Avia S 199

Okay, this one should keep you going through the morning coffee. Not all warbirds exactly, NASA planes of the 80s.

That NASA pic reminds me of an anecdote from Adam Savage (ex-mythbusters). He has a youtube video where he talks about looking at the USS Intrepid museum in NY with Chris Hadfield.

He asked him how many of the aircraft on the flight deck he had flown and he said it might be quicker to tell him which ones he hadn’t.

Lucky bugger 🙂

Ooh look a cheyane… Very very interesting airplane that…

Whilst we’re doing twin props, 51 + 51 = 82.

Ref the NASA 80’s picture loving Blue Thunder on steroids

Related: landing on a clear day in Estonia, just south was what looked like a B29 in the edge of the woods, roads on either side. It may have been Lithuania we were over….

Easy one, this. Cooler than a penguin’s pantry, though!

BAC Strikemaster, what the UK sold to world leaders who wanted to bomb their own populations before we started selling them Hawks instead. 😉

Is that Omani roundels? Then it’s a mk82 Strikemaster

Yep!

Was tempted to put a Skyvan or Islander from the 70s Dhofar Rebellion vintage, but would have been even easier.

There’s at least one Strikemaster that’s still doing the rounds at air shows so they probably don’t count as particularly obscure.

Interesting that NASA felt the need to keep a Cobra….

What? NASA planes but not this? 😳

Heinkel He111z Zwilling. Designed to be used as a glider tug for the giant glider they built, me323? Or was that the one with the 6 engines?

AD 1.

Swing wing tastic!

Me323 Gigant was the powered one. Me321 was the glider.

I had both the Gigant and the Zwilling as 1/72 scale models as a kid. Think they’re in my parents’ loft now

Given the size of it, I bet their loft might look a little like this…

Given the size of it, I bet their loft might look a little like this…

Well, it made the B29 seem small, and absolutely dwarfed the Sunderland and Lanc that also hung from my ceiling

Interesting that NASA felt the need to keep a Cobra….

I think (off the top of my head) that the Cobra had some interesting flight characteristics for a helicopter.

I think (off the top of my head) that the Cobra had some interesting flight characteristics for a helicopter.

And they probably put a nuclear-powered engine in it.

One for the X-planes fans (right click > View Image > magnify at least in Firefox on PC)

F16 with a cranked / delta wing?

F-16XL I expect, probably after NASA got hold of it and started playing around with it. The original XL lost out to the F-15E Strike Eagle in a competition for a strike aircraft for the USAF to replace the F-111.

Did no-one spot the warbird in my loft photo? Or was it too easy?

Rich_s

Did no-one spot the warbird in my loft photo? Or was it too easy?

Was trying to remember which Stalag it was…

Colditz

And the belly of a Convair B58 Hustler

I have discovered the plane I saw on way in to Tallin. Abandoned Antonov AN-12, I mistook for WW2 bomber from the air.

Most frustrating, the plane was at Keilia, where my meetings were on one day of the trip…

The Colditz Cock, apparently…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colditz_Cock

There’s at least one Strikemaster that’s still doing the rounds at air shows so they probably don’t count as particularly obscure.

Under the title of Jet Provost, yes there is. I remember watching the Southport Airshow in 2014 when Andy Hill (the pilot who later crashed the Hunter at Shoreham) had a near miss pulling out of a barrel roll. It was a dreary grey day and quite breezy, no definitive horizon so the displays were limited to flat loops and turns but he pulled out of this roll noticeably much lower than the rest heading inland over the heads of the crowd, immediately cranked the jet up to height and broke off the display. Over the tannoy they played it down, made no reference to any cock-up just said he’d finished the display because it was too windy but everyone watching knew that was unplanned…

Westland Wyvern

oh very good…it’s an Argentinian copy of the Mosquito with US radials, can’t for the life of me remember it’s name without looking it up, I want to say Condor, but I know that’s not right.

Bugger, you win!

You’re mostly right, nickc. It’s a Calquin, which is Large Eagle (Condor) in the Patagonian language.

B58 Hustler?

Not particularly noteworthy aircraft, but the somewhat lax approach to keeping the public out made them much more interesting to me than most static exhibits 🙂