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EI
Echoes in the Sky
@exoticaviation.bsky.social
old aeromachines. oddities. concepts. old tales. sleek silver cigars. pedal-o-trons. war. action. occasional flying animal, stellar, and terrestrial guest stars
563 followers413 following717 posts
EIexoticaviation.bsky.social

“The American aviator, Charles Lindbergh (third from the left) watches as machine-gun calibration tests are carried out on a [Heinkel] He 51..during a visit he paid to Berlin-Döberitz during the summer of 1936..In 1938 he was to receive a decoration from Hitler” (www.amazon.co.uk/Jagdwaffe-Bi...)

black and white photo of a Heineken He 51 fixed horizontally on the ground via its tailskid, engine running. officers in uniform are studying the aircraft, their backs to the camera, alongside a dark-suited man with his hands in his pockets
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EIexoticaviation.bsky.social

(NOT the grumpy bearded one, or the cancelled bearded one)

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EIexoticaviation.bsky.social

I don’t think there was an actual confirmed design/synergy connection, but the Tabor - as epic as it was - fared very poorly. I can’t think of a bigger scale “the centre of gravity was wrong” case study at that time…

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EIexoticaviation.bsky.social

“yo! how YOU doin’?! y’know, the world is f*ckin weird right now, but you gotta hang in there. Kapish? badda-bing badda-boom!”

black and white photo of the front of the giant Witteman-Lewis XNBL-1 bomber in flight. a crew member - the pilot? is casually leaning out of the port cockpit, his elbow hanging over the side. in front of him, we have an empty gun turret, and the large fixed nose undercarriage is framed against fields far below
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EIexoticaviation.bsky.social

it is of course childish to poke fun at a word that has a valid historical origin - Wanke/Wankel engine, etc - but combined with “Romeo”, it’s hard to resist

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EIexoticaviation.bsky.social

I would have designed a complex exhaust system, where they came out of those round “holes” in the nose, like whiskers

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EIexoticaviation.bsky.social

men in hats ponder the very unconventional-for-the-time-looking Mercur CL.II WW1 fighter prototype. the thin rattish nose implies that the engine was set back in the fuselage Mercur-Flugzeugbau (owned by Romeo Wankmuller *looks to camera*) were one of the more obscure German companies of the time

black and white photo of the aircraft in front of a low railway bridge, while a steam train with passenger carriages passes closely by (we can just about make out people in the windows). the aircraft is a large, thin streamlined biplane, with relatively long looking wings. the open cockpit with front windscreen is situated directly in front of the top wing, that appears to be fixed to the top fuselage. the most striking feature is the long, tapered rattish nose, ending in a large propellor that looks glued on. in the foreground, several smartly dressed men in an array of caps and hats pull a range of poses
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EIexoticaviation.bsky.social

“This painting by Barry Walding depicts Avro Anson I L9164, piloted by Sgt Bruce Hancock, ramming Heinkel He 111 [WNr] 1408 over [RAF] Windrush on the night of August 18, 1940" Hancock was a trainee bomber pilot, possibly on his last solo flight. intentional or not, all perished

the painting is very dramatic. a He 111 is flying towards us, framed against a cold blue/grey cloudscape. several beams of light from the ground illuminate the cloud behind the bomber (I assume this is what we are seeing, rather than a very bright moon?). in the distance we see the dawn or dusk of the horizon. we also, crucially, see an Avro Anson about to impact the bomber from below, with yellow underside and propellers glinting in the light.
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EIexoticaviation.bsky.social

I re-read this and THE DEMOLISHED MAN every couple of years..

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EI
Echoes in the Sky
@exoticaviation.bsky.social
old aeromachines. oddities. concepts. old tales. sleek silver cigars. pedal-o-trons. war. action. occasional flying animal, stellar, and terrestrial guest stars
563 followers413 following717 posts