Plane Tales

Suspicious of the Polish pilots who, after their country was invaded by Nazi forces during the Second World War, had fled to the UK, the high command of the RAF eventually allowed them to become operational.  No 303 Polish Squadron joined the RAF fighter units desperately fighting the overwhelming forces of the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain.  The results stunned everybody.

The score of German kills (Adolfs) claimed by No 303 Polish Squadron during the Battle of Britain.

Images under creative commons licence from the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum London.

The billionaire explorer Paul Allen rediscovers the aircraft carrier Lexington and an F4 Wildcat deep under the surface of the Coral Sea.  This is the story of the Lexington and the Wildcat’s last pilot.

USS Lexington shortly before WWII.

F4F-3 Wildcat in non-reflective blue-gray over light gray scheme from early 1942.

Images with thanks to Paul G Allen, via Creative Commons, the US Navy and Felix c.

Air travel is, statistically, the very safest form of transport but it wasn’t always that way.  Imagine living in Elizabeth, a suburb near New York’s Newark airport in 1951 when, within a period of only 3 months, aircraft began raining from the sky onto your neighborhood.

The crash site of Flight 1678M.

An American Airways Convair CV240.

A National Airways CD6.

The City of Elizabeth today.

Images under Creative Commons licence, US Gov Bureau of Aircraft Accidents, Dagrecco, Jon Proctor, Bill Larkins.

Capt Nick delves into Volume 2 of his RAF Form 414… the PILOTS FLYING LOG BOOK.

Towards the end of the Second World War, Nazi scientists developed a series of futuristic weapons to use against England aimed to bring the British people to their knees.  Named Vengeance weapons, their presence in the skies over London was another German threat that had to be dealt with.

A German Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111 H-22. This version could carry FZG 76 (V1) flying bombs, but only a few aircraft were produced in 1944. Some were used by bomb wing KG 3.

A cutaway of the V1 created for the USAF.

An image of a Spitfire using its wing to turn over a V1 flying bomb.

A recreation of a V1 launch ramp on display at Imperial War Museum, Duxford.

Images shown under a Creative Commons licence with thanks to Nick D, the Imperial War Museum, the Bundesarchiv and the US Gov USAF Museum.

President of France, Charles de Gaulle is on a state visit to the United States of America and he asks to meet a French hero who holds the Légion d’honneur and who lives in New York.  Eventually, retired lift operator is found and brought to the President.  The man is Eugene Jacques Bullard and is almost unknown in the country of his birth but he holds a remarkable place in the history of aviation.

Bullard in his Corporal’s uniform during the WW1.

Bullard in 1917 beside a Nieuport while with Escadrille 93.

Bullard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris, 1954.

Title image by APG listener Jonathan Alexandratos who lives near Flushing Meadows cemetery and who took the time to visit the grave of Eugene Bullard which can be found in Section C.

Other images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Sus scrofa, Wikimedia Commons, US Gov USAF.

Watch the movie ‘The Right Stuf’ and you will see, portrayed, a desert bar near Edwards Air Force Base where a generation of great Test Pilots drank whisky and bantered with the bargirl.  The lady was Pancho Barnes and she was much more than a bargirl!

Pancho and her Travel Air type R Mystery Ship.

Barnes in 1928, the image used on her pilot’s license!

Pancho serving at the Happy Bottom Riding Club.

Images under Creative Commons licence; with thanks to the San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives and the Pancho Barnes Trust Estate Archive.

After the Second World War, a tall lanky RAF pilot undertook clandestine missions from Hong Kong in a photo reconnaissance Spitfire FR Mk XIV.  At the absolute limit of its range and despite being pursued by Chinese fighters Flt Lt Ted Powels undertook some remarkable flights.  This is his story.

Images made available under a Creative Commons licence.  Photographer unknown.

An aircraft for the people, the ubiquitous Cessna 172 became, by far, the most produced aircraft in history and secured a place in many pilot’s hearts.  This is its story.

Images under a Creative Commons licence by Daniel Piotrowski, P Alejandro Díaz and Adrian Pingstone.