Saturday, July 13, 2013

Those magnificent men in their flying machines

Which is what I suspect I called my post about the Wales Air Show last year.
 But anyway.

Now I know what I want to be when I grow up: a Red Arrows pilot! I can make the noises YEEAAWWW and steer so I'm sure I'd easily make the grade.

And Husband has spent a large part of today explaining to me how different sorts of aeroplanes work.
'You mean there are different sorts of aeroplanes?'
'Turbo and jet (and probably others he mentioned but I might have stopped listening).'
'Oh.'
'So where do you think the engine is on the plane?'
'In that little pointy bit at the front, in front of the driver?'

Now I know that's not the case I shall be applying to the Red Arrows next time I see their recruiting stand.

The Battle of Britain Memorial fly past of the Lancaster (the big one), Hurricane and Spitfire wasn't quite as impressive but they did sound just like they do in the war films.



2 comments:

Furtheron said...

I find the BBMF very impressive, if only cos they keep the Lanc in the air at all - that must take hours of dedication and ingenuity - I mean it isn't like you can phone up the local air parts dealer and say "I need a radiator for a 1944 Lancaster" and expect the reply "Yes sir I have one in stock already".

My son and I visited the flight a few years ago on a family trip to Lincs. We were shown around by a guy who had flown in Lancs in the war. It all the more special for that, an unassuming humble man who in my mind was a neglected hero by this country for too long, you can argue about the tactics (i.e. bombardment of cities) but you can't fault the bravery those men showed to fly into that danger.

I quote from wikipedia... "Bomber Command crews also suffered an extremely high casualty rate: 55,573 killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew (a 44.4% death rate), a further 8,403 were wounded in action and 9,838 became prisoners of war. This covered all Bomber Command operations including tactical support for ground operations and mining of sea lanes. A Bomber Command crew member had a worse chance of survival than an infantry officer in World War I."

Liz Hinds said...

That is a high rate of death. Brave men.