Phil Perry1

Yes Willie. . .20 mm Cannon Food.

Damned useless info I know,. . . but there's a load of flexwings, and a three axis, 2 seater Hawk available here at our Airfield for ridiculously silly cheap money. . . .problem is the logistical distance mate. . . . . The 'Hawk' is a two seat, tandem design. Rotax 503 engine rear mounted, so the aircraft has a low, tubular fuselage, and obviously the eingie is mounted in a 'pusher' config. It is tandem seat config, wth minimal instrumentation in the rear cockpit, ie, Airspeed indicator only. . .the only real problem wth this pane is that the LAA refused to allow an additional fuel tank to be added below the rear mounted engine,. . . as is normal with ALL flexwing trikes,. . . .saying that this was a 'Fire risk'. . . .? ? ? ? ? So the aircraft was certified to carry it's internal 25 Litre fuel tank.. . . What a load of Bollox. ?. . . most owners carried an adituonal tank and 'Pumped; this into the main tank to achieve reasonable range. . . I carried out a lot of the test and distance flying on this machine, and found that, with Two on board, it could achieve an average cruise of 73 MPH, with a fuel burn of close to 15 litres per hour, at 5,560 RPM average. . . . .this was very good I thought, for a 503 Rotax engine. . . The prototype rots away in a hangar. . . . .

I guess that would not have helped when surrepticiously landing in the French countryide after dark, dropping off secret agents and all, then having to takeoff without the rudimentary flares, concentrating on missing the trees / other obstuctions and having to pi$$ about constantly re- trimming . . an increased workload for poor Mr. Pilot. . . ie, correcting a design flaw. . .

Obvious it's a bit dated Sir,. . . .look at that VHF telly aerial ! we had one of those ( but on our chimney, not on our steamshovel. . ) at my house in the 50s / early 60s. . . VHF / 405 line B+W. . . Halcyon days eh ? . . . .

I read sometime ago that the USAF evaluated the Canberra in the early 1960s for it's high altitude Photo - Recon capability, but decided on the U2, as it could climb considerably higher, and was a little faster in the cruise. . .

Soooooo UGLY ! . . . . .Only it's Mother could love that. . . . .

Westland P.12 Wendover. A prototype developed from the Westland Lysander, during the 1940 invasion scare, Westland tried to come up with a version of the aircraft which would be more capable in combat. The P.12 Wendover was the result. The front half was more of less identical to the Lysander. However the rear half was heavily modified. The rear portion of the glazed cockpit was deleted, and the fuselage was modified to feature a twin tail unit and with a tandem wing configuration. The conventional tail was removed and in its place a power-operated 4-gun Nash & Thompson turret was added.

No Sweat . . .it's an American 'Plane' innit ?

It's bin a long time since I had a ride in one of these, 1964 at RAF Bassingbourn near Cambridge, when I was in the ATC air cadets. About six of us were given a 20 minute ride around, decided by lottery. . . we had to sit in the Navigator / systems / camera operator seat behind the cockpit. This was, from memory, completely enclosed, with a tiny little window on one side. In an emergency, the seat ejects Downward ! ! ! They DID explain why the cockpit was offset, but I can't remember. ( probably in wikipedia if anyone's that interested ! ) I remember it being terrifyingly claustrophobic though ! ( Yes,. . I 'Barfed' into the sick bag again )

Thanks Dutch. . . . I usually put 'Rhet' . . . .after that kind of embedded question. . . . JUst been on a site ( U.S.) which was discussing the exact same photograph combo . . . they were only interested in the 'Ballistics' ie,. . was it ground fired,. . was it Air fired ? . . . no one seemed to question the obvious. A few months ago, the latter part of 2016, my second Cousin Greg had someone put three bullet holes into the back of his car whilst he was driving it on a highway in Michigan. He wasn't injured and didn't hear the impacts. ( small calibre he said. . .maybe .22 or something ) Wild Westology at it's best.

Nuther nice Canberra pic. . .overflying ( EX ) RAF Kemble, Glucestershire. . . Nicely shows the 'Offset' position of the cockpit bubble. . .

I thought that it WAS illegal in most circumstances to carry firearms in private light aircraft in peacetime,. . I seem to recall reading something about that when I were in Australia. . . and in wartime they're grounded in most countries. . . Yeah, I know that people shoot animals from aircraft / helos nowadays, but what kind of idiot carries a loaded weapon whilst overflying an airfield / place where aircraft are stored I wonder. . . .but as has been said,. . .that was in America. . .

Only ONE 'Plane Pic' here, but an interesting historical link about an old RAF airfield I used to fly into and From, around twelve years back, I used to hire aircraft dirt cheap, from a guy who imported them from the States. . . 'By cheap' I'm talking £30.00 per hour Dry. . . C-150 / PA28 151 / Grumman AA5A / Auster 6. . . not bad rates for 2005 ! RAF Tilstock AKA Prees Heath ( Bomber training base 1942 ) Report - - RAF Tilstock, Shropshire, December 2016

I regularly used a Gas Axe up n the high scaffolding whilst subbing as a welder for Costain in the centre of Melbourne, on a 14 floor office block ( second ever Aussie Job in 1972 ) we were responsible for cutting / fitting 150 x 150mm heavy angle steel to the concrete facing to take the next storey of brickwork. . .we 'Axed' the angle to length, drilled the concrete, but 'Blew' the holes for the loxons in the angle to save time. . .! Damn useful tool. . . .