…g for “another raid at 10 p.m.”‘, even though the power station is already ruined.4 I’m not sure what this was meant to convey to the audience. That the times of air raids can be predicted? That targets will be bombed over and over again until the rubble is turned into dust? That they should stick around for an encore show that evening? The eighteenth RAF Display was held on Saturday, 26 June 1937. Again, some of the earlier events had scripted sc…
Erik Lund Haven’t the Fifth Columnists given it over, what with Russia being in the war and all? People, with their crazy labels, I think to myself, mainly thanks to having clicked on the link for “dahs” and being treated to some folk history of Southeast Asia, complete with grand migrations of peoples in all directions. (Which can be traced from peculiarities of knife/sword design.) Alex Early modern Burmese hereditary oil-well women, recognised…
…been a Dakota and a Kittyhawk or Mustang, surely. The Wellington Cable Car runs from the CBD up to the Botanic Garden. It’s been running since 1902, when it was an actual cable car, rather than a funicular as it is now. Apparently there are a hundred or so private funiculars in Wellington, thanks to all the hills, but this is the only one I saw. The view is much better on a sunny day — I’ve seen photos! Also in the Botanic Garden is this extremely…
…itz, etc, and can pick up where it diverges from our world. But maybe not? Designer’s notes making these divergences explicit might be a good idea. Another possibility would be a variant with some rule tweaks to make it more like the real thing (e.g. early warning and interception). Neil: Yes, that’s something I had been meaning to look into. The 1927-33 ADGB exercises you mention are fascinating and deserve some attention, not only for what they…
…ntion the book’s other main team member Andrew Willox, responsible for the design, the book’s format and overall ‘look’ and arranging for and managing our printer. The book has several parts, a history of how we got to the first flight in 1914, an overview of period flying and flying training and the environment (by me) carefully referenced as above. The other value it has is a firsthand account by designer and builder of the Boxkite replica, Wing…
…and prototypes from early 1945 are well documented; this is increasingly true for the ways in which these designs and concepts fed into British, American and Soviet post-war designs. On the other hand, I remain amazed by the fact that there is so much emphasis on the weird and wonderful shapes fielded by the Germans as an indicator of their technological precocity, yet the USA developed and tested many equally adventurous shapes: the XP-54, -55,…
Apropos of nothing, here’s a (somewhat cropped) c. 1943 painting by a Japanese artist named Shori Arai. (Sometimes called Maintenance Work aboard Aircraft Carrier II, though clearly it’s not maintenance that’s going on there.) The original is held by the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. It was also issued as a postcard by the Japanese Navy Ministry. Sources: US Naval Institute (though I’ve flipped the image horizontally, as this seems to be…
…ld be useful to have a competition where instead of balloons flying from a designated point, they would fly to a designated point. And by useful, I mean militarily useful, because all of this discussion is under the heading of ‘military lessons’. In other words, it would be militarily useful to develop, in some sense, a steerable balloon, or in French, ‘ballon dirigeable’. Presumably this would remain inarguably unmotorised, or else would end up b…
…nd and the Aeroplane. Thanks for the references — another good one for flying boat enthusiasts is Graham Coster’s Corsairville: The Lost Domain of the Flying Boat (2000). Finally, I have to admit I didn’t know what jc was referring to. The answer is this. Pretty impressive stuff! Centaurus Acceptance Tests – new voice recordings – White Water Landings […] Geoffrey left Centaurus at Alexandria and never took a good picture of her that I could iden…
…I spotted this ironic fusion of a peace symbol and a B-52 in the city1 earlier in the year, and luckily it was still there when I went back with a camera this week. It’s at the corner of Russell St and Bullens Lane. I assume it’s street art, and not anything to do with the bar advertised below it. No idea who is responsible for it, but well done, whoever it is! That’s Melbourne, not London … [↩]…
