Planes
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Hard not to see it as a major throwing the flight crew under the bus (so to speak) by A NZ.
Yep. Hence the "we don't talk about fight club" attitude. They have changed a lot though over the last 40 years so lessons were learnt all around.
There was a TV movie made about it a few years back ,
"Operation overdue" or something. That was actually pretty good.
That’s the one , I thought it was really well done too .
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@Machpants said in Planes:
@Snowy was there for the Fairford coming together
Me too. My first thought following the collision was that it was all part of the show. Then I was struck by how quiet it was as I watched the planes and pilots drift to the ground. Very surreal.
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40th anniversary of the Erebus disaster coming up in a couple or weeks or so (28th Nov)
Stuff have released another fine podcast (shame their news site is such shit)
Couple episodes in plus have done a bit of catching up online with the history and facts.
Fuck me hard not to see this as a cover up at the highest level ( Air NZ were 100% govt owned back then and Muldoon was heavily involved)Did all they could to put all blame on the pilot despite the obvious fuck up of changing the programmed course the day before the flight and not informing the flight crew
Bizarre isn't it? Their longform articles are usually great [check out the one about the Christchurch redzone] and their podcasts are really really good.
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These were cool, I think they served on every front in ww2, they weren't a taildragger like most planes of their era either. Just behind and below the cockpit are nacelles with 50 calibre "ma deuce " machine guns , they also came with a 75 mm cannon and between four and eight 50 cals in the nose some later models.
Skip bombing in one looks like fun too
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40th anniversary of the Erebus disaster coming up in a couple or weeks or so (28th Nov)
Stuff have released another fine podcast (shame their news site is such shit)
Couple episodes in plus have done a bit of catching up online with the history and facts.
Fuck me hard not to see this as a cover up at the highest level ( Air NZ were 100% govt owned back then and Muldoon was heavily involved)Did all they could to put all blame on the pilot despite the obvious fuck up of changing the programmed course the day before the flight and not informing the flight crew
Bizarre isn't it? Their longform articles are usually great [check out the one about the Christchurch redzone] and their podcasts are really really good.
Yep totally. Black hands the podcast about our favourite jumper wearing murderer but got away with it, was very good too
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@canefan yep it was on the Doolittle raid . It’s the plane in catch 22 as well.
Later model Lancaster’s only had one pilots seat . The theory being if the pilot got smoked one of the remaining crew could keep it in the air long enough for everyone to bail out and it doubled the pilots they had available if lancs only needed one .
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The theory being if the pilot got smoked
Didn't know that. Inherently stable air-frame design could make that do able. Never considered it.
4 pilots are better than 3, 4 engines are better than 3, 4 hydraulic systems, 4 electric systems, etc, etc. Redundancy is a good thing.
However, needs must.
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@JC p 38s were involved in the NZ navy dramatically shortening the war in the pacific.
My favourite bit
"Brisdon wanted to ram the submarine, but the I-1 was double the size of the Kiwi, so the crew members were reluctant.“A weekend leave for everyone if we ram that thing!” Brisdon yelled.The Kiwi hit the I-1 on the port-side behind the conning tower. Japanese submariners immediately began to leave their vessel; some fell in the water while others dived as the Kiwi backed up and fired its Oerlikon. The submarine’s hull was too thick, but it had some barges hooked to its afterdeck, so those burst into flames. The Japanese gun crew was quickly taken care off, but more took their place until, their commander Sakamoto was killed.“Hit her again!
” Brisdon roared, promising a week’s leave – but the I-1 still wouldn’t sink.
Return fire from the deck of the submarine hit the Kiwi, and Brisdon promised a two-week leave in Auckland if they rammed her a third time. They rammed again and they ended all the way on I-1’s deck before sliding back off. For a moment all was calm.
With the captain dead, Torpedo Officer Lt. Koreeda Sadayoshi took command. Four Arisaka Type 38 rifles were passed among the best sharpshooters of the surviving crew. As the Kiwi’s fore slid off the I-1’s deck and back into the water, one hit Buchanan, but he kept manning the lights.
So Sadayoshi ordered all the officers to get their swords and try to board the Kiwi. The navigator, Lt. Sakai Toshimi, was a Kendo 3rd dan swordsman. As the Kiwi made its fourth approach, he grabbed the railing… but the impact was too hard, and he lost his grip."
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Sorry to hijack this thread back to Erebus from those beautiful planes above, rented the ‘Erebus Operation Oversdue’ doco lastnight on iTunes.
First of all, a brilliant watch highly recommended. Secondly what a fucking travesty those guys sent to retrieve the bodies had to wait so long to get recognised for their work.
Wasn’t until 2007 they were shown any recognition, they came home from their 2 weeks of hell and were basically ignored and shunned. You can see they are still effected to this day (was filmed in 2014 I believe)What a cluster fuck of a mess this disaster was
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@JC p 38s were involved in the NZ navy dramatically shortening the war in the pacific.
There used to be P38 sitting next to a hangar at Nadzab (Lae) in PNG. It was supposed to be repaired but I don't know what happened to it. Cool machine.
Of the 10,037 planes built, 26 survive today, 22 of which are located in the United States, and 10 of which are airworthy.
It does remain a demanding aircraft with numerous crash incidents; several of the surviving planes have been rebuilt many times.
This is a shame:
One historic note was that in 1948, representatives of the then-new country of South Korea attempted to purchase the brand new P-38L Lightnings stored in the Philippines (approximately 100 aircraft). Instead, the USAF persuaded them to accept AT-6s modified to ground attack role as well as worn out P-51D Mustangs; the brand new P-38s were destroyed.