Originally Posted by
pax britanica
You guys on here who actually flew at this time have my greatest respect as it seems to have been pretty dangerous time to be a military pilot even without anyone shooting at you.
And i dont mean to offend anyone who liked it but with the old adage about if it looks right it flies right , to my view the Hastings didnt look at all right and I remember from my spotting days seeing them lumbering back and forth along the airways over LHR in the early 60s . I suppose like so many decisions at the time the idea was to 'buy British' to protect our industry and conserve foreign exchange ?
The tail wheel cofiguration of the Hastings was a result of an Army requirement to carry droppable jeeps and guns under the belly. The civil version was the Hermes, which had a nosewheel. Surprisingly the Hastings was quite nice to fly..