Sopwith F.1/2F.1 Camel (Haynes Manual)

Once Haynes just did car manuals but sensibly have opened their horizons much further these days as less people are willing/able to maintain their own ever more advanced automobiles. Here is a Haynes manual therefore for the Sopwith Camel, the first truly famous British aeroplane. It could, of course, be of use for owners of the WW1 icon but the vast majority of readers will never own the plane, so is the book worth having?

Haynes manuals are very good value for the money, very readable and very well presented. These manuals for historic vehicles usually include a potted history of the type in question and then go on to technical details as to how it was built and how it can be maintained. The Camel book is no exception. The history of the Camel also includes a brief history of the origins of the RAF. Its a good read but maybe should have been gone in to a little more depth.

The technical portion of the manual does goes into depth on how the Camel was built. I find with these manuals there tend to be sections of interest and others which i skip over. The section on starting the engine for example is very good.

So yet again a good Haynes manual, and if ever i manage to get myself a Sopwith Camel (which isn't in 1:72 scale) i'll know how keep it all together!

N6812 at the Imperial War Museum

Vampire

The latest model project, project #065 a De Havilland Vampire, has finally been completed after a lot of delay. There always does seem to be a lull in model making in the high summer and it was compounded this year by some house improvements which took up time. But anyway its now done and looking good.

Vickers Viscount

Recently completing a model of a Vickers Vanguard reminded me of its much more successful smaller brother the Viscount which i used to see flying into BHX in the late 70s and 80s. The Viscount was one of the first airliners equipped with the new turboprop engines in the early postwar period. It first flew in 1948 and despite the new engine technology was a conventional aircraft, however it was also very reliable and popular with passengers too. The new turboprop engines gave it a higher performance and smoother flight characteristics than piston engined airliners, but it was also more fuel economic than turbojet powered airliners (albeit which were faster and larger)

A total of 445 Viscounts were sold (compared to only 44 Vanguards) and they served with airlines across the world on short and medium haul routes. The last Viscounts probably flew commercially in 2007/8, not a bad service life at all considering it was designed just after the war. The Viscount below in the grainy photo was at RAF Cosford when i photographed it with my Instamatic camera!

Vanguard

Project #062 is a Vickers Vanguard and is progressing nicely. Building has more or less finished and now painting will begin. I can't remember seeing many Vanguards but i remember its smaller brother the Viscount was a regular into Birmingham Airport in the 1980s. However as only 44 Vanguards were ever built (compared to 445 Viscounts) i probably did not see any!

Imperial War Museum

One of the WW1 biplanes at the Imperial War Museum. This one is a Royal Aircraft Factory BE 2c.

The last DC-10

The Douglas DC-10 is leaving passenger service (although some freight planes and examples the later MD-11 reboot remain in service). The last example has flown from Bangladesh to Birmingham where it has been used for a number of sight seeing trips before being finally retired. I wish i'd known about the trips beforehand as i would have seriously considered a (probably) last flight on a classic jetliner.

I've flown on a few classic jetliners, my first 3 flights were on a Tupolev Tu-154, an Ilyushin IL-62 and a BAC 111. After that Airbuses and modern Boeing are just a bit... boring. I've never flown on a DC-10 unfortunately but at least i was there to take some photos when it flew over my house earlier returning to Birmingham Airport after a flight! What a lovely noise it made too.

It first flew the year i was born and now its for the scrapheap. I hope thats not a bad omen...

Flightradar24

A couple of weeks ago i installed an app on my iPad that had changed my life... Well a little bit anyway, its the Flightradar24 app which allows you to track flights and find information out about them. I live under one of the flightpaths for Birmingham Airport and so get a lot of aircraft flying overhead. Others fly (at a higher altitude) bound for the likes of Heathrow, Charles de Gaulle and ...er... Southend.

The information gleaned from the app has helped me recognise whats flying overhead. When i was younger i was a huge plane spotter and could tell every type apart, its harder in the modern era where the basic template of a metal tube with an engine under each wing has been used for the majority of airliners these days. However thanks to the app i am starting to tell my 757s apart from my A321s...

The variety of what flies overhead surprised me a bit actually. I knew there were a lot of 737s and A320s but the number of 757s was a surprise, plus the odd A310 and 777. High up has been even more of a surprise, i often assumed the faint specks that fly high overhead were all big transatlantic jets but although i have seen a few 747s and an A380 many of the specks are smaller planes flying from the likes of Edinburgh and Shannon to airports in the South.

Great app anyway, i always have it open if i've got the iPad in the garden. Its just a shame not every plane shows up on it. You can see some photographs i've taken of planes flying over my house over the years here.

Easyjet 737

Overhead

With the Sun shining and not many clouds in the sky i thought i would indulge in my periodic hobby of taking photographs of the planes flying over my house as they fly into Birmingham Airport. I've pretty much always lived under the flightpath (my parents' house is pretty much on the same path, just about a mile further out) and i love it even if the planes mostly fall into a small set of types.

Occasionally you get to see something different, such as an RAF C-17. I remember when i was at primary school Concorde came to visit Birmingham and we waited in the playground for it to fly overhead. If only i'd have had a camera back then...

The 6th Spitfire

My latest model project, a Supermarine Spitfire F22, has now been completed and very nice it looks too. As its the 6th Spitfire i've done to date i thought i would photo them all together.

Book Review : Transatlantic Airships - An Illustrated History

Airships are one of my obsessions and books on them i hungrily consume. Transatlantic Airships is not a general history of airships though does cover a great deal of their heyday and more recent developments. It concentrates on airships that crossed the Atlantic Ocean, seen as the great barrier in early aviation. Transatlantic passenger flights were seen in the 1920s as the great commercial opportunity for airships like the famous zeppelin, able to take passengers in comfort long distances. This was something the fixed wing aircraft of the time was far beyond being able to match.

In his well written and brilliantly illustrated book John Christopher describes the early history of the airship, both rigid and non-rigid and the advances in technology sparked by the First World War with the German zeppelins gaining longer and longer legs. The first airship to cross the Atlantic non-stop though was British, R34 which crossed from East to West in July 1919. Although the fixed wing aircraft beat it across with Alcock and Brown crossing in the other direction in their former Vimy bomber just 2 weeks beforehand, R34 did make the first return crossing by an aircraft. R34's epic journey is covered in great detail as are a number of other crossings, the book throughout is well illustrated with excellent photographs and period graphics and maps.

Despite the British lead (whose interest in airships was finally destroyed in the R101 crash) it was the German zeppelins who made passenger flights across the Atlantic their own with airships of increasing size and complexity culminating in the Hindenberg. The airship was holding its own in its special niche in the 1930s despite increasing competition by aeroplanes. The level of comfort that could be offered unmatched until the wide-bodied jet airliners of the 1970s (albeit for the rich only). Of course the airship was a lot slower but when you are rich maybe the time to travel  does not matter too much as a smoking room and a grand piano, as the Hindenberg had, does. The Hindenberg disaster killed off the commercial airship business though by then it was largely restricted to the zeppelin Atlantic trade.

If the Hindenberg had not blown up on that dreadful day in May 1937 its interesting to consider for how much longer the zeppelins would have crossed the Atlantic. It is likely they could have continued for a few more years though the disaster and the Second World War killed off the dream. That is not the end of the story the book recounts however as the wartime exploits of the US Navy's blimp squadrons (or blimprons) which on occasion crossed the Atlantic to get to their assignments in Europe are also included. The book ends with a look at recent airship developments including the Zeppelin NT though airships crossing the Atlantic carrying passengers in decadent comfort is probably a dream that will never live again.

Dreams are something the book covers well. Many futuristic (and outlandish) designs for airships were made in both sides of the war, even nuclear powered airships being considered at one stage but all of these dreams came to nothing. But it is good to dream after all, even if the dream is ultimately doomed.

Did Gustave Whitehead build the first successful aeroplane?

Its common knowledge that the Wright brothers built the first practical aeroplane and as everyone knows they flew first in 1903, an event which heralded the age of heavier-than-air flight. However there have been other claims over the years about people who may have beaten the Wright brothers to it. One claim is that Gustave Whitehead (or Weißkopf) first flew his Number 21 aeroplane in 1901, interestingly Jane's have now said that they think he was indeed the first. The first flight was widely reported at the time in over a hundred newspapers and periodicals though nowadays of course everyone knows it was the Wrights.

Its no surprise if it is true and that Whitehead was first but is largely forgotten now, often this happens with inventors. The first is not necessarily the one who is remembered especially if there are a number of people working on the same problem simultaneously. Historical "facts" can be challenged later on especially as new technology allows for analysis of material that was not possible earlier. One example is the analysis that has been made of a proported photograph of Whitehead's aeroplane in flight at a 1906 exhibition. A photograph of the exhibition has been forensically examined to see if the phone of the flight can be discerned. The analysis is fascinating but i remain to be totally convinced by it.

This story comes with a whiff of conspiracy too. The Smithsonian has barred access to some photographs which may (or may not) show Whitehead's aircraft due to the fragility of the material. The Smithsonian got their hands on the original Wright Flyer in return for giving the honour of first flight to the Wright brothers (this has been found to be true thanks to a Freedom of Information request according to Jane's).

Gustav Whitehead probably did fly his aeroplane first though whether it was what you could consider a controlled flight is a matter of opinion, he stated himself that to steer the aeroplane in flight he had to move himself around in the fuselage. Whitehead's aeroplane was a bit of an evolutionary dead-end, the Wright biplane was the template for heavier-than-air aviation for the next few decades in many ways.

Photos from Wikimedia Commons.

Beaufighter complete!

Airfix were very quick to send me the replacement canopies for Project 038 a Bristol Beaufighter TF.X. As the paint work isn't that complicated on this kit i was able to complete it over the weekend and very nice it looks too!

RAF Cosford

Its been some time since i've been to the RAF Museum at Cosford, around 2002 maybe the last time i went. Its changed quite a bit since then, a whole new hall has been added dedicated to the Cold War with a fantastic display of aircraft, weapons and other things inside. Of course i took a lot of photographs and here they are.

Gnat coming together

After an excursion with railway rolling stock model project #032 is back to aviation, and is a Folland Gnat to be exact. Its one of Airfix's newest kits and is done very nicely too, pity about the idiot making it! Anyway progress is being made and i have now begun painting it.

F-89 Scorpion

My latest model project, Project 027, has now reached the painting stage. The kit, a Northrop F-89 Scorpion, is my first non-Airfix one since i resumed making models a couple of years ago, made by Academy. Although the kit is technically very good i do prefer Airfix, which just seem more familiar.

RAF decade by decade (revisited)

A couple of years ago (on another blog) i presented a decade by decade view of RAF airpower using my model aircraft collection. Now we are a few more years later on and i have built more aircraft in the intervening months i thought it would be interesting to redo this feature and see how the aircraft chosen have changed.

1910s - Bristol F.2B (1916-1932)
I went with the RE8 last time but went for a more recent model this time. Interestingly the F.2B remained in service until the early 1930s so i could have selected it for the 1920s but it would have felt wrong.

1920s - Bristol Bulldog (1929-1937)
The 1920s is a tough decade for my collection to fill. I did go with the Tiger Moth last time, making a schoolboy error as it didn't fly until 1931! The Bulldog was the classic interwar period fighter and just fits as a 1920s warplane. At the time of writing this is the latest model i have made.

1930s - Tiger Moth (1931-1952)
The Tiger Moth has been correctly chosen for the 1930s this time. The model, which was the first i made, was updated in late 2010 with better paintwork compared to when it was used the first time. The Defiant was chosen for the 1930s last time.

1940s - Supermarine Spitfire (1938-1957)
This decade is fairly easy with a number of candidates. I chose one of my fleet of Spitfires, the Mark Ia which i think is the best one i have done so far. I went with a Hurricane last time, both fighters really embody the WW2 era RAF of course.

1950s - Canadair Sabre (1952-1958)
We enter the jet age! I went with a late model Spitfire last time but i think the Sabre fits the early post-war period better.

1960s - BAC Jet Provost (1957-1993)
The Jet Provost retains it's place in the 1960s, though the model was only half-built last time. Now it can be presented in all of it's glory.

1970s... 2010s - BAe Hawk (1976 onwards)
I've tended to concentrate on the piston-engined age and still don't have a suitable kit for the 1970s and beyond except the Hawk 128 which can fit the current decade nicely and has been in service since the 1970s.

Maybe we can revisit this in a few more years time? I really could do with making more planes from the 20s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s...

Bristol Bulldog

My first kit of the 2012 season has been completed at last! Project 026 is a Bristol Bulldog, i did start early in the new year but its taken a lot longer than usual to complete the kit. This is mostly due to the unheated extension where i make my kits. The mild weather in early January lulled me into a false sense of security as otherwise i would have waited until March or so however because it was quite ambient in the extension i decided to start the kit, and then it got cold... and then colder. So cold indeed this morning for example there was ice on the inside of the windows! Anyway the kit is now done and looks pretty good. I'll wait until the end of Winter before starting the next kit...

Sopwith Camel

The Sopwith Camel is probably one of the most famous fighters from the First World War, at least on the Allied side. If you asked people to list aircraft from the biplane era you would probably get the (Fokker) "Triplane" and the Camel more than anything else.

Biggles flew a Camel (he flew other planes too but people remember this one the most) and it was a Camel flown by Captain Roy Brown that was involved in the shooting down of the Red Baron (it may have been ground fire that dealt the fatal shot).

This example here is preserved at the Imperial War Museum in London, of which more below.

The Camel's service life was fairly short, though this was the norm in the early days of military aviation with technology advancing at a furious rate. First flying in late 1916 it entered service a few months later in mid-1917. The Camel helped the Allies achieve air superiority over the Western Front and is credited with 1,294 "kills". The Camel was not an easy plane to fly, highly agile and responsive in the hands of a skilled pilot but also unforgiving (often with fatal consequences) to an inexperienced or careless pilot.

By early 1918 it was already outclassed by newer machines in aerial combat but remained in service in the close support role until the end of the war when it was retired from British service though it remained with foreign air arms for a while.

The IWM's Camel N6812 is a Camel 2F1 which was a navalised version used by the Royal Naval Air Service. N6812, while being flown by Flight Sub Lieutenant Stuart Culley, shot down the German zeppelin L53 in August 1918.

Bulldog and away

The recent milder weather has encouraged me to start the 2012 modeling season a bit earlier than last year (though its gone colder again now). First project of 2012 is this Bristol Bulldog, an older kit not currently in production by Airfix that i bought on Ebay. The kit had lain unused and uncompleted for years, now i am finally going to let it fulfill its potential... or something.

2011 building over

The outhouse where i build my model planes is unheated and thus is too cold really from November to about March. Therefore like last year i have decided to call a halt to building kits and wait until it warms up a bit! As a final act after a lot of hard gluing and painting i collected all the projects built in 2011 together for this photo.