My new website, AviationHistory.UK has just launched. Do drop by! aviationhistory.uk Many thanks to Jo for the design and the hosting!

My Alamy account has over 500 images (c.60% aviation). I do hope that you will enjoy them! www.alamy.com/portfolio/ro...

This is an 'oldie'; way back in 1979! I took this shot of an OA-37 in Peoria when I was visiting the IL ANG. #ANG #Peoria #Cessna #OA37 Please visit my Alamy site for a wide selection of aviation shots and other subjects, too - www.alamy.com/portfolio/ro...

The Royal Air Force Force Ensign flying in a stiff breeze. This most handsome ensign, 104 years old, can be found flying wherever the RAF is. Lots more #ensigns, #flags, #memorials, #landscapes, #architecture, #aircraft & more on my Alamy #photography page - see below www.alamy.com/portfolio/ro...

This De Havilland DH85 Leopard Moth was built in 1934 - and is still going strong. Made to carry a pilot plus two passengers, and powered by Gipsy Major 1C engine, it was used as a tourer and air taxi as well as by the RAF during WW2. Seen here at Duxford, she flies on! See Alt for lots more! 🛩️

North American RA-5C Vigilante. Sometimes an aircraft is never used for its designed purpose. In this case I am very grateful. The original use of the A-5 Vigilante was as a nuclear capable USN carrier aircraft. Fortunately, the photo-reconnaissance version was also useful ! Much more at Alt ! 🛩️⚔️

A photographers Starter Pack! bsky.app/profile/avia...

@blueskyimages.bsky.social Boeing 747-8 of Lufthansa shortly after landing at Boston Airport. The 747 may have faded from passenger carriage, but it will be in our skies for many more years as a heavy, long-distance freighter. For more photographs & other subjects see www.alamy.com/portfolio/ro...

One foxy aircraft! The DH83, a 1930s class, was capable of carrying up to four passengers (plus pilot), or 3 pax up to 350 miles at 96mph! mating a new fuselage with mainly Tiger Moth components, this was a hit; post-war Canadian DH83C's often had a sliding canopy. Now rare, see Alt for lots more!

The Avro York is a close cousin to the famous Avro Lancaster. A few were built during WW2 including one for Winston Churchill, but it played a significant role in the Berlin Airlift. Only a handful have survived including this one at the RAF Museum, Midlands. See Alt ! www.alamy.com/profile/ross...

Oh, and I have added another batch of photographs to my Alamy profile....enjoy! 🛩️ www.alamy.com/portfolio/ro...

The People's Mosquito are holding a Vintage Tea Party at the International Bomber Command Centre, Lincoln on Sat. 21st June. Ticket details below. WW2 Mosquito pilot Flt Lt Colin Bell, BEM, DFC (Colin is now 104) will be with us! Please support the TPM project if you can.

When Tony Le Vier, a Lockheed test pilot, and some friends at Lockheed designed built a series of three Formula 1 racers, they were always going to be fast and manoeuvrable. The performance of 'Cosmic Wind' was amazing on just 9 0hp. Sold in the UK, she crashed but was rebuilt. See Alt for more ! 🛩️📍

Agusta Westland (now Leonardo S.p.A.) Wildcat HMA.1 at RIAT. The Wildcat was developed from the Super Lynx, and has had a major structural redesign, along with new weapon systems such as the Sea Venom anti-ship missile. An important rotorcraft for both the Royal Navy and the British Army.🛩️⚔️🚁

@aviationreview.bsky.social The Auster AOP.9 was the last version of the RAF/British Army Air Corps fixed wing 'Air Observation Post'. In service by 1955 it was replaced by helicopters like the Saunders-Roe Skeeter from 1958. This AOP.9 is in private hands, as is the only unsuccessful AOP.11 🛩️⚔️

The Belvedere was designed, and piston-engined prototypes built by the Bristol company. The initial prototypes were a failure. A forced political decision by the UK Government, meant the design was transferred to Westland's. Seen here in Manchester, it is now with the Helicopter Museum See Alt ! 🛩️⚔️🚁

Beech Starship 2000 - too much too soon? The FAA certainly seemed to think so! 40,000 hrs of stress testing & forced FAA modifications meant the weight grew past 12,500lbs & meant 'type certification' rather than a generic 'twin rating'. This Mexican example is in the Beechcraft Museum. See ALT ! 🛩️📍

Curtiss-Wright Travel Air 12Q/W. When Curtiss-Wright bought the remains of Travel Air they kept producing aircraft under that brand name. This fine 1929 example of the Model 12 Q/W, powered by a Warner Scarab 145 engine is believed to be one of the oldest aircraft on the British Register. See Alt !🛩️

The Handley Page Hastings T.5. Derived from its famous wartime bomber cousin, the Halifax, this one is at the Newark Air Museum. Conceived as WW2 was winding down as a long-range transport aircraft, the Hastings actually ended up in action, dropping paratroops during the Suez Campaign (see Alt) 🛩️⚔️📍

Col. Oleksandr Oksanchenko, Ukrainian Air Force, flying 'Bort 58', a Sukhoi Su-27P1M. Col. Oksanchenko was K.I.A. , 10th October, 2022 Slava Ukraini

Support your local aviation museum, or aircraft restoration! I am a member of several aero clubs/aviation museums & enjoy them very much! The South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum holds a memento from No 59 Sqn, RAF in the form of a truncated propeller from a Hawker Hector's Dagger engine (see Alt)🛩️⚔️📍

A WW1 gem, the Sopwith Tabloid ! This started as a sports plane; one won the 1914 Schneider Trophy Race on floats & went on to serve from start to finish in WW1. This flying reproduction, sadly, crashed. Owned by the RAF Museum it is now at Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome, Essex. MORE at Alt !🛩️⚔️📍

Hawker Fury I, this beautiful biplane is at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford. Built from a South African wreck, recovered by Guy Black of Retrotec, it was the RAF's first 200mph fighter. It saw action with South African units against Italian aircraft in East Africa, during the early part of WW2 🛩️⚔️📍

Yet another 'yellow peril' ! The Hafner Rotachute was a radical rotary wing method of inserting an agent behind 'enemy lines'. However, the Westland Lysander turned out to be more efficient at this. Up to 10 were built; the sole survivor is displayed at the Army Air Corps Museum, Middle Wallop. 🛩️⚔️🚁📍

Sopwith One & a Half Strutter - crazy name, great aircraft! This WW1 maid of all work could do it all; fighter, bomber, reconnaissance, a real winner. Sopwith build many & the French built another 4500. This is a 'twice flown' replica, which the RAF Museum fitted with an original Clerget engine. 🛩️⚔️📍

DH82a, Australian-built WW2 Tiger Moth. Now UK-based, this example of the classic trainer is finished in early-war all-over yellow with an Australian serial. The De Havilland Australia Bankstown plant assembled UK-built fuselages with 'local' wings, before building complete aircraft. See Alt ! 🛩️⚔️

Col. Oleksandr Oksanchenko, Ukrainian Air Force, flying 'Bort 58', a Sukhoi Su-27P1M. Col. Oksanchenko was K.I.A. , 10th October, 2022 Slava Ukraini

Avro Nineteen, the final flourish of a illustrious line. This post-war 'feeder liner' version of the RAF's maritime patrol aircraft of the 1930's was quite successful until replaced by the DH Dove. Seen here at the Shuttleworth Trust before repaint into military markings. See Alt for LOTS more! 🛩️📍

This English Electric Canberra B.2, hanging from the ceiling at the IWM, Duxford, represents the RAF's first jet bomber, and entered service in 1951. Australia assembled Canberras and some saw service in the Vietnam War with No 2 Sqn, RAAF (and with the USAAF as the Martin B-57). 🛩️⚔️📍

A wintery F-5E for you! The Empire State Aerosciences Museum in upper NY State is absolutely stunning. This F-5E Tiger II is finished as an Aggressor aircraft of VFC-13, carrying red stars and WarPac style markings. Small, nimble (the former mount of several display teams) it looks the part! 🛩️⚔️📍❄️

Convair 880 -'Elvis has left the building; in his Convair 880 !' This is one of the rarest four-engined jet airliners., as well as being the fastest, with a top speed of 615mph. Yes, the washbasins are gold-plated, and you can't look out of the windows (Elvis didn't want to) What a gem! See Alt !🛩️📍

Major crash at Lester Pearson Airport. Amazingly, only 8 injured on the Delta flight from Minneapolis . Prayers to all concerned. www.rte.ie/news/world/2....

'MisFire', incomplete Monett Sonerai homebuilt. This semi-complete kit was offered to my local aviation museum (South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum)! SYAM painted the semi-complete fuselage as a WW2 aircraft & since bits of the Sonerai do resemble a Spitfire called the result 'MisFire'! See Alt 🛩️⚔️🔍🎨

RAF Bomber Command Memorial, Green Park, London. This sculpture by Philip Jackson forms the centrepiece of this intensely moving memorial to the 55,573 Bomber Command aircrew of many nations who lost their lives in WW2. It is housed in an imposing Portland stone structure by Liam O'Connor. 🛩️⚔️📍🎨🍁

These two Mosquitoes represent the Alpha & Omega of this type on display in the UK. The prototype W4050, in the De Havilland Aircraft Museum & the RAF Museum's B.35 (since moved) These inspired www.peoplesmosquito.org.uk to build our Mosquito! See rosssharp.pictorem.com to obtain copies. 🛩️⚔️📍🎨See Alt

Handley Page Halifax III, technically a II/III hybrid. Yorkshire Air Museum, Elvington. One of 3 types of British-built heavy bombers used by the RAF in WW2.The RAF also used B-17 & B-24 in the ETO on maritime patrol & special ops. in small numbers. See Alt (I am being urged to write a book!) 🛩️⚔️🍁

Avro Lancaster centre section, art installation by artist Suhail Shaikh, RAF Ingham Polish Bomber Squadrons Centre. Just stunning! As a former museum curator, this 1:1 cardboard and paper creation is magnificent. This museum is of a VERY high standard, with bi-lingual captions. Five star. 🛩️⚔️🔍

The situation with regard to air safety in the USA is now becoming dire. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Another 'Yellow Peril', well, a Folland Gnat T.1 painted as one of the 'Yellowjacks' a defunct RAF display team, which led to the forming of the RAF 'Red Arrows'. It had an amazing roll capability, especially if you removed Fuse 13 which limited the roll rate. (Shush! Don't tell anyone!) 🛩️⚔️

If you are involved with aviation history and heritage, in any form, then this Starter Pack is for you! go.bsky.app/Sh1Cq7y

Auster Antarctic C.4 (mod. T.7). Another 'Yellow Peril'! This survivor of the 1953 Joint Commonwealth Trans Antarctic Expedition was one of two so modified (see lots in Alt !) & the other survives in New Zealand! It also appeared in an RAF Royal Review & has now moved to the Midland Air Museum 🛩️⚔️❄️

Cessna Caravan with 10 s.o.b missing over Alaska. This is tragic www.mychamplainvalley.com/news/ap-top-...

Hunting H-126, 'The Yellow Peril'. You COULD say that the H-126 verged on the ugly. Built for slow-speed jet flight research, it had a fixed undercarriage and was actually tested by NASA in their full-size wind tunnel! It was capable of speeds as low as 35mph. See Alt for much more ! 🛩️⚔️

What aircraft inspired the WW1 Fokker Triplane of 'Red Baron' fame? Answer - the Sopwith Triplane! Fabulously manoeuvrable with a 1,000ft/min climb, in early 1917 it dominated the 'left' of the Western Front. This RAF Museum example is one of TWO original machines left in the world. See Alt ! 🛩️⚔️📍

More Canadian aircraft! Here are seven superb RCAF Snowbirds! The Snowbirds (431rd Air Demonstration Team/431e Escadron de démonstration aérienne) are based at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, CA. However their CT-114 Tutors are approaching obsolescence & a search for a replacement finally began in 2024 🛩️⚔️🍁

Carrying on the Canadian theme - here's a Lockheed CP-140M Long Range Patrol aircraft of No 407 LRP Sqn, 19 Wing, RCAF at RIAT. Based at CFB Comox on Vancouver Island, B.C. it was previously seen on static display at London Int. Airport, CYXU, Ontario, CA on 24 June, 2004. More history in Alt ! 🛩️⚔️🍁

Auster J-1N Alpha (as Auster AOP.6, RCAF), post WW2. The Auster AOP.6, a classic high-wing British-built STOL aircraft, was used by the RCAF in a 'high visibility' all-over yellow scheme. The 'extra' propeller on the starboard wing is used to generate electricity! Note the nose art (see Alt)🛩️⚔️🍁

It's now time for all of us to 'Stand On Guard' !🛩️🍁

BAC Lightning F.6, Midland Air Museum, Coventry. A fast-climbing (50,000 ft/min) interceptor, developed from the English Electric P.1B research aircraft (1st flight Apr. 1964), this aircraft served with Nos 5 & 11 Sqns, RAF. It was armed with 4 x 30mm cannons and IR air-to-air missiles (see Alt) 🛩️⚔️📍