Plane Tales

The Falkland islands, a  British Sovereign Territory, had been invaded by Argentinian military forces and in response the UK assembled a task force to sail the 8,000 miles required to dispatch the invaders and free the British residents there.  Amongst the RAF Harrier pilots onboard HMS Hermes was Flt Lt Dave Morgan who took part in the first Harrier attack on the airfield at Stanley, the capital...

Two of the most weird looking aircraft ever devised were actually immensely valuable in the development of the Hawker Harrier Jump Jet and in the training of astronauts!  This is the story of two flying bedsteads!   The NASA Lunar Landing Research Vehicle.   The original flying bedstead, more properly known as the Rolls-Royce Thrust Measuring Rig.     Images under Creative Comm...

Lt David Steeves was living the dream.  He was a USAF fighter pilot and instructor flying the T33A shooting star when his jet failed him as he flew over the Sierra’s mountain range.  He ejected and then survived a traumatic fight for survival amongst the rugged terrain… he ought to have been hailed a hero.  Enter the newspaper man Clay Blair and David Steeves life abruptly turned into...

The weird and wacky names that aircraft have don’t usually include those of insects, particularly parasitic ones but there is no accounting for taste!  From Gnats to Fleas, June Bugs to Crickets, aviation has them all and in this tale we find out about many of them.   The dainty but impressive Folland Gnat which was only slightly larger than the single seat version, the Midge.   &#...

Military pilots aren’t the only ones in danger whilst cruising the upper reaches of the atmosphere.  Passenger jets can be equally vulnerable with tragic results.  These are the stories of two aircraft that sadly flew on to their destruction, with nobody controlling, carrying their unfortunate passengers to their death. Payne Stewart.   The accident Learjet.   The Learjet’s f...

Military fighter aircraft that fly themselves around without their pilot on board is unusual, to say the least.  Sadly this is often a situation that has tragic consequences.  This tale is of three such events; happily one has safe outcome for the pilot… the others were not so lucky.   An early Harrier prototype, the P1127.   The Sea Harrier.   A 75 Sqn F/A-18 in the foregroun...

So feared were these pilots, flying almost silently over the German positions at night to attack any movement or light, that the Nazis called them Night Witches.  With just the wind whistling through the wires of their old Po-2 biplanes, again and again the brave young women of the Soviet Air Force flew with such skill that many were made  Heroes of the Soviet Union. Senior Lieutenant Irina Sebrov...

Recorded on the anniversary of the world’s worst air accident.  A enormous loss of life that highlights the vital importance of standard radio procedures and the pressures of command.  A word that still puts an icy hand around my heart when I hear it… Tenerife. The KLM 747.   The Pan Am 747.   Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Dutch National Archives, clipp...

The art of Skywriting began with an ex WW1 fighter, the venerable SE5a, saved from the scrapyard.  This is the colourful tale of airborne advertising! The last of Jack Savage’s SE5a fighters that he used for skywriting, now to be found in London’s Science Museum.   Traditional Skywriting over the EAA Airventure Oshkosh.   A novel marriage proposal on a flying banner.   I...

It’s common for airline Cabin Staff to be treated will little respect and the travelling public assume that they are little more than waitresses.  However, if you have a heart attack, suffer anxiety, need oxygen or directions in the case of an emergency evacuation it’s these highly trained professionals who will be the ones to help you.  Some are also brave and resourceful beyond all e...

There is a particular class of Military personnel who, at least in my time, were referred to as Capture Prone.  Whilst for me it was something that was treated as a mild annoyance, during conflict, being captured represents a true hazard.  For the crew of a downed B-24 Liberator,  Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am,  during WW2 who faced the fury of the German people, it would be deadly.   A Consolidat...

Six turning and four burning… what a sight it must have been to see the mighty Convair B36 Peacemaker fly.  Less of a welcome sight would be watching a nuclear weapon being dropped by one in Canadian territorial waters only a few hundred miles North of Vancouver! This is the story of Bomber 075 and its sad ending!   The later marks of the Peacemaker had an additional 4 jet engines!   Con...

A B17 crew training before deploying to Europe during WW2 managed to put a little town in Oklahoma on the map but not in the way they might like!   The M38A2 100lb practice bomb was no small device when dropped from a few thousand feet!   How the centre of Boise City might have looked on the night it was bombed!   The B17 Flying Fortress.       Images under Creative C...

Hong Kong’s old airport, Kai Tak, was always a challenging approach for any pilot, particularly during the Typhoon season but what was it like to actually fly around the Checker Board.  Hopefully, this Tale explains all.   One particular Captain’s very last Kai Tak landing.   Aircraft on the approach would just clear the apartment blocks of Kowloon.   How the airport loo...

On the APG show we have been discussing why the percentage of airline pilots in a stable relationship is so much higher than the average population. In this interview we discover what it’s like to be a pilot’s wife. The photograph I took of Mrs A on the day we met. Taking the kids on their daly ride around the Base to see the kangaroos! The Airline Pilot’s Wife.

We have recently been listening to Adam Spink describe the sight of a Boeing 777 crash on the threshold of runway 27L at Heathrow airport whilst he was the Air Traffic supervisor in the tower. On this tale we look at the technical reasons for why BA38 lost power on its approach. Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the NTSB.

The second part of the interview with Adam Spink, the Heathrow tower Supervisor and Birthday Boy on the day that Speedbird 38 crashed on the threshold of Runway 27L at Heathrow.  In this final part we talk about the aftermath of the accident.       Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Maarten Visser, Alchetron, the AAIB and UK Gov.

Observing a large wide body airliner crash is, mercifully, a rare occurrence but to have one crash onto your airfield when working as the Air Traffic Supervisor in the control tower puts it in a completely different category of amazing!  This is Adams story of the day it happened to him at London’s Heathrow airport.   G-YMMM, the accident airframe a few years before.   Speedbird 38...

Widow Maker is an epitaph attached to aircraft that present a particular risk to the life of the pilot. Many times this name is inappropriately used but in some cases, sadly, it is all too valid.  This is the story of two such aircraft.   The Martin B-26B Marauder.   A USAF recruitment poster featuring the Marauder.   Chuck Yeager in the NF104, an aircraft that would nearly kill him...

There are some sleek and elegant aircraft out there and some pretty ugly ones too!  Despite gaining nicknames such as the Flying Bathtub and the Flying Potato, many of these amazing flying machines did a great job in furthering our understanding of spaceflight.  This is the story of the Lifting Body aircraft. Three of the NASA experimental lifting body aircraft.   The Mig105 Spiral, nicknamed...

Not every Plane Tale recording goes according to plan…oops!

Aeronauts, ducks,  aviatrices, anhedral, terminals, slips and skids all have their place in aviation but where do these strange terms come from… particularly that old phrase, “He’s flown West.”

Luke Howard, the man who changed castles into Cumulus and mares tails into Cirrus.  No weather forecast would be complete without his system.   Cumulus cloud.     Cirrus cloud.   Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Acabashi and PiccoloNamek.

An attempt to distill the crash of Air France 447 down to the the simple causes and dispel some of the fanciful and unhelpful theories that surround this accident.   The accident aircraft, an A330-200.   The location of the wreckage of Flight 447.   Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Pawel Kierzkowski, Valter Campanato/ABr and Roberto Maltchik Repórter da TV Brasil...

My first Plane Tale when they weren’t really a thing… the story of Joe Gilmore remastered, re-recorded and revisited.  This was the vital British addition to the Apollo mission to put men on the Moon! Otherwise known as the Four Score and Ten… created for Sir Winston Churchill on his 90th Birthday.   The drink that the first Moon walking Apollo astronauts tasted after their...