27/03/2009

Duxford 27/3/09

Wandered around for a short time this afternoon.

The back half of H2 had been cleared out so there was a little more sat out in the sun, wind and rain than usual today.










Sally B has her port outer cowlings back on, so how long until she is back in the air?















Nicely restored BMW 801D from a FW 190 on display in H4...

23/03/2009

Robots, Flying Cars & Airships...

Tenuous aviation link coming up. Having grown up reading Dan Dare in the Eagle comic and other 60's and 70's science fiction, which predicted we'd be living on the Moon and flying around in cars, I have a bit of a soft spot for things retro and one of the few films in my DVD collection is the animated film "Robots".

So I was pleased to find the retro robot art of Lawrence Northey via the website Webomator.
The retro robots are great and I'd love to have one.
The artwork of Bradley W. Schenck of Webomator is also great and is available on the Retropolis Transit Authority - think I may have to treat myself to a couple of the shirts for summer!!

11/03/2009

The Horsemen cometh...

An excellent video trailer/teaser of the world's only P-51 formation aerobatic team, and of things to come, has been posted over on Airshowbuzz.com - amazing production work and delivered in HD.

Just turn the volume up and sit back!!!!

ASB.TV

Watch out for their arrival for Flying Legends 2009!!!

06/03/2009

XH558 - can it be 'saved'?

The pledge total currently stands at £956,540 £961,558
Will they manage to raise the amount required before the end of today (cut off?).

Fingers crossed so we may still see the tin triangle fly in 09.....

UPDATE:
And they did it!!! XH558 lives to f(l)ight another day - let's hope that the promises to restructure the trust works and that they are not cap in hand to the public again....

04/03/2009

Paddy Finucane - penultimate mission?

As previously written about, sometimes I'll see something that gets me reaching for Google and doing a little research.

Today it was a name that I recognised from reading about the RAF in WWII.

Finucane.

I wondered if it was the same Paddy Finucane, an Irish Spitfire ace who was awarded the DSO and the DFC and two bars, and who was one of the youngest Wing Commanders in the RAF.

The title card of the clip in question just read -

Combat Film No. K1273
W/C Finucane Stn Flight
14/7/42 Spitfire VB
Dutch Coastal Vessel Off Ostende.
The clip showed a ship being attacked at low level and lasted a matter of seconds.
A quick search on the 'net produced the following information -
After attacking German shipping at Ostend and strafing three German airfields on July 15th, 1942, Finucane’s wing regrouped to return to Hornchurch. As the group passed low-level over the beach at Pointe Du Touquet, Finucane’s Spitfire was hit by machine gun fire that severely damaged his radiator. The engine overheated and quit, and the Spitfire was too low to allow Finucane to bail out. Losing altitude swiftly, Paddy was heard to say; “This is it, Chaps.” Witnesses reported that after a near perfect "splash" the Shamrock-Spit sank like a stone, and despite all efforts, was never to be seen again. At the time of his death, Wing Commander Finucane’s score stood at an amazing 32 victories. SOURCE
Could I have stumbled across the last piece of footage of this 'ace' prior to him being shot down and killed in action?

More info about Brendan Eamon Fitzpatrick "Paddy" Finucane can be found on several websites such as acesofww2.com or century-of-flight.net