Just out of curiosity - Airplane Guys

Possibly for one of the German ships holed up in a fiord.

That'd likely be the Tirpitz...sister of the Bismarck.
Tirpitz-2.jpg
 
To add a reminiscence - when I was a young Excise Officer, sent out one day with a senior officer. This was about 1977-78. Turned out that in the war, he had been a Mosquito reconnaissance pilot. So he flew a stripped down crate with two Merlin engines, cameras, no armament and no armour. Based in Shetland, he was sent one day to do a high-level photo pass along the Norwegian coast - looking for the Tirpitz.

At 40,000 feet over Norway, he was 'bounced' by a FW190. Which at that time was the new German interceptor and supposedly the fastest aircraft anybody had. A record previously claimed for the Mosquito. Evading the FW he told me he pushed the throttles as far forward as they would go, put his nose low and headed due west for Shetland. He said he kept that flat-out dive all the way down to sea-level just off Shetland.

I asked him how far the FW pursued him.

'I have absolutely no idea. I had no view straight back to see if he was on my tail. And I wasn't about to make any turns or do anything that might slow the Mossie down. Presumably at some point he grew fed up or got low on fuel. But at the squadron, we took the fact I was still alive as good reason to believe the Mosquito had the legs of the Fockle-Wulf.'
 
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ZACKLEY!!
...and Bristol named their engines for Greek mythology: Perseus, Hercules, and of course, the mighty Olympus (the 593 version of which powered the sublime Concorde), and Napier named theirs after weapons (Rapier, Broad Arrow, Sabre...).
Beat me to it Frederick!
Clever beggars those Brits...

Hi Pete,
the British aero-engine companies were cannibals.
At Bristol Engine Division we bought Armstrong-Siddeley and became Bristol-Siddely, bought DeHavilland's engine plant, a bunch of other small companies, didn't bother changing the company name and thought we were Cock of the Dung Heap.
Came to work one morning and the Company Nameplate read "Rolls-Royce Bristol Engine Division"
The day I got my Canadian Immigration Papers and handed in my notice I pinned up a cartoon showing a work crew replacing the Roll-Royce sign with one that said Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
 
I think it is strange how the UK seems to loose all its fine silverware. Could never make the big decisions to invest in the future. Some 30 Years later and the Heathrow Airport expansion is still being discussed, meanwhile all the business has gone to Amsterdam and Paris CDG. But they do have Fish n Chips + Beer, and if that's not enough then they have Curries galore.
 
I do miss the fish and chips.... and the beer for that matter. The shops still wrap 'em in newspaper Paul?
No, Jim, not for years! It's horrible expanded polystyrene boxes and naff little plastic forks now. That's progress.

BTW, my working definition of progress is 'the general tendency of all things to go from bad to worse'.
 
The fish and chips comes in three packaging options in Wales. A few shops package in decorated cardboard boxes as some sort of value added trick. Most serve either in a polystyrene box (which is often wrapped in plain white paper), or just wrapped in plain white paper, or served in plain white paper rolled into a cone to carry and eat from. I think the printed newspaper option was dropped due to hygiene concerns, will certainly in NZ it was.
 
The fish and chips comes in three packaging options in Wales. A few shops package in decorated cardboard boxes as some sort of value added trick. Most serve either in a polystyrene box (which is often wrapped in plain white paper), or just wrapped in plain white paper, or served in plain white paper rolled into a cone to carry and eat from. I think the printed newspaper option was dropped due to hygiene concerns, will certainly in NZ it was.

Hi Paul,
when I was back 'ome in the 1990s fish'n'chips came in a greaseproof bag wrapped in new unprinted paper and insulated with a couple of wraps of newspaper.
Interestingly, newspaper is amongst the list of emergency sterile materials.
 
As Halfmile says, the Princess never went into full production. But an enduring favourite from WWII is the Short Sunderland.

My Mother said she used to see Sunderlands taking off across Plymouth Sound and she always thought 'surely that huge thing isn't going to be airborne before it crashes into the breakwater?' But every time the flying boat majestically climbed away. Off to patrol the Western Approaches or Bay of Biscay looking for U-boats or whatever.

unnamed.jpg


The breakwater is 2½ miles off Plymouth Hoe.
 
The Vigilante was a mach 2 hotrod that did recce duty in Vietnam. One of the heaviest jets ever launched from a carrier.
That particular Guppy is still in service. We had one land at Eglin Fla. back in the seventies and I got the nickel tour... it was impressive.
It's lineage goes all the way back to WWII... the B-29's that bombed Japan.
 
This mini guppy is in Tillamook Oregon
mini guppy tillamook.jpg
300px-Aero_Spacelines_Mini_Guppy.jpg
We were wondering around the area and saw this dirigible hanger
It's right by the Tilamook Museum which houses Howard Hughs Spruce goose
Edit : the museum it's by is the Evergreen aviation and space museum
A not to miss place
 
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