Piece of cake

[TG]

Some time ago a sober BM mentioned this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kentucky-Blues-Cassell-Military-Paperbacks/dp/0304365661/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254423885&sr=1-15

Robinson is best know for his RAF novels following his fictional squadron through the 1st and 2nd world wars. I have long been a fan of these books especially 'piece of cake' http://www.amazon.co.uk/Piece-Cake-Derek-Robinson/dp/0006473334/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254424165&sr=1-16

In 1988 it was made into a TV series for ITV that I somehow missed even though I had read the book by then.

Having problems posting youtube clips on linux at the moment. But i'm sure someone can find the astonishing 'Moggie has a go' clip, done for real by the late Ray Hannah in the days before CGI.

Anywho, the reason I post this is i have rented the DVD and am about to watch the 1st episode.

[Pastis]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mmpOfbVHZo     

[Barman]

Excellent! 

I'm just re-reading all of Robinson's stuff too...

[Barman]

Later:

Just taken the dog for a walk... The RAF are doing fast jet training over Akrotiri this week. The Eurofighter makes a sonic boom each time it goes around the circuit! 

[Snoopy]

For many years it was claimed that the same "stunt" had been performed at this bridge on the Winchester Bypass in Hampshire. The bridge has now been demolished. Investigations have proved that the aircraft was a P40 and not a Spitfire but that the bridge was "under-flown" is not in dispute. I still think of it (as do all locals) as the Spitfire Bridge.

THE frustration of patrolling the skies of Hampshire in a state-of-the-art dog-fighting aircraft while the war against Nazi Germany raged on the continent was all too much for one pilot.

Flying his Curtiss Tomahawk back from Eastleigh to Odiham after having new exhaust dampners fitted, the battle-hungry Canadian flyer had a moment of madness.

Diving thousands of feet in a few seconds he swooped low underneath a small bridge near Winchester in the ultimate dare-devil manoeuvre.

But suddenly a lorry appeared hurtling towards him forcing him to take split-second evasive action.

He slammed his controls to the side and the plane's wing tip smashed into the bridge, ripping off a 3ft chunk and leaving the pilot fearing he would be unable to limp back to base.

Somehow the crippled plane held together but while the pilot performed a wheels-down landing it flipped over. Amazingly George Rogers walked away with only minor injuries on October 19, 1941.

But that was not the end of the matter. It was just the start of a 47-year mystery that wrongly saw the bridge nicknamed Spitfire Bridge until it was cleared up in the Daily Echo.

Controversy raged over whether it was a Spitfire, Tomahawk, Mohawk or Martlet but the myth among locals was that it was Reginald Mitchell's famous fighter which he designed and built on the south coast.

But in 1980 former Lieutenant Commander William Blake, who was at Worthy Down during the war years, categorically stated in was a Curtiss Tomahawk.

The Echo revealed in 1988 that local historian Melvin Hiscock had put the final pieces of the jigsaw together after his research at the Public Record Office turned up in the aircraft's record book. However, it was too late to rename the bridge on the Winchester bypass which was demolished in 1983 on October 24, almost 42 years after the crash.

[Just One More]

Snoopy, by coincidence,  I was recently trying to help an ex-member of the Canadian Air Force's 400 Squadron about this incident. They celebrate their 80th anniversary in 2012 and are gathering information, images etc (including the one you posted) to celebrate the anniversary. I seem to recall that they want to build a scale model of the bridge to depict the stunt. The bridge in that picture was demolished in 1983 and was replaced by a concrete one, certainly interesting as bridges go, but not a patch on the original one

The incident occurred on 19.10.1941. As records couldn?t be found  , a calculation using a picture from the 1930?s, gave approximate height of the arch as 33?, and the width at mid-span as 44?. The wingspan of the Tomahawk was 37?, so it was hell of a squeeze.

400 Squadron still survive as a Canadian Air Force Reserve unit and flies the Griffon Helicopter from Can. Forces Base Borden (North of Toronto).

The picture below was created by Mrs J R Hitchcock in 1941. The guy I have been dealing with has managed to locate the artist and the son of the pilot (in Canada)

[Snoopy]

Wow!

The old bridge was always the signal that we were "nearly home".

I got really p*ssed with them when it had to go to make way for the new road.

[TG]

I'm losing the plot here. Did Hanah do the under the bridge stunt (river type#1) for the TV series 'piece of cake' in c1988 or not?

Never mind those silly people who got bored fighting germans &c and pissed about with the local architechture.

Anyway, feck 'em. I can do the same on Microsoft Flight Simulator v98.

What makes them so special?

Tally Ho chaps!

[Snoopy]

Dunno TG ~ haven't seen the DVD. When was it made? If it predates computer graphics/animation then someone must have done it I guess.

[Pastis]

This was the game that really helped me use a keyboard back in 1991 ~ 18 years ago!  (Bear in mind that keyboards were for typists)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellcats_Over_the_Pacific

Hellcats Over the Pacific is a flight simulator computer game for the Apple Macintosh computer written by Parsoft Interactive and released by Graphic Simulations in 1991. Hellcats was a major release for the Mac platform, one of the first 3D games to be able to drive a 640 x 480 x 8-bit display at reasonable frame rates. The graphics engine was combined with a simple Mac interface, a set of randomized missions and a number of technical features that greatly enhanced the game's playability and made it a lasting favorite into the mid-1990s.

I can still remember the evening when one of the lads managed to 'fly' the plane under a bridge for the first time  . Then of course we all had to have a go.