Here are ten monstrous flying machines that had they voices would have probably rasped, “master, why did you create me?”

9. Bartini Beriev VVA-14 (1972) ‘Millenium Balkan’

Robert ‘Ludvigovich’ Bartini was an aristocratic Italian aircraft designer. The Italian Communist Party sent him to the USSR following the Fascist take-over of Italy. It was the intention of the ICP that he would bring modern Italian know-how to the Soviet aviation industry to aid its fight against fascism.

Being an aircraft designer was an extremely dangerous occupation in Stalin’s terror state, being a foreign aircraft designer even more perilous. In 1938 Bartini began an eight year prison sentence. Despite spending the Great Patriotic War imprisoned, he still did a huge amount of design work, notably on the Tu-2 bomber.

He became one of the most important Soviet aircraft designers, and survived to design the exceptionally unusual VVA-14, designed to counter the threat of Polaris missile submarines. This was a wing-in-ground-effect vehicle, a type of aircraft which sits on the recirculated air that forms beneath wings at extremely low altitudes. Capable of taking off from land or water, the vehicle could fly far faster than any boat at ultra low-level while carry large loads. It could also fly at higher altitudes as a true aeroplane.

In collaboration with the Beriev Design Bureau, Bartini planned to develop the prototype VVA-14 in three phases. The initial M1 was to be an aerodynamics and technology testbed. The M2 would have a battery of 12 Rybinsk RD-36-lift engines to give full VTOL capability, and was to be fitted with one of the world’s first fly-by-wire flight control systems. The M3 would integrate weapons (including depth charges, torpedos and anti-shipping missiles), the Burevestnik computerised anti-submarine warfare (ASW) system and the huge Bor-1 magnetic anomaly detector (MAD).

Bartini died in 1974 and with him the momentum that drove the project. Like all Ekranoplans, being neither fish nor fowl no one quite knew what to do it with it and the the VVA-14 never entered service.

8. THK-13 Flying Wing Glider ‘Turkish Spirit’

Not outright weird but definitely an unorthodox design for its time. From an unexpected country with little or no background in aircraft production, the THK-13 flying-wing glider deserves to be on this list.

Met with harsh criticism for its looks, the THK-13 glider was a product of Turk Hava Kurumu (THK – Turkish Air Association), the aviation bureau of the young Turkish Republic. THK was established in 1925, only two years after the foundation of the republic itself. THK quickly set up a production facility and trained a core engineering team. It created several aircraft and glider programmes from the THK-1 to the THK-16. Of these, the THK-5 twin engine light transport and THK-15 two-seat trainer were the most successful.

The THK-13 design work was started in 1943 by senior engineer Yavuz Kansu. The prototype made its maiden flight on 26 August 1948 in Ankara, and was towed into the air by a Focke-Wulf Fw 44. During take-off, the towing cable ripped off and the glider went out of control, resulting in an emergency landing in a nearby field. The pilot, Kadri Kavukcu, survived without a scratch — and the prototype was quickly repaired in the field. Several hours later, it made another ‘first flight’, again towed by the Fw 44. This time landing safely back at the THK airfield.

Upon the news of the crash, local media jumped on the opportunity to blame THK for designing such a ‘weird’ aeroplane, speculating that such an unlikely looking machine was sure to fail.  The project was shelved until the next year. A flight on 29 September 1949 ended in a more severe crash, seriously wounding the pilot and sealing the fate on this extraordinary glider.

 Arda Mevlutoglu

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7. Mississippi State University XV-11 MARVEL ‘The Marvel Superfan’

Looking like it flew straight through a wind tunnel taking the fan with it, the first all-composite aircraft was the Mississippi State University XV-11 MARVEL. MARVEL is a backronym standing for ‘Mississippi Aerophysics Research Vehicle with Extended Latitude’. The aircraft was build to continue research for the military into boundary layer control, an effort that had been ongoing since the 1950s. Accordingly, the MARVEL employed a blower driven by the engine to draw suction through more than one million tiny holes in the wings and fuselage. The aircraft also spurned conventional flaps in favour of wing warping to deflect the wing trailing edges. So far, so weird, but the good people of the Department of Astrophysics and Aerospace Engineering at the Mississippi State University weren’t stopping there and added a ‘Pantobase’ or ‘rollerboot’ undercarriage with tandem wheels fitted within two sprung wooden pontoons which were intended to allow operations from rough surfaces or water.

The ducted pusher propeller returned with little success in the Edgely Optica and RFB Fantrainer. 

6. Tumonecotrans Bella 1, Russia (1994) ‘The Swamp Monster’

Our initial efforts revealed that Google video searches for ‘Trans Bella’, while distracting, are not helpful for researching rare Russian aircraft. What was useful however, was an ancient Russian website looking for investors in an utterly bizarre form of transportation.

The story starts in the Soviet Union in 1989. Alexander Filimonov wanted to build an aircraft that could operate from the Arctic regions, Siberia and the far east of Russia without airfields. According to the aforementioned (and extremely quaint) website “70% of aircraft maintenance costs in this region relate to airfields”.

On the other hand there are numerous natural flat airstrips in the form of lakes, rivers, marshes and fields. But even a rugged seaplane will struggle with marshes, and a helicopter or aeroplane needs special adaption (and a brave pilot) to operate from very thick snow or long grass. As the company’s website notes, “For example, the well-known Russian An-2 aircraft has three changeable takeoff and landing devices: wheel, ski and hydrofloat. The first two require runways.”

So how could an aircraft deliver cargo or people to such austere locations? Filimonov believed the answer was to combine the advantages of a ‘wing-in-ground’ effect ekranoplan with a conventional aeroplane. The result is a strange hybrid, with a horizontal ducted helicopter-like fan, a hovercraft-like ‘skirted donut’  – and pusher engines and wings. Here was a machine that could make very short take-off from extreme terrain, and do it in terrible weather conditions. Funding was never found for this extremely unusual project.

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5. Vought V-173/VF5U ‘Zimmers Skimmer’ 

In the 1930s, Charles H. Zimmerman advocated the  ‘discoidal’ aircraft with its  pancake-shaped fuselage acting as a lifting surface. Zimmerman had worked on NACA’s (later renamed NASA) early wind tunnels. Influenced by the circular designs of Cloyd Snoder, and the less ridiculously named Steven Nemeth and Richard Johnson, he took this concept a step further. He wanted to produce a circular VTOL aircraft capable of flights at unbeatable speeds and altitudes, and able to hover like a helicopter. This proved overly ambitious with contemporary technology, but earned Zimmerman a prestigious NACA award.

Zimmerman believed that discoidal aircraft could be capable of near vertical take-off and landings. They also promised excellent manoeuvrability, high speed and great structural strength.

The concept, nicknamed the ‘Zimmer Skimmer’, was radical and unlikely-  so Zimmerman set about demonstrating its veracity with a series of prototypes for both himself and the Vought company. The V-173 flew in 1942. Soon local residents were reporting UFOs, or they would have if the term existed (‘UFO’ was coined in 1953 by USAF). Nazi sympathiser and general douche Charles Lindbergh flew the type and found it handled extremely well, especially at low speed. Initial problems were centred more around the propulsion system, which used a complex geared system to route power to the propellers from the engine than the novel aerodynamic configuration.

 

One propulsion failure led to a dramatic emergency landing on a beach. As the aircraft landed the pilot spotted two utterly bewildered bathers in the aircraft’s path. Full braking effect was applied, resulting in the aircraft somersaulting over on itself. Thanks to the aircraft’s immense strength both the pilot and aircraft emerged unscathed.

Before the V-173 had flown, Zimmerman was working on its weaponised successor, the the Vought XF5U ‘Flying Flapjack’ for the US Navy. Fast, agile, well armed (six 50 cals or four 20mm cannon) and with a tiny take-off run the aircraft was a tantalising prospect as a carrier fighter. The geared propulsion system again proved troublesome, as did repeated operation of piston-engines and very large propellers at very high angles of attack. Development dragged on, and the war ended.

By 1947 the XF5U-1 was finally ready to fly. But propellers were passé, Vought was busy moving to Dallas and the ‘Pancake’ had run out of luck. Unusually, the US Navy ordered the aircraft be reduced to scrap. Vought’s chief test pilot Boone Guyton had been looking forward to flying the aeroplane and was extremely upset by this wanton destruction. He tried to physically stop the wrecking crew, but failed. The wrecking ball took a long time to destroy the immensely tough airframe, but eventually succeeded.

After it was destroyed and sent to the scrapheap someone remembered that the gearbox contained $6000 ($71,713 in 2020 dollars) worth of silver. Staff and security personnel scoured the scrapheap but failed to find the missing silver. Eventually the local scrap dealer who had hauled the wreckage away was caught by the FBI trying to sell the silver. But as Vought had made the mistake, it was found that the dealer’s actions were completely legal. The dealer kept the silver, and Vought was forced to pay back the Navy.

4. Antonov An-14SH ‘Clodhopper’

The West believes the world should adapt to support its aeroplanes, whereas the Soviet Union believed the aeroplane should adapt to function in the world as it is.

The Antonov An-14 was a small tough short take-off and landing transport. It was intended to replace the hugely popular An-2 biplane, the only problem being that the An-2 was still doing its job very well and didn’t need replacing. Antonov gave up after only 332 units – which is small potatoes compared to the 18,000-plus An-2s. Perhaps as a punishment for lack of success, Antonov used the unlucky type for multiple experimental purposes. On January 22 1983, one aircraft took the sky with the indignity of a hovercraft undercarriage. This would have allowed the An-14Sh to have taken off or landed from any flat (or almost flat) surface from rivers to bumpy fields.  The huge drag and reduction in range and payload were unacceptable and the project did not carry only beyond the prototype stage though the idea may have influenced the later Bella 1.

If you’re a multimillionaire and you want a new private jet, you have many obvious if slightly unadventurous choices. Textron, Dassault, Bombardier, Gulfstream or Beechcraft will be happy to sell you a sleek, safe and refined jet that will perfectly fit any brief. If you’re feeling a bit quirky, you might even take a look at Pilatus and their PC-12, or maybe the stiletto-inspired HondaJet.

But if you’re not just a run of the mill multimillionaire, you’ll want a jet which will stand out on the apron when you fly into Samedan for a spot of snow polo. In that case, there’s only really one choice. The wonderfully weird Piaggio Avanti P.180.

Ok, from some angles it’s a bit carp-like, but most of the time the Avanti gives off strong Thunderbirds-meets-Flight of the Navigator vibes. The fact that the turboprop engine and its propellers point backwards, the third, anhedral lifting surface at the front, the wing shaped fuselage, the T-tail and massive delta fin strakes, the scimitar shaped blades in the latest EVO version… it all adds up to something a child of the 60s would have imagined we’d all be flying around in today. Jeff Tracy would have definitely flown in an Avanti to get to and from Tracy Island.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that the Avanti is so different, because Piaggio has a history of making decisions against the grain. First, there was the P.2, an aerodynamically clean monocoque, low wing monoplane which flew in 1923, when most other manufacturers were busy bracing the wings of their biplanes with wires. But Piaggio’s place in the heritage of weird planes is assured by the P.7, an amphibian racer built to compete in the famous 1929 Schneider Cup Race, which forced designers and manufacturers to make ever more low drag designs and liquid-cooled engines, inspiring the Spitfire and the P-51 Mustang.

The P.7 had a streamlined and stunningly beautiful look, and to avoid the drag and weight of floats, it used hydrofoils to take off from the water. To make it “work”, the Italians came up with a very convoluted take-off procedure. To reach the speeds needed to attain lift on the hydrofoils, the P.7 had a water propeller at the back as well as an airscrew up front. Once the hydrofoils lifted the aircraft out of the water, a clutch would be engaged and switch the power to the front. It was an utterly mad idea and it never got airborne, but without that adventurous heritage which inspired the Avanti, the world of private aviation would be a lot more boring.

– Conrad Quilty-Harper

2. Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar ‘The Malton Saucer’ (1959)

Wobbling drunkenly into this house party of weirdos, our next guest is a two-
place, triple-jet, circular wing, VTOL concept demonstrator with a special take on aerodynamics. A secretive joint undertaking of the Canadian government, Avro Canada, the US Army and the USAF from the late 1950s the Avrocar was a mid- century effort to embrace a scientific principle called the Coanda effect. This is the Bernoulli-like business of deliberately bending a jet of air flowing over a curve to generate controllable lift. In other words, the Avrocar is the silver, convex-bodied aerospace equivalent of Theremin music.

Bench testing and wind tunnel findings aimed at further harnessing Coanda theory remained inconclusive in the mid-1950s after some interest in the 1930s and 1940s. Everything from flying jeeps mounting recoilless rifles to big supersonic NORAD interceptors were briefly envisioned using this handy principle and a circular wing.

This being that gilded era of fabulous prototypes money was available to be thrown at a Coanda-based project, though not the CF-105 Arrow, apparently!
The result does look pretty cool to our jaded 2020 eyes, a throwback to shiny,
imagined futures long given up on. Unhappily, the gyroscopes of the day couldn’t regulate the Avrocar’s tendency to pitch and roll without constant pilot input. A t-tail and other modifications designed to further refine and direct airflow lent only minor improvements to controllability. Wheels were added in place of fixed circular moon lander style feet because the Avrocar couldn’t transition safely out of ground effect. It was only nominally safe in untethered flight at all and right away those two lovely plastic bubble canopies were replaced on the first example with racing car style roll bars at the cockpits. Luckily, the domes remained on the example sent to NASA’s Ames Research Center in California and which you can see at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

The Coanda effect was never harnessed well enough here to eliminate the dinner plate hanging from a string effect visible in film footage of the Avrocar taken outside
Avro’s plant in Malton, Ontario. Helicopters, STOL aircraft, hovercraft and motor
vehicles were already doing more than the Avrocar ever would. Perhaps some day composite materials and digital flight controls will combine to unweird the circular ducted flow wing and truly unleash the Coanda? We can only hope.

We sell fantastic high quality aviation-themed gifts here

– Stephen Caulfield 

1. British Rail Flying Saucer (1970)

British Rail, the much missed national rail service, couldn’t make a decent sandwich – but that didn’t stop them flirting with interplanetary nuclear fusion powered flying saucers. Simply squirt liquid fuel beneath the aircraft, ignite it with a series of lasers, create a nuclear fusion explosion and contain the highly radioactive explosion within a magnetic field. Then you can take 22 people to the moon (probably sustained on terrible sandwiches squeezed from toothbrush tubes). Unsurprisingly this radical patent was seen as a being rather too ambitious, but who knows, perhaps one day science will catch up with the imagination of Charles Osmond Frederick, a 1970s locomotive engineer.

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By Bing Chandler. Bing Chandler is a former Lynx Observer and current Wildcat Air Safety Officer. If you want a British Pacific Fleet roundel sticker he can now fix you up. The Cold War is generally considered to have lasted from 1947 with the declaration of the Truman Doctrine, to support free peoples resisting subjugation, to 1991 and the end of the Soviet Union. Initially it didn’t appear a promising time for carrier aviation, nuclear bombs were the future of warfare and at that time the only aircraft that could carry them were strategic bombers. These would not fit on a ship, although the USN had some ‘interesting’ ideas involving P2V Neptunes and one-way missions. With the invasion of South Korea by the North in June of 1950 conventional forces experienced a sudden re-interest, Mutually Assured Destruction sort of working by preventing the two super-powers annihilating the planet. Carriers and their aircraft would go on to see action in most of the events in Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire.

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This Top 10 concentrates on combat aircraft in a vague attempt to keep to an actual ten for once, hence the absence of aircraft like the S-3 Viking, Gannet, and Vigilante. In an attempt to address obvious criticism just outside the 10, and in no particular order, were the Corsair II – which only stayed in production a few years longer than the A-4 which it was supposed to replace; the Super Étendard – couldn’t do anything a Sea Harrier couldn’t and needed a catapult to get airborne; Grumman Panther – did get the first carrier jet-on-jet kill, but barely had the performance of a Sea Hawk despite getting the more powerful Tay derivative of the Nene jet engine. 10. Hawker Sea Fury Arriving just too late to see combat in WW2 the Sea Fury represents the final evolution of piston-engine fighters alongside the Bearcat and the Sea Hornet. All three of which have broadly similar performance and weaponry. Unlike the latter two however, the Sea Fury saw combat from the deck of a carrier. Taking over from the Seafire FR47s onboard Triumph (not on this list because they were so damaged by carrier landings that the squadron AEO would only allow them to fly under wartime regulations, grounding them once the ship left Korean waters) the Sea Furies of HMS Thesus were the first to conduct patrols over the Korean Peninsula in 1950. These would be maintained by aircraft from Ocean, Glory and the RAN’s Sydney for the rest of the conflict. Perhaps most famous for 802 NAS’ Sub-Lt ‘Smoo’ Ellis shooting down a MiG-15 on 9 Aug there was also at least one other probable MiG kill by Lt ‘Toby’ Davis also of 802 NAS the following day. As well as their air-to-air ability the Sea Fury could carry two 1000lb bombs or a collection of 60lb rockets. The former soon becoming the weapon of choice when it was realised the Fury’s bubble canopy gave the pilot an advantage in the dive-bombing role compared to the Firefly. These were used to great effect conducting close-air-support for Commonwealth troops and strikes on enemy and tactical positions. The pilots could also direct naval gunfire support, a task not without its problems such as asking a ship to correct its fire by nine miles, or the USS Missouri almost shooting the spotter down. [1]

Interview with Sea Fury pilot here.

After it was discovered that wing spars were being damaged catapulting them with bombs attached it was decided aircraft would be launched using RATOG. Between aircraft trickling off the front end of the ship after they failed to ignite and entering a vertical climb because the trim was set incorrectly it’s a wonder anyone ever got around to actually engaging the enemy! But they did with both Ocean and Glory achieving a record 123 sorties in a day between their Fury and Firefly squadrons, at least one Fury pilot conducting five sorties in a day.

The ten best piston-engined fighters here

As well as the Royal Navy the Sea Fury also operated from the carriers of the Australian, Canadian, and Dutch navies. Fast, well-armed, and with only a fair chance of flipping upside if the throttle is slammed open at low speed, the Sea Fury was the ultimate piston carrier fighter. [1] Alan Leahy. Sea Fury From the Cockpit. Ringshall: Ad Hoc Publications, 2010. 68-69 9. Douglas A-1 Skyraider   ” …the greatest workhorse the Navy ever had. It was loved and trusted by those who flew it. A pilot who trusts his plane is a bold pilot. And bold pilots really do the job. “   Adm. Tom Connolly Another design that entered service too late for the war for which it was intended the Douglas Skyraider was a single seat piston-engined aircraft that shot down MiGs. There the similarity with the Sea Fury more or less ends as the A-1 was designed as a dive/torpedo bomber rather than a fighter. Intended to replace the Avenger and the Dauntless the XBT2D-1 Destroyer II first flew in March of 1945, by April the USN had placed an order for 548 and thankfully changed the name to the AD-1 Skyraider. Part of the success was due to Ed Heinemann’s design team’s emphasis on weight reduction and simplicity inspired by an information bulletin that showed for each 100lbs of weight saved take-off would be reduced by 8’, combat radius increased 22 miles, and rate of climb increased by 18’ per minute. In total the team saved 1800lbs enabling the Skyraider to carry 8000lbs of weaponry, in something of a worrying trend for the USN this included plans for one way trips with a nuclear weapon. Thanks to its promise and relatively low-cost orders for the AD-1 were not cut back at the end of the Second World War and the first squadron was formed in December 1946. With the invasion of South Korea Skyraiders from Valley Forge were soon in action conducting ground attack and minelaying operations. The following year VA-195 and VC-35 onboard the Princeton were called upon to make an attack on the Hwacheon Dam. Despite little training in the use of torpedoes the necessary modifications were made to the aircraft to allow them to carry the weapons including disabling the airbrakes. On 1 May, in what to date was the last aerial torpedo attack on a surface target, eight Skyraiders attacked the dam successfully disabling the control gates and preventing Communist forces from controlling water levels. Remaining in service until 1968 AD-1s were also active in Vietnam, where as well as attack, close air support, and rescue missions they shot down two MiG-17s. The Skyraider’s only other naval user was the Royal Navy who operated it in the AEW role. Remarkably long lived for an aircraft that was designed at the dawn of the jet age the Skyraider is probably unique in being the only aircraft to have been developed into single, two, three, and four seat combat variants. 8. Hawker Sea Hawk  The Sea Hawk started as a private venture by Hawkers under the lead of Sydney Camm, also responsible for the Sea Fury. The initial concept being to replace the later’s Centaurus engine with a Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet. After what, it must be assumed, was a lot of development work the P.1040 emerged as a tapered wing jet with the intakes and bifurcated exhaust based in the wing roots. Despite a lack of interest (this is disputed by some) from the Admiralty and the Air Ministry Hawkers produced three prototypes, the first flying in September of 1947 (again there is some debate on the prototypes’ chronology). Following successful carrier trials, the Royal Navy ordered 151 with the first front line squadron, 806 NAS forming in 1953. Ironically after all that effort, Hawkers only built the first 35 Sea Hawk Mk1 before turning over their Kingston factory to producing its ultimate evolution the Hunter. Development and production were transferred to their subsidiary Armstrong Whitworth who went on to produce over 500 in 6 principle marks adding bombing and ground attack capabilities to the basic day fighter’s 4 x 20mm cannons. Arguably one of the most beautiful aircraft to take to the sky the Sea Hawk served with 13 front-line RN squadrons. In 1956 seven of these took part in the Suez conflict, with little air opposition they conducted bombing, strafing, and close air support missions. During one of these their strafing was accurate enough that the paratroopers they were supporting felt confident enough to advance while it was taking place. [2] Only two Sea Hawks were lost during the action, both pilots surviving, while a number of other aircraft recovered even with severe damage. By the end of 1960, the Sea Hawk had left front line service with the Royal Navy having also conducted operations in Aden from Bulwark in 1958. At the same time, it was entering service with what would be its final operator the Indian Navy. Operating from the Majestic class carrier INS Vikrant the Sea Hawks of 300 INAS, the White Tigers, took part in the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War which led to East Pakistan gaining its independence, becoming Bangladesh. Despite catapult problems the 18 aircraft of 300 INAS ranged across Bangladesh attacking air bases, ammunition dumps, and troop positions. Battle damage was repaired on board and all the aircraft remained serviceable during the ten days of operations.[3] Although formally leaving service in 1978 a Sea Hawk met the first three Sea Harriers for the Indian Navy over the Arabian Sea in 1983. Also operational with the Royal Netherlands Navy until 1961 the Sea Hawk’s viceless handling, excellent visibility, and rugged construction make it one of the standout aircraft of the early cold war. [2] Brian Cull. Wings Over Suez. London: Grub Street, 1996. 302 [3] Michael Doust. Sea Hawk From the Cockpit. Ringshall: Ad Hoc Publications, 2007. 60-61 7. Grumman F-14 Tomcat To some the F-14 is the ultimate naval fighter, and they might not be wrong. However, in terms of the Cold War it doesn’t quite make the top ranks. Entering service in 1972 with VF-124 the F-14A inherited the TF30 engines from the F-111. These were less than ideal for a fighter, rapid throttle movements, especially pulling the throttle to idle, could cause the engine to stall. Like in that film you’ll have seen, where due to the wide spacing of the engines a flat spin developed due to the asymmetric thrust. There were similar issues operating above 30,000’ which forced crews to operate lower than ideal reducing range and endurance. All these problems were solved, the range greatly increased, and take-off performance improved by the introduction of the F110 engine in the F-14B. These only started to enter service in 1987 though, four years before the end of the Cold War. By that point at least 24 Tomcats had been lost due to engine issues, around 28% of all losses. For variety one had also managed to shoot itself down with a Sparrow missile… Despite this the F-14A did manage to cover the withdrawal from Saigon on its maiden cruise, engaged two Libyan Su-22 in the 1981 Gulf of Sidra incident, and engaged two Libyan MiG-23s in the 1989 Gulf of Sidra incident. Which at least shows a degree of consistency on the part of the USN and the Libyan Air Force. They also covered the Invasion of Grenada and intercepted the Egypt Air 737 carrying the hijackers of the MS Achille Lauro, appearing alongside the aircraft at night while an EA-6B jammed radio communications. Oh and one shot down a USAF RF-4C during an exercise, which is taking inter-service rivalry a bit far. The F-14A was the Cold War Tomcat, it wasn’t perfect, and the pilots flew the engines as much as they flew the aircraft, but it was still a capable fleet defender.

Interview with an Iranian Tomcat ace here

6. Douglas A-4 Skyhawk  Following on from the success of the Skyraider Ed Heinemann and his team produced a proposal for its successor. The USN specified an aircraft of no more than 30,000lbs to meet their range criteria for carrying a 2000-lb ‘special’ (in that way that a nuclear bomb is ‘special’) weapon. Laughing in the face of such limitations the Douglas design was half the weight while still meeting the requirements. The ‘special’ weapon leading to the characteristic stalky undercarriage. One of the weight saving measures was restricting the wingspan to 27’ enabling them to fit down carrier lifts without folding, removing the need for hydraulic actuators and allowing 2000 litres of fuel to be carried in each wing. With the first operational squadron forming in 1956 two years later the Skyhawk was in action over the Lebanon. This and subsequent action in South East Asia led to improvements to the A-4s conventional weapons capabilities which expanded to carry a wide range of unguided and guided weaponry. At the same time max payload increased from 5,500lbs in the A-4A to 9195lbs in the A-4M. Although the USN retired the A-4 from front line service in 1976 they were still operating from US carriers until October of 1999 in the training role. The Royal Australian Navy operated them from 1967 embarking on HMAS Melbourne until it was retired in the early ‘80s, the A-4G being wired for Sidewinders to provide an air defence capability. This was something the USN had also done for operations from its smaller ASW Carriers. The Comando de la Aviación Naval Argentina received 16 A-4Cs in 1971, later replaced with A-4Qs, to operate from the ARA Veinticinco de Mayo, previously HNLMS Karel Doorman, previously HMS Venerable. However, due to issues with her catapult the majority of the Skyhawks missions were flown from shore, perhaps not surprising when using a third-hand carrier. The Skyhawk was a classic of Cold War naval aviation, proving its capability and perhaps uniquely for this list a new operator took it to sea almost a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Brazilian Navy taking delivery of 23 ex-Kuwaiti Air Force A-4KUs in 1998 and by 2001 these were operating from the carrier Minas Gerais. 5. Grumman A-6 Intruder  Following the Buccaneer into frontline service by around 18 months the first operational Intruder squadron VA-75 formed in November of 1963. The requirements that led to the Intruder were similar if slightly less ambitious than the British bombers, a two-man crew, radius of action of 300nm for close air support and 1000nm for long range interdiction, with a speed of 500knots. [4] Unlike the Buccaneer the Intruder also had a STOL requirement for USMC use during amphibious assaults, this led to the engine exhaust being deflected by 23° although ultimately this only featured on the first seven examples. It was however used during the types first flight the exhausts remaining vectored downwards throughout. After initial trials showed that the fuselage mounted airbrakes caused excessive turbulence over the tail plane when deployed they were moved to the wingtips giving the aircraft a distinctive appearance in the approach configuration. In a novel move to increase lift almost the entire trailing edge was used as flap with roll control being achieved through use of spoilers on the upper wing surface. By 1965 VA-75 – The Sunday Punchers, were at war, using the advanced all-weather systems in the A-6 to strike targets at night, previously the North Vietnamese forces ally. Unfortunately, the systems were a bit too advanced and initially the aircraft suffered a 35% reliability rate. Improvements came with new radars and updates to the attack system known as DIANE. At the same time the USN undertook an effort to update all its mapping of North Vietnam, some of which was several miles out, to make sure the targets were where the Intruders’ systems thought they were. The A-6 underwent a number of upgrades ultimately evolving into the A-6E with a sensor turret housing an infra-red camera and laser designator which were integrated with the avionics systems. After Vietnam, the Intruder took part in raids on Lebanon, Libya, Iranian shipping during the tanker wars, and as something of a swan song took part in the liberation of Kuwait in 1991.

Interview with A-6 Intruder aircrew here

After over three decades of service the A-6 was retired with no true replacement, diminishing the striking power of the USN’s carriers. [4] Robert F Dorr. Grumman A-6 Intruder. Over Wallop: Osprey, 1987. pp 9 5. Blackburn Buccaneer  Britain’s aircraft manufactures have never had much success making carrier aircraft, or land ones if you look at the Supermarine Swift and Gloster Javelin. It’s something of a surprise then that a company that had previously produced such crimes against aviation as the Blackburn Blackburn and the Firebrand somehow pulled it out of the bag with the Buccaneer. Demonstrating that the Admiralty could do asymmetric warfare if they put their minds to it the Buccaneer specification was drawn up in response to the emergence of the Soviet Navy’s Sverdlov cruisers. This called for an aircraft able to carry a variety of stores, including a 2,500kg Red Beard tactical nuclear bomb, the abortive Green Cheese anti-ship missile [5], or 4000lbs of conventional bombs, at speeds of at least 550kts at sea level, with a minimum radius of action of 400NM at low level. [6] For 1954 these were ambitious criteria, so much so that Percival Aircraft after asking to tender read the full requirements document and changed its mind. Fitting it into the limited dimensions of a British carrier called for novel solutions. While some aircraft had used high-pressure air from the engines blown over the flaps to improve take-off and landing performance the Buccaneer took the concept to the next level. Bleed air from the engines was ducted over the wings from just aft of the leading edge, the flaps, and the tail plane. This increased the coefficient of lift and the angle of attack at the stall allowing smaller wings and tail plane. In turn this gave a smoother ride at low level where a larger tail plane would have made the aircraft overly sensitive. For comparison with a 25% bigger wing at a weight of 33,000lb the Sea Vixen had an approach speed of 125kts to the Buccaneers 124kts. [Ref] In something of a Blackburn tradition, the initial Buccaneer S1 was under-powered, on launching from a carrier the acceleration was around 1kt per second. Unusually plans to rectify this were in hand as the S1 entered service and the S2 fitted with the Spey was operational only three years later. This improved the acceleration after take-off to 7kt per second and let later Buccaneers leave the carrier with a full load of fuel rather than having to take some from a passing Scimitar. The Buccaneer is also notable for being the first aircraft to have a head-up display, providing steering cues to the weapons release point as well as an indication of the distance to go and the air speed. Having a relatively peaceful time in RN service its major actions were helping enforce the Beira patrol in support of sanctions against Rhodesia, bombing the stricken tanker Torrey Canyon off Lands’ End in an attempt to burn off the crude oil, and launching from Ark Royal in mid-Atlantic to conduct a show of force over Belize to deter a Guatemalan invasion. Which is the kind of thing someone should write a book about. [5] This was ultimately cancelled in favour of just lobbing tactical nuclear bombs in the general direction of enemy shipping before Martel was invented and some sanity restored. [6] Tony Butler. British Secret Projects – Jet Bombers since 1949. Hinckley: Midland Publishing. Chapter 5 [Ref] Flight International 14 Jan 1971. 55-59 3. Chance-Vought F-8 Crusader Attempting to prove anything the British could do the Americans could do better Vought produced two terrible jet powered fighters, the F6U Pirate and the F7U Cutlass. For professionals such as Supermarine this would have been considered a good warm up before producing something truly average like the Scimitar, Vought however fumbled the ball and produced the outstanding F8U Crusader instead. Although powered by a Pratt & Whitney J57 like the F-100 Super Sabre the Crusader could fly further, faster, and higher while carrying more. To assist in getting the supersonic fighter onboard Vought used a variable incidence wing this allowed the pilot to maintain sight of the ship while flying slow enough to safely land. These were later modified to incorporate boundary layer control over the flaps, initially to allow the French Navy to land the Crusader on its smaller carriers by reducing the landing speed by 15kts. The Crusader was active during the Vietnam War where it scored 19 air-to-air victories for 3 losses, the best ratio of any US aircraft. Armed with 4 x 20mm cannon it has frequently been called the last of the gunfighters, however it was upgraded through its life to carry an increasing range of stores allowing it to be used for ground attack missions as well as air defence. To provide the Essex Class carriers with an all-weather fighter from the F-8C onwards a new Magnavox radar was introduced with a larger dish. This allowed it to operate the AIM-9C, the only version of the Sidewinder to be radar guided giving it a head-on capability the IR version wouldn’t get until the AIM-9L in 1977. [Ref] However, being closely tied to the Crusader’s radar the 9C gave up the Sidewinders ability to be hung on nearly anything and didn’t equip any other type. Entering service in 1957 the Crusader served with the USN as a fighter for 20 years and remarkably was only retired by the Aéronavale in 1999 after 35 years of service. [Ref] Ron Westrum. Sidewinder, Creative Missile Development at China Lake. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. Chapter 14 2. BAe Sea Harrier  Books could, and have, been written on the inter-service shenanigans that led to the Royal Navy acquiring the Sea Harrier. Suffice to say with the writing clearly on the wall for its conventional carriers the emergence of the Harrier in the late ‘60s offered a potential solution to the task of maintaining air cover over the fleet without relying on shore based aircraft. The FRS1 essentially added a radar and a navigation system that could be aligned at sea to the basic Harrier GR3 airframe. It also removed as much magnesium as possible from the structure due to its tendency to fizzle in the presence of water. Intended to ‘Hack the Shad’ by taking out Bear reconnaissance aircraft of Soviet Naval Aviation forces the Sea Harrier was initially armed with 30-mm cannons and 2 x Sidewinders. Alternatively, dumb bombs or rocket pods could be carried. Justifying the S in FRS1 it could also carry a WE177 nuclear bomb, while a Vinten F.95 camera took care of the R. First flight was in mid-1978 and in a move that would shock the F-35 development team one training and two operational squadrons, 899, 800, and 801 respectively, were formed at Yeovilton by February 1981.

Interview with Sea Harrier war hero Sharkey Ward here

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In April 1982 both front line squadrons would be deployed to the South Atlantic as part of the British Task Force to retake the Falklands Islands from Argentina. In total 28 sea harriers would be deployed, the final 8 with the reformed 809 NAS which joined the carriers in the South Atlantic allowing some of the pilots to tick off their first air-to-air refuelling and deck landing sorties. There were further trials involved in deploying the aircraft with development radars being used to get sufficient operational Sea Harriers. Despite this, and predictions that the complete force would be wiped out in a matter of days, the Sea Harrier became the first fighter to achieve 20 air-to-air kills for no losses. All without using vectored thrust in forward flight, or VIFF, despite the insistence of multiple internet pundits. [Ref]

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Post war the aircraft received a number of upgrades, including the ability to carry four Sidewinders and integration of the Sea Eagle anti-ship missile which had been interrupted by the conflict. Further upgrades would lead to the F/A.2 with AMRAAM capability, but these didn’t enter service until 1993. The Cold War Sea Harrier would however remain in service with the Indian Navy’s 300 INAS until 2016 operating from another Falklands veteran the ex-HMS Hermes, INS Viraat. Although smaller, slower, and less well armed than the aircraft it replaced the Sea Harrier showed the world that there was an alternative to the American route of ever larger super-carriers in conditions where even they would have trouble operating. [Ref] This is the sort of thing that will feature in a Top 10 of FAA Myths just as soon as I finish it.

1. McDonnell Douglas Phantom II

In July 1959 the Royal Navy formed its first Sea Vixen squadron, an all-weather two-seat twin-engined carrier fighter that could just about break the sound barrier downhill. Rather un-sportingly 18 months later the USN formed its first F-4 Phantom squadron which could go twice as fast, carrying twice as many air-to-air missiles, while also hauling a selection of air-to-ground weaponry. It’s as if the Admiralty and British industry had had a total lack of imagination, although requiring the Sea Vixen to be able to conduct a free (catapult-less) take-off from the deck suggests they may have been smoking something.

Interview with F-4 pilot here

First flying in 1958, the same year as the Buccaneer, the Phantom used boundary layer control almost as much as the British aircraft*. Both aircraft also featured ailerons that drooped compensating for relatively small flaps in the take-off and landing configuration. Originally designed as an all-weather fleet defence interceptor the Phantom was seemingly capable of almost any role, being able to carry 16,000lbs of pretty much anything in the US or NATO inventory. In the case of the RF-4B it also carried out photoreconnaissance for the USMC from afloat and ashore. It was one of the first carrier aircraft to have an automatic landing capability, first trialled on 12 converted F-4Bs. They had been fitted with a system allowing them to be controlled by AWACs or surface ships to conduct interceptions, resulting in a change of designation to F-4G (a decade before the USAF F-4G). By using a retractable radar reflector in front of the nose gear the aircraft carrier could use the system to control the aircraft on approach to the deck. Although the interception capability never saw widespread use the deck landing capability was retrofitted to standard F-4Bs. Like the Intruder the Phantom saw its combat debut in Vietnam where it operated in the fighter and bomber roles. Unlike the Intruder it would also see service with the Royal Navy in a modified form, the J79 turbojets being replaced with Spey turbofans. Famously despite increasing the available thrust this reduced the top speed by around 0.2 Mach due to the drag from the larger intakes. They did however make the UK’s Phantoms the fastest accelerating up to around 400knots. They were also briefly considered for the USN as the F-4L for operations off the smaller Essex class carriers. However, a lack of commonality with the other US models and the potential threat to the Nimitz-class programme ended the idea. The Phantom remained in frontline service with the USN until 18 October 1986 when the type made its last carrier landing almost exactly 25 years after the first front-line squadron became carrier qualified. This period was the peak of the Cold War and throughout the F-4 proved a carrier aircraft could equal the best of any Air Force, if only because most of them ended up buying it.

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*The only difference being an unblown tailplane. The resulting increased size being needed so full elevator authority would be available while operating at high Mach when the shift in centre-of-pressure increases the aircraft’s stability.  I’ve selected the richest juiciest cuts of Hush-Kit, added a huge slab of new unpublished material, and with Unbound, I want to create a beautiful coffee-table book. Here’s the book link .  

 Take a deep breath and shove the control column forward as you plummet into the hellscape of the top ten dive bombers. You knew we were going to do this some day and here we are. One is even a jet.

Dive bombers are rarely pretty, but what they lack in beauty they make up for with structural strength; some of these airframes are among the strongest ever built. They needed to be strong, as diving at a steep (sometimes near vertical) angle and then abruptly pulling-up after weapons release puts great strain on the airframe –and the pilot. A diving attack had greater precision than a conventional approach, but it was also exceptionally dangerous. Ground-fire, fast enemy fighters and the rapidly approach ground itself savaged the unlucky. Dive bomber pilots and their back-seaters had to be young and fit, and capable of ice-cold aggression. These are some of their machines.

10. Henschel 132

Henschel rinsed the Third Reich for seven bazillion Reichsmarks-worth of weapons systems. These were sometimes impressive (like the Tiger tank) but often crap.

What is up with the fascination for Nazi prototypes anyway? They were hastily assembled, with cheap plywood construction and short-lifespan turbojets clamped to all the wrong places? It’s like Scrapheap Challenge for racists with a uniform kink.

Prior to the War, Henschel were a locomotive manufacturer who noted that Germany was going a teensy bit belligerent, and decided to cash in on this trend by building tanks and combat aircraft. The Hs 132 was intended to be the world’s first jet-propelled dive bomber but it was never finished. The world is still waiting patiently for a jet dive-bomber to make an appearance.

The only reason it made it onto our list is that it attempted to address the primary failing of the dive bomber: its inability to get away from fighters. That is prototype, with its unlikely prone pilot position, is here at all.

Nemesis: the violent, unstoppable, global military-industrial effort of the entire Allied nations.

9. Loire-Nieuport LN.401

Hitting something as big as a city with aerial bombs wound up being tougher than martial theoreticians advocating such things really appreciated in the 1920s and 1930s. When the target is compact, like a warship, and also moves and might be firing back, it’s even harder. The dive bomber offered a terrifying accuracy.  Nonetheless, there were no guarantees, as we can see with the suspiciously Stuka-like LN.401.  Reaching the end of its development cycle and entering service as the sitzkrieg concluded was a guarantee of punishing obscurity for this aircraft.

In 1940 the LN.401 took very high losses and achieved little. Some attempt was made to restart development of this aircraft after the war but the market was by then non-existent as the dive bomber was known worldwide mainly as a dangerous deathtrap flown by baddies.

Nemesis: its owners & the Third Reich

8. Vultee A-31/35 Vengeance

When it came to supporting the soldiers on the ground, the Allies had an embarrassment of riches. There were many fighter-bombers types capable of getting down low and attacking with rockets.

Hence the uncinematic life of the Vengeance.

This aeroplane was another middle child in a family of reasonable-to-mediocre aircraft available at the opening of World War II. The Darwinian pressures of combat would very soon determine which had enough capacity to evolve, to become winners, and which machines didn’t. The robust-enough Vultee never left the lower rank. The Vengeance got sidelined to training tasks, and was palmed off to desperate Allies and operated in theatres with less severe Axis fighter opposition.

Nemesis: industrial considerations and the tactical eclipse of dive bombing.

7. Blackburn B-24 Skua

A wild admixture of potency and vulnerability marked the dive bomber’s life and saw early expression in the Royal Navy’s first all-metal monoplane, the Skua. In April 1940 Skuas sent the cruiser Königsberg to the bottom near Bergen, Norway. This was the very first sinking of a capital ship in war by dive bombers. Indeed, much of the best of the hateful work this aircraft type did would be visited on big warships. In turn, though, the Skua would be close to hopeless against Luftwaffe land fighters with more powerful engines. In dive bomber terms this was par for the course but the poor Skua was rather unfairly expected to act as a fighter as well and the results were predictable. Target towing however was a perfectly sensible second career for the Skua and after February 1941 this is exactly what the Skua did. Atomic bombs would make the main selling point of this aircraft type, accuracy, seem kinda, well, boring. Towing targets is a good, honest job.

Nemesis: Messerschmitt Bf 109

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6. Fairey Barracuda

Dive bombers represent a sub-group of aircraft far from generic in appearance. A Fairey Barracuda is rarely confused with another type thanks to its braced T-tail, thick shoulder-mounted wings, a continuous canopy for its crew of three and big Fairey-Youngman flaps. Fairey-Youngman flaps were a feature of the Swordfish, Albacore and Firefly. They were attached to struts below the wing’s trailing edge a position that improved airflow over them, they could be deflected 30 degrees upwards to act as dive-brakes. These all-important dive brakes bringing some control in the attack and easing carrier landings. Most of the aircraft mentioned here made themselves felt in the war at sea. For the Barracuda, this meant a series of attacks against the Kriegsmarine battleship Tirpitz, hidden for most of its service life in Norwegian fjords. These were difficult operations against a massively well-defended prestige target. Later in the war it was used against Japan. By 1945 it was one of the most common Fleet Air Arm machines. Unfortunately, the Barracuda faced a number of developmental difficulties. Designed for the mighty Roll-Royce Griffon, production shortages meant all the wartime versions were (under) powered by the Merlin. Another rather serious flaw came in the form of leakage into the cockpit of ether-laced hydraulic fluid. This is very bad, as ether can cause drowsiness, dizziness and vomiting.

To date, no other dive bomber has received a musical tribute approaching the power of John Cale’s song for the Barracuda. (Editor: I prefer The Standell’s tribute)

Note: neither of these are actually about the aircraft

Nemesis: 2-cm & 8.8-cm Flak, smoke generators, Messerschmitt Bf 109.

5. Curtiss SB2C Helldiver / A-25 Shrike

What great aircraft is not beset by problems? These seem to have been as prevalent in 1940 as they are in 2020 but the Helldiver seemed to have more than its fair share of them. Despite being possessed of possibly the best name of any combat aircraft the Helldiver was saddled with stability issues that were never eradicated  — and the aircraft ordered by the Royal Navy were rejected on account of the Helldiver’s “appalling handling“. After being wrestled more-or-less into shape, the Helldiver, in concert with the Grumman TBF Avenger, fought effectively throughout the US Navy’s Pacific island-hopping campaign against the Japanese. Somewhat harder-hitting than the Dauntless, the Helldiver also featured perforated flaps. These reduce tail buffeting during that crazed, noisome trip down to the target.

Ultimately the SB2C sunk more shipping than any other Allied dive bomber. Curiously, despite never being operated by the RCAF or Canadian Navy, over a thousand Helldivers were built in Canada. Italy was the last country to retire the Helldiver and they did so in the year that Bobby Darrin’s Mack the Knife hit number one on the pop charts, 1959.

This being the final service use of any purpose-built dive-bomber. Prior to the war, a naval biplane had carried the name Helldiver, the Curtiss SBC. Before that and the Stuka prototypes, dive bombing had remained a topic for command-level debate based upon undeniable but casually-gained successes between 1914 and the 1930s. Not until all-metal monoplanes were available, that could handle near vertical dive angles and the recovery therefrom, did dive bombing enjoy its professional heyday.

Nemesis: Mitsubishi A6M Zero

4. Petlyakov Pe-2

With 11,427 units the Pe-2 was most-produced dive bomber of any type. It was also the third most numerous of World War II’s twin-engine warplanes after the Ju 88 (15,000+) and the Wellington (11,462). It is perhaps telling that how little recognition this vital warplane receives outside of Russia.

This is the biggest and most powerful aircraft on our list, as well as the fastest to actually fly. Alas, the political reality of the USSR affects our consideration of this aeroplane right away, how on earth the people designing the Pe-2 got such a good result while in the imprisoned in the abject misery of a gulag is a testament to their fortitude. It also reflects the existential danger facing the USSR after the German invasion (the design team had been arrested for typically tenuous reasons during an earlier high altitude fighter project). Their next ‘assignment’ was to a medium bomber project, the Pe-2. Perhaps Soviet officialdom had been impressed by word of the Stuka and the D3A enough that they ordered the Pe-2 converted to a dive bomber. Forty-five days were allotted to get that done. How well this worked out is reinforced by the combat record of the Pe-2 and the fact Poland kept it in service until the year Jerry Lee Lewis released Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.

Nemesis: Focke Wulf Fw-190

3. Aichi D3A Val

Aichi consulted Heinkel Fleugzeugwerke in designing the D3A and the outcome is a lot easier to look at than the Stuka. As Japan lashed out in the Pacific it called upon the D3A to ratchet up the infamy again and again. The Val slapped three Allied navies with a bill that was probably still being paid when the Beatles debuted on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Instrumental to the Pearl Harbour attack, the D3A was crazy good at its job. Vals teamed up with torpedo bombers to destroy even heavily defended fleet carriers like the USS Lexington. As with all these aircraft, the Val’s nemesis was never far off, though the D3A was noted as a capable dogfighter for the first year or so of the Pacific war (at least once it had divested itself of those pesky bombs). From headline-grabbing success, the Val turned into the victim in a flash, and many were transferred to suicide units.

Nemesis: M2 BMG calibre .50 & the AP Mk.1 1600-lb bomb

2. Douglas SBD Dauntless

Approaching obsolete status just as the Pacific war got going the Slow But Deadly still managed a starring role in the (short) age of the dive bomber.

Some twenty or so Dauntlesses remain in the world – dive bombers are built to last (at least if not being shot at). The Dauntless is remembered as the US carrier aircraft that turned the tide in the Pacific, the Helldiver may have sunk more ships but the Dauntless did the job when it really mattered: at the Battle of Midway it sank or fatally damaged all four Japanese fleet carriers present, disabling three of them in the span of just six minutes. Yet amazingly it came through the war with the lowest crew loss rate of any US carrier aircraft despite being present at harrowing moments like Midway. Look at those perforated dive brakes. Twinned aft-firing machine guns show us where danger truly lay for all dive bombers. Also, the Dauntless has a classic piece of dive bomber safety hardware in the form of a trapeze to swing the bomb below the arc of the propeller before releasing it.

Nemesis: Mitsubishi A6M Zero

1. Junkers Ju-87 Stuka

The screaming gull-winged spectacle of the Stuka from Spain, to Poland, the low countries, France and the USSR is written into the darkest chapters of the twentieth century with good reason. It should be giving you a shiver right now, too.

Stukas (a contraction of the German Sturzkampfflugzeug ‘dive-bomber’) has huge success as flying artillery in aid of armoured breakthroughs. Then came fighter opposition. Pursuit by a fighter with six or eight more guns and a 150-mph speed advantage undermined the Stuka’s resume in drastic fashion. Yet, more than any other plane here the Stuka would be re-employed from pure dive bombing to combat roles where speed wasn’t an issue. Tank-busting Stukas in particular would prove a nasty feature of the grim fallback to Germany’s 1939 borders. Rolling nicely into furious descents for the cameras had had its day by 1943 but the Stuka persevered.

Top Stuka trivia: despite its fame as a bomber a Ju 87 managed to score the first air-to-air kill of the Second World War, shooting down a Polish PZL P.11c on the morning of the 1st of September 1939.

Nemesis: Supermarine Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane, Fairey Fulmar, Yakovlev Yak-9.

–––––  Stephen Caulfield

 

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The Sam Wise Report Nominative determinism in people is a well known reality. It’s why every Smith you’ve ever met has their own anvil and all Coopers supply breweries with their barrels. I myself, as an incredibly intelligent person, am living proof of this. As I often do I was thinking about aviation one afternoon when I started wondering about aircraft names and the effect they have on both the perception of the aircraft but possibly even the actual success itself. It’s long been remarked that looks play a huge part in the success of an aircraft, with very few truly hideous designs getting to production, but how about their names? I decided to turn my mighty brain to this matter and investigate. Support Hush-Kit with our high quality aviation themed merchandise here

It’s hard to think of many properly successful aircraft that have genuinely atrocious names. Indeed, in hindsight maybe the aircraft go on to make the name famous after the fact. The Spitfire, icon of freedom and defiance, has cemented that word in history as a symbol of aviation design. Imagine if its original name – the Shrew – had stuck. Would we still talk about the aircraft in just reverent tones now? Likewise, the B-17, the Flying Fortress. As incredibly campy a name as it is, it more than does what it says on the tin with its famous defensibility and wall of lead it could put into the air against its attackers.

On the other hand, let’s talk about the utterly dismal Airacuda. I mean…Airacuda. How did anyone think that could be taken seriously? It’s a total non-word meant to sound “sky-y” and it’s little wonder that the engineers couldn’t be bothered to actually design something worth flying when they had to read that word every day in the office. The design was atrocious anyway, a real hot mess of aerodynamic design, but it’d have been a hard sell PR wise. (Note, the similarly named Airacobra gets a pass here because “cobra” is at least a word on its own. Then again, it wasn’t very well-received in the Anglophone countries, get its sterling reputation as a fighter on the Eastern Front with the USSR – perhaps Аэрокобра has some extra contextual meaning in Russian folklore, or something.)

Another aircraft with a pretty dreadful name is the PZL M-15 Belphegor. Ok, if you know that its namesake is a biblical demon your first thought is that it’s a pretty rad name for a jet plane, right? But perhaps those Poles that bestowed this nickname upon it were unaware that Belphegor is the demon of the cardinal sin of Sloth. Then again, maybe they did – with a maximum speed of 200kph the M-15 is the slowest production jet in history, designed for and not very good at crop-dusting and other agricultural work. It’s also, perhaps appropriately, sinfully ugly. The thing is, I’m not sure if the name engenders a distaste for the aircraft and perhaps the reputations it has developed, or if the aircraft’s general shitness creates a negative association with the name. Pretty sure it’s the former, though, given what an ugly word it is.

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It’s little wonder that the Gloster Gladiator – a warrior, a fighter, often to the last breath – fared better in the public imagination than the Gloster Gamecock.

I’m being serious, would we really tell tales of Faith, Hope and Charity, those mythical….Gamecocks? Still, it’s better than the Gnatsnapper, insert crying-with-laughter emoji here! The single Sopwith Sociable was used on a thoroughly unsociable and totally failed bombing attempt on German docks before being abandoned for being too introverted, and do I really need to explain how utterly, utterly garbage a name the X-20 Dyna-Soar was?

On the other hand, despite having a thoroughly unpleasant title, the Pipistrel Virus has absolutely followed its calling with a highly successful run of over 1000 built for customers all round the world – you could say it’s gone globally viral, though there’s been congestion on the production line for its sister-design the Sinus (is that enough topical virus jokes?). I firmly believe that no one would’ve bought a plane called the Virus if it weren’t absolutely set in the stars that such a name would have to spread far and wide. However, by far and away the worst name any unsuspecting aircraft has ever had bestowed upon it has to be the Aviation Traders Accountant. I actually yawned while typing that. You name an aeroplane something so achingly ennui-inducing as that you absolutely deserve to fail. And the good thing is, as demonstrated above, the universe will make sure you do.

• Sam Wise 

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  “If you have any interest in aviation, you’ll be surprised, entertained and fascinated by Hush-Kit – the world’s best aviation blog”. Rowland White, author of the best-selling ‘Vulcan 607’ I’ve selected the richest juiciest cuts of Hush-Kit, added a huge slab of new unpublished material, and with Unbound, I want to create a beautiful coffee-table book. Here’s the book link .   I can do it with your help. From the cocaine, blood and flying scarves of World War One dogfighting to the dark arts of modern air combat, here is an enthralling ode to these brutally exciting killing machines. The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes is a beautifully designed, highly visual, collection of the best articles from the fascinating world of military aviation –hand-picked from the highly acclaimed Hush-kit online magazine (and mixed with a heavy punch of new exclusive material). It is packed with a feast of material, ranging from interviews with fighter pilots (including the English Electric Lightning, stealthy F-35B and Mach 3 MiG-25 ‘Foxbat’), to wicked satire, expert historical analysis, top 10s and all manner of things aeronautical, from the site described as “the thinking-man’s Top Gear… but for planes”. The solid well-researched information about aeroplanes is brilliantly combined with an irreverent attitude and real insight into the dangerous romantic world of combat aircraft. FEATURING

  • Interviews with pilots of the F-14 Tomcat, Mirage, Typhoon, MiG-25, MiG-27, English Electric Lighting, Harrier, F-15, B-52 and many more.
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  The book will be a stunning object: an essential addition to the library of anyone with even a passing interest in the high-flying world of warplanes, and featuring first-rate photography and a wealth of new world-class illustrations. Rewards levels include these packs of specially produced trump cards. I’ve selected the richest juiciest cuts of Hush-Kit, added a huge slab of new unpublished material, and with Unbound, I want to create a beautiful coffee-table book. Here’s the book link .  

Navies have been interested in helicopters almost since they were a practical proposition. If you include the Kriegsmarine towing gyrocopters behind U-boats actually a little before that point.  The British Admiralty were even proposing the use of helicopters for convoy protection as early as 1943, which demonstrates an attitude to the expendability of aircrew the Japanese would have admired. This run down will consider aircraft that specifically affect the battle at sea, ones that can engage in anti-submarine (ASW), anti-surface (ASuW), or to some extent anti-air warfare. So, despite having the word NAVY written on the side such greats as the Merlin Mk4 and CH-53 are excluded. This may cost me drinks unless I can persuade Hush-Kit to let me write ‘Top 5 Amphibious Assault Helicopters’ (HK: You’ve twisted my arm). Similarly, the mighty Sea King is no longer on the list as the majority still in service seem to be for utility work rather than hunting submarines. It also discounts such wannabes as the Army Air Corps Apache AH-1, which despite getting some water wings has a laughable sensor suite for maritime warfare. The max radar range on the AH.1 being less than the shortest the Lynx HAS3 could display, which means any ships it shows would also be visible out of the windows.
The capability of naval aircraft is primarily in their sensor and mission systems, predictably the true abilities of these are closely guarded secrets and can vary considerably between versions of the same aircraft sold to different countries. Consequently, the ranking below is partly subjective and may well have consisted of aircraft names being shouted across a socially distanced office to be met with the response ‘what that piece of $h1t?’. To keep the arguments going longer than necessary they’ve also been compared to cars, which could backfire on me terribly…

11. Kaman SH-2 Super Seasprite ‘Obey Your Thirst for vintage helos’ 

If you want a small ships helicopter and have some sort of aversion to the Lynx or Panther families, you may be able to pick up a Sea Sprite on the second-hand market. Barely used if you find any ex-Australian examples.

Originally designed in 1956 with their retirement by the US Navy at the turn of the century a handful have been upgraded for international users. The Australian upgrade programme being so ambitious it was eventually cancelled in 2008 after kind of just about entering service. Some of the airframes going to New Zealand who’d actually ordered five new build aircraft in 1997.

Broadly comparable to the Lynx in size and mission systems it’s perhaps notable that there are less in service among 4 international operators than the Royal Navy has Wildcats. There are also reports that Poland is unable to obtain manufacturer support for its four aircraft hastening their withdrawal from service.

 

The aviation equivalent of a 1960s Mini 998, yes you can update them but honestly, they’re not as fun as you remember and getting parts is starting to be tricky.

10. Kamov Ka-27 ‘Helix’ ‘Hormone replacement therapy’

The Ka-27 started development in 1969 as an evolution of the Ka-25 ‘Hormone’ with improved night and poor weather capability. Entering service in the early ‘80s there are now 46 upgraded Ka-27M in service with the Russian Navy. China, India, Syria, Vietnam, and Yemen have all received examples of the Ka-28 export variant, while Ukraine has some Ka-27 left over from the dissolution of the USSR.

The co-axial rotor system allows all the available power to be used lifting the aircraft, and arguably makes working on the flight deck safer. It also allows for a more compact footprint although it does require increased head room in the hangar due to the taller rotor mast. This has led to some interesting hangar designs on Russian warships which can feature retracting roofs.

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Primarily an Anti-Submarine Warfare aircraft the Helix has radar, dipping sonar, and a sonobouy system tied together by a mission system. Disappointingly although it has an internal weapons bay this limits it to only carrying one torpedo, and that at the expense of sonobouys. Considering the older Sea King can carry four this is something of a limitation when hunting submarines. Typically, in war time once detected the plan would be to focus the submarine commanders mind by ensuring there was always an active torpedo in the water, for the ‘Helix’ this would appear impossible unless operating on top of its own task group.

As with all Russian operated equipment there’s also the question of its material state. In 2007 your author had a ship’s tour of the Admiral Chabanenko during a multi-national exercise.

The embarked Helix had tyres that would fail a MoT, the underlying canvas being visible, a hole through one of the vertical stabilisers due to corrosion, and a bungee cord holding the pilot’s windscreen wiper against the windscreen. This in no way made seeing it approaching head on in flight any less terrifying. Like a brick under two circular saws…

The TATA Truck of naval aviation, probably sporting moderate body damage with some parts pop rivetted back on.

9. Changhe Z-18 ‘The Blue Sea Panda’ 

The Z-18F is a development of a development of the Aérospatiale SA 321 Super Frelon (the original ‘super hornet’). As such it’s more powerful and heavier than the Gallic original with a redesigned fuselage and greater use of composites.
For ASW work the Z-18F (can we get NATO reporting names for these things?) has dipping sonar, sonobouy dispenser, and some form of camera sensor pod. Be warned as this list progresses it will be increasingly hard to make that sound exciting or unique. The People’s Liberation Army Navy Air Force (PLANAF) are also developing an AEW version, the Z-18J, this has a radar scanner that folds down from the aft ramp area in flight.

Physically the Z-18F is bigger than the Merlin, although the max all up mass is about a ton less, as such it seems to currently be limited to operating from the PLAN’s carriers and amphibious landing ships. Additionally, the radar’s placement will create a blind arc to the rear limiting its ability to maintain contact with targets of interest when returning to mother. Hopefully, it at least sector blanks* or the aircrew are unlikely to have children.

(Sector blanking is when a radar doesn’t transmit for part of its scan. So that sector is blank on the radar screen. Generally done to avoid exposing something to lots of radio waves, e.g. when a helicopter is landing on a ship they’ll sector blank the approach path on the high power radars.)

A Shuanghuan Sceo when you really wanted a BMW X5.

8. Sikorsky MH-53 Sea Dragon – Niche capability at a cost.

The MH-53E was developed from the CH-53 Sea Stallion operated by the USMC for amphibious assault and by the USN for carrying really heavy stuff to a ship.

Entering service in 1987 with HM-14 the Sea Dragon tows a hydrofoil through the water which can set off mines either by sounding like a ship passing overhead or by creating an electric field to trigger magnetic mines. Being a fairly niche capability, the only other operators of the Sea Dragon have been Japan and Taiwan, countries with something of an interest in maintaining open sea lanes due to a slightly overbearing neighbour.

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The size of the aircraft has required Sea Dragon squadrons to embark on amphibious assault ships, during the 1990-91 Gulf Conflict this led to the LPH USS Tripoli effectively acting as a 20,000-ton minehunter. Embarrassingly she also demonstrated that any ship can be a minehunter at least once by hitting one.

Current plans see the MH-53 remaining in service until 2025 when the capability will be replaced by a package of features on the Littoral Combat Ship. A programme that’s such a dumpster fire it makes the F-35 look like a model of procurement.

If you absolutely, positively need a helicopter to sweep for mines it’s basically a Sea Dragon or a Merlin. On the down side the MH-53 requires a big ship to operate from and has a significantly worse safety record than the AW-101 being the US Navy’s most accident prone helicopter.

Like a 1960s Ford 250 Pick-Up, it can tow stuff and it can carry stuff. Just don’t expect sophistication.

7. Airbus Helicopters AS565 Panther ‘Panther burns’ 

Despite Aerospatiale have 30% of the production work for the Lynx, and the Marine National operating the type, in typical Gallic fashion it was decided to produce a version of the Dauphin with almost identical capabilities. Presumably, it was felt having an aircraft with Anglo-Saxon rotors was unacceptable [3]. With only 16 being procured for l’Aéronavale there was obviously an eye to the export market however only a relatively small proportion of the military Dauphin derivatives sold have been for the naval versions and even then, many have been simple utility aircraft.

Most Panthers in service have been equipped for surface search, however in 2014 Indonesia became the first customer to configure theirs with dipping sonar for ASW to make sure the cabin is as cramped as possible.

Able to carry a broad range of weapons from torpedoes to the AS.15TT light anti-ship missile naval AS565 have been sold to Indonesia, Israel and Saudi Arabia who attacked Iraqi patrol boats with AS.15 during the Gulf War.

Based on a civil helicopter the Panther has been modified for the naval role with an enlarged fenestron to improve out of wind hover performance and an extended nose for a forward scanning radar and avionics. This may have been a hinderance in the export market where the Lynx, designed from the outset for ship borne operation, has far outsold it for maritime use.

Some sort of small sporty French number, probably a 205GTi. But only the 1.6 litre model.

6. Sirorsky CH-148 Cyclone ‘The Cyclone Wars’ 

In 1993 the Canadian government cancelled its order for up to 50 Merlins to replace their ageing Sea King fleet incurring fees of $470 Million. In an attempt to prove they were the equals of the UK Government when it came to aircraft procurement the subsequent programme suffered a level of delay and near cancellation that the experts at the MoD and Westlands can only have viewed with admiration. An order for 28 Cyclones, based on the Sikorsky S-92, was made in 2004 with deliveries expected four years later. Only two years late first deliveries of the CH-148 were announced, to an interim standard, and with an engine upgrade already planned because the originals weren’t powerful enough. These deliveries were delayed. By July of 2012 with no mission capable aircraft delivered and up to $88 Million of fines due the programme was clearly going badly and by 2013 there was a brief flirtation with buying Merlin. Deliveries finally started in late 2015 to an interim standard that allowed shore-based training with operationally capable aircraft starting to arrive in 2018. So only about a decade late.

Modification from the baseline H-92 includes strengthened undercarriage and deck-handling gear, main and tail rotor folding, anti-corrosion measures, and optional air-to-air refuelling. They have presumably also had the modifications to the oil system that were rolled out post the 2009 crash of a civilian S-92.
Now in service the Cyclone appears to deliver what you’d want in an ASW helicopter, endurance, internal volume, and the ability to land on a Frigate or Destroyer. So much like the Merlins they could have had, but a few decades late and with all the development costs borne by the Canadian Government. With only 28 CH-148 planned and no other purchasers of the naval H-92 airframe future development costs are also likely to be high. Overall it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the Cyclone has been an expensive way of not buying Merlins.

A Cadillac CT6-V with all the optional extras selected because after two changes of partner you’re still not allowed a Bentley.

5. Westland Super Lynx – Set the standard for small naval helicopters. ‘The Yeovil Yoda’ 

There are two types of helicopter on this list. Ones that were designed for naval operations from the outset, and ones that are adaptions of land-based aircraft. The Lynx family fall firmly into the former category. The requirement to operate to a small ship’s flight deck in sea state 6 resulted in an aircraft with a rigid rotor head [4] made of a lump of titanium making it highly responsive to the pilot’s inputs. To absorb the shock from landing a long stroking undercarriage was fitted that could deal with the ship rising up to meet the aircraft at the wrong moment. A capability enthusiastically demonstrated by the instructor on the author’s familiarisation flight by dropping the collective while in a 20’ hover.

A harpoon deck lock system was fitted immediately below the rotor head which allows the aircraft to attach itself to a flight deck equipped with a compatible grid. Together with the angled main undercarriage and castoring nosewheel this permits the Lynx to turn to face into wind independently of the ship’s heading. This allows operations in restricted waters or if the ship is operating a towed array sonar and manoeuvring would interrupt its use.

In Royal Naval use the Lynx was operated in the Anti-Surface Warfare role in which it excelled in the Falklands and Gulf conflicts. It also had a side-line in delivering torpedoes or depth charges to submarines detected by other helicopters or surface ships. With a peak of seventeen operators of the naval variant there are a bewildering array of sensor options, the majority now feature a 360° scan radar, never a feature of UK models even if the RN splashed out on the radome. Most employ some form of camera turret on the nose, while some have a true ASW capability with a dipping sonar fitted in the cabin. Leonardo’s Yeovil are carrying out modernisation programmes for several Lynx operators including Brazil and Portugal with the type expected to remain in service for years to come.
The Lynx is the go-to small ships helicopter able to operate in the harshest of conditions and able to carry a range of weapons. The only downside is the limited endurance compared to larger aircraft.

A classic that’s still being remanufactured into as new condition, the Lynx is the E-Type.

 4. NHIndustries NH90 ‘Flash ‘arry’

A broadly Seahawk sized aircraft, the NH-90 was designed to meet a range of requirements for France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, the UK dropping out of the programme in 1987. Design work started in the early 90s making it one of the newest designs in this survey. Produced in two version, the Tactical Transport Helicopter and the NATO Frigate Helicopter it’s notable for being the first production Fly-By-Wire helicopter with a quadruplex control system. Because nothing says you trust a system like having four copies of it. This has a number of advantages over conventional mechanical controls including weight saving and the elimination of adverse handling characteristics. Deliveries of the TTH began in 2006 with the first NFH finally being delivered to the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) in 2010 after delays due to problems with the mission system software. It would be a further three years before the RNLN received aircraft to the initial full operational capability.

For the NFH role the NH-90 can be configured with a variety of sensors for ASuW and ASW including dipping sonar in the cabin. Similarly, a range of external stores can be carried including torpedoes, anti-ship, and Stinger air-to-air missiles.

Although on paper the NH-90 appears a capable naval aircraft its introduction to service has not been without problems.

Embarrassingly for a naval helicopter the first deployments, by the Royal Netherlands Navy, revealed problems with corrosion leading to compensation payments and a suspension of deliveries until a solution was found. Other operators have had problems with windscreen cracking, oil cooler fans failing, and a cabin floor that’s unable to withstand the impact of soldiers’ boots. In Australia’s case the shortcomings and delays to its TTH were so significant that they received an additional aircraft free of charge. Consequently, they chose the SH-60R to replace their SH-60Bs in preference to the NFH.
Overall, the NH-90 has potential but is only now putting its development woes behind it.

A Tesla, lots of shiny technology which you then find doesn’t work how you thought.

3. Leonardo AW101 Merlin ‘What’s up the wizard’s sleeve?’

The EHI-01 Marlin programme stemmed from a UK requirement to replace the Sea King which was merged with a similar Italian requirement. Thanks to multiple typographic errors this became the EH-101 Merlin, a small bird of prey being a less obvious successor to the Swordfish, Albacore, and Barracuda than a large sport fish with an extend spike-like bill. [5] Although development started in 1984 as with most late Cold War programmes the introduction to service was delayed with the first production aircraft flying over a decade later in 1995. The situation was not improved when one of the pre-production aircraft was lost after the rotor brake applied itself in flight. This didn’t stop the rotors, but it did melt the brake which then made its way through bits of the aircraft that don’t like having molten metal interact with them. Further development and flight trials permitted the Merlin to finally enter service in 2000 with 824 NAS at RNAS Culdrose.
With a similarly demanding operating profile as the Lynx and Wildcat the Merlin can operate to the Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigates in the most demanding conditions. It just looks a lot scarier as the pilot appears to be trying to put himself inside the hangar in order to get the main landing gear on the deck. Westlands and Agusta also came up with a novel way to meet the challenging One Engine Inoperative (OEI) requirements by having three engines, any two of which will cover you for most stages of flight.
As an ASW helicopter the Merlin is hard to beat with room for a range of sensors, endurance that makes you fear for the crew’s bladders and the ability to carry up to four torpedoes.

The Italian Navy also use theirs for AEW with an enlarged ventral radome, the RN meanwhile introducing a similar capability in the near future with the slightly less elegant solution of strapping a Searchwater radar to the side. The other major naval user is the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force which replaced its Sea Dragons with Kawasaki built Merlins modified to tow a mine-sweeping sled and equipped with a laser mine detection system. The main drawback is its size, which even on the Type 23 which was designed to take it can make operations more challenging than they would be with something like the Wildcat.

Bentley Mulsanne, big, fast, expensive.

2. Leonardo AW159 Wildcat HMA Mk2 ‘Missing Lynx’ 

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Many people will tell you the Wildcat isn’t a Lynx, including the manufacturer and my Boss. The cynical will point out a lot of the transmission system was carried over, and many part numbers start with an LX, but the airframe is a significant redesign using a monolithic structure, the mission system makes even the final Lynx HMA8 [6] look like it was using an abacus, and the engines can provide about twice as much power.

Learning from 30+ years of embarked operations by the Lynx the Wildcat maintains the ability to operate to and from small ship flight decks in sea states where eating seems ill-advised, despite being a ton heavier and with further growth potential. The sensor suite has been completely revised from the Lynx with AESA radar, multi-mode E/O turret, and an ESM and RWR fit that doesn’t appear to be left over from World War II. It’s also possible to fit a dipping sonar in the cabin, an option chosen by South Korea and the Philippines.
A wide range of anti-surface and anti-submarine weapons can be carried. The Royal Navy’s can also be equipped with an aerodynamic weapons wing that offsets the weight of the stores. With increasing concern over swarming attacks by multiple small craft, especially in maritime choke points, the Wildcat’s ability to carry 20 lightweight multi-purpose missiles gives it an edge compared to other naval helicopters.

The major downside to the Wildcat is the limited endurance which hasn’t improved on that of the Lynx. While the cynical may consider the author’s bias has placed it so high on the list it should be noted South Korea a country virtually at war with its neighbour [7] selected the Wildcat in preference to the next aircraft.

If the Lynx is an E-Type, the Wildcat is an F-Type the 21st Century reinvention of a classic.

1. Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk ‘Romeo Syndrome’ 

The Seahawk is the naval development of the ubiquitous Blackhawk. The initial SH-60B version was primarily an ASuW aircraft fulfilling a similar role to the Lynx. To replace the Sea King the SH-60F introduced dipping sonar for close in protection of the carrier battle group. At the beginning of the 21st century the Romeo model entered production which combined the abilities of both in one airframe. As such it’s a jack-of-all-trades and now equips all previous SH-60B and F squadrons.

Flying the Blackhawk in combat with Jack McCain here

Compared to the Blackhawk the basic Seahawk airframe has a revised undercarriage with the tail wheels moved forwards to the transmission joint [8] reducing the deck footprint. A Recovery Assist, Secure and Traverse System (RAST) is fitted which although more involved in operation than the Harpoon system used by the Lynx, Wildcat and Merlin will also move the aircraft into the hangar reducing the number or personnel required to work on deck. A folding tail, electric blade folding, and an emergency flotation system complete the navalisation.

With over 300 produced the SH-60R is in use with navies around the world, frequently replacing the Sea King. Able to conduct ASW or ASuW with a range of weapons including Hellfire missiles there seem to be few downsides to the latest version of the Sea Hawk. The broad range of capabilities will however make maintaining currency in all of them a challenge for the aircrew.

Competent in all areas, it’s the choice you don’t want to make to avoid being predictable. So basically a 3 Series.

Bing Chandler is a former Lynx Observer and current Wildcat Air Safety Officer. He struggled to find an alternative to a 3 series so ended up with a coupe to try and retain his youth. If you want a British Pacific Fleet roundel sticker he can now fix you up.

[1] Wilson, Michael. A Submariners’ War: The Indian Ocean, 1939-1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus, 2000. 135-146
[2] CinC Western Approaches. ‘Minutes of Conference on Operation of Aircraft from Escort Carriers, Held at Derby House’, 26 November 1943. ADM 1/13781. National Archives, Kew, United Kingdom.
[3] In a conventional helicopter the designer has a choice in direction of rotation of the main rotor blades. This affects which pedal the pilot has to push when he raises the collective. Traditionally French and Russian types rotate clockwise when viewed from above, American and British anti-clockwise.
[4] Helicopter blades need freedom to feather to change pitch, to flap as the lift force changes during each rotation, and to lead and lag as the drag forces change during each rotation. Earlier types achieved this with actual hinges and a lot of inertia. The MB-105 and Lynx were the first production aircraft to achieve this with only a feathering hinge, flapping and lead lag forces being absorbed by flexing of the rotor head itself.
[5] Brown, D. K., and George Moore. Rebuilding the Royal Navy: Warship Design since 1945. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing, 2012. Chap. 7
[6] There were multiple upgrades to the HMA8 mission system the final one even replacing the vacuum tube tactical display with a high-resolution flat screen monitor as if it was the 21st century.
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROKS_Cheonan_sinking
[8] Where the fuselage is attached to the tail boom.

We launch our new beautiful book!

The Sea Harrier was a tiny, slow and lightly-armed curiosity at the time it entered service in 1978. But when pitted against the mighty no-compromise F-15 Eagle, the most respected combat aircraft in the world, it delivered an expected shock. We spoke to Commander ‘Sharkey’ Ward, who successfully took the Sea Harrier to war in 1982, to find out more. How well did the Sea Harrier perform against the F-15 in DACT? “Dissimilar Air Combat Training must be viewed as the bread and butter of the frontline fighter world. Support Hush-Kit with our high quality aviation themed merchandise here

In the modern era, Beyond Visual Range air to air weapon systems have reduced the likelihood of engaging enemy fighters in a dogfight. But it is only during fully developed Within Visual Range air combat that a pilot’s aircraft handling skills and tactical awareness are tested to the full. Detailed knowledge of an adversary aircraft’s manoeuvring capability and, indeed, of the adversary pilot’s capability is essential in order to ensure victory, especially against a theoretically superior fighter aircraft. When aircraft of the same type are engaged in combat, the more experienced and capable pilot should always win. But when two aircraft are fighting against two aircraft, fighter tactics really come into play. It is not easy to explain in detail the intricacies of air combat but as with all forms of warfare it is a must to ‘know your enemy’. In late 1979, the Sea Harrier was the new boy on the block and fighter pilots everywhere were keen to know how capable it was going to be in combat. This led to the USAF F-5E Aggressor Squadron at Alconbury inviting my Trials Unit to visit them for an air combat program of mutual learning and evaluation. The results of the detachment spread rapidly through the fighter world. We came away having recorded 26 kills ‘for’ and just 10 ‘against’. In very quick time, the boss of the fabled F-15 Eagle Squadron at Bitburg in Germany called me up and asked to come and visit us with two of his superb aircraft for more fighter combat evaluation. My first book provides full details of these two DACT detachments. Against the F-15, Ian Mortimer and I recorded seven kills ‘for’ and just one ‘against’. Detractors might have called this a flash in the pan. But they would be wrong. In December 1981, I took my new squadron, 801, to the Air Combat Manoeuvring Installation at Decimomannu, Cagliari on the Italian Island of Sardinia to fight once more against the Aggressors and the Bitburg Eagles. It was a privilege to share the skies with them once more and benefit from their expertise. We had flown our Sea Harriers down across France from the UK to participate in tri-national fighter combat training against the best of the US and Italian Air Forces. It was a terrific training opportunity – even though the Italian pilots never turned up in the air to fight (but they did wear flashy flying suits). For 801 Squadron, the unique attraction of the detachment was the state-of-the-art range in which combat was to be conducted: an Air Combat Manoeuvring Installation (ACMI). Each aircraft carried a special telemetry pod that was monitored and recorded in real time by a ring of sensor stations encircling the combat area, which was over the sea. The pod transmitted accurate information about each aircraft’s relative position, heading, speed, attitude, angle of attack, ‘g’ and height. This information was collated by powerful computers on the ground and resulted in a complete three-dimensional recording of each combat which could be displayed on a large screen in the debriefing room – with freeze and replay options instantly available – just like a videogame. The real time view from each cockpit was available on demand and very realistic. The simulated release of missiles and the firing of guns was measured precisely to establish whether a ‘kill’ had been achieved, i.e. within range, missile acquired, gun tracking on target, etc. Spurious claims of ‘kills’ would be summarily discounted and disputed claims of combat success could be fairly and accurately adjudicated. In other words, one could not cheat and ‘win the fight in the debrief rather than in the air’. Critically, and during each sortie debrief, a pilot could see his tactical aircraft-handling mistakes at any part of the combat and could learn from them as they were pointed out by experienced Instructors. I was fortunate to be one of those – a fully qualified Air Warfare Instructor (AWI) trained by the élite aircrew of 764 Naval Air Squadron at Naval Air Station Lossiemouth, Scotland. After getting used to the Decimomannu range facilities with private squadron sorties, the real business began against the F-15’s and the F-5E’s. Our little Sea Harrier jump jet more than held its own against these two superb fighter aircraft which could fly faster and turn much tighter. To the uninitiated, this should have meant a one-sided contest that we would always lose. But not so. All my squadron pilots approached the air combat detachment with a high level of confidence. Our earlier successes against the F-5E’s and the F-15’s had not been forgotten by our opponents. They treated us with a great deal of respect on the ground and, importantly, in the air. This proved to be to our considerable advantage. The real time recording of every engagement ensured that what had happened in the air was properly and correctly recognised afterwards in the debrief.

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Our pilots acquitted themselves very well indeed, winning some and losing some. The icing on the cake for me came when I was programmed to fly alone against two F-15’s and two F-5E’s in a 1v2v2 combat mission. I had the major advantage of having Desmond Hughes on the ground radar, my observer from Phantom days, providing me with a running commentary on the positions of the other four aircraft. It was a totally exhilarating fight which included a horrendous, near-head-on collision with one of the F-15’s. Nearly time for brown trousers and far better than any video game! In one brief skirmish with the pair of F-15’s, Desmond had guided me in to intercept them from their left-hand side. They were in relatively close attack formation and didn’t see me until I was racing in on their beam at 600 knots. They were less than a mile away crossing right to left at about 450 knots when they saw me and decided to take evasive action. Because of the need to conserve fuel they could only use reheat/afterburner and their supersonic capability when engaged in actual combat manoeuvring. But instead of breaking hard towards me and splitting up to give me two targets to cope with, which is what I expected, they decided to try to outrun me and deny me a missile shot. Applying full reheat, they both tried to run but it was too late. As I turned hard-left close behind them, I simulated the release of two Sidewinders at very short range. “Fox Two. Fox Two! Splash two F-15’s”. Why they chose to run rather than fight is still beyond me. Probably it was a result of our earlier close-in engagements. During that electrifying combat sortie I claimed a total of seven kills – a mixture of Eagles and Freedom Fighters – with no kills against me. Back on the ground and when we reviewed each combat on the screen in the debrief, my claims were fully justified. This was too much for one of the F-15 pilots who tried to say it was all wrong. But the Aggressor pilots, bless their honesty, told him he had been well beaten and should take it like a professional – as they did themselves. My two young first-tour pilots Charlie Cantan and Steve Thomas made remarkable progress during the detachment, understanding at last the tactical lessons that we had been trying to teach them verbally but without access to such digital technology. In fully developed fighter combat, a fraction of a second delay in decision-making is all it takes to make the difference between winning and losing your life. There are many nuances to this process of tactical thought. Anticipation, experience and knowing your adversary’s capabilities, intent and future position can only be properly acquired in the air. This learning process usually takes a lot of time. As a result during training at our home base, I had been able to ‘shoot down’ Charlie and/or Steve within a minute of commencing combat. Following the ‘Deci’ detachment those days were now over – the penny had dropped and it took rather longer for me to achieve the same result. Our successes had rocked the fighter world. We had built a reputation that was to have a major impact on the conduct of the Air War in the Falklands just a few months later.”

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From the cocaine, blood and flying scarves of World War One dogfighting to the dark arts of modern air combat, here is an enthralling ode to these brutally exciting killing machines. The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes is a beautifully designed, highly visual, collection of the best articles from the fascinating world of military aviation –hand-picked from the highly acclaimed Hush-kit online magazine (and mixed with a heavy punch of new exclusive material). It is packed with a feast of material, ranging from interviews with fighter pilots (including the English Electric Lightning, stealthy F-35B and Mach 3 MiG-25 ‘Foxbat’), to wicked satire, expert historical analysis, top 10s and all manner of things aeronautical, from the site described as: “the thinking-man’s Top Gear… but for planes”. The solid well-researched information about aeroplanes is brilliantly combined with an irreverent attitude and real insight into the dangerous romantic world of combat aircraft. FEATURING

• Interviews with pilots of the F-14 Tomcat, Mirage, Typhoon, MiG-25, MiG-27, English Electric Lighting, Harrier, F-15, B-52 and many more.
• Engaging Top (and bottom) 10s including: Greatest fighter aircraft of World War II, Worst British aircraft, Worst Soviet aircraft and many more insanely specific ones.
• Expert analysis of weapons, tactics and technology.
• A look into art and culture’s love affair with the aeroplane.
• Bizarre moments in aviation history.
• Fascinating insights into exceptionally obscure warplanes.

The book will be a stunning object: an essential addition to the library of anyone with even a passing interest in the high-flying world of warplanes, and featuring first-rate photography and a wealth of new world-class illustrations. Fairchild AU-23A Armed Pilatus Turbo-Porter 72-3 Janes – Sufficient put into service to not be relevant. *Pave Coin Beech A36 Bonanza Janes 72-3. Other aircraft included the Piper PE1 Enforcer (turbine Mustang) – Janes 81-2, AU-23 and 24 (above), Cessna O-1, U-17 and O-2 and Cessna A-37. SAAB-MFI-17 (only 300kg external load capability) 72-3 Janes

The Soviet MiG-15 scared the bejesus out of US pilots in the Korean War. It was equal to the best American fighter, the F-86 Sabre, and in some respects it even had superiority. Nine years earlier, in 1941, Britain’s RAF faced an even more challenging inequity with the arrival of the formidable Focke-Wulf Fw 190. Countering these threats meant knowing their strengths and weaknesses inside out, and the only way to do that was to get hold of the aircraft in question and fly it. Whether by pilot incompetence, subterfuge, political or personal asylum seeker or good fortune, enemy aircraft were delivered into the hands of their opponents. 

15. Soviet F-5E ‘красный тигр’

14. Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk

On 27 March 1999 a USAF F-117 ‘stealth fighter’ was shot while attacking a target in Yugoslavia. On May 7, 1999 the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was bombed by USAF B-2s. It was said to be accidental but there was quite a few odd things about the attack (including the fact that the CIA had provided the co-ordinates despite the embassy being on a ‘no-strike’ list with correct co-ordinates at the time. The Chinese never believed the the US explanation of the event as an accident, and there is some anecdotal evidence that some of the wreckage from the F-117 was being held at the embassy. It is likely that the Yugoslavian government shared wreckage with both the Russian and Chinese governments. The degree to which this would have been useful is hard to ascertain.

13. USAF 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron fleet/Constant Peg/’Red Eagle’

Ever wondered which aircraft had the missing ‘century-series’ designations between F-111 and F-117? It was a secret force of purloined Soviet designs operated from the enigmatic ‘Area 51’ used by the USAF for threat assessment and training. Sourcing, maintaining and flying these aircraft –in secret – for the years from 1980 to 1990 was an impressive, and often dangerous, undertaking. On 26 April 1984, USAF Lieutenant General Robert M. ‘Bobby’ Bond was killed while flying the unforgiving YF-113/MiG-23. A deliberately vague press release about the tragic event, that was unusual in not specifying the aircraft type, attracted press attention. Their findings were extremely useful, among them that the MiG-23 was an absolute pig,..but dangerously fast: a two-ship of MiG-23s that used speed to their advantage could be extremely potent. They also learnt never to get slow with a MiG-17. 

Generally security was surprisingly good considering many US fighter pilots trained against the 4477th. A ‘foreign force’ remains active today which includes at least two ‘Flankers’, at least one of which is rumoured to have a missionized cockpit capable of simulating different ‘Flanker’ models sensors and capabilities. 

YF-110B Soviet MiG-21F-13
YF-110C Chinese Chengdu J-7B (MiG-21F-13 variant)
YF-110D Soviet MiG-21MF
YF-113B Soviet MiG-23BN
YF-113E Soviet MiG-23MS NATO:”Flogger-E”
YF-114C Soviet MiG-17F
YF-114D Soviet MiG-17PF

12. RAF Focke Wulf Fw 190A-3

In June 1942, after shooting down a Spitfire, a Luftwaffe pilot named Armin Faber landed his Fw 190A-3 at RAF Pembrey in Wales (believing it to be France). Because of an unfortunate inability to distinguish the Bristol Channel from the English Channel said Armin let his plane get into the grubby hands of the RAF, with barely a scratch. Given its total superiority to any Allied fighter then in service, this unexpected gift was insanely valuable to the technical experts of the RAF. In fact, so desperate were the British to get their hands on one that a Commando raid had been planned to steal an Fw 190 from a French airfield. This was immediately called off and a bunch of Allied test pilots enjoyed the delights of cutting-edge German engineering: note the distinctly smug expression of the pilot in the photograph. The Fw 190 gave British designers pause for thought, not least in its remarkable light weight when compared to the ever-larger fighters being developed by the Western Allies and its design directly influenced the Hawker Fury in particular.
Faber’s Fw 190 was painted in Darth Earth and Dark Green over Trainer Yellow undersides – the standard colour scheme for prototype, experimental and training aircraft and remained in these colours until at least the spring of 1944 when it appeared in a private colour cine film of a US airman. The curious thing aesthetically, is how much better it looks in British markings. The angular airframe is softened somewhat by the roundels and serve to make the aircraft look more noble than the Luftwaffe markings. In its standard German colour scheme the Fw 190 looks like a killing machine. This is of course totally subjective.
However, and very much to display how much different markings alter the character of any given aircraft, have a look at this Fw 190A-5 that was tested by the US Navy and repainted by them in their standard ‘Tri-Color’ mid-war scheme. No colour photograph exists of this aircraft so a picture of a scale model of the aircraft is also included (courtesy of Scott van Aken’s terrific Modeling Madness website) so you can see just how insane it looks. Wearing colours that we are used to seeing on rotund Corsairs and Hellcats serves to emphasise the diminutive size of the Focke-Wulf and just how angular and neat it is. 

 

The windscreen of Armin’s actual Focke-Wulf (he visited in 1991) may be seen at Shoreham Museum.

11. Luftwaffe Supermarine Spitfires 

Look at this to see one of at least thirteen Spitfires unintentionally transferred to the Luftwaffe inventory ‘attacking’ some German bombers in a staged propaganda film. Sloppy looking stuff. By 1965 even the youngest plastic model aircraft kit builder was doing a better job with early model Spitfires than these guys. Perhaps they were just in a rush.
However, the Germans were not just using their recently acquired Spitfires for spurious battle footage though. For reasons unknown* they also decided to re-engine a Spitfire V with a Daimler-Benz DB 605. The fuselage profile was found to be near identical to the Messerschmitt Bf 110, facilitating the installation but new engine mounts had to be fabricated and the whole aircraft rewired to accept a 24 volt electrical system instead of the Merlin’s standard 12 volt output. Despite there being no record of quite why they did this, the performance of the new ‘international’ Spitfire variant was recorded and we know that it was superior to the standard Spitfire V, not just in speed and climb but apparently in handling as well, one Luftwaffe pilot describing it as “a dream of an aircraft”. Sadly it was destroyed by US bombing in 1944.

*This has now been answered: In Calum E. Douglas’ ‘The Secret Horsepower Race’ notes “Nallinger defended the size of his radiators his engines required relative to the British engines to Professor Messerschmitt, attributing poor cooling performance to the position of the radiators on the aircraft itself. Later, to clear up the the point, Daimler-Benz would attempt a direct comparison of the Spitfire and Messerschmitt cooling systems using a captured Spitfire..”

Sighting opportunity: Science Museum, London, England

10. Imperial Japanese Army Curtiss P-40E

Quite why the Japanese Army decided to use three captured P-40s operationally is something of a mystery (for a start where would they get the right spanners?). Nonetheless the fact remains that the Japanese air defence of Rangoon in Burma was (partly) handled by the 50th Hiko Sentai equipped with three of Curtiss’s finest at Mingaladon airfield. The obvious potential pitfalls of this kind of thing were dramatically demonstrated on the night of the 21st of March 1943 when a formation of Mitsubishi Ki-21 bombers returning from a raid were diverted to Rangoon and intercepted by the P-40s, damaging two and causing one to crash land with the loss of four crew. This seems very much like adding insult to injury as the very same aircraft had been intercepted by American P-40s over their target. It would appear that the P-40s were simply unable to stop shooting down Japanese aircraft even when flown by Japanese pilots. Perhaps because the P-40 sported so many different schemes during its remarkable career, the Japanese markings don’t massively jar the eye in the case of the Curtiss. 

Nice Australian Kittyhawk may be seen at: Australian War Memorial, Canberra

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9. Rudolf Hess’s Messerschmitt Bf 110C VJ + OQ

Insane aircraft are brilliant. But what if it is the pilot who is mad? Does an aircraft count as captured when it has been wilfully given to your side and is wrecked on arrival? What then to make of Hitler’s pal Rudolf Hess’s Messerschmitt Bf 110?

The Zerstorer is among the premier aircraft of the 1939-45 air war. Of all this type’s adventures its most singular is the flight of top Nazi playa Rudolf Hess across the North Sea on an unauthorised peace mission. For his trouble, Deputy Fuehrer Hess was rewarded with imprisonment into and then beyond the age of ABBA. Children evacuated to a dairy estate from inner Glasgow in 1941 remember the excitement of Hess’s not bizarre and sudden arrival in their area like it was yesterday. Pieces of the Bf 110 in question may be seen in various locations.

8. KG-200’s Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses

An Axis fighter pilot’s first encounter with the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was usually a sobering one.  Those pilots were awed by the sheer size of the Fortress, its enormous defensive firepower, and the speed and altitude they could operate from. As soon as possible, wrecks were scavenged and eventually flying examples were Frankensteined into service. The Luftwaffe maintained an entire structure throughout the war just for such tasks that eventually handled a whole swathe of non-German aircraft. Under escort and carefully pre-cleared with air defences, captured B-17s were flown around the Third Reich for research and training purposes. They were done up in sadly unimaginative colour schemes with yellow tails and exaggerated markings.

World War II was a golden age for captured warplanes but operational use of them was exceedingly rare. Kampf Gruppe 200 offers something of an exception utilising B-17s in particular on long-range reconnaissance missions and for minor special forces work. Even by Internet standards the details remain sketchy but the latter seems to have included dropping SS parachute formations into central France in 1944 to attack resistance fighters. Luftwaffe markings seem to make the B-17 look even bigger than it actually is. 

7. Liaison types: USAAF/Luftwaffe/Danish Piper J-2 Cub, RAF Fieseler Fi 156 Storch

Strangely everyone in the Second World War seemed to regard the light aircraft of the other side as better than their own. A proven design when the war started, the Piper Cub, in militarised form as the L-4 Grasshopper, was perfect for the low-and-slow jobs of mid-century warfare. These included scouting, target marking and intelligence gathering duties, VIP transport, mail runs and even stringing field telephone cable. Hence the sensible thievery of the Luftwaffe in helping themselves to several Danish-built examples when they occupied Denmark in 1943. Sensible also were the US Army personnel who stole one right back in 1945. Did they give it back to the Danes come VE Day? Did they bollocks. Luckily Piper Cubs are usually not hard to find today. It is facetious to state that the Germans were the ‘baddies’ in 1939 to 45 but it is amazing how this innocuous aircraft is rendered ‘evil’ by slapping a swastika on the tail.
Meanwhile, Fieseler Storches were in demand by every Allied General worth his salt. Countless examples were snaffled up all over the place such as this excellent example painted with probably the worst executed RAF roundel in history. To be fair they probably had more important things on their mind than doing a neat and tidy circle. But still.

6. ATAIU-SEA Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero

When these Zeroes were captured in 1945 they were pressed into service by the Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit, South East Asia (ATAIU SEA). Its technical weaknesses were well known by VJ day and the Zero had been largely outclassed by the Hellcat and Corsair. These aircraft were flown by Japanese pilots and used to inform remote Japanese units of the end of hostilities. Most Japanese aircraft only ever wore Japanese markings so seeing these Zeroes in British markings really makes them look profoundly different, despite the standard IJN green scheme. Even more so perhaps, are these Mitsubishi J2M Raidens which look positively cuddly sporting their new identities.

Part of one of the Zeroes on the photograph is preserved at: IWM London

5. US MiGs

After the Berlin airlift of 1948 the Cold War would get out of hand again in Korea. Western airmen flying for the United Nations were made very uncomfortable indeed by the MiG-15. So when the USAF got their hands on one in the autumn of 1953 they sent for the very best they had. The job of assessing the MiG-15 went to  Chuck Yeager. Terrible weather and the paucity of information about the Russian jet made for a rough, rushed assignment retold in Tom Wolfe’s book ‘The Right Stuff’.  The MiG-15 was found to have some important advantages over western fighters but also specific weaknesses. And thus a very expensive race for technical domination in Cold War skies was kicked off. Helpfully for everyone the USAF a short film detailing their findings which may be viewed here. Of all the aircraft on this list the MiG-15 is the one you and your mates actually stand a reasonable chance of buying.

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As you can be seen, the MiG-15 in US markings doesn’t differ massively from the MiG in Soviet markings. Bare metal and stars. It could quite easily be an obscure early fifties US fighter prototype. Likewise, when they got their hands on a MiG-21, it could be an obscure late fifties US fighter prototype. Why go to the trouble of getting the premier Soviet fighter at the height of the Cold War then make it look so boring?

4. Messerschmitt Me 163B-1A Komet

Komets were bagged in numbers by the western Allies in 1945. A further tiny handful went to the USSR. Radical in design, the Komet had a novelty factor that remains intact to this day. The fastest aircraft of the war represented a mixture of the futuristic with miserable Fascist policies. As the Third Reich met it’s end a quasi-secret array of ridiculously high potential weapon systems was revealed. Prototypes and research findings from these programs would come to be absorbed into the technical mainstream of the victorious countries and examples of the Comet are on display in Australia, Germany, the UK, and the United States so you have a reasonable chance of seeing one wherever you live. Two seized Komets also found their way to Canada and the one at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum reveals something of the social state of things in the Thousand Year Reich. During a restoration in the 1970s it was discovered that French workers had sabotaged its Walter engine and the glue holding the aircraft’s laminated wood wings together.  They also drew a cartoon inside the aircraft telling us their heart’s were not in it. If war takes the fun out of something like the Komet, you know it’s bad. Post capture, in RAF colours the Komet looks kind of cuddly but strange. Soviet stars on the other hand suit the ‘power-egg’ down to the ground.

We sell fantastic high quality aviation-themed gifts here

3. Fokker D.VII 6810

Do you think you would like to see a Great War aircraft still wearing its original doped fabric covering?  Especially if it was widely acknowledged to be the finest combat aircraft of that conflict? Thanks to this business of capturing flying machines you can. When it is safe to do so you must travel to the Lac Brome region of Canada’s francophone province, Quebec. There, the museum of Brome County Historical society preserves one of only five surviving Fokker D.VIIs in the world and the only one preserved in its original four-colour lozenge fabric. This aircraft was put in the museum in 1921 when many D.VIIs were still in front line service and as such is a remarkable time capsule.
Back in 1918 though, so taken were the Allies with the D.VII that this example was apparently used to reconnoitre enemy positions, in 3D!

2. Italian Hawker Hurricane

To the victor go the spoils. However, occasionally you get a spoil or two even when you aren’t very often the victor. Have a look at this Italian-owned Hawker Hurricane, acquired not from the RAF but from the Yugoslav air force. Italian colour schemes were impressively original at the best of times and seeing so familiar a shape as the Hurricane in a natty Regia Aeronautica paint job is eccentric in the extreme. So unusual was it that even il Duce himself came to have a look at it. Although the exact shades are unknown it is clear that there are three camouflage colours on the upper surfaces and it looks to have been very carefully done – not the upper colours extend right over the leading edge. The nose appears to be yellow.

Hurricane sighting opportunity: Cosford, England

1. Viktor Belenko’s Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 Foxbat

Where else can we find the little Piper Cub on the same top list as the hunch-shouldered fire breathing dragon that is the Foxbat? Well, if not for one of the more dramatic, yet totally unscripted moments of the Cold War, the answer would be nowhere. Without even stealing so much as a map beforehand, a Soviet fighter pilot with emotional problems, one Viktor Belenko, went screaming off at wave top height in a stainless steel superfighter.

He was defecting in a beast built to kill SR-71s and XB-70s that is eight feet longer than a Handley-Page Halifax. A Foxbat once blew off an Israeli intercept attempt at Mach 3. Are we hyperventilating yet? The crudity of the MiG-25 was revealed by rapidly dismantling it after a quick check for explosive booby traps tucked in among its vacuum tubes. Thus reduced to junk the big MiG was sent back to the USSR in a box. Tucked inside was a bill for forty thousand dollars worth of damage to runway 20E, much perimeter fencing and an adjacent miniature golf course caused by the big interceptor’s arrival at Hakodate, Japan. Who can ever forget that crazy day in 1976? Certainly not the mini-golfers.

Sighting opportunity: Indian Air Force Museum, Palam

By Stephen Caulfield, Ed Ward & Joe Coles 

This book can only happen with your support. Preorder your copy today here. 

From the cocaine, blood and flying scarves of World War One dogfighting to the dark arts of modern air combat, here is an enthralling ode to these brutally exciting killing machines.

The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes is a beautifully designed, highly visual, collection of the best articles from the fascinating world of military aviation –hand-picked from the highly acclaimed Hush-kit online magazine (and mixed with a heavy punch of new exclusive material). It is packed with a feast of material, ranging from interviews with fighter pilots (including the English Electric Lightning, stealthy F-35B and Mach 3 MiG-25 ‘Foxbat’), to wicked satire, expert historical analysis, top 10s and all manner of things aeronautical, from the site described as:

“the thinking-man’s Top Gear… but for planes”.

The solid well-researched information about aeroplanes is brilliantly combined with an irreverent attitude and real insight into the dangerous romantic world of combat aircraft.

FEATURING

• Interviews with pilots of the F-14 Tomcat, Mirage, Typhoon, MiG-25, MiG-27, English Electric Lighting, Harrier, F-15, B-52 and many more.
• Engaging Top (and bottom) 10s including: Greatest fighter aircraft of World War II, Worst British aircraft, Worst Soviet aircraft and many more insanely specific ones.
• Expert analysis of weapons, tactics and technology.
• A look into art and culture’s love affair with the aeroplane.
• Bizarre moments in aviation history.
• Fascinating insights into exceptionally obscure warplanes.

The book will be a stunning object: an essential addition to the library of anyone with even a passing interest in the high-flying world of warplanes, and featuring first-rate photography and a wealth of new world-class illustrations.

Fairchild AU-23A Armed Pilatus Turbo-Porter 72-3 Janes – Sufficient put into service to not be relevant.

*Pave Coin Beech A36 Bonanza Janes 72-3. Other aircraft included the Piper PE1 Enforcer (turbine Mustang) – Janes 81-2, AU-23 and 24 (above), Cessna O-1, U-17 and O-2 and Cessna A-37.

SAAB-MFI-17 (only 300kg external load capability) 72-3 Janes

The McDonnell RF-4C ruled the tactical reconnaissance skies for the U.S. Air Force from 1964 through the early 1990s. The aircraft’s main job was the first step of John Boyd’s famous OODA loop—observe, orient, decide, act, repeat. After all, you can’t even get started without observing. And before remotely piloted vehicles came on the scene, the best way to get near-instantaneous information over a specific target was to send in manned tactical reconnaissance aircraft. Designed to overcome shortcomings of the RF-101, rather than just hang a bunch of cameras on an existing F-4 models, engineers went back to the drawing board and lengthened the existing F-4 nose to fit in sophisticated sensors: film and infrared cameras, along with an advanced side-looking radar. The longer-nosed variant also became the basis for the F-4E model. The YRF-4C prototype first flew on August 9, 1963 and the first production aircraft flew May 18, 1964, followed shortly after by deliveries to Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. Although a weapon systems operator (WSO) later flew in the rear cockpit, the USAF initially used two pilots, funneling an inexperienced pilot into the rear cockpit as a Pilot Systems Operator, abbreviated as PSO and pronounced ‘pay-so.’ After initial training, pilots moved to the first operational squadron to fly the RF-4C, the 16th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (TRS), also at Shaw. On October 27, 1965, 16th TRS pilots ferried nine aircraft to Vietnam, landing at Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon on October 31. RF-4Cs later arrived at Udorn Royal Thai AFB in Thailand. A typical reconnaissance mission in Vietnam might include taking pictures of trucks destroyed along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Enemy gunners on the ground often waited for the RF-4C crews as they neared a target and crews quickly developed deceptive manoeuvres to counter the gunners. Pilots climbed to a high altitude after takeoff, but nearing a target, they descended to 3,500 feet to both give them good photo coverage and keep them above 50-caliber machine gun range. About three miles from the target, the front-seat pilot yanked into a 75-degree bank turn and then rolled out, held it for 15 seconds, then did another rapid turn and roll out, and then turned on the radar for one second to make the North Vietnamese think the aircraft was headed someplace else. The whole sky still filled with bullets, but the maneuvering largely kept aircraft from harm. Recce crews also discovered that the RF-4C was surprisingly speedy and could outrun many threats. Designers had expected the new airframe to have more drag than the earlier models, but the opposite was true. However, crews often couldn’t take full advantage of that speed over North Vietnam—cruising faster than 480 knots made navigation harder, increased fuel consumption, and the increased turn radius made threat evasion maneuver less effective. In addition, the RF-4C’s fighter escorts, often heavily laden with external munitions, couldn’t keep up at the higher speeds. For defenses against surface-to-air missiles, the RF-4C had chaff dispensers on the rear of the aircraft to fool the radar guided missiles and a radar warning receiver in the cockpit that alerted pilots to a lock-on and launch via chirping in headsets and cockpit displays. Pilots could often outmaneuver the missiles, and with two engines, even a damaged aircraft could sometimes limp home or make it out over the Gulf of Tonkin where an ejection was more likely to result in a rescue. Not everyone was so lucky, though. On August 12, 1967, an RF-4C from the 11th TRS flying from Udorn was hit by a SAM, forcing the crew to eject (see USAF photo 4 below). Captains Edward Atterbury and Thomas Parrot were captured; Atterbury later died after an escape attempt and Parrott was released in 1973 after the war ended. The RF-4C had important Cold War missions as well, including Peacetime Aerial Reconnaissance Program (PARPRO) flights along the DMZ between North and South Korea. To peer into North Korea, crews used a telephoto camera mounted in a monstrous “Bench Box” pod hung so low under the fuselage that pilots had to be careful not to snag arresting cables at the end of the runway.

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Additional upgrades sustained the RF-4C into the 1990s: improved navigation equipment, the Pave Tack laser targeting system, a terrain following system, and the Tactical Electronic Reconnaissance (TEREC) system, a pod loaded with radar detection equipment for locating SAM sites. The TEREC system, although highly capable, moved the aircraft’s center of gravity aft, which may have contributed to several mishaps in the 1980s. Pilots and WSOs quickly became wary of the system. By the 1980s, the aircraft were ageing rapidly and becoming difficult to maintain, including the RF-4Cs that I flew in at Edwards AFB, California as a flight test engineer. We had quite a few Tactical Air Command (TAC) “hand-me-down” RF-4Cs; the cameras in three of them had been removed to make room for flight test instrumentation to support USAF Test Pilot School training flights and other test activities, such as safety and photo chase. One aircraft even had my name stenciled under the rear canopy. TAC pushed many other RF-4Cs into Air National Guard units as well, where they picked up new missions that included drug interdiction and disaster relief. As unmanned reconnaissance aircraft began to debut, the RF-4Cs began heading for the boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB, but the aircraft had a brief renaissance in 1991 during Desert Storm, after commanders realized they didn’t yet have enough unmanned aircraft to do the first part of the OODA loop. RF-4Cs stationed at Zweibrucken Air Base, Germany, about to head to the boneyard, were diverted to the Gulf instead. The RF-4Cs that I flew at Edwards have scattered and I don’t know where all of them are. Two are on display in Quartzsite, Arizona. Another Edwards RF-4C, referred to as ‘Balls Four,’ suffered a hydraulic failure in 1965 while assigned to a TAC unit; the resulting hard landing punched one strut through a wing and damaged the other strut. The aircraft apparently never fully recovered from its landing incident and wound up at Eglin AFB, Florida as a test support aircraft and then later moved to Edwards, where it had a reputation as a hangar queen. RF-4C is now on display at Edwards and will eventually be moved into the Air Force Flight Test Museum when its new building is constructed. Support Hush-Kit with our high quality aviation themed merchandise here

For more information on the RF-4C and some great pilot and WSO stories, please see my full article that first appeared in Aviation History last year. Eileen Bjorkman is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and former flight test engineer who writes about aviation history. Her second book, Unforgotten in the Gulf of Tonkin: A Story of the U.S. Military’s Commitment to Leave No One Behind, will be released on September 1, 2020.

Beautiful coffee-table book on warplanes. Support the crowdfunded Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes by pre-ordering your copy of our book here 

From the cocaine, blood and flying scarves of World War One dogfighting to the dark arts of modern air combat, here is an enthralling ode to these brutally exciting killing machines. The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes is a beautifully designed, highly visual, collection of the best articles from the fascinating world of military aviation –hand-picked from the highly acclaimed Hush-kit online magazine (and mixed with a heavy punch of new exclusive material). It is packed with a feast of material, ranging from interviews with fighter pilots (including the English Electric Lightning, stealthy F-35B and Mach 3 MiG-25 ‘Foxbat’), to wicked satire, expert historical analysis, top 10s and all manner of things aeronautical, from the site described as “the thinking-man’s Top Gear… but for planes”. The solid well-researched information about aeroplanes is brilliantly combined with an irreverent attitude and real insight into the dangerous romantic world of combat aircraft. FEATURING

• Interviews with pilots of the F-14 Tomcat, Mirage, Typhoon, MiG-25, MiG-27, English Electric Lighting, Harrier, F-15, B-52 and many more.
• Engaging Top (and bottom) 10s including: Greatest fighter aircraft of World War II, Worst British aircraft, Worst Soviet aircraft and many more insanely specific ones.
• Expert analysis of weapons, tactics and technology.
• 
• A look into art and culture’s love affair with the aeroplane.
• Bizarre moments in aviation history.
• Fascinating insights into exceptionally obscure warplanes.

• Pre-order your copy here

We asked 45 people to describe their favourite aircraft in only 200 words. Here are the results. 

MY FAVOURITE AEROPLANE IN 200 WORDS #1: THE A-26 (B-26) INVADER BY BRUNO BAYLEY

“The Vietnam War; perhaps summed up most commonly by exciting new aircraft like Phantoms, Skyhawks, Super Sabres, or the terrifying giant B-52, was also the last outing for a slew of World War II-era designs that suddenly found themselves thrown back into the rainy, humid, mud-spattered fray. Models like the A-1 Skyraider, a late war design intended to be both a dive-bomber and strike aircraft was a perfect fit for the ‘Sandy’ (SAR) missions, that became a harrowing and regular part of the Vietnam air war. But the best example of this however, was the re-duxing of the A-26 (which some call a B-26 due to utterly confusing US Military penickityness). A late World War II light-bomber, the A/B-26 was initially stripped of its gun turrets and pressed into attack roles in the murky early 60s era of ‘not quite admitting we are fighting in Vietnam’, having already flown in Korea. In time the chunky, but somehow rather graceful, machine was upgraded to specialise in attacking the Ho Chi Minh trail. Wing tip tanks upped loiter time, eight 50.cal guns clustered in the nose, and the ability to carry large amounts of external arms ranging from napalm, to rockets, to conventional and cluster bombs, made the Invader to top scoring traffic destroyer in Vietnam. Sometimes it’s good to be slow and old.”

By Bruno Bayley, Managing editor of Vice Magazine

My favourite aeroplane in 200 words #2: Blackburn Buccaneer by Dr. Raymond N. Wolejko, MD

MY FAVOURITE AEROPLANE IN 200 WORDS #3 English Electric Lightning by Consolata García Ramírez

MY FAVOURITE AEROPLANE IN 200 WORDS #6 de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide by David Piper

MY FAVOURITE AEROPLANE IN 200 WORDS #24 Saab 37 Viggen by Alice Dryden

MY FAVOURITE AEROPLANE IN 200 WORDS #26 Sud-Est Baroudeur by Michael Fleet

MY FAVOURITE AEROPLANE IN 200 WORDS #36: Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk by David Vanderhoof

Alone, unafraid, the glow of CRTs and a prayer you won’t be seen.

A fighter that wasn’t a fighter.  A black project that was in fact black.  The F-117A was all of this.

The arrowhead shaped aircraft was the tip of the spear.  One man alone in the darkest hours before dawn only armed with two 2000 pound laser guided bombs and the technology not to be seen by RADAR.   The ‘117 made Stealth from black to light.  It became the face of the first Gulf War.

59 F-117As were built entirely by hand. Each a living, breathing machine, had its own personality. No one would call the stinkbug pretty.  But everyone is beautiful when you turn out the lights.

It took a lot to fly the aircraft physically, mentally, and emotionally. Three men died trying to learn the aircraft: spatial disorientation at night the cause.  Your first flight was your first solo, and at night. And when you got your Bandit call sign you couldn’t tell anyone.

Stealth now is a commonplace word. November 8, 1988 warfare changed, a new shape had appeared. That shape has returned home to Tonopah Range where it all began, retired.  Or is it?

By David M. Vanderhoof, The Airplane Geeks Podcast Co-Host & Plane Crazy Down Under’s Historian in Residence.

Hush-kit is reminding the world of the beauty of flight.

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38. Capelis XC-12 by Nick Pardo

My favourite aeroplane in 200 words #40: North American 0-47

My favourite aeroplane in 200 words #43: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105

 

“One of the most staggering facts about Sea Harrier and the Falklands was that we went to war less than three years after receiving the first aircraft in service and were fully prepared for combat. This in itself was an extraordinary achievement by the engineers and aircrew of the Sea Harrier world and the strong support of our aircraft carrier ships’ companies. Incidentally, we also had the best flight safety record of any jet aircraft entering UK military service.”

What were your first impressions of the Sea Harrier?

“My first impressions of this wonderful aircraft were formed when I was the MoD Naval Staff desk officer for the Development and Production of the Sea Harrier from 1976 to 1979. The principal Contractors for the aircraft were a closely knit team consisting of: John Fozard, British Aerospace; Greg Stewart, Ferranti; Andy Cameron, Smiths Industries; Dowty and others. All were pulling strongly in the same direction.

The modification from the already well-proven ground attack Harrier was a design masterpiece. It included a raised cockpit, a superb albeit physically tiny mono-pulse radar, the Blue Fox, a very reliable inertial standard navigation system (NAVHARS) and a very user-friendly Head-Up Display weapons aiming system including a hotline gunsight.

I was given immense latitude and governance over all project matters, whether associated weapons and missiles, costings or equipment selection. The only guidance I received from my Director was that if I wished to spend more than £5 million over and above agreed project costs, then I should clear it with him. But there was no need. It was the first UK fighter jet program in history to be on cost and on time! (A far cry from collaborative Tornado and Typhoon programmes.)

Having said that, it was not always easy working with the MoD Procurement Executive desk officers based in St Giles Court. The Director Harrier and Commander Richard Burn AFC, Sea Harrier Project officer, were excellent fellows and very supportive but some of their subordinates could be very difficult and stubborn. One of my main concerns with moving on from Harrier to Sea Harrier was the dreadfully unreliable radio, PTR 377. It consisted of five or more modules, each of which was packed with a tight bundle of wires: none of which were identified, coded or marked. Repairing the radio modules was therefore a nightmare for the RAE Farnborough boffins and there was a backlog of 3000 awaiting repair at a cost per module of several thousand pounds sterling. I was adamant that this radio should not be fitted to my new Sea Harrier, the pilots of which would rely heavily for their safety and mission success on good radio communication when flying alone over vast expanses of ocean by day and by night. It proved to be a long battle with the Procurement Executive but eventually, I prevailed. The radio that I chose was the one in use with U.S. Navy fighter aircraft. However, although the direct procurement cost of each radio was just US$8,000, Procurement Executive bureaucrats managed to put the cost to the Service up to £15,000!

After I was appointed to command the Intensive Flying Trials Unit, I visited BAe Dunsfold with my family on the invitation of their Senior Test Pilot, John Farley, to view the first aircraft being prepared for delivery. It was an exciting visit. John was just brilliant! He treated my lads like royalty and then climbed into the new jet and proceeded to give us a private flying display; including his famous vertical take-off transitioning into a near vertical climb away. Despite having already flown 30 hours in the ground attack Harrier, I was more than impressed, I was awestruck.

Flying the new aircraft in the Flight Trials Unit, 700A Squadron, proved to be extremely rewarding. Our Blue Fox radar had not yet been fitted but there was much to do before it arrived in service. We were blessed with extraordinarily dedicated and enthusiastic engineers and aircrew who, through their diligence, provided the strong foundation for eventual deployment to and victory in the Falklands air war.

The key to this victory lay in our development of the aircraft into a superb within-visual-range air combat or dogfighting vehicle. We proved this in the early days with dominant performances against the USAF Aggressor Squadron F-5E’s and the Bitburg frontline Squadron F-15 Eagles. This set alarm bells ringing around the fighter world. We were on a roll that continued with increasing momentum.

However and although fighter combat was the love of my life, the standout early memory of our little jump jet must be a public relations affair, that is to say my landing at ‘Pebble Mill at One’ BBC studios in the centre of Birmingham. It was transmitted live to the British public.

 

We had only recently received our first aircraft and I had completed just a handful of flights in it. Neil Rankin, my Air boss and Ted Anson, my Admiral got in touch saying, “Sharkey, the Royal Air Force has been asked to land a Harrier at Pebble Mill at One studios in the centre of Birmingham. They have declined, saying that it is too dangerous and risky. Would you like to give it a go?” I said that I would have a chat about it with John Farley and then give an answer. John’s advice was excellent. He covered all the pros and cons and safety measures required and told me it should be no problem. And so it worked out. A host of Navy VIPs, families and friends and the press gathered on the roof of the studios as I landed the aircraft safely in the small field by the building. I missed the champagne and small eats party because I had to be ready to take off under live broadcast at the end of the programme. But I did get a big kiss on the cheek from Elaine Chase, London’s Cockney superstar.

What was your most memorable Sea Harrier mission…what happened?

OPERATION CORPORATE proved to be a relatively short but very intense conflict both for our land forces, our warships, submarines and for the fixed and rotary wing aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm. There was no land-based air defence support. We were isolated 8,000 miles from home in the turbulent South Atlantic seas with temperatures near zero. The world at large openly discussed the chances of our success. Unanimously, the pundits declared that a small band of 20 Sea Harrier jump jets could not defend the task force from up to 200 Argentine fighter and ground attack aircraft. Indeed and as Rear-Admiral ‘Sandy’ Woodward, Commander Carrier Battle Group stated after our victory, “it was a very close call”. How right he was.

My United States Marine Corps aviator friends have described it to me as the last of the conventional wars. They are probably right – two sides battling it out in total isolation from the rest of the world and with winner takes all. Putting it all in context, it was the boots on the ground of our Amphibious Brigade led by Julian Thompson and Jeremy Moore that secured the hard-fought victory. In conventional military wisdom, an invasion force needs to be three or four times the size of the established force holding the contested territory. This was turned on its head for Operation Corporate. Our land forces numbered about 4,000 whereas the Argentine incumbents numbered 8,000. So on land and in the air we were heavily outnumbered. But on the surface of the sea and beneath the waves we had a trump card. That was our surface warships and submarines who were there in strength and lived up to the best traditions and historical achievements of the Royal Navy. They provided critical medium and short-range air defence and vital antisubmarine operations in protection of the Carrier Battle Group and the Amphibious Task Group ably led by Commodore Michael Clapp.

It was a very professional team effort – but that is what Royal Navy Expeditionary Task Force operations have always been about.

Returning to the air war, the limited number of fighter aircraft and aircrew demanded 24/7 intense combat effort from the ship’s crews of both carriers, HMS Invincible and HMS Hermes. And for my pilots, this meant almost continuous heavy fatigue: not just flying airborne missions but also sitting in the cockpit at alert on deck regularly with outside air temperatures of 2°C and no heating in the aircraft (other than occasional mugs of hot chocolate provided by our wonderful ground crew).

I trust that the above sets the scene for the manner in which our little jump jets contributed to eventual victory. The air war was won by the combined efforts of our surface warships and our Sea Harrier combat air patrols. The number of kills achieved by both parties against the sustained attacks of Mirage V, Skyhawk and Étendard was about equal. The significance of Sea Harrier was however twofold.

First, and in air-to-air engagements, our jump jet achieved 25 kills without losing an aircraft. But that is not the complete story.

Our reputation had preceded us and the Argentine fighters and ground attack aircraft had been told to avoid contact with Sea Harriers at all costs Рeven when it meant aborting attack missions. My Squadron, 801, conducted all its combat air patrol missions at low level or very low level, especially in defence of the San Carlos beachhead. (800 Squadron from Hermes held their patrols at 20,000 feet above the amphibious landing force.) The low-level 801 CAP stations up threat of the beachhead resulted in more than 450 Argentine aircraft attack missions being aborted. I learnt this directly from the Defence Attach̩ of the Argentinian Embassy in London just after the war.

One of these CAP Missions is a definite candidate for “my most memorable mission”.
Allow me to quote from my book, “Sea Harrier over the Falklands”, Chapter 23.
“Steve and I flew the next mission as a pair. There was no trade for us under the now clear blue skies but we could see that to the south of the Sound HMS Ardent had seen more than enough action for the day. She was limping northwards and smoke was definitely coming from more places than her funnel. We were to see more of her on our third and final sortie of the day.

 

For this final `hop’ we were given the station to the west of San Carlos over the land. We descended from the north east and set up a low level race track patrol in a wide shallow valley. As always, we flew in battle formation side by side and about half a mile apart. When we turned at the end of the race track pattern, we always turned towards each other in order to ensure that no enemy fighter could approach our partner’s 6 o’clock undetected. I had just flown through Steve in the middle of a turn at the southerly end of the race track when I spotted two triangular shapes approaching down the far side of the valley under the hills from the west. They were moving fast and were definitely Mirages, probably Daggers. I levelled out of the turn and pointed directly at them, increasing power to full throttle as I did so.

`Two Mirages! Head on to me now, Steve. 1 mile.’ My voice was so excited and garbled that Steve couldn’t understand a word.

`Passing between them now!’
I was lower than the leader and higher than the Number Two as they flashed past each side of my cockpit. They were only about 50 yards apart and at about 100 feet above the deck. As I passed them I pulled hard to the right, slightly nose high, expecting them still to try to make it through to their target by going left and resuming their track. I craned my neck over my right shoulder but they didn’t appear. Instead I could see Steve chasing across the skyline towards the west. My heart suddenly leapt. They are going to stay and fight! Must have turned the other way.

They had turned the other way but not to fight! They were running for home and hadn’t seen Steve at all because their turn placed him squarely in their 6 o’clock. Steve’s first missile streaked from under the Sea Harrier’s wing. It curved over the tail of the Mirage leaving its characteristic white smoke trail and impacted the spine of the jet behind the cockpit. The pilot must have seen it coming because he had already jettisoned the canopy before the missile arrived; when it did, he ejected. The back half of the delta winged fighter bomber disappeared in a great gout of flame before the jet exploded.

I checked Steve’s tail was clear but he was far too busy to think of checking my own 6 o’clock. Otherwise he would have seen the third Mirage closing fast on my tail.

Steve was concentrating on tracking the second jet in his sights and he released his second Sidewinder. The missile had a long chase after its target which was accelerating hard in full burner towards the sanctuary of the west. At missile burn out the Mirage started to pull up for some clouds. The lethal dot of white continued to track the fighter bomber and as the jet entered cloud, I clearly saw the missile proximity fuse under the wing. It was an amazing spectacle.

Adrenaline running high, I glanced round to check the sky about me. Flashing underneath me and just to my right was the beautiful green and brown camouflage of the third Dagger. I broke right and down towards the aircraft’s tail, acquired the jet exhaust with my Sidewinder and released the missile.

It reached its target in very quick time and the Dagger disappeared in a ball of flame. Out of the flame ball exploded the broken pieces of the jet, some of which cartwheeled along the ground before coming to rest, no longer recognisable as parts of an aircraft. The air combat engagement had lasted for roughly a minute and although it all happened incredibly fast, in my mind it registered as spectacular slow motion.

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Later I was to discover that the third Mirage Dagger had entered the fight from the north and found me in his sights. As he turned towards the west and home he had been firing his guns at me in the turn but had missed. It was the closest shave that I was to experience.

 

We were euphorically excited as we found each other visually and joined up as a pair to continue our Combat Air Patrol duties. We had moved a few miles west during the short engagement and now steadied on east for some seconds to regain the correct patrol position. As I was looking towards San Carlos, about 10 miles distant behind the hills, I noticed three seagulls in the sunlight ahead. Were they seagulls?

I called Brilliant, `Do you have any friendlies close to you?’

 

`Wait!’ It was a sharper than usual reply.

A second or two later, Brilliant was back on the air. `Sorry, we’ve just been strafed by a Mirage! Hit in the Ops Room! Man opposite me is hurt and I think I’m hit in the arm. No, no friendlies close to us.’ The cool-headed Direction Officer was Laon Hulme who was later decorated for his extraordinary performance under fire. (There must have been a fourth Mirage! The one that got away!)

Full power again. `Steve, those aren’t seagulls ahead, they’re Sky Hawks!’ What had looked like white birds were actually attack aircraft that had paused to choose a target. As I spoke, the three `seagulls’ stopped orbiting, headed towards the south and descended behind the line of hills. And from my morning flight I knew where they were going.

`They’re going for Ardent!’ I headed flat out to the south east, passing over the settlement of Port Howard at over 600 knots and 100 feet.

In quick time I cleared the line of hills to my left and was suddenly over the water of the Sound. Ahead and to the left were the Sky Hawks. To the right was the stricken Ardent, billowing smoke like a beacon as she attempted to make her way to San Carlos. I wasn’t going to get there in time but I knew that Red Section from Hermes should be on CAP on the other side of the water.

`Red Section! Three Sky Hawks, north to south towards Ardent! I’m out of range to the west!’

Red Section got the message and appeared as if by magic, hurtling down from high-level above the other bank of the Sound. I saw the smoke of a Sidewinder and the trailing A 4 exploded. The middle aircraft then blew up (a guns kill, so I heard later) and the third jet delivered its bombs into Ardent before seeming to clip the mast with its fuselage.

 

I looked around to see where my Number Two had got to.

`Steve, where are you?’ He should have been in battle formation on the beam. No reply. My heart missed several beats. There was only one answer, he must have gone down!

I called Brilliant. `Believe I’ve lost my Number Two to ground fire. Retracing my track back to the CAP position to make a visual search.’ I didn’t feel good. My visual search resulted in nothing. But I did hear the tell tale sound of a pilot’s SARBE rescue beacon. Maybe that was Steve? `Brilliant, I can’t locate my Number Two but have picked up a SARBE signal. Could be him or one of the Mirage pilots. Can you send a helicopter to have a look, please? I’m very short of fuel and must recover to Mother immediately.’

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I felt infinitely depressed as I climbed to high level. Losing Steve was a real shock to my system. At 80 miles to run, I called the ship.

`Be advised I am very short of fuel. I believe my Number Two has been lost over West Falkland. Commencing cruise descent.’

`Roger, Leader. Copy you are short of fuel. Your Number Two is about to land on. He’s been hit but he’s OK. Over.’

`Roger, Mother. That is good news. Out’.

Invincible could be clearly seen at 60 miles. She was arrowing her way through the water towards me like a speedboat, leaving a great foaming wake. Good for JJ! He doesn’t want to lose a Sea Jet just for a few pounds of fuel. My spirits had suddenly soared and it felt great to be alive.”

Special thanks To Rowland White

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