Storyline titillation........perhaps!
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Storyline titillation........perhaps!
I have just watched the BBC prog regarding America coming into WWII. There were a number of special items.
Formed because someone in Congress fought hard enough to support these guys, was the formation of a Squadron called "The Tuskagee Squdaron", made up of only coloured pilots. One line in the narration was almost just a throwaway line - "not one bomber was ever bought down while under escort over Germany by the Tuskagee Squadron". If you take a while to think about that it is one helluva remarkable statement. Anyone of our American cousins have any close ties with the 'few' that remain alive in the US?
Also been reading "Spitfire" - A test pilot's story, by Jeffrey Quill - for the umteenth time. A really fine read. But there is a lot about him that is all too easy to accept as being, well, somehow normal. And test pilot's ain't normal. But they are special. Jeffrey Quill must have been a bit more special than most because his log-book is scattered with "Exceptional" over its pages.
He was certainly very skilled, very dedicated and hardly ever took a risk. Well that is what he says but whilst flying in the Met Flight, in 1935, he and Dick Reynell did weather climbs at 0700 and 1300 each and every day in weather that even birds would not take off in. Imagine this. Is there ONE day - or is it several - in England through the whole 365 that you KNOW you could never expect to fly with just a Turn and Bank indicator and one or two other instruments? Well? But JQ and DR did just that. They took off each day, sometimes in appalling weather, so that the Air Ministry could have a daily met report - all 365 days.
To have then been selected to join Vickers by Mutt Summers he then showed his ample skills by testing Barne's Wallis' new Wellesley, Vildebeest, Harts, and Wellington's. Then he went off to Woolston to join Mutt Summers to get to know what was still on the drawing boards - the Spitfire. The rest is history as they say. But what history. JQ actually made history on a daily basis.
Anyone with personal knowledge of the great JQ?
Formed because someone in Congress fought hard enough to support these guys, was the formation of a Squadron called "The Tuskagee Squdaron", made up of only coloured pilots. One line in the narration was almost just a throwaway line - "not one bomber was ever bought down while under escort over Germany by the Tuskagee Squadron". If you take a while to think about that it is one helluva remarkable statement. Anyone of our American cousins have any close ties with the 'few' that remain alive in the US?
Also been reading "Spitfire" - A test pilot's story, by Jeffrey Quill - for the umteenth time. A really fine read. But there is a lot about him that is all too easy to accept as being, well, somehow normal. And test pilot's ain't normal. But they are special. Jeffrey Quill must have been a bit more special than most because his log-book is scattered with "Exceptional" over its pages.
He was certainly very skilled, very dedicated and hardly ever took a risk. Well that is what he says but whilst flying in the Met Flight, in 1935, he and Dick Reynell did weather climbs at 0700 and 1300 each and every day in weather that even birds would not take off in. Imagine this. Is there ONE day - or is it several - in England through the whole 365 that you KNOW you could never expect to fly with just a Turn and Bank indicator and one or two other instruments? Well? But JQ and DR did just that. They took off each day, sometimes in appalling weather, so that the Air Ministry could have a daily met report - all 365 days.
To have then been selected to join Vickers by Mutt Summers he then showed his ample skills by testing Barne's Wallis' new Wellesley, Vildebeest, Harts, and Wellington's. Then he went off to Woolston to join Mutt Summers to get to know what was still on the drawing boards - the Spitfire. The rest is history as they say. But what history. JQ actually made history on a daily basis.
Anyone with personal knowledge of the great JQ?
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
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Yes Camel Pilot it is true. They never lost a bomber they were escorting to fighter attack....couldn't do much about AAA though.
Their leader, General Davis, died a few weeks ago.
The Tuskeege Airmen flew in a fighter wing and I believe a medium bomber wing. Have had the happy privilage over the years of working with a few, very few, of these men. Couldn't ask for better.
Their leader, General Davis, died a few weeks ago.
The Tuskeege Airmen flew in a fighter wing and I believe a medium bomber wing. Have had the happy privilage over the years of working with a few, very few, of these men. Couldn't ask for better.
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I was going to end the post with - "over to you ORAC" - I knew he would come up with some good and valid info. He always does. A mind of information that man. Thanks O. And thanks Iron City for the info on General Davis. A great and good man.
Care to expand on your comments? I am sure we would all like to hear.
Care to expand on your comments? I am sure we would all like to hear.
Last edited by CamelPilot; 7th Aug 2002 at 18:42.
