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[tickmike]

70 years ago, 19 Lancaster bombers took off for their daring mission.

There was a good program on BBC2 at 7pm tonight  Thursday 16 may 2013 (See it on the iplayer )
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01sjtzt/The_Dambusters_70_Years_On/

It had me in tears watching it because my father told me he was one of the special Rolls-Royce people who was sent to RAF Scampton to 'tune' up the Lancaster Bomber Engines to get every foot-pound of torque from them, He said they knew they were not the normal Lancaster's and suspected that something big was about to happen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22554314

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-22214869

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22544568

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22544567

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22549964

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22512036

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22512038      You can see the bomb spinning drive on this.

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2013/05/16/lancaster-bomber-raf-cosford-flypast-marks-dambuster-raid-anniversary/last-16lancaster-1/

http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/pictures/Dambusters-70th-Anniversary-RAF-Scampton/pictures-19006193-detail/pictures.html#axzz2TaEY2HDO

http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/pictures/Dambuster-Raid-70th-RAF-Scampton/pictures-19014597-detail/pictures.html#axzz2TaEY2HDO

http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2013/05/lincoln-dambusters-70th-memorial-and-flypast/


I should be thankful that the German pilot who shot at him going to one of these RAF base's was not very good shot, if he was my father would have been killed and I would not be typing this !.
My father was driving a sports car and heard the plane coming at him and he put his foot down just in time, when he got to the RAF base there was a lot of bullet holes along the back of the car.

I have just seen one of the Spitfires that had taken part in today's ceremony coming back into EMA were it's based, the planes come in to East Midlands Airport above the field at the back of our house (and I'm not annoyed by them  at all   ).

[burakkucat]

Thank you for the reminder. I shall watch the program tomorrow.

[roseway]

A truly amazing event, which changed the course of the war. I shall be watching it too.

[guest]

One of the EM Spitfires is in for major repairs after the pilot retracted the undercarriage while the aircraft was on the ground 

He apparently tried to retract the flaps - which you have to do PDQ once the aircraft lands or it overheats very very fast - and pulled the lever for the undercarriage instead, despite the fact its on the other side of the cockpit. Will take him a very long time to live that one down

[tickmike]

One of the EM Spitfires is in for major repairs after the pilot retracted the undercarriage while the aircraft was on the ground 

He apparently tried to retract the flaps - which you have to do PDQ once the aircraft lands or it overheats very very fast - and pulled the lever for the undercarriage instead, despite the fact its on the other side of the cockpit. Will take him a very long time to live that one down

    

[guest]

In a similar sort of vein, since you're obviously not a million miles away.....

There's a Cold War jets open day at Bruntingthorpe Airfield on the 26 May.

Pretty large variety of them going to be out and about :

Victor, Nimrod, Comet, Lightning, Canberra, Jet Provost, Hunter, Iskra, Buccaneer and something I've never heard of - L29 Delphin, which is one of the Warsaw Pact aircraft. The Vulcan will probably be knocking around as usual but no flight this year as they've run out of cash again. There's plenty of other jets there too including Sea Harrier, Super Guppy, Starfighter etc etc.

[tickmike]

Ok thanks, 'Bruntingthorpe Airfield' that's the one that 'Top Gear' uses    .

[guest]

Amusingly I've just met an old mate who I worked with at Racal back in the 80s/early 90s and he's worked on most of the radars on them. I'm not quite that old but if they had helicopters of the cold war in there.... 

Edit - oh and we all remember Nimrod in its various incarnations. I actually remember the whole project getting canned but nobody told the subcontractors making the radar - was several months down the line when someone said "stop". Then they said go and stop and... well its Nimrod 

[asbokid]

The Vulcan will probably be knocking around as usual but no flight this year as they've run out of cash again.

The Vulcan flew overhead this afternoon while out with the dog!  Probably en route to Cosford.

cheers, a

[JGO]

Slight digression but may be of interest.

Barnes Wallace's Earthquake Bomb had a forerunner,  Mallet's Mortar an enormouse thing designed to shiver the foundations of Sebastapol in 1854. On view at Ft Nelson  ( Mallet was the father of British seismology - I wonder if he gave BW the idea ?!!

[asbokid]

The Vulcan will probably be knocking around as usual but no flight this year as they've run out of cash again.

The Vulcan flew overhead this afternoon while out with the dog!  Probably en route to Cosford.

cheers, a

It was bound for the Cosford Air Show..  Where proper photographers captured it in flight :-)

[kitz]

Not dambusters, but something more modern.

Not sure what is going on above here, but several times this week we've been treated to ear blasting displays.  Not really been the weather this week to see what was going on.. But I think it was tues or wed afty when I did catch a glimpse of black v shaped jets flying, but you had to be pretty quick before all you could see was a rear end jet glare. 

 Weird thing was normally I'd expect them to fly along the coast, but the were flying east to west and back.  My kittehs were in the garden that afty and ran for cover  . Still made them jump the times we heard it in the house.

[guest]

Bit of a necro on the thread but the last flying VC-10 (K3 tanker) landed at Bruntingthorpe today. Sadly as the Cold War Jets Collection already has a VC-10 this one will be broken up.

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/VC10-lands-Bruntingthorpe-airfield-flight/story-19844162-detail/story.html

[guest]

...and another necro of the thread as the local rag has a picture of all the jets outside :

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/s-Cold-War-jet-set-lined-fans/story-20115949-detail/story.html

[tickmike]

Nice photo.