London Trip 10 - Duxford - The Battle Of Britain

We entered the Battle Of Britain gallery.

Duxford was the sector station for G Sector in 12 Group during the Battle.

A  shot down BF-109 greets you as you walk in:

This particular BF-109 E-3 crash-landed in Sussex during the Luftwaffe’s last major daylight raid on London in September 1940. The plane was subsequently restored to what it looked like immediately after the crash.

There's Hawker Hurricanes:

You can look inside the cockpit of one of the Hurricanes:

And of course, there are Spitfires:

A Bristol Blenheim bomber:

There's also an unusual plane used in the Battle of Britain, albeit in a non-combat role:

The Cierva C30A autogiro was used by the Royal Air Force to check radar accuracy. The Radar Calibration Flight 1448 was based at Duxford from 1940 to 1942.

Search lights and antiaircraft guns are also on display:

After the Battle of Britain was won, the Germans then in 1944  bega sending V-1 flying bombs and a captured V-1 is on display at the end of the exhibit.

The Battle Of Britain gallery is very well laid out complete with lots of detailed information about the pilots ground crews, observers, controllers, and others who all played a role in the battle.

London Trip 9 - IWM Duxford - On The Way To The Battle Of Britain

On the way to the Battle of Britain and Air and Sea Gallery Building, we got to see a few more aircraft flying and some static aircraft.

A Yak-52  did a nice takeoff and flying demo.

 The Yak has a great registration number:  G-OALZ. Very nice.

A British Antarctic Survey Twin Otter blasted us with its prop wash during its run up and then took off:

They were not kidding about the prop wash.

A B-17 was also out to be seen:

 

A bunch of passenger transport aircraft were on static display:

There was also a Spitfire on Static display:

Near the Spit was a canteen, so we sought refreshment and bought some Spitfire Amber Ale to drink in front of the Spitfire.

Now refreshed with the Bottle of Britain, We  headed into the Battle of Britain Exhibit.

London Trip 8 - IWM Duxford - The American Air Force Museum

After seeing the planes fly, we went to the American Air Force Museum that is at Duxford. 

Duxford from 1943-1945 during World War 2 was the home of American Fighter Groups of the 8th Air Force, first the 350th and then the 78th. Both
P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs flew from the airfield.

Or course the American Air Force Museum has both a P-47 Thunderbolt and a P-51 Mustang on display:

 They also have an excellent collection of other American Aircraft including a B-24, a B-25, and a B-29:

Modern jets included an F-4, an F-15, an F-111 and an A-10:

 

An SR-71 is proudly on display, and it is the only SR-71 on display outside of the USA:

Quite cool to see.

And a U-2:

There's various placards and informative displays about the aircraft and those who flew and maintained them.

There's also a computerized memorial wall where the names of all of those lost while serving in the 8th Air Force in World War II are projected in rotating fashion.  It's a rather humbling long list of names and takes awhile for it to scroll through.

The American Air Force Museum is very well done at IWM Duxford and is well worth a visit.  Some of the British certainly do remember the American contribution to World War 2 and the Cold War, and remember and honor it well.

London Trip 7 - IWM Duxford

Leaving the first building, we got to hear the sound of the Merlin engine in flight. Then we got to see a Spitfire actually flying.

 

 

 This was very cool to see a Spitfire put through its paces.

Duxford, an aerodrome since World War One, is still an active airfield with both grass and paved runways.

 The Spitfire is a great looking and sounding plane.

But that wasn't the only Spitfire that became airborne during our visit.

After this Spitfire landed, two double bubble Spitfires took off in tandem.

 

The double bubble Spitfire is quite a rare variant of the Spitfire. The ones at Duxford carry passengers who get to experience the thrill of flight in a Spitfire.

They flew around for awhile and then came in for nice smooth landings.

 

In addition to the Spitfires, their historic foe also took to the skies.

The Messerschmidt BF-109.  In this case a very close copy, the license-built Spanish Hispano Aviacion Buchon.

It was fantastic to see these warbirds flying.

 

Well That Was Interesting

So, DTE had let the management at the office building where I work that if the heat gets high enough, with resulting electrical demand, guess whose building gets the electric service shut down?

Yep, the one I'm trying to do work in.

Maybe additional reliable power generation should be put online rather than closing power plants and building rather quixotic and unreliable renewables, eh?

Happily they did not cut power during a meeting and no one got stuck in the elevator. But, as the temperature kept going up, as a protective measure I decided to work from home after my last in-person meeting in the afternoon.

Just as well that I did, as within an hour after I got home, the sky opened up hard with a really impressive thunderstorm that rattled windows and knocked out traffic lights all along the route I would have taken home. 

Power got knocked at home three times, but happily it did come back on.

That DTE addresses these issues by doing deliberate brownouts instead of working to generate power to meet demand as part of their and the Democrats running this state's greenie approach to things is rather pathetic and a lack of reliable power is going to be a major problem for this state.

London Trip 6 - IWM Duxford

In the room there are also a number of propeller driven planes.

In addition to the planes themselves, there are aircraft engines on display, including perhaps the most famous propeller aircraft engine, the Merlin:

This one is a Rolls Royce Merlin Mk. 3.  Quite the beautiful engine, isn't it?

The room also had a plane that used the Merlin prominently displayed, the De Havilland Mosquito:

Many more propeller aircraft are in the room.

 Below the Mosquito sits an Avro Lancaster:

There's a rare Fairey Swordfish of Sink the Bismarck fame:

A Short Sunderland Flying Boat is anything but short:

There's also an Avro Anson:

And many, many, more, plus a few helicopters, including this Westland Whirlwind:

 Regarding which, one pilot who flew it was rather less than complimentary of this British-produced copy of a Sikorsky helicopter:

Tons to see in the room, and this was only the first building.  As we left this first building, some glorious noise drew our attention.

Diversity Comes To Sollingen

The Guardian: Germany mass stabbing: police hunt suspect after three killed at festival in Solingen

NBCnews.com: Syrian man arrested over deadly knife attack in Germany; Islamic State group claims responsibility

 The festival was, most ironically, billed as a festival of diversity:

Police in Germany are searching for an unknown suspect behind a mass stabbing at a festival on Friday night that killed three and injured eight, five of them seriously.

The knife attack took place as thousands of people gathered at the central square in the city of Solingen in the country’s west during celebrations to mark its 650th anniversary, billed as a festival of diversity.

The attacker was caught, per NBCnews, which fails to mention the nature of the festival, and the attacker claimed to be a member of the Islamic state.  The attacker had applied for asylum in Germany, and celebrated diversity and his granting of asylum by killing and wounding various diverse Germans in the name of Allah.