Tails Through Time

Bristol Beaufighter Lost Story I am looking f...

2012-02-06T12:06:56.741-06:00

Bristol Beaufighter Lost Story

I am looking for an online story I read a few years ago, I have lost the link.
I hope someone can redirect me to the story.
The story was written by a USAAF Radar Operator in the Bristol Beaufighter.
This of course puts him in one of the following squadrons: (414th, 415th, 416th and 417th Night Fighter Squadron)
He describes harrowing missions over the Mediterranean. Including following a Ju 52 that was repatriating stolen treasures to Germany, shooting them down from behind.
He & his pilot survived the war. However, his pilot took a flight in a captured german fighter, crashed the fighter and died.
The writer then wondered who had it better; his pilot who died doing what he loved at the height of his adventurous youth, or someone like him who lived out his life watching his friends die and growing old. He pretty much decided the pilot had it better.
I hope my description jogs someone's memory.

Well written and accurate. Thank you.

2012-02-04T20:03:00.362-06:00

Well written and accurate. Thank you.

The launch dolly included nose wheel steering, ant...

2012-02-03T16:36:07.309-06:00

The launch dolly included nose wheel steering, antilock brakes, engagment load cells... all controlled from the aircraft. The recoverable dolly contained its own control after the aircraft seperated.

I was 19 when i flew to Miami in 1980 on Skytrain,...

2012-01-27T04:08:42.782-06:00

I was 19 when i flew to Miami in 1980 on Skytrain, there was no way i could have been able to afford in on any other airline, and the service was excellent! it was also my first flight, and the attendants were very good. Thank you Sir Freddie.

I do like reading about old computers 256 KB of me...

2012-01-16T13:53:38.057-06:00

I do like reading about old computers 256 KB of memory its a amazing how the system worked with so little memory compared to modern PCs

wow,great article!dave form italy!

2012-01-08T15:00:27.364-06:00

wow,great article!dave form italy!

Very interesting post. I believe that the name &q...

2011-12-28T17:24:37.524-06:00

Very interesting post. I believe that the name "Vincent Shaefer" refers to Vincent Joseph Schaefer. See Wikipedia entry or NYT Obituary. Schaefer was referred to as "Dr. Schaefer" in an article in the Gallup Independent of Jan 23, 1950 describing his speech before the American Meteorological Society in St. Louis. Not bad for someone who dropped out of high school at age 15.

Do any color photos of this aircraft exsist?

2011-12-21T20:27:55.574-06:00

Do any color photos of this aircraft exsist?

JP, thanks for this post -- never saw that one bef...

2011-12-20T07:30:52.833-06:00

JP, thanks for this post -- never saw that one before!

Hard to believe that the need to move the horizontal stab aft came as a surprise, as the swept wing obviously shifts the center of lift aft. Got to balance that somehow. Could've enlarged the tailplane, I suppose, but -- more drag.

Regards,

Frank

Cool article. Typo: "proscribed" should ...

2011-12-17T13:17:00.878-06:00

Cool article. Typo: "proscribed" should be "prescribed".

Having "Cut my flightline teeth" on the ...

2011-12-17T02:09:42.149-06:00

Having "Cut my flightline teeth" on the the C-133 at Dover AFB, Delaware in the mid-60's, I've been very interested in this series and learned a lot. I'm hoping the previously promised Pat 3 will be along soon. Keep writing, this is fascinating stuff.

Quality issues? clearly you are out of touch with ...

2011-11-17T03:25:01.416-06:00

Quality issues? clearly you are out of touch with modern russia. I regularly fly russian planes and have more faith in them than airbus.

Good article; I enjoyed reading it.

2011-11-09T21:24:13.340-06:00

Good article; I enjoyed reading it.

I flew in the EB-66C in Southeast Asia (Vietnam wa...

2011-11-09T14:17:00.426-06:00

I flew in the EB-66C in Southeast Asia (Vietnam war). Riding in a downward ejection seat, for me take off was one of the most dangerous parts of the mission. It was well over one minute before we attained single engine flying speed so an engine failure at take off was fatal.

Atlas 10B re-entered the month after it was launch...

2011-10-21T20:16:54.008-05:00

Atlas 10B re-entered the month after it was launched, not a year later.

How interesting! I beat you to the subject by thr...

2011-10-19T11:01:26.998-05:00

How interesting!

I beat you to the subject by three days.........!
I've also included a photograph of the only surviving Ki-100 (in the RAF Museum)

http://shortfinals.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/kawasaki-ki-100-1b-necessity-who-is-the-mother-of-invention-plato/

Cheers

I was there!

2011-09-28T23:00:57.152-05:00

I was there!

I work with Hans' other son, Volker....Here in...

2011-09-21T18:08:19.482-05:00

I work with Hans' other son, Volker....Here in Maryland.

Thanks Sam for posting that correction! A friend o...

2011-08-07T20:31:00.553-05:00

Thanks Sam for posting that correction! A friend of mine is an ex-USAF Herk flight engineer and he highly recommended your book. Loved every page of it!

Actually, the M-121s were conventional TNT bombs l...

2011-07-26T23:21:10.448-05:00

Actually, the M-121s were conventional TNT bombs left over from the B-36, they were not filled with a slurry mixture. The slurry mixture was used in the Blu 82.

Wonderful, fanciful stuff. The Second World War oc...

2011-07-11T01:58:27.359-05:00

Wonderful, fanciful stuff. The Second World War occasioned such a marvelous intensity of scientific speculation and dreaming, happily unrelated to the grim business of finding new ways to kill people. Thank you for introducing me to Irving Langmuir. From now on, whenever I am lucky enough to sit beneath a summer monsoon storm in New Mexico, I will undoubtedly think of him.

I caught the XNQ at an airshow a few years ago - I...

2011-06-28T16:10:13.644-05:00

I caught the XNQ at an airshow a few years ago - I love it when aircraft which are a little bit different and rare are able to survive - particuarly in flying condition

Thank you for sharing an inspiring story. Red Erw...

2011-06-04T00:46:02.158-05:00

Thank you for sharing an inspiring story. Red Erwin must have been one tough guy.

Would have been interesting, but highly unlikely a...

2011-05-29T20:58:07.258-05:00

Would have been interesting, but highly unlikely any western country, or Asian for that matter, would have purchased due to Russia's quality issues.

I flew the Laker Skytrain from London to LA multip...

2011-05-20T16:20:12.830-05:00

I flew the Laker Skytrain from London to LA multiple times from 1979 to 1981. I thought their service, planes and flight attendants were all top notch and certainly commended Sir Freddy for pioneering low cost air travel. The only problem I ever encountered were delays pulling up to a gate once we had landed in LA. It wasn't uncommon to sit on the tarmac for an hour or two, which after a 12 hour flight from London was tough. However, I always consoled myself by thinking about all the money I was saving on the SkyTrain. It was very sad to see the demise of the Laker Airways.