in the UK and Canada) picture here.

It is interesting that they repainted the plane with South East Asia Command colors of a Canadian pilot.

Thank you F X Muldoon. I’ve been a fan of the airplane ever since I read Paul Gallico’s (1959) book about the Hawker Hurricane when I was 13 or 14. If I were rich, it’s one of the airplanes I would buy.
For B-25 fans, here’s a treat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At88Fcdgv0g

Oh, those pre-CGI days! Great link, Deborah HH!

And, Rich Rostrum, beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder.:
32lk

In case anyone is wondering, that “321k” at the end of my comment to Rich Rostrum was added by Mad Jack, who strolled onto my keyboard, gave me a look, typed it and wandered off.

I think we might finally be in with a chance here as it’s clearly an encrypted message. If any fellow minion finds their feline master or mistress behaving oddly (that is, any more oddly than usual) please take notes so that we can, at last, begin to crack the code.

Deborah – speaking of B-25s, though the quality isn’t the best, a video of the USS Carl Vinson off Oahu in 1995 launching B-25s off the deck in an end of WWI commemoration – they make it look easy, of course the Vinson is 300 feet longer than the Hornet the Doolittle Raiders took off from.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnXIsX7LxS8

Another of the same thing showing them launching other period aircraft to include a Wildcat, SNJ, Corsair, Avenger, a couple of amphibs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQIqmk6FsdI

Neat flyby at the end with 2 F-18s and a Corsair.