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Old aeroplane photo's.

Hi Ladywood,

My 3 photos are:

Martin-Baker MB5
Macchi-Castoldi MC72 (which was a very close copy of the S6B)
Focke-Wulf 200 Condor civilian type.

Strangely, I've just been speaking to my contact at Martin-Baker Aircraft Ltd. One of the very few surviving British aerospace companies. My company still supplies them.

Your new sketch: I'd have said B24 Liberator, but as only 2 engines are visible it could possibly be a B25 Mitchell, but I don't think so. (The Mitchell has distinct gull-wing effect at the wing-root).

Big Gee


Yes you are absolutely right a B24 Liberator drawn in the American hanger at Duxford.

How about this?
 
GGJean, If you go to a big one than take some earplugs. Four Harrier Jets doing pirouettes at ground level is a fantasic sight but the noise and vibration is something you have to experience to believe. A bit like Formula 1 racing the noise does become wearing after a while.
Dont let this put you off. Those display pilots are real artists and I am sure you will really enjoy a great day out.......arkrite.
 
I would say it is a Liberator and Ladywood ran out of paper before he could add two more engines. Then again I may be wrong.

Dear Arkwrite, Sometimes the aircraft are so big it's impossible to get everything on.
Yes, you are right it was a B24 Liberator.
How about this?

ladywood
 
Avro Shackleton? Ladywood, nothing wrong with a close. Sometimes the big picture is just to big.Wonderful place Duxford.
 
Avro Shackleton? Ladywood, nothing wrong with a close. Sometimes the big picture is just to big.Wonderful place Duxford.

This was the hardest.
HMAS Hobart.
10 large sheets of paper and as usual whenever you start a large drawing, it suddenly becomes a very windy day.
This took 4 days to draw [sometimes I can be slow] then just as I was about to add some colour, it sailed away.
However if you've looked at the same thing for 4 days, you can usually fill in the details.
All the best.

ladywood
 
You are very talented Ladywood. Annie did a lovely drawing of a plane wonder if she would put it on this thread. Jean.
 
Hi Ladywood,

Is the drawing on Post No 62 a Blackburn NA39 Buccaneer?

Your drawings are excellent and bring out a lot of character that's missing in a photo. Have you done any sketches of World War 1 aircraft at all? Very talented artist, mate!

Big Gee

No, even as I pressed the button I knew it isn't a Buccaneer. I'm stumped! Not really into modern aircraft.
 
Big G, Yes they are rather cramped and you get a bit stiff after an 8 to 10 hour survey flight, I have shown the wireless ops position , port side over the main spar, also our sqdn photographer took some stunning shots, have shown one landing with full flaps at Tabora Tanganyika 1950. Eric
 
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As one of the 'aviation nuts' on the forum I enjoy looking at aeroplane photos, and Ladywood's drawings are superb, particularly the Hobart one. I uploaded it to Picasa for a closer look and it became more colourful !
What planes are these in this pic ? They used to make a wonderful 'noise' at low level. Don't know whether the RAF can put up this many fighters these days.
:)
 
Old Mowhawk asked my neighbour if he had any photo's of Castle Bromwich and he said his great uncle worked there and they built the spitfires and pushed them across the road to the airfield but unfortunately no photo's. Jean.
 
That squadron of jets are of the best looking aircraft ever,one-time airspeed record holder, the beautiful Hawker Hunter.I remember going to an air display at Castle Bromwich,somewhere I have a picture of a line-up of DeHavilland Mosquitoes taken ther,I will see if I can find it.This would have been about 1955,....Mal.
 
Hi, Jean My Dad worked in the Spitfire Factory, and as kid I remember watching the Spitfires being air tested after they had pushed them across the road. I also remember watching him build a model of a Lysander on the kitchen table after tea - had to leave it there a few times when the Luftwaffe visited.
oldmohawk
:)
 
the beautiful Hawker Hunter.
Spot on Mally - The other plane I liked was the 'frightning' Lightning. Saw one in 1957 when I was in the RAF, probably before it got its name. Thought it was superb even though it was a bit fuel thirsty. There is a thread on Castle Brom air displays in the 50's - but no pics.
would like to see photo's if you have them.
oldmohawk
 
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Hi, yes the English Electric Lightning,basically a pair of engines with some wings strapped on.Pilots of the day recall it as 'the last of the hot-rods'.You're right about it being thirsty,apparently it was the perfect interceptor fighter apart from it's very short range,fantastic aircraft though,....Mal.
 
Hi Darby; Your pics aircraft Mustang /F16 /F15 Eagle /A10 Warthog. I think the four
engined transport plane is an Hermes in Jeans pics.
 
Going back to the Hawker Hunter, I remember being on the beach at Torquay,when there was a loud double bang.Looking up, there was a Hunter pulling out of a dive.This would have been around 1954 or so,I was still quite young,and it was when all the talk was about the sonic booms,and how they where shattering windows,killing livestock,and causing all kinds of ailments.First one I'd ever heard,I talked about it for days,....Mal.
 
Hi Darby The planes in post 83 are Stirlings and the aircraft in your USAF MEMORIAL
are in differant markings so not memorial flight and the other pic IN POST 52
THE BLUE ANGELS US NAVY DISPLAY TEAM.
 
The Manhattan photograph is showing a 'Pitts' special,a biplane used mainly for aerobatic contest flying, and display flying,....Mal.
 
Post 62...Would it be the rear end of a Tomcat, the twin rudder, swing wing USN fighter made famous in the film TOP GUN?
Love the Catalina drawing!.
 
We saw some sights in the 50's. When I was 'Square Bashing' at RAF Padgate in 1956, the USAF visited RAF Burtonwood with 16 - B36's and as they circled waiting to land I gazed up at them. A Corporal saw me (his photo is somewhere on the forum) and put me on a charge for wasting time looking at aeroplanes. The B36 never fired a shot or dropped a bomb in action, but it did accidentally drop a big H Bomb on a farm in New Mexico. It made a hole, but not as large as it could have been.
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My all time favourite for its sheer beauty is the Lockheed Constellation and in the 1950's-60's I saw every single one that was then flying on international routes! And my favourite livery was that of T.W.A.
cs44lockheed-constellation-new-york-1950-posters.jpg

 
I can remember our teacher at Canterbury Cross school getting all excited as he told us that Neville Duke had just broken the world speed record at 728mph in a Hawker Hunter. 1953, I think.

As an aircraft buff who prefers planes with fans at the front, I have to say that the Hunter has to be one of the most beautiful aircraft ever designed. There was one as 'gate-guardian' until recently at Bruntingthorpe Industrial Estate, and I managed a very close look one day; suprising how much wood there was in its construction. I also remember when I was working in Switzerland in about 1975 a pair of Swiss Air Force Hunters hedge-hopping in and out of the valleys around Zug, where I was working. The noise was incredible, but the Swiss just ignored it and carried on working.

Big Gee
 
My all time favourite for its sheer beauty is the Lockheed Constellation and in the 1950's-60's I saw every single one that was then flying on international routes! And my favourite livery was that of T.W.A.
cs44lockheed-constellation-new-york-1950-posters.jpg

Hi Cadeau,

I read recently that a restored one should be flying some time this year in the USA. Lovely looking plane!

Big G
 
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