Classic warbirds and other aviation vids.

Tonnerre de feu …. In French .. Helico based on SA342 Gazelle
Airwolfs body panels, that made her Airwolf, made her more aerodynamic and actually improved performance slightly. Blue Thunders pilot said she was very nose heavy and a handful to fly.

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Unofficially the fastest helicopter in the world today.
The Eurocopter X³ (X-Cubed) is a retired experimental high-speed compound helicopter developed by Airbus Helicopters (formerly Eurocopter). A technology demonstration platform for "high-speed, long-range hybrid helicopter" or H³ concept,[1] the X³ achieved 255 knots (472 km/h; 293 mph) in level flight on 7 June 2013, setting an unofficial helicopter speed record.[2][3] In June 2014, it was placed in a French air museum in the village of Saint-? .
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Grumman F7F-3N Tigercat of VMF(N)-513 at Wonsan, Korea, 1950, finished in a dead-flat black scheme for night fighting. No shouting for attention, no gloss, no nonsense… just light-absorbing paint to keep reflections down during radar-guided interceptions and low-level night work.

It suited the Tigercat perfectly. Big, fast, over-armed, and slightly brutal, the aircraft didn’t need flair. In the freezing Korean winter, flying off rough bases, this was function over form taken to its logical end.


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A B-24 Liberator crash-lands in the Netherlands on 18 September 1944 after being hit by heavy anti-aircraft fire near Eindhoven during resupply flights to Allied airborne forces. The aircraft was part of the desperate aerial effort to support the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions during Operation Market Garden, flying low and slow over defended territory to drop supplies to troops fighting to hold the corridor north from the Belgian border.

Badly damaged by flak, the Liberator’s right wing was torn apart, leaving the aircraft barely controllable. Realising it would not make it back to base, the commander, James K. Hunter, chose to bring the bomber down in a controlled belly landing in an open field rather than risk the aircraft breaking up in the air. The landing destroyed the airframe and killed almost the entire crew.

Only one man survived… tail gunner Frank DiPalma. Pulled alive from the wreckage, he was rescued by Franciscan monks who risked execution to hide him from German forces. DiPalma was sheltered in the village of Huize Assisi, remaining concealed for weeks until British troops liberated the area.

The wrecked Liberator became one of many scattered across the Dutch countryside in September 1944, a stark reminder of the cost paid by aircrews flying unarmed, predictable routes in daylight to keep the airborne divisions alive on the ground.


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An SBD-4 Dauntless photographed in flight on 6 March 1943 represents a period when the type was firmly established as the United States Navy’s principal carrier-based dive bomber.

The aircraft was a variant of the Douglas SBD Dauntless, which had already proved decisive in 1942 during actions such as the Battle of Midway. By early 1943 it was serving widely in the Pacific theatre, supporting operations in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea.

The SBD-4 introduced a 24-volt electrical system and other refinements over earlier models. It retained the distinctive perforated dive brakes on the trailing edges of the wings, allowing steep and controlled attack angles. A single large bomb was typically carried beneath the fuselage, with smaller bombs under the wings.

Although slower than some contemporary fighters, the Dauntless was robust and accurate in the dive-bombing role. Crewed by a pilot and rear gunner, it combined offensive striking power with defensive armament in the form of forward-firing and flexible machine guns.

By March 1943 the tide in the Pacific had begun to turn in favour of Allied forces, and aircraft such as the SBD-4 played a steady role in supporting that advance.


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A Handley Page Hampden from No. 83 Squadron, with its crew perched on a bomb trolley at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, October 1940.

The aircraft did what it was designed to do, but crews often grumbled about long hours in the air, as the Hampden wasn’t the most comfortable place to spend a mission.

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The 'Grand Slam' was a 22,000 lb (10,000 kg) earthquake bomb used by RAF Bombing Command against German infrastructures like the U-boat bases and the rocket manufacturing sites. It was so large and heavy that an Avro Lancaster Bomber was specially modified to carry it.


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This AVRO Lancaster KB889 was built in Canada in 1944 by Victory Aircraft Ltd, was the first of 300 aircraft produced in Malton, Ontario. Powered by four Packard-built Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, it was test flown in December and delivered to Britain in March 1945 and assigned to No.428 Squadron RCAF (the ‘Ghost Squadron’).


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Heavily damaged B-17 Flying Fortress L’il Satan after being hit by flak while returning from a mission. The navigator and bombardier were killed in action, but the pilot managed to bring the aircraft back to base in England. 25 June 1944.

It is hard to imagine what went through the minds of this young crew as they flew home carrying the bodies of two lost comrades, keeping the aircraft in the air against the odds.
Brave beyond their years


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Britain’s Miles M.39 Libellula was an unusual swept-wing, twin-engine medium bomber demonstrator that first flew in 1943.

Built by Miles Aircraft, the aircraft was designed around a tandem-wing layout rather than the conventional single main wing and tailplane. The name “Libellula” means dragonfly … an appropriate choice given its distinct front and rear wing arrangement.

The concept aimed to improve pilot visibility for carrier operations and reduce landing speeds while maintaining good high-speed performance. The forward wing was swept back, and the rear wing carried twin fins and rudders. Two engines were mounted in nacelles on the rear wing.

The M.39 was not intended as an operational bomber in itself but as a proof-of-concept aircraft. It demonstrated that the tandem-wing arrangement was controllable and stable in flight. The layout was later refined in the larger M.52 research programme, although that aircraft was cancelled before completion.

Only one M.39 was built. It flew successfully but did not lead to production. By 1943, British bomber development was already centred on established types such as the Avro Lancaster, leaving little room for radical experimental designs in frontline service


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