Forgotten pilots or flights...

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Re: Forgotten pilots or flights...

#241 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Fri Aug 06, 2021 4:20 am

Some interesting footage and commentary (in French) on the TU-144 being used to help NASA undertake some testing post the Soviet era...


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Ace of aces - Erich Hartmann

#242 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sat Aug 07, 2021 4:02 am

I was prompted to post this pilot as a result of a serendipitous discovery, after reading this article about Margrit Waltz who I met in the offices of Far North Aviation while paying for aviation fuel at Wick airport back in June this year, and which I noted here on the TRABB thread. I had never heard of her before but her very silent presence and striking, Germanic, and dare I say it, attractive mien, for an older woman, was noteworthy and I took the liberty of asking her where she was headed, having noticed her aircraft on the apron. She told me she was returning to the USA and didn't say much more, and it was only after she had left the office that the lady at Far North told me the it was the return trip post her 900th Atlantic ferry flight!

What has all this got to do a man who has a surname that graces one part of the Goblin family tree? Well it turned out that after his departure (let no good deed go unpunished) from the Luftwaffe for opposing the purchase of the F-104G Starfighter, and thus opposing the endemic corruption that led to the Lockheed bribery scandal, he became a flying instructor and one one of his students in a humble Cessna 150 was one Margrit Waltz, who was then a weather forecaster. He clearly taught her well!
Erich Alfred Hartmann (19 April 1922 – 20 September 1993) was a German fighter pilot during World War II and the most successful fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare. He flew 1,404 combat missions and participated in aerial combat on 825 separate occasions.He was credited with shooting down a total of 352 Allied aircraft: 345 Soviet planes and seven American while serving with the Luftwaffe. During the course of his career, Hartmann was forced to crash-land his fighter 16 times due either to mechanical failure or damage received from parts of enemy aircraft he had shot down; he was never shot down from direct enemy action.

Hartmann, a pre-war glider pilot, joined the Luftwaffe in 1940 and completed his fighter pilot training in 1942. He was posted to the veteran Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52) on the Eastern Front and placed under the supervision of some of the Luftwaffe's most experienced fighter pilots. Under their guidance, Hartmann steadily developed his tactics.

On 29 October 1943, Hartmann was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for 148 enemy aircraft destroyed and the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross for 202 enemy aircraft on 2 March 1944. Exactly four months later, he received the Swords to the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves for 268 enemy aircraft shot down. Ultimately, Hartmann earned the coveted Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds on 25 August 1944 for 301 aerial victories. At the time of its presentation to Hartmann, this was Germany's highest military decoration.

Hartmann achieved his 352nd and last aerial victory at midday on 8 May 1945, hours before the German surrender. Along with the remainder of JG 52, he surrendered to United States Army forces and was turned over to the Red Army. In an attempt to pressure him into service with the Soviet-friendly East German National People's Army, he was tried on war crimes charges and convicted. He was initially sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment, later increased to 25 years, and spent 10 years in various Soviet prison camps and gulags until he was released in 1955. In 1997, the Russian Federation (posthumously) relieved him of all charges.

In 1956, Hartmann joined the newly established West German Air Force in the Bundeswehr, and became the first Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen". He was retired in 1970, due to his opposition to the procurement of the F-104 Starfighter. In his later years, after his military career had ended, he became a civilian flight instructor. Erich Hartmann died on 20 September 1993 aged 71.
- From Wikipedia
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Re: Forgotten pilots or flights...

#243 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sat Aug 07, 2021 4:06 am

Some of the German aces... with the Erich Hartmann story as well...

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Henry Coxwell and the Leicester Balloon Riot

#244 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:55 am

My lust for actress Felicity Jones (least known for her role as the hideously accented Emma Grundy in the Archers) led me to watch The Aeronauts with its totally mangled story of the true life travails of aeronauts (balloonists to you and me), meteorologist and polymath James Glaisher, and the heroic Henry Tracey Coxwell.
The film is based on an amalgam of the flights detailed in Richard Holmes' 2013 book Falling Upwards: How We Took to the Air (ISBN 978-0-00-738692-5). The most significant balloon flight depicted in The Aeronauts is based on the 5 September 1862 flight of British aeronauts James Glaisher and Henry Coxwell whose coal gas-filled balloon broke the world flight altitude record, reaching 30,000 to 36,000 ft (9,000 to 11,000 m). However, while Glaisher appears in the film, Coxwell has been replaced by Amelia, a fictional character.

A report in The Daily Telegraph quotes Keith Moore, Head of Library at the Royal Society, as saying, "It's a great shame that Henry [Coxwell] isn't portrayed because he performed very well and saved the life of a leading scientist". Moore then criticised the film's fictional female protagonist, stating “There were so many deserving female scientists of that period who haven't had films made about them. Why not do that instead?"In an interview with The List, Harper explained that whilst the film was inspired by a number of historical flights, the intention was never to make a documentary and he wanted the film to be reflective of a contemporary audience. He also commented on a gender bias in science, stating "There were female scientists around at the time, but not in the Royal Society... to this day, only eight per cent of the Royal Society is female."
In real life the events that prompted the film occurred thus:
In 1862 the British Association for the Advancement of Science determined to make investigations of the upper atmosphere using balloons. Dr. James Glaisher, FRS, was chosen to carry out the experiments, and at the suggestion of Charles Green, Coxwell was employed to fly the balloons. Coxwell constructed a 93,000 cu ft (2,600 m3) capacity balloon named the Mammoth, the largest as of that date. For their third flight, on 5 September 1862, they took off from Wolverhampton, the location of a coal gas manufacturing facility. Coxwell used this type of gas because it was safer than hydrogen, although it provided less lift.

Coxwell and Glaisher reached the greatest height achieved as of that date. Glaisher lost consciousness during the ascent, his last barometer reading indicating an altitude of 29,000 ft (8,800 m) and Coxwell lost all sensation in his hands. The valve-line had become entangled so he was unable to release the mechanism; he climbed onto the rigging and was finally able to release the vent before losing consciousness. This enabled the balloon to descend to a lower altitude.

Glaisher.JPG

The balloon dropped nineteen thousand feet in fifteen minutes, landing safely near Ludlow. Later calculations estimated their maximum altitude at 35,000 to 37,000 ft (10,700 to 11,300 m).
But enough of the film and let's focus on a little known balloon ascent that resulted in a serious riot near Victoria Park (Vicky Park to the locals) occasioned by one of Coxwell's ascent attempts...

The Leicester Balloon Riot
Such shivering dash and derring-do made him, Coxwell, a hero, so when he agreed to appear with his fancy new balloon Britannia at the Order of Forester's fete in Leicester, admirers arrived from as far and wide to see him soar into the skies.

But as the punters gathered, and Coxwell made his pre-flight preparations, there was trouble afoot.

"Early in the afternoon, a gentleman, reported to be a professional man, gave it out that the balloon then present was not my largest and newest balloon but a small one," Coxwell would later write to the Times.

"This was a cruel libel," he added, but the rumour spread all the same. "This Coxwell," they muttered, darkly, "he's taking us for mugs."

As the mood soured, the masses pressed in. With barely any police on duty to control the huge throng, "a perfect sea of clamouring spectators" broke into his enclosure, "everybody demanding an instantaneous ascent".

If he expected better behaviour from the well-to-do Leicester folk who were to accompany him into the air, he was sorely disappointed.

"Those who had paid their money and obtained tickets pounced into the basket in such a rude and unceremonious manner that all operations were stopped and the passengers themselves were preventing their own departure," wrote Coxwell.

"One person seated in my car was a disgrace to his town, as by his gestures and foul language he excited the mob and induced the belief that there existed on my part a disinclination to ascend.

"The pressure of the mob was now so great that my car was damaged, the network broken in several places owing to persons hanging on to the lower meshes, and a bottle was thrown into the balloon."

Enough was enough, thought Coxwell. He appealed to the nobler instincts of the crowd and warned that unless they eased back, he would be forced to let out the gas.

In return, they shouted abuse. "I forthwith executed my threat," he said.

"To the astonishment of everyone," reported the Leicester Chronicle, "the canvas which a few moments before appeared, every inch of it, to be well filled with gas, began to hang loose, and flapped in the wind so much it was soon apparent that the gas was fast escaping.

"All doubt on this point was soon dispelled, more especially in regard to those people immediately surrounding it (for the stench became intolerable) and every moment the size of the balloon became less and less; the wind filling its loose folds, and causing it to pitch and toss about considerably, and threatening every moment to fall on the heads of those who stood near it.

"Finally, the whole structure fell into a shapeless mass on the ground."

And that's when it really kicked off.

"The crowd who stood around immediately seized upon the net-work and material of the balloon and tore it into a hundred shreds," said the paper. "The car was next - set fire to and burnt to ashes."

Insp Haynes and Sgt Chapman, stalwarts of the Leicester force, battled manfully with the rabble, but they were horribly outnumbered.

"It was brave but hard work," Coxwell wrote, "for nothing short of the destruction of my balloon, and indeed an attempt on my own life, appeared a sufficient sacrifice.

"While the work of demolition was proceeding, Sergeant Chapman led me away amid yelling and derision. My clothes were soon torn and then the cry was raised, 'Rip him up,' 'knock him on the head', 'finish him'."

Dashing for safety, Coxwell found sanctuary in the nearby home on the Town Clerk. Back on the racecourse, a man who had been taken for the aviator was attacked, and his coat pulled to bits. The more entrepreneurially-minded, meanwhile, began selling remaining pieces of the balloon as souvenirs.

"I never witnessed such barbarous ignorance, baseness and injustice in my life," a letter-writer complained to the Chronicle after returning from the ruckus. "I feared Mr Coxwell would be killed. I was knocked down thrice myself simply for endeavouring to defend him."

The correspondent added a PS: "They have burnt the balloon and are parading its remains through the town, having just passed my window."

Condemnation of the brouhaha swiftly followed. A report of The London Review of Politics, Society, Literature, Art and Science said: "No man who commits himself to the science of ballooning can tell where or amongst what people it will carry him, as Mr Coxwell has just discovered.

"It set him down on Monday amongst a horde of savages as fierce and untamed as South Sea Islanders and differing very little from them except in their habitat, which was at Leicester.

"It is humiliating to think that after all the civilising influences which have been exerted upon them, so much of the savage should still linger in the blood of our working classes."

In Leicester, the blame for the uproar was put on out-of-towners. Excursionists. From Nottingham, perhaps. But to no avail. The town was stigmatised.

And so, a short-lived nickname was born. People from Leicester are known as Leicestrians. For reasons that needn't trouble us here, you might also hear them called Chisits. But for a while in 1864, thanks to Punch magazine, they had a new title - Balloonatics.
Let's not go to Leicester, tis a silly place full of uncouth people.
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The real facts behind the fiction in the film The Aeronauts...

#245 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun Aug 08, 2021 12:19 pm

Facts related to the Glaisher/Coxwell world altitude record balloon flight

aeronauts_sg_final_00322-2077x1123.jpeg

Fictional but looked great in a bodice - Amelia Wren played by Felicity Jones
The Temeptusous Emelia.JPG
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Reginald Stidolph DFC

#246 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Aug 09, 2021 4:31 am

This Rhodesian pilot first came to my attention because he flew for Jack Malloch's (noted earlier in this thread) outfit for a while, but his story, particularly his war service, is every bit as fascinating as Malloch's. Stidolph's son (an interesting chap too, not least because he worked for a while for Scope Magazine) has produced a wonderful memorial to his father on this site. I recommend his blog to anybody with an interest in Southern Africa.

Remembering Reg – A Tribute to my Father, Wing Commander R.N.Stidolph DFC

Stidolph.JPG
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Reginald Stidolph also gets a full chapter to himself in the excellent The Journey to Botswana's first National Airline (A Century of Flying in Botswana Book 1) by Jonathan Laverick.

A short synopsis of his career read as follows:


W/CDR R N STIDOLPH DFC

O.C. 61 Squadron September 1943- June 1944


Reginald Neville Stidolph was born on 3rd August 1915 in Salisbury, Rhodesia, the son of Alan and Josephine Stidolph. He was educated at Avondale junior School, and Chaplin and Plumtree senior schools. His mother, grandparents and great grandparents were of pioneering stock, travelling the six month journey by ox wagon from South Africa to early Rhodesia in 1892 on the Moodie Trek.

Family lore was that Reg wanted to be a pilot from the age of 10, and that he was awarded a scholarship to Cranwell to join the RAF. However, he was unable to take it up as his father opposed it and wanted him to have a “steady job” in the Civil Service. He worked in Customs Service for a short while but hated it and went to UK to join the RAF anyway, commencing at the age of 20 in November 1935.

His record of service below has been gleaned by his son Patrick from five of his six flying log books. One log book, from July 1962 to May 1966, is missing.

Highlights of his service are:

He completed 23,817 hours of flying over more than 41 years, including over 20,000 hours in command, being awarded a Master Pilots Certificate.

He flew 48 types of aircraft for eight organisations on three continents in 44 countries. He has landed on over 350 different airfields.

He attained the rank of Wing Commander in the RAF and was awarded the DFC. He flew 60 operations during the war in Germany, Burma and the Middle East.

In December 1937 he was posted to RAF Calshot, a Naval air station in Hampshire, for a floatplane conversion course followed by training at Gosport, near Portsmouth, from Jan to April 1938 on Swordfish float and landplane aircraft. In May 1938 he went to No 822 (T.S.A) Squadron, “B” flight, at Donibristle in Scotland, for 4 more months of seaplane training on Swordfish. This training, as a specialist in torpedo work with seaplanes, included torpedo attacks, dive bombing and a total of 35 deck landings (on HMS Stronghold). On completion, he was promoted to Flying Officer.

The period September-October 1938 was spent with Fleet Air Arm at Gosport, flying Shark, Tutor, Magister, Osprey and Avro 504 aircraft. From the end of October 1938 to January 1939, he was attached to Cooperation Flight at Mount Batten, Plymouth, as Flying Officer in command, providing air experience for Royal Navy officers. In Feb 1939, he was posted to 811 (Torpedo Spotter Reconnaissance) Squadron on HMS Courageous and at Donibristle and Eastchurch, as flight leader commanding “D” Flight, flying Swordfish and Magister aircraft. At the end of this period he was rated above average as a pilot and promoted to Flight Lieutenant.
A fuller picture of this man who had a very arduous war, flying Lancasters at the end, can be found here....

http://www.no-50-and-no-61-squadrons-as ... dolph-dfc/
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Flt Lieutenant Wilfred Johnson DFC

#247 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Aug 16, 2021 2:34 pm

It is a pity that Boris Johnson is not a little more like his paternal granfather.
Flight Lieutenant Wilfred Johnson DFC served as an RAF Coastal Command pilot from 1942 to 1944. He flew Wellington GR.XIV aircraft on patrols over the Atlantic Ocean and attacked several German submarines. On 17 August 1944, Wilfred returned early from a patrol due to a radio fault. His Wellington then suffered an engine failure shortly before landing. He faced the difficult and dangerous task of flying low at night on one engine, in a heavy aircraft still loaded with high-explosive depth charges. Wilfred dropped these weapons in a safe place, avoiding nearby villages, and returned to RAF Chivenor – but he was seriously injured in a crash-landing on the airfield. Following his selfless action, Wilfred was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for ‘skill and coolness in emergencies’ and ‘his hard work, thoroughness and keen sense of duty’ as an RAF pilot.
https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/london/wha ... ndon-site/

Wilfred Jojnson.jpg
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Re: Forgotten pilots or flights...

#248 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Aug 19, 2021 8:01 am

I bought a CD copy of Flight of the Mitchells B-25s do fly in IMC: Remembering the Flight of the Mitchells and their role in 'Hanover Street' and was apt to think of the role the B-25 Mitchell and the men who flew them for, and in, the film industry. Men such as John "Jeff" Hawke, Paul Mantz etc.

We have covered the colourful John Hawke here on this site before, and most people must remember Paul Mantz, but what about his business partner Frank Tallman, the other pivot, and pilot, in their aviation filming company TALLMANMANTZ?

tallmanmantz.JPG
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Frank Tallman.JPG
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In 1961, Tallman formed Tallmantz Aviation with stunt pilot Paul Mantz. Based at Orange County Airport (now John Wayne Airport) in southern California, they provided pilots, camera planes, and a small fleet of antique and historic aircraft, along with background models of aircraft and ships, for movie and television productions. Mantz was killed in 1965 while flying a cobbled-together aircraft, the Tallmantz Phoenix P-1, designed with the assistance of Otto Timm, representing the fictional type built by oil explorers of pieces of their crashed Fairchild C-82 Packet downed in the North African desert in The Flight of the Phoenix (1965).

Tallman injured his leg in a go-cart accident with his small son in the driveway of their home, which meant Mantz had to fly the Phoenix. Tallman was hospitalized. Infection set in and most of the leg was amputated. Tallman taught himself to fly with one leg, reportedly preferring to fly some planes without the prosthetic leg he used for walking. As an amputee, he eventually regained his airman medical certificate and ratings in propeller multi- and single-engine, jet, and rotary aircraft.

Film credits
Tallman performed the stunt flying in the 1963 chase movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, including the flight in a Beechcraft Model 18 through a Coca-Cola billboard. He also contributed to The Carpetbaggers (1964), The Wrecking Crew (1969), and The Thousand Plane Raid (also 1969).

He served as the flying supervisor for Catch-22 in 1970 and was personally involved in locating and acquiring the 18 or so flyable film unit B-25s appearing in the film. Tallman flew the dramatic night shots of the Milo Minderbinder Air Force B-25 bombing its own base just over the heads of actors Jon Voight and Martin Sheen.

Tallman performed the stunt flying in the 1963 chase movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, including the flight in a Beechcraft Model 18 through a Coca-Cola billboard. He also contributed to The Carpetbaggers (1964), The Wrecking Crew (1969), and The Thousand Plane Raid (also 1969).

He served as the flying supervisor for Catch-22 in 1970 and was personally involved in locating and acquiring the 18 or so flyable film unit B-25s appearing in the film. Tallman flew the dramatic night shots of the Milo Minderbinder Air Force B-25 bombing its own base just over the heads of actors Jon Voight and Martin Sheen.

In 1971, Tallman flew a Grumman J2F-6 Duck amphibian he restored in Murphy's War.[3] Also in 1971 Tallmantz Aviation provided the aerial camera footage for an episode of Columbo entitled "Ransom For A Dead Man". In 1973 he flew in Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies and piloted a Stearman cropduster in Charley Varrick along with the television pilot films Death Race and San Francisco International Airport. He was aerial supervisor for The Great Waldo Pepper in which he performed barnstorming stunts. When the controls failed in his World War I aircraft replica, the plane went out of control and struck power lines. Tallman suffered a head injury. He also flew in Lucky Lady in 1975. Tallman served as aerial coordinator and pilot for the television series Baa Baa Black Sheep (1976–1979). He also flew in the six-episode TV series Spencer's Pilots, starring Gene Evans, and the television film, Amelia Earhart, both in 1976.

In 1973, Tallman recounted his experiences rebuilding and flying vintage aircraft in the book Flying the Old Planes.

His last film projects were The Cat from Outer Space, Capricorn One, and 1941, all in 1978.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Tallman

Sadly he was killed in 1978 in a CFIT accident while ferrying a Piper Aztec but his aircraft collection is still to be seen thanks to Kermit Weeks.

AcesHigh.JPG
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Re: Forgotten pilots or flights...

#249 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Aug 19, 2021 9:07 am

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Thu Aug 19, 2021 8:01 am

Sadly he was killed in 1978 in a CFIT accident while ferrying a Piper Aztec but his aircraft collection is still to be seen thanks to Kermit Weeks.
John Hawke was killed in a more mysterious Piper Aztec crash of course..
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Re: Forgotten pilots or flights...

#250 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Aug 19, 2021 11:12 am

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Thu Aug 19, 2021 8:01 am

Tallman performed the stunt flying in the 1963 chase movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, including the flight in a Beechcraft Model 18 through a Coca-Cola billboard.

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You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
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Re: Forgotten pilots or flights...

#251 Post by PHXPhlyer » Thu Aug 19, 2021 5:27 pm

Damn you and thanks Goblin. ~X( ^:)^

In 1973, Tallman recounted his experiences rebuilding and flying vintage aircraft in the book Flying the Old Planes.

I have just helped Bezos fund his rocket ship by ordering this book.
$77.00 new. :-o
$7.31 used inc. tax and shipping. :-bd
Guess which one was ordered. :-?

PP

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Re: Forgotten pilots or flights...

#252 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Aug 19, 2021 6:05 pm

PHXPhlyer wrote:
Thu Aug 19, 2021 5:27 pm
Damn you and thanks Goblin.

In 1973, Tallman recounted his experiences rebuilding and flying vintage aircraft in the book Flying the Old Planes.

I have just helped Bezos fund his rocket ship by ordering this book.
$77.00 new. :-o
$7.31 used inc. tax and shipping. :-bd
Guess which one was ordered. :-?

PP
I have not read his book PHXPhlyer and am tempted to do so but only if I can find a reasonable price here.

He managed the flying sequences for a number of my favourite films including The Great Waldo Pepper. It would be a shame not to have his book.

$28.89 on a second hand book. New copy would be £102.00 :-? Second hand book purchased.
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Re: Forgotten pilots or flights...

#253 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Fri Aug 20, 2021 11:30 am

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Thu Aug 19, 2021 8:01 am
I bought a CD copy of Flight of the Mitchells B-25s do fly in IMC: Remembering the Flight of the Mitchells and their role in 'Hanover Street' and was apt to think of the role the B-25 Mitchell and the men who flew them for, and in, the film industry. Men such as John "Jeff" Hawke, Paul Mantz etc.

We have covered the colourful John Hawke here on this site before
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Re: Forgotten pilots or flights...

#254 Post by ian16th » Fri Aug 20, 2021 1:01 pm

I remember going to see Cinerama Holiday.

The opening scene was shot from an a/c flying in the Grand Canyon. Initially in black & white and I believe formatted 4 x3.

This switched to colour and the screen opened to full width, whatever Cinerama was.

Looking back, this could have been shot from one of these B25's.
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Neil Hansen Air America

#255 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Fri Aug 27, 2021 9:59 am

All the talk of John Hawke got me to thinking about Neil Hansen, one of the better known pilots who flew with "Air America" in South East Asia before the USA "officially" became involved in the war in Vietnam, and continued unofficially in other supposedly nuetral countries thereafter.

LastPlane.JPG
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Last Plane Out of Cambodia

In September 1964, I began a journey that was to be my life’s adventure. I was hired as a pilot with Air America, the CIA’s secret airline, working on its clandestine operations in Southeast Asia. It was the world of spooks, covert air ops and adventure. Air America’s pilots were shadow people. The airline’s schedules and operations were irregular and unknown. I was 27 and had already been a pilot for more than half of my life when I left my home in Detroit for the wild escapades that awaited in Southeast Asia....
With the escalation of Air America operations, we were getting more airplanes every week and hiring several hundred pilots, which turned us into a sea of interesting characters. Some were the “hee-haw” funny kind. Others were the volatile punch-you-in-the-mouth-for-fun type. A few were one notch from being skid row alcoholics. There were also plenty of normal people, but some of them just didn’t stay very long. Most of the new pilots came from the retired or ex-military group. Civilian-trained pilots were the minority.
Read further here...

His book FLIGHT is well worth a read. A colourful character, his is an interesting tale.

Neil Hansen began his aviation career as a pilot for Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. He spent more than a decade in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War era as a captain for Air America, the CIA’s airline that operated there during the Vietnam era and the ‘Secret War’ in Laos. Neil reveled in the risky flying that fed his adrenaline addiction. Upon returning to the States, ultimately unable to find work and unable to let go of the Air America exhilaration rush, he saw the profession he loved come to an end when his trajectory veered off course.

Neil Hansen’s engrossing memoir FLIGHT avoids the standard pilot cliches — there is nothing stereotypical about the exciting “war stories” deftly recounted in this book. Hansen’s riveting prose describes his adventures as an Air America civilian pilot for the CIA’s clandestine Southeast Asia airline during the 1950–76 “secret air war” in Laos and Cambodia — officially neutral countries, but the scene of countless U.S. covert operations. There is “an allure so mystical it borders on madness for those who play the game of war with abandon,” he writes. “Machismo propelled those whose existence was spurred by the bursts of excitement that pushed life to its apex.” Hansen flew for Air America from 1964 to 1975, logging 29,000 hours (9,000 of those dodging anti-aircraft fire in the secret combat zone). He was nicknamed “Weird” by fellow pilots for his bizarre behavior (although in the cockpit Hansen was “all business, all the time”), and his irreverent memoir certainly validates that sobriquet. Co-authored by veteran aviation writer Luann Grosscup, FLIGHT offers readers Weird’s detailed page turning account of flying undercover “spook” missions with “a motley crew of aviators in Southeast Asia. “FLIGHT also recounts Hansen’s “descent” as he struggled to return to “normalcy” in the States. He couldn’t cope with the sudden lack of his daily adrenaline fix. “I didn’t learn about the idea of adrenaline addiction until much later, when the damage had already been done.” FLIGHT is a wonderful slice-of-life book, filled with dark humor that allows us to psychologically endure bad things that happen, mundane and boring bits we put up with, and the moments of stark terror that confront us. Some 240 Air America pilots and crews died in the secret war in Indochina. Hansen’s memoir is a tribute to all those civilians who fought on the war’s “spook side” in now-forgotten places our government prefers to ignore.
Neil Hansen.JPG

Neil Hansed in his own words - Podcast
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Re: Neil Hansen Air America

#256 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Fri Aug 27, 2021 11:50 am

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Fri Aug 27, 2021 9:59 am
All the talk of John Hawke got me to thinking about Neil Hansen, one of the better known pilots who flew with "Air America" in South East Asia before the USA "officially" became involved in the war in Vietnam, and continued unofficially in other supposedly neutral countries thereafter.

Neil Hansen in his own words - Podcast
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

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Re: Forgotten pilots or flights...

#257 Post by CharlieOneSix » Thu Sep 02, 2021 1:57 pm

You learn something new every day! 2,000 Argentinians volunteered to fight in British forces against Hitler in WW2. One of them was a certain Ronny Scott, who fell in love with the Navy after visiting HMS EAGLE in Buenos Aires in 1931 at the invitation the Prince of Wales, and signed up to the Fleet Air Arm in 1942. Now 103, Ronny Scott is very much alive and well in Buenos Aires.

After seeing a preview of a short film about his life, Vice Admiral Sir Adrian Johns wrote to Ronny offering Honorary Membership of the Fleet Air Arm Officers' Association and enclosing a Fleet Air Arm tie, which Ronny can be seen sporting in the pictures below. Ronny used to own an Air Arm tie and wore it proudly for 40 years until it wore out from overuse and so is delighted to have a replacement. Ronny is seen in the pictures with Major Ben Watson, Military Attaché in Buenos Aires, who presented the tie on behalf of the Association.
rscott.JPG
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Ronny flew Seafires during WW2 and afterwards had a career in commercial aviation. Here's a short film about him:
The helicopter pilots' mantra: If it hasn't gone wrong then it's just about to...
https://www.glenbervie-weather.org

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Re: Forgotten pilots or flights...

#258 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Sep 02, 2021 3:26 pm

As an addendum to C16's really interesting post...

No. 164 Squadion RAF
No. 164 Squadron RAF was originally founded on 1 June 1918, but never received aircraft and was disbanded on 4 July 1918. The squadron was reformed at Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, on 6 April 1942, as a fighter squadron initially equipped with Spitfire Mk VAs, becoming operational in early May.

Around 600 Argentine volunteers, mostly of Anglo-Argentine descent, joined the British and Canadian Air Forces, many in the 164 Argentine-British RAF squadron, which motto was Firmes volamos (Determined We Fly) and its insignia was a British lion in front of a rising sun representing Argentina. Some pilots adorned the side of their aircraft with a picture of a popular Argentine cartoon character called Patoruzú, an indigenous Indian with incredible strength.

In January 1943 the squadron moved to South Wales to train as a ground-attack unit, where it was equipped with Hawker Hurricanes. Operations against enemy shipping and coastal targets began in June 1943.

After providing support for the landing forces from southern England, using Hawker Typhoons, the squadron moved to France in July 1944. During the Battle of Normandy, No.164 used its rockets against enemy armour in the battle area and after the breakout moved forward through northern France and Belgium in support of the 21st Army Group.

The squadron was renumbered No. 63 Squadron RAF on 31 August 1946.
aslo see

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Maureen Dunlop
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To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

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Jimmy Harvey and Tito Withington (Part 1)

#259 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Sep 02, 2021 4:30 pm

I read about these chaps some years back...
RAF VETERANS FLYING AS ARGENTINE VOLUNTEERS
That epic day, another accurate attack carried out by Air Force Daggers damaged the frigate HMS Brilliant and wounded several of her crewmembers. In a separate air battle, three other Daggers fell prey to the Sea Harriers. For these operations, civilian Learjet aircraft, equipped with navigation systems and meteorological radars, were employed to guide the Air Force fighters (but not the Navy ones) to the mission areas. These aircraft, flown by civilian volunteers, were nicknamed “Fenix Squadron”. Two of its pilots were Tito Withington and James Harvey, both Argentinian citizens who voluntarily piloted RAF bombers during the Second World War. Now, more than 60 years old, and convinced of the Argentine rights to the disputed islands, they volunteered to fly again in the last modern naval air war.
Jimmy Harvey.JPG
Change of front: when two Englishmen fought for Argentina

Harvey and Withington, who had fought for Britain in World War II, were on the opposite side in 1982

"If I meet another Englishman, I'll invite him to have a drink," Jimmy Harvey joked among his Argentine comrades from the Phoenix Squad, while they were at the San Julián base, preparing for their planes to take off to distract the British radars.

The Malvinas War not only summoned the military and conscripts, but also many civilians who volunteered. "The origin of the squad dates back to 1978, when a group of civilian airmen were summoned to receive instructions for a possible conflict with Chile," explains Aldo Pignato, president of the organization.

The pilot Jimmy Harvey fought for Argentina in the Falklands War

Jimmy Harvey and Allan Withington were part of that squad. Born in Argentina, but with a British family, culture and education, the two veteran pilots had participated in World War II, as volunteers in the Royal Air Force (RAF), in their youth. "Jimmy did not want to talk about the World War. It had been very painful for him to see so much destruction and death," Lillian Harvey, his widow, recalls today.

Titus Withington also did not speak of his years in the RAF, where he had very daring missions. "He had to fly over Hitler's vacation home and distract the German radars with little metal pieces of paper that confused them and made them lose precision," says Claudio Meunier, researcher and author of the books Thunder Wings and Born with Honor, which document this story. .

Born in the 1920s, the training of these two Anglo-Argentines had been similar, but in very different places. Harvey spent his pupil schooling between London and Buenos Aires, and Withington lived his childhood in the country. The World War equaled them and left them the same wounds. Both returned to Argentina and began working as civilian pilots. They were part of the birth of Aerolineas Argentinas and Austral, where they were master pilots until their retirement. Upon retiring in the 1970s, they turned to private aviation.

The year 1982 reunited them. Again a war. Veteran aviators and very knowledgeable about the British mentality, the two responded to the call of the Armed Forces, knowing that the chances of winning were utopian.

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"They wanted to participate in Malvinas, although I offered to exempt them from that obligation. I remember very well that when choosing the Lear Jet LR 24 aircraft that Jimmy was flying, I called him on the phone and suggested that he could" lower "him from that commitment, but he asked that I would forget about that and have him summon him. He told me: "I'm Argentine, Jorge, and the islands are Argentine. That old Thatcher is crazy, and I want to participate," recalls Jorge Páez, retired captain of the Air Force and founder of the Phoenix Squad.

Distraction task

This group of civilian aviators received a military rank and had several tasks: in-flight relay, exploration and reconnaissance, search and rescue, squadron guidance, and, the most risky of all, "diversionary maneuvers." In aeronautical jargon it meant that airplanes could acquire so much speed that they managed to resemble combat aircraft and confuse English radars. Thus they kept them on permanent alarm and wore them out. Meanwhile, the Argentine forces took advantage to enter the combat area and shoot down enemy targets.

"The Lear Jets had no armaments or ejection seats. In case of being detected by the English, the pilots could do nothing. Their salvation was in the hands of their dexterity and the evasive maneuvers that they could carry out," adds the author Meunier.

Although they felt Argentine, Tito and Jimmy could not detach from their British origin, and they all knew that their heroism was doubly valuable, because they led almost suicidal missions to confront an enemy, for whom they had risked their lives four decades ago. "We cannot win, but neither can we let everyone die with impunity, he told his seven children before leaving for the Falklands," recalls his daughter, Cecilia Withington.

Both Harvey and he knew that this war was a crazy decision of a dictatorship in decline, but when the conflict began, they felt that their obligation was to accompany and contribute their experience to all those men who had gone to fight for a cause that they felt in their hearts as fair and dignified.

"If the English set foot on the islands, we lose the war," Jimmy told his superiors. They did not listen to him, and defeat came. Both suffered a lot, but even more hurt the indifference of a society that could not separate those who gave their lives in the Malvinas with those who were part of the dictatorship. "When he returned, Jimmy was not the same. He was quiet, very tired, he never wanted to talk about the Malvinas. He did not like to go to the tributes or to the meetings. The defeat had saddened him," says Lillian Harvey, his widow. Her husband died in 2003.

Tito Withington, who died in 2009, did actively participate in the meetings and events of the Phoenix Squad, on each Malvinas anniversary. From the Argentine State he received only two commemorative medals for his participation. "Ironically, 20 years after Falklands, in England he was decorated for his willing participation in World War II. A very emotional ceremony was held and tribute was paid to the Argentine volunteers who had enlisted and participated in it", reveals Cecilia , remembering his father.
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To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

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Jimmy Harvey and Tito Withington (Part 2)

#260 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Sep 02, 2021 4:43 pm

Jimmy Harvey thought his fighting days were over. After surviving the Second World War as an RAF pilot, the Anglo-Argentinian returned to South America, wanting to put the death and destruction he’d endured behind him. After joining Argentina’s fledgling national airline following the war, he retired in the seventies to work as the pilot of a Gates Learjet 24D executive jet. But when, in April 1982, Captain Jorge Luis Paez, a former Fuerza Aérea Argentina pilot, came knocking, Harvey didn’t hesitate.

During the 1978 crisis over the Beagle Channel, Argentina had formed a paramilitary unit of civilian aircraft to fly in support of the Air Force in any potential conflict. It was christened Escuadrón Fénix. The invasion of the Falklands saw the squadron’s reincarnation. Offered the opportunity to opt out because of his British heritage, Harvey said, ‘I am Argentine, Jorge, and the islands are Argentine. I want to participate.’ The Learjet he flew joined eight others – a pair of Douglas C-47s, a clutch of twin-prop aircraft and helicopters and a single Hawker Siddeley HS125 business jet belonging to the state-owned oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales. Tito Withington, another Anglo-Argentine RAF veteran, was commissioned to fly for Escuadrón Fénix alongside Harvey. The prospect of war with Britain filled both men with real sadness. But while the coming conflict may have been brought on by a reckless, unstable military dictatorship, neither felt they could leave their young compatriots to fight and die in a war they had little hope of winning without lending their own skill, insight and

Much of the flying undertaken by Escuadrón Fénix would be simple transport and communications work around the mainland, but the high-performance jets like the HS125 and Learjets had a more hazardous contribution to make. During the Second World War, Withington had flown daring missions for Bomber Command, dropping chaff over the Berghof, Hitler’s vacation home in the Bavarian Alps, to distract the German radars. Now he and Harvey were hoping to dupe British radars. Fast enough to mimic incoming Mirages and Skyhawks, the Learjets were to fly diversion missions, saturating and confusing the British radar picture to provoke an unnecessary response from the Sea Harriers, spreading the small force thin and pulling them away from incoming raids flown by the Fuerza Aérea Argentina’s fighter-bombers. And, equipped with relatively sophisticated navigation and communication suites compared to the more primitive avionics carried by the attack jets, they would fly out over the South Atlantic on reconnaissance missions in search of British ships. Unarmed and flying without ejection seats, Argentina’s Phoenix Squadron pilots were issued with standard military flightsuits and Mae West lifejackets. There was a lot riding on the accuracy and reliability of the jets’ Omega radio navigation system.

White, Rowland. Harrier 809 (p. 147). Transworld. Kindle Edition.
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

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