The Aviation Show

On the night of the 13/14th of July 1943, RAF Bomber Command returned to the German city of Aachen again. This time they were carrying what they termed an "arson load". The attack created a firestorm that would take over a day to burn out and kill hundreds. Eleven days later, Operation Gomorrah, the firebombing of Hamburg, was carried out. Historian Dr Philip Blood joins me to discuss the July rai...

Mike Cusick was a Crew Chief on UH-1 Hueys and UH-60 Blackhawks in a career spanning five decades. Mike has seen everything from operating in the Vietnam delta to Afghanistan and Iraq, including flying into an Afghan canyon to rescue Marcus Letrell after Operation Red Wings went south. The episode was recorded onsite at the fab Pima Air and Space Museum and my chat with Mike covers a whole lot of...

Len Deighton’s Bomber, both the original novel and the 1995 Radio 4 adaptation, have had a huge impact on both readers and listeners of the last flight of O Orange for decades. But how has this impact affected the view of Bomber Command and did Len get it right? Dr Dan Ellin the archivist and historian for the International Bomber Command Center Digital Archive and James Jefferies, PhD Candidate a...

On Saturday the 18th of February 1995, Radio 4 dedicated prime slots of its schedule for an unprecedented airing of an adaptation of Len Deighton’s Bomber. Aired throughout the day, at timings to coincide with what was happening at that moment in the drama, Bomber would be nothing like what had come before and has not been done since. Joining me to discuss the production is producer Jonathan Ruffl...

The invisible radar war that took place over Europe is often misunderstood. While the RAF's integrated defence system, which had radar at its heart, has entered the mythos, the German side of the tale has not often been told. Along with advances in radio navigation, which would prove vital for winning or losing the air war, the electronic sphere was as closely fought as any battle. Tom Whipple, th...

Eric 'Winkle' Brown is widely regarded as the greatest pilot Britain has ever produced. Many of the tales Eric told have gone done in legend, but in researching his friend of 40 years, historian Paul Beaver found that the story of Eric's birth holds many clues as to the man Eric would become and that this refines Eric's remarkable story. You can follow Paul Beaver on Twitter at https://twitter.com...

Lt. Col. (Rtd) Jon Boyd served in the USAF through transformational times. Joining in the late 1970s, Jon would fly the venerable Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, the Hog to those who fly her, before joining the then Top Secret program that was working up the Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk, The Black Jet as Jon refers to it. It would be flying the Stealth Fighter that Jon would see combat over I...

Col. (Rtd) Kim "KC" Campbell USAF is a remarkable person. Her career almost never happened, as the US Air Force Academy initially rejected her. Still, her determination would see her enter the Academy and on multiple combat deployments on the venerable A-10 Hog over Afghanistan and Iraq, where she was famously hit over Baghdad, bringing her stricken Hog home safely. Kim's new book Flying in the Fa...

Eileen Bjorkman is a retired USAF Colonel who was a Flight Test engineer on over 25 types during her career that would see her end up in the Pentagon. Her new book, The Fly Girls Revolt, examines the journey the US Air Force's women have taken from the days of the WASPs and WAC to now flying all types of front-line combat aircraft, including the B-1B while pregnant. Yes, there is a baby out there...

This is the audio from a recent video I made. You can watch the video on the link below. I have a love/hate/love relationship with both versions of The First of the Few. The film 'tells the story' of RJ Mitchell and the creation of the Spitfire. Well, the story that has become the story anyways. I've tried to have some fun with it, and I'm still working out this video business, so let me know what...

Boneyard Safari is one of those outfits I had always followed but never thought I'd get the chance to meet anyone from. Well, the trip to Arizona and the team at The Pima Air and Space Museum changed all that. While I was there, I got to spend time with Ramon Purcell, Boneyard Safari's founder and Director of Photography. If you followed the F-117A Stealth Fighter's move to the Pima Air and Space...

Flying to Australia is a chore today, but 85 years ago, Imperial Airways and Qantas launched an audacious service with the wonderful Shorts C.23 Empire Flying Boat. These aircraft cut the journey from Southampton to Sydney to around nine days and, more importantly than the passenger service, allowed for a new rapid air mail service across the Empire. Phil Vabre is the President of the Civil Aviati...

This week I'm joined by poet and author Alison Hill whose new biography of Pauline Gower, the pilot who would spearhead the Women's Section of the ATA and ensure her pilots received equal pay for equal work, is one I was thoroughly moved by. In this episode, we discuss Pauline's early career, when she formed a nascent airline with friend Dorothy Spicer, whose book of their escapades received a rar...

Tim Amalong is the president of Arizona Aero-Tech and Velocity Air, which provides flight training and aviation services out of Ryan Field in Tuscon, Arizona. While I was in Arizona, I got to chat with Tim about his life in aviation, the environment his businesses fly in and the services his companies offer. It was a fascinating chance to discuss proper grassroots flight with someone who sees many...

Women have been involved in flight from the earliest moments, yet they have been relegated to the margins in most of our histories. So it was fantastic to read Sally Smith's book that brings these magnificent women back to our attention. From women who flew balloons professionally in the 19th century to the Manchester lass who won the most prestigious air race in the country and the first Briton t...

The Women's Auxillary Air Force has a specific spot in the public's memory. Either as the headphoned women sat around the RAF's plotting tables or of Susannah York's Section Officer Maggie Harvey in the Battle of Britain film. But what was the reality? War historian Dr Sarah-Louise Miller joins us to discuss the WAAFs who are the subject of her new book, The Women Behind the Few: The Women's Auxil...

The Titan Missile Museum in Green Valley, Arizona, was formally Complex 571-7 of the Titan II ICBM defence system that was active between 1963 and 1987. The museum houses the original silo, crew and control complex of 571-7 and holds training Titan II N-10. In this episode, we tour the complex with site manager Mike Riggs who takes us around the silo and under the missile itself to see what life w...

I'm delighted to announce that the podcast will now be brought to you in association with the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. To kick off this new partnership, I visited the museum and sat down with Scott Marchand, the Executive Director of the Arizona Aerospace Foundation, which includes Pima, to discuss the museum's history and its incredible collection there in the Arizona desert....

We don't have a new episode this week as there are things happening! Normal service resumes next week, but there are snippets as to why in this little bonus episode. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As we were at Duxford for last week's ace chat with Rebecca Greenwood Hard about the hurricane: Unsung Hero exhibition, historian Matt Willis and I decided to have a wander around and celebrate what we feel are some of Duxford's unsung heroes. As the museum was closing, we had to rush about a bit. Despite the time slipping away from us, we did get to have a look at the restoration hanger and the h...

The Hawker Hurricane has gone down in popular history as 'not the Spitfire'. But when the Imperial War Museum unveiled their latest exhibition at IWM Duxford, Hurricane: Unsung Hero, the avgeek crowd, myself included, went 'unsung?! Never!'. So how better to discuss the exhibition with than the IWM'sHead of Technical Objects Rebecca Greenwood Harding. Rebecca has a broad remit at IWM, so I was del...

Catch-22 is one of my favourite books. My battered paperback copy lives on my bedside table. I have the fancy Folio Society edition on the shelf too. As an unashamed B-25 nut, I do bang on about how the Mike Nichols adaptation, written by Buck Henry, basically saved all the flying B-25s we still have. But, how much of it is true? Heller certainly always maintained he had made it up. Author, histor...

In 1919, the forerunner to the United States Air Force, the Air Service, staged an audacious transcontinental air race. While flying coast to coast had never really been done before, the head of the Training and Operations Group, Brigadier-General Billy Mitchell. Decided that making it a round-trip race would be even better than just going one way. So in October 1919, using war surplus aircraft, i...

As the last Boeing 747 rolls off the assembly line at Everett, the once distinctive shape of the airliners we have known have become the norm. But with the changes in power source we discussed in Part 1 coming into effect, the shape of the aircraft of the future will adapt to make the best use of them. Aerospace engineer Joe Wilding returns to help us look at what the Shape of the Future may be. O...

Aviation is at a fascinating crossroads. As the production of the 747 ends this year and the production lines have been quiet for quite some time now In their place, we are seeing in a shift in the way we travel by air. Aviation is also very much in the sights of all those who want us to reduce our carbon footprint because it is a very visible sign of carbon emissions. Joining us today is Joe Wild...