Wings and Wheels show report

[Lucky]

Thought I'd do a report from the Wings and Wheels show this year for your erudition and entertainment (hopefully). The usual non-rotary disclaimers apply, but hopefully you'll all find something in here to like?

The gimmick of the show does what it says on the tin, really. It's a car show held at Dunsfold Aerodrome (where they film Top Gear) with the added bonus of some aircraft displays thrown in throughout the day. The car part is split into four main sections, a military display of vehicles dating mostly from WWII; some static club stands of varying interest and awe; a paddock of classic/vintage/sports cars that also do a pair of display runs along the runways during the day; and a hotrod area with some suitably adulterated classics. There are also fairground rides, wall of death, paintball, bands and all kinds of other shiznit to keep the family happy (at a price).

It's a good mix of stuff, but I have to say, less good than the last time I went a few years back. Ferociously busy and extraordinarily expensive makes for a slightly sour experience, not to mention the epic fail of marshalling and subsequent queue getting out that cost me a clear hour of my life... but not to gripe, overall a very enjoyable day and the li'l uns enjoyed it no end. The weather even stayed dry except a couple of showers, and the skies were kind enough to put on a superb display of cloudscapes that made taking shock-and-awe pics of the planes stupidly easy even for a lackwit like me with a lens hopelessly inefficient for what was being asked of it.



Right, enough chat, on with the pics. On gaining entrance we turned left for no especially reason other than I like going clockwise, it suits my OCD... and arrived first at the Military Zone. The first thing we came to was a Help for Heroes tent and an RAF display where you could make donations in exchange for a goodie bag, which we did. I tend to contribute a bit anyway to HfH, and if you don't why not? The goodie bag had loads of stuff for the kids, especially a windmill that kept Niah amused for a considerable time, even when she was bashing herself in the face with it


A pair of display-painted bikes on the stand showed some reasonable airbursh work celebrating the past of the RAF




...as well as some distinctly questionable airbrush art. Revenge Of The Zombie Airman, anyone?


and then it was into the military displays proper. There was a mocked-up 1/3rd scale Mustang for the kiddies to sit in and live out their flying ace fantasies (for a price.... getting the idea?). Here's Conrad giving the Red Baron what for


The show areas make use of all the "furniture" that normally lies around the field of Dunsfold, so there are old planes and helicopters mixed in around the proper stands throughout, some of which you can go in and have a look round, like this transport


And this


And in amongst the scenery was a display of military vehicles up to armoured scouts. Mostly Jeeps, to be fair, but there were a few bigger things






It's a Canon with errrr... a cannon! See what I've done there? Thanks, thankyou very much, I'm here all week...


Don't they train you at Rozzer School not to wander in front of pintle-mount machine guns? Slack


Built a few of these in Tamiya World in my time lol


Rather liking this armoured Land Rover. Guessing it's not very quick, though


Ice cream included for scale purposes lol


The thing that appeals about the Military Zone (well, to me anyway) is the way they try to make it feel period, with props and costumes. It gives a cool authentic feel to it, like you've wandered into a staging area before Operation Market Garden or something.

Of course, sometimes this genre slips a bit in authenticity




...I'm not 100% certain what this German BMW outfit is doing in an encampment of the Screaming Eagles US Airborne


But by and large it works really well. Here's one I tried to give the vibe to lol


...and another




It's a bit surreal seeing all these GI dudes lounging around in amongst the bright modern-dressed families and pushchairs and sunglasses




This is a bit more authentic; a Harley fits better lol




The display of Jeeps was simply littered with cool period touches (or authentic touches, I suppose, if they're original)


Your actual Louisville Slugger lol


Factory-fit dash-mount Coke bottle opener


Plus loads of cartoon detailing and suchlike






.....and then you wander to the edge of the fencing near the runway and there's some blokes firing up a genuine Sopwith Camel!


and plenty of parked-up flight equipment


The Red Arrows liason guys were loitering at the extreme end of the paddock, with some example plane stuff




and they handed out brochures and stuff (free, makes a nice change), pat kids on the head, smile and generally were doing a great job of meeting and greeting. Here's Conrad having got a field promotion to Flight Lieutenant lol (no, I know 1% of *ckall about RAF ranks. Does it show?)


While we were ligging with the Red Arrows dude, the first air display went off overhead, a Sopwith triplane in a pretend combat with a contemporary plane from Ze Germans. These were good because they were really slow and humongous, so comparitively easy to photograph








Cloudscape kindly laid on my the wonders of Mother Nature lol


I tell you what, anyone who flew one of these was a bloody hero, whether under fire or not. Scary, downright scary Heath Robinson lash-ups that look like they'd crumple in a strong wind, let alone under the strain of flight!


All the while the excellent and knowledgeable comentators are informing you of the heritage, specifications, and history of the planes over the PA, redolent with tales of landing half-burnt crates, what, and such-and-such shooting his own propellor off over Flanders


So, leaving the Military Zone behind via some trade stalls selling model planes and cuddly toys (weird) and via another piece of landscape, a Sea Hawk thing


...we came to errrr, well, a display of buses actualy. Odd, but true


actually, this properly old one appealed to me rather. Though I know there are loads of enthusiasts for these things, they don't generally move me greatly




The next air display was starting around now, first off a Yank Kittyhawk




and then a stunt display in what I understand to be a clumsily-named Sbach 300


Which to be fair put on quite a show, even apparently being able to fly sideways. No idea how that's done but I'm guessing it ain't easy


I didn't manage to get any good pics of it throwing shapes in the sky, so you'll have to be content with these ones with pretty cloud backdrops

[Lucky]

Round the back of the buses (busses? Bussii? whatever) was some random fenced-off bit with all manner of groovy stuff in it. Like


Got carbon sculpted kickplates!


No idea what it was all about, I think they were trying to suck you into some kind of lottery thing funding Dunsfold, but since the likes of McLaren test there and the BBC have made Clarkson and his fellow performing monkey-buffoons millionaires I figure they make enough money without me contributing my hard-earned, so I just hung on the railings and took pics. Seems to work, lol








I have to say, I found the interior of this Murcielago surprisingly sober. I guess I was expecting a riot to match the bodywork


and speaking of McLarens...


pretty colour, ain't it? These still leave me slightly underwhelmed though. I guess following the F1 GTR was always going to be tricky.


I can't even remember the "name" of these things. It's something that sounds like a Casio calculator, all letters and numbers


Another sober interior


Bonkers Mc-Mercedes thing


Got metalflake! ooooh


...and then, right in the middle of this gaggle of supercars was this damned great thing...


Which you could let your kids go and climb inside (yeah, for a price, of course). Strange. No idea what it's all about.


great mascot though


Then it was time for what might arguably be considered as the Main Event


I don't care how many times I see the Red Arrows, they never get old. If you've never seen them perform live, then do it. Just incredible, and watching them on YouTube or the telly doesn't even come close


I got about a zillion pics, many of questionable camerwork and ability, so I'll try to just hit some high points


The commentary is brilliant as well, they have their own announcer who takes over from the house old codgers, and really talks you through everything that's going on. Plus they broadcast the radio traffic from the Squadron Leader (or captain, or wingco or head chef or whatever the correct rank actually is) so you can hear the orders to break formation and to perform the manouvres


so that they know how to literally tie knots in the air without crashing into each other at two billion leptons per hour


and now I'll just shut up for a minute and let you enjoy (hopefully) the picktchers














Awesome


From the sublime to the ridiculous. There followed a series of club stands, some of which you had to wonder why. There seemed a totally random slection, no real observance of relevance/heritage/cultural significance/any of the criteria a club stand would normally be chucked right in the middle of a show. Some were rpetty cool, though, once you'd waded past hordes of MR2s *spits* and vintage milkfloats (no, honestly). Then there were things like this on the Mini OC stand;


Yeah, an A-team rep MiniMoke. I know it's poor form to diss another man's ride, but you have to be wondering "why!?". Anyway, the Ford stand was cool with some nice old Blue Oval glory


Soooooooooo clean




Consul!


Wonder why this was the least popular bodystyle for the Granny?


This was a bit odd, I've no idea if this was an official RR product or a home-brewed concoction


Judging by the new wood inside and othe rmodern bits, it seems at least some kind of resto if it isn't a total garage special


Rear end so sharp you could shave with it


The TVR OC stand was full of the shock and awe you'd expect from Britain's most bonkers marque


get ready for a rhapsody of flip paint lol


Tuscans never seem to age, and still look fine. Which is a good trick for a car with a penod scuplted into the bonnet


Sagaris is just insane from any angle


More flaps than the entire ouvre of Penthouse


Low!


Spoiler by Bathrooms 'R' Us. Weird


Rather oddly in the middle of the TVR wagon circle (awesome parking, top marks to the TVROC for being the most organised club stand I think I've ever seen) was this unexpected but rather sweet MGA




Dunno. Nice though. There were also some older examples of Blackpool's finest, showing they weren't always mad fibreglass swoops, but started a good deal more humble


The next flypast involved one of the most unmistakeable silhouettes in aviation


The defining shape of all those war movies, the AVRO Lancaster bomber, on this occasion accompanied by a couple of Spitfires. Or a Spitfire and a Hurricane, as it was billed, but they look the bleeding same to me?


Dunno. Answers on a postcard lol. Anyway, they made for an properly impressive sight as they clattered along slowly making a right old racket


When you see a Lancaster up close like this you appreciate how bleeding massive they were, and how slow and unmanouvreable. Stripped of fighter escort, they must have been horrifically exposed to attack. Again, true heroes, every single man who crewed one


This took surprisingly little retouching, one of those pics you only fluke once in a blue moon. Looks like a painting!


Still blundering around the club stands, I stumbled over this 1940 Dolomite


which boasted perhaps the most baroque grille in motoring! Looks like a fencing mask


dangerously risque mascot, too.


I guess it wasn't the original fit, but is one put on by an owner


anyway, it's a lovely car in incredible condition


and full of excellent little detail touches

[Lucky]

So we've finally made it into the proper car paddock, right up the opposite end to the military zone. It was a bit fristrating, because the marshals wouldn't open this area so we could wander around until the car's demo runs were finished.... and then till the bikes demo runs were finished... and then until the hotrod demo....

By the time we got in it was mid-afternoon and I right royally had the bleeding knock with health and safety. Y'know, I've been crossing the road on me own for forty-odd years, ta. I understand the concept of not standing in front of moving heavy metal objects, thanks. Don't protect me from myself, I'm fine, thanks [/rant]

Anyway, let's start on a low note and things can only improve;


Gahhh, why is this so lusted after? Proof in my humble opinion that just cos it's an Italian marque with more heritage than the Byzantine Empire and an Italian styling house with more successes than AC Milan doesn't guarantee beauty. Zagato Alfa, for me anyway, is wrong from every angle. Plus it seems to be upholstered with David Dickinson's spare neck wattles. Horrid. Like the Teledials though


Right, that's out the way, have an Ultima GTR. Just as ugly, but in a good way. And no-one gets duped into pretending otherwise


Tupperware Torpedo!


Funnily enough, I think I saw this one at the Worthing show the other month, and took a spookily similar wheel pic of it too


There was a distinctly odd mix of cars in the paddock, from modern supercars like this Merc SLS gullwing (gullwings not pictured lol)


to cute little old classics (and restomods) like this Sprite...


...which was sporting something considerably more frisky than it started life with under the bonnet


and proper single-seat race cars and old competition machinery


and even some "humble" family saloons


Then there's the true one-off mad things, for example;


The gloriously insane aero-engined Brooklands Napier Railton


this thing holds the fastest lap that will ever be set around the Brooklands banked circuit (now it's been disgustingly allowed to crumble into ruin in the usual complete ignorance of heritage endemic to Britain) at an AVERAGE speed of 143.44mph set in 1935. Incredible!


amazing what you can achieve with a 24-litre V12 under the bonnet. It makes 535 brake at just 2500 rpm!


mmmm, comfy


The next plane to stop by shook the world.


The solitary remaining Vulcan Bomber, restored after public donations to the tune of £7m. One of these literally changed the course of the Falklands war by taking out the runway at Port Stanley in a something-like-16000-mile single operation, refueling en route.


Like so many things nowadays, funding is almost impossible and the Powers that be have no interest in preserving any part of heritage they can't adulterate for their own propaganda, so it looks like this might be the last year of flight for Avro XH558. At an estimated £19k per flight hour, it's not the cheapest thing to run! Especially not with the bomb-bay dragging lol


It is, however, downright bloody awesome however you look at it. This was as aerobatic as the pilot was allowed to get;


There is an incredible (though poor quality) YouTube clip of one being barrel-rolled somewhere, which is a humbling sight.... they're not allowed to do it any more because it's also a humbling sound and it allegedly blew out every skylight window on the aircraft sheds!

Sadly, this may well be the last sight any of us have of it as it joins so many things flying into a footnote to history



Now a little lesson in the beauty of human nature. I was titting around taking pics and Beth (SWMBO) was sitting in the shade with the kids, the li'l un asleep and Conrad having a rest cos he was tired. He saw some blokes standing by a trailer and display of cars nearby, and decided they looked hot. He said to his mum "I feel sorry for those men out in the sun, I'm going to help them" so he went up and held out his bottle of drink to them and said "I thought you might like to share my drink because you look hot and thirsty"

The dude laughed and said "thanks, that's really kind, but I've just got myself a beer actually. But since you were so generous, would you like to come and have a sit in some of my cars?"

Of course, asking a five-year old that is a no-brainer, but blimey, what a collection of cars! First off was


yeah, only a Porsche 962 LeMans Group C Racer!


Dunno why they're supposed to be cramped, there's loads of room if you're only four feet tall!




Next came...


Tiff Needell's old SD1


and then the dude's like "there's just the little blue one over there if you want to have a sit in that, too?". The little blue one;


Bugatti Type 37A!


Here's one very lucky little boy! I said to the guy "This must be worth a bomb! There can't be many of these left, you're very kind to let him play about in it!". He just shrugged and said "Nah, not many". (They only made like 63 odd of the supercharged 37A. Let's just say it ain't gonna be a cheap car....) "I don't mind so long as he doesn't fiddle with it too much; last time I only found out someone had pulled the fire extinguisher when I went to start it up for the run and it went off!"


What a touching little epsiode, and the moral is you get what you give. C-man innocently offered the guy a drink without thought of reward, and got one exactly because of that. He got to sit in three motorsport icons whilst several jealous passers-by went green with envy. He doesn't even have a clue how valuable a pre-war Bugatti is, or why a leMans Porsche is cool. Innocence is a marvellous thing.

By the way, only a Bugatti would have a tooled leather set of compartments to keep your champagne corks in inside the cockpit!


Moving on then... no idea what this is but I do like the packaging very much. Very neat


Marcos looks completely wrong and yet somehow works


Plenty of Jaaaaaags




I'll allow one E-type though I'm not a huge fan. I think it's the pram-wheel offset fail that upsets me


This C-type is undeniably gorgeous though




I can't offer any intelligence on this old Lea Francis, except to say despite it's obvious age it's still got adjustable suspension via friction dampers. Cool!


...and a groovy emblem


Nice Healey 3000


By now a lot of the paddock was empty, not sure what happened there but it looked like a lot of exhibitors had cleared off home early. This is kind of a shame, and something that irritated me. People (us included) spent a lot of money to get into a show like this, and I think if someone's showing their car they should show it, not do the fun part and run it up the runway then clear off home. Especially since the show's over two days and they presumably have to bring it back the next day anyway. Show a little comittment, lol

Almost all the Ferraris had vanished by now, so I didn't get any pics of them at all. Maybe they were moved to another area, but I can't see why they would, and I certainly didn't catch a glimpse. Fortunately, quite a few cars had stuck around. Plenty of Astons;


The V8 is still my favourite. Brute strength and elegance in a beautiful/ugly package. Splendid


not forgetting the gentleman's club interior, of course


Somehow the modern lumps, extremely capable though they are, don't have quite the same shock and awe in their plastic shrouding


Nice to see one that's obviously used, the patina and grime on this DB4 didn't come around by sitting in a garage

[Lucky]

At times it was tricky taking pics of the cars because it seemed every five minutes there was another flypast and I had stop trying to take pics of big stationary things close up to try to take some decent pics of fast whizzy things a long way away. It's a good job I've no idea how to use any of the settings on the camera, I'd have been completely lost
Anyway, here's a Spitfire and a Mustang, I guess two of the most iconic, influential, and defining planes of WWII









Shall we have some bikes in case there are any two-wheeled afficianados out there? It was tricky to photograph them very well because they were a bit squashed in together, but here are some that aren't utterly awful. Let's start with a Vincent, the original superbike


and another that's been adulterated with a sidecar. To be fair, it's a great period ensemble, even if a bit like using a 911 to tow a caravan


This Black Shadow racer was straight-up superb in every respect


Big, brutal air-cooled old turbo Zed must be a bit of a handful! No wonder the builder's put a modern front end and suspension/brakes on it!


I'm a long-time two stroke fan so this one of the ultimates for me;


a square four RG500 complete with original skinny tyres and flexi frame! Because bikes should have four exhausts!


Not forgetting it's younger smaller sister, the RGV250. That seat unit that graced a thousand streetfighters


Lovely example of the GT750 "Kettle", the bike that finally brought all Suzuki's two-stroke experience to the streets after stealing the secrets of the MZ factory racers through the defection of Ernst Degner and the subsequent acceleration of their 2T race bike programme


Someone's put a lot of effort into polishing the rear wheel of this Triumph Daytona. Must have no fingerprints left


Brooklands museum had brought a few of their exhibits along, such as this excellent Earle J.A.P.-engined flat-tracker, complete with brush-painted finish


There were a few of the early Honda four-stroke 125 and 250 GP racers, which I suspect were replicas


Normally you wouldn't see one outside of a museum unless it was accompanied by several immaculately turned-out and polite Japanese technicians, so I guess they are reps. Very, very high quality ones though


I love the bath plugs to stop debris getting into the carb trumpets. Mmmm, four flat-slide Keihins. Nice


Proper. Quad reverse-cone megas. Sound epic


Moving on from two wheels, then. How about something a wee bit special?


can you tell what it is yet, lol?


Yep, the Handlye Special


Quite a car, this, featuring as it does a V12, 27-litre Rolls-Royce Merlin engine originally fitted to a Hawker Hurricane


Definitely has presence!


and lots of Webers!


I guess when this thing's on full honk you need plenty of leverage, as afforded by a 36"string-covered wheel


The obvious place to put a temperature gauge is on the radiator, I suppose. Except when the radiator's at the other end of a twenty-foot bonnet! Still a wonderful instrument, finished to an exceptional standard like everything else on the car


the bodywork must have taken hundreds and hundreds of hours to shape


Fit and finish


Draws in all sorts of admirers


Some more aircraft messing about now, then;


In the form of a pair of Red Bull-liveried prop planes. They were amazing, tbh at least as engrossing as the Red Arrows, though clearly at a slower speed. Their nimbleness in the air was astonishing. For example, they could do this;


No Photoshop involved! (admittedly the spectacular sky helps) but look how close they come to each other


Serious skillz


and they could do that flying sideways thing as well. Still no idea how it's done but it still don't half look clever


Right, I'll shut up again now and let the pics speak for themsalves

[Lucky]

...and back to the cars! Errrr... aperture setting? Gahhh, I'm lost now. Maybe I'll just leave it on auto...

OK, plenty of these. The GT40 is one of my favourite cars ever, especially since I was lucky enough to once get a go in one around Goodwood. Fair to say it was a moment of Epiphany! It's funny, one of those cars where now every time you see one you assume it must be a replica, rather like AC Cobras. But when they're as good as these, who cares, frankly!


The "40-in-GT40-stands-for-40-inch-height" cliche being proved by 44-inch high human


Plenty of low noses. It's like Land of the Giants!






I love the way the speedo is considered the least relevant instrument, perched way over practically mounted on the passenger door




Some more Americana, and it's hard to believe this is also a race car from the same company.


a Magnum Ford Fairlane. Brutal!


Usual mid-century rocket thruster rear lights included. Marvellous


Proud logo testament to the engine on the knock-offs


The next car could probably fit into the Fairlane's boot... sorry, trunk... a gorgeously restored Lotus Elan


I've loved these ever since seeing Emma Peel's one in the Avengers... although that might have had something to do with Diana Rigg, of course. Anyway, this was a total shed full of rot judging by the build photos the fella had on the dash, to big respec to him for the standard it's now at


Daimler Dart. I've no idea why they chose one of these for the title sequence of the Antiques Roadshow. Clearly the producer knows less about cars than they do about tables or clocks. Wretched car, badly-laid up fibreglass on a bendy ladder chassis meant enoguh flex that the doors would come open under hard cornering and the wheels were rarely all pointing the same direction at any given time. Still, they do look rather funky, don't they?


Blimey, I must be getting old! Anyone else remember Dan Air? Imp badged as a Commer Van


It wouldn't be a classic car paddock without a Cobra, so we might as well have a slightly different one;


I can't decide if I love or hate the hardtop. Some angles it works, some... not so much


Still no windows, though!




A modern bit of Americana now, a new Camaro


Nice to see one that doesn't look like a Transformer lol. Rockin some serious wheelage


Plenty of Bentleys throughout as well. I have a lot of warm fluffy feelings towards this Tourer and its lovely sculpty bodywork




"fastest lorries on Earth"? Damn right!






Just a quick couple of Beetles and we're pretty much finished with the showcar paddock... Beetle:


Beetle:


Hahaha, you just knew that was coming, didn't you? I couldn't resist. Anyway, by now it was getting late afternoon and the little ones were getting tired and slightly crabby so we started to head back for the exits. Stopped en route a couple of times... once for the family to have a little impromptu dance-up to the band playing in the Hot Rod zone


they're all bonkers, but it gave the people wandering past a laugh at least... and once for an Apache Army attack helicopter to put on a display


Like a damned great insectoid Agent of the Apocalypse


and then, just as I was about to start taking pics of the Hot Rods, this unbelievably noisy hooligan came whizzing past...

[Lucky]

I took the opportunity to sneak some pics of the Tornado display while Beth took my lad on the Twister. Very difficult things to take pics of, they're sooooooooooooo damned fast! And LOUD! Not that you can tell that from the photos, take my word for it. Here we go, FWIW;

I like this one, you can see the wings tearing slices out of the air!




They were doing pretend bombing runs on the runway, but I totally failed to have quick enough reactions to get any photos of them in the same frame as the explosions. I suck. never mind, have some more flight pics anyway






So, on to the hot rods. We got to watch them doing a demo drive around a little arena bit. Which was a bit odd, cos it's not as if they were doing Russ Swift/Terry Grant style demo driving. But at least we got to hear some V8 (and straight-8) thunder. Again, none of that immense noise comes out in the pics, sorry

Giant pickups always move me. Chevy Task Force (I think)


Ford F100


This Apache apparently belonged to the band who were playing on a stage in the Hot Rod Zone. Living the genre!


Three very different expressions of Ford separated only by three years; a '31;


'32;


and '33:


I've got no idea what this bucket rat started life as, but it is exceptionally cool!


and exceptionally low


open wheels make for convenient seating


The two that excited me the most were a pair of sleds, starting with this '50 Lincoln Cosmopolitan


in a fetching shade of patina and studied neglect




The interior was properly well finished, in contrast. New leather everywhere in gleaming white


but with fantastic wear on the original fitment switches and controls


the other was a Buick Eight Super


which was simply stunningly presented


had to tone down the chubby bloke with the orange shirt who refused to move out of the bleeding way lol


shiny VentiPorts


and bizarrely green interior. Very Art Deco


And that was us done pretty much. We made for the exits and the hour-long queue getting out of the carpark, stopping only to pick up a scale model of the Vulcan bomber for the li'l un. On the way the last of the air displays (that we saw) was taking place


a pair of wing-walking lunatics!


performing the sort of gymnastics I reckon anyone in here would struggle to do stood on the floor, let alone stuck on top of a moving biplane!


it's not even as though they were hanging around!


Yeah, I know they were strapped in, but at one point they released the straps and did it just standing holding on. And even with straps... you telling me this ain't monster bravery?


and even on the way through the carpark there was still stuff to look at. Scattered amidst the sea of identikit people carriers and econobxes you'd stumble across little treasures like this;




and this awesome T-Bird that rocked my world for a while


It was immaculate inside and out


just parked up nonchalantly, top open despite the threatening clouds


love the swing-over steering cloumn to make it easy for ....errrr, generously proportioned... Yanks to get in and out easier!


and on one final rocket nozzle rear light, my work here is done


Overall, an excellent day out, slightly soured by a few niggles like the insanely massive queues and the horrific expense. Not perhaps the most kid-friendly show despite all the attractions, but worth the effort I think.

As always, thanks for looking and reading my humble drivel. Now go away ;D

[spoddy]

great post man, really enjoyed it. your pics are fantastic, great skill to take the planes in flight, which i loved.
seeing the lancaster and the vulcan is a real honour as there are only 2 working lancasters in the world, other is in canada and
i think they keep it in a museum. so seeing a lanc flying is great.

oh and the differences between a hurricane and spitfire besides the visual differences are.

They are two very similar fighter planes used by the RAF during World War 2 but designed and built by different firms. Hawker's "Hurricane" had good maneuverability, and was armed with 4 20mm cannons. It's top speed was 340 MPH. The Spitfire had superb maneuverability, was armed with 4 .303 machine guns and 2 20mm cannons, and had a top speed of 378 MPH. Both were excellent fighter planes. The Spitfire got "better press", but in truth 60% of the German planes shot down in the Battle of Britain were shot down by Hurricanes.

sorry but i like planes lol.

looked like a fantastic day, thanks for sharing it.

[ian65]

Fantastic write up and amazing photos there Nik...... I know when I tried to pick your brains about your photography skills at RRG, you were very modest and put it down to luck and photoshop but these pictures show you've got real skill and an eye for a picture. As I said before, I've got exactly the same camera and yet my photos look as if a five year old has taken them. That picture of the Lancaster is something else, as you say, just like a painting.
I must find out how to work my camera!
Thanks for taking the time to write this up and link all the pictures........... terrific stuff!

[KiwiDave]

Nik!! Another epic from our resident roving reporter. We all appreciate how much time it takes to sit down and put these things together, load all the pics and then wordsmith it all up into some form of understandability. Not to mention getting the shots in the first place. My votes go to the Vulcan and Tornado shots (and Conrad as your wingman). Gotta luv the little fella

[ian65]

Good pictures particularly of the Vulcan although Operation Black Buck was far less successful in terms of its effect on target than the RAF would have you believe, the runway was insufficiently damaged to prevent its repair and they were operating aircraft from it soon after the attack. It did however show that Britain could deliver strategic heavy bombing against Argentina, however it wasn't the war winning effort the RAF would have you believe.

it was as much the psychological effect it had on the Argentines as the damage caused...... they realised that mainland Argentina was vulnerable to our aircraft.
Whichever way you look at it, to fly 1950's cold war bombers from Ascension Island to the Falklands and back was an incredible feat. Anyone who's read Vulcan 607 can appreciate what a close run thing it was.