Plane Tales

The art of Skywriting began with an ex WW1 fighter, the venerable SE5a, saved from the scrapyard.  This is the colourful tale of airborne advertising!

The last of Jack Savage’s SE5a fighters that he used for skywriting, now to be found in London’s Science Museum.

Traditional Skywriting over the EAA Airventure Oshkosh.

A novel marriage proposal on a flying banner.

Images used under a Creative Commons licence with thanks to Alan Wilson, Sky Ads, FutureUApilot and the U.S. Navy.

It’s common for airline Cabin Staff to be treated will little respect and the travelling public assume that they are little more than waitresses.  However, if you have a heart attack, suffer anxiety, need oxygen or directions in the case of an emergency evacuation it’s these highly trained professionals who will be the ones to help you.  Some are also brave and resourceful beyond all expectations.  One of those was Neerja Bhanot and this is her story.

A poster for the film made about Neerja.

The hijacked Pan Am 747, flight 73.

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Indian Government and aussieairliners.org

There is a particular class of Military personnel who, at least in my time, were referred to as Capture Prone.  Whilst for me it was something that was treated as a mild annoyance, during conflict, being captured represents a true hazard.  For the crew of a downed B-24 Liberator, Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am, during WW2 who faced the fury of the German people, it would be deadly.

A Consolidated B-24 Liberator

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Jerry J. Jostwick and the US Gov/USAF archive.

Six turning and four burning… what a sight it must have been to see the mighty Convair B36 Peacemaker fly.  Less of a welcome sight would be watching a nuclear weapon being dropped by one in Canadian territorial waters only a few hundred miles North of Vancouver! This is the story of Bomber 075 and its sad ending!

The later marks of the Peacemaker had an additional 4 jet engines!

Convair XB-36 main landing gear.

The US Mk4 nuclear bomb.

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the USAF and the US Gov.

A B17 crew training before deploying to Europe during WW2 managed to put a little town in Oklahoma on the map but not in the way they might like!

The M38A2 100lb practice bomb was no small device when dropped from a few thousand feet!

How the centre of Boise City might have looked on the night it was bombed!

The B17 Flying Fortress.

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Doug Kerr, the USAF, Google World and Airwolfhound.

Hong Kong’s old airport, Kai Tak, was always a challenging approach for any pilot, particularly during the Typhoon season but what was it like to actually fly around the Checker Board.  Hopefully, this Tale explains all.

One particular Captain’s very last Kai Tak landing.

Aircraft on the approach would just clear the apartment blocks of Kowloon.

How the airport looked in the late ’60s before the IGS was built.

A 747-400 ran off the end of Runway 13 into the harbour. The military blew off its fin because it jutted up into the take off path.

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Christian Hanuise, Barbara Spengler and Ywchow.

On the APG show we have been discussing why the percentage of airline pilots in a stable relationship is so much higher than the average population. In this interview we discover what it’s like to be a pilot’s wife.

We have recently been listening to Adam Spink describe the sight of a Boeing 777 crash on the threshold of runway 27L at Heathrow airport whilst he was the Air Traffic supervisor in the tower. On this tale we look at the technical reasons for why BA38 lost power on its approach.

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the NTSB.

The second part of the interview with Adam Spink, the Heathrow tower Supervisor and Birthday Boy on the day that Speedbird 38 crashed on the threshold of Runway 27L at Heathrow.  In this final part we talk about the aftermath of the accident.

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Maarten Visser, Alchetron, the AAIB and UK Gov.

Observing a large wide body airliner crash is, mercifully, a rare occurrence but to have one crash onto your airfield when working as the Air Traffic Supervisor in the control tower puts it in a completely different category of amazing!  This is Adams story of the day it happened to him at London’s Heathrow airport.

G-YMMM, the accident airframe a few years before.

Speedbird 38 after the crash.

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Marc-Antony Payne, Aero Icarus.