Picture of the day

Ganderite said:
That Bolo-Digby was unknown to me until I ran across one at Fantasy of Flight, Florida.

And until today, I was unaware that the RCAF ever had them. I guess it was a good airplane, since it replaced biplane bombers.
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Douglas Digbys were replacements for very worn down Westland Wapitis.After few years of service in Maritimes they were gradually replaced with other planes with much longer range but for a while they did their job very well.

If anyone knows of any printed memoir of one of the crew members of those please PM me.

Here is Wapiti.

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"Say, you folks have a tradition of aerial risk-taking. Wanna try something new?"

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Full Wiki writeup here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_J8M

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In the 1960s, a nearly complete (but badly damaged) fuselage was discovered in a cave in Japan. This was on display at a Japanese Air Self Defense Forces base near Gifu until 1999, when it was restored and completed by Mitsubishi for display in the company's internal Komaki Plant Museum.
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Human guided cruise missile. You just know that's where the Japanese High Command was headed with it.

Good thing it came too late to enter production. Something that fast and hard to hit... Lousy in a dogfight, but it would have been hell on aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers...
 
The Wizard said:
Japan's version of the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet. It was not a "Human guided cruise missile". That was the Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka
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The J8M never made it out of prototype. My comment was was directed toward the inevitable, given Japan's fortunes at the time, end use for the craft.

The MXY-7 Ohka truly does look like a modern cruise missile with a canopy. The Achilles heel of the Ohka was the delivery method. to get close enough, they were transported by Mitsubishi G4M2e Model 24J "Betty" bombers, which had a habit of getting shot down by the fighter screen before they could get into range to drop the Ohkas.

View attachment 171059

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The Avro Lancaster Mk X in the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum collection is now wearing the markings of Wg Cdr Guy Gibson's aircraft, AJ-G ED932, in honour of the upcoming 75th anniversary of the RAF 617 Squadron Dambusters' raid on May 16-17, 1943.

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The CWHM is celebrating the 75th anniversary with a special event on May 12, 2018 if you're in the area.
 
Just finished reading "Enemy Coast Ahead", Gibson's story of his role in Bomber Command during the hard early stages of the war and up through leading 617 Sqn. to the dams. Very sad read when you realize he was killed like so many others.

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617 Squadron was just reformed, yesterday, as an Royal Air Force unit (with both RAF and Royal Navy personnel). Now flying the carrier based F-35B Lightning II (JSF). They are still in the USA, but will transfer to RAF Marham and then aboard the HMS Queen Elizabeth.
 
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CV 32 posts: "617 Squadron was just reformed, yesterday, as an Royal Air Force unit (with both RAF and Royal Navy personnel). Now flying the carrier based F-35B Lightning II (JSF). They are still in the USA, but will transfer to RAF Marham and then aboard the HMS Queen Elizabeth."

That will make a lot of people happy in Lewisporte, Newfoundland. Their Air Cadets squadron has been named "617 Dambusters" in commemoration for many years.
 
CV32 said:
617 Squadron was just reformed, yesterday, as an Royal Air Force unit (with both RAF and Royal Navy personnel). Now flying the carrier based F-35B Lightning II (JSF). They are still in the USA, but will transfer to RAF Marham and then aboard the HMS Queen Elizabeth.
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It will be interesting to see F-35 with RAF markings.
 
Before the Lanc, before the Whitley, there was the Fairey Hendon:

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They were sure counting on those two engines to power a beast that big, huh? 1400 HP total. Lose one engine? Better start looking for someplace large and flat.

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Brought on service in the early '30's, and blessedly retired before the big dust-up.

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Ugly enough to be a Blackburn product.
 
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