Me109 and Stuka over Abingdon 29/8
 

Well, as the title says.

My brother says he saw them tootling along at around 1000 feet. He reckons there are no air shows locally at the moment so any ideas anyone?

If he's wrong, I'll remove this post after a while. Many TIA.

No Stukas airworthy... If it had cranked wings (and disappearing wheels!) may have been Fighter Collection's Corsair.

There was certainly an ME109 went over my house on Saturday or Sunday heading west, probably from Duxford. (I am about 7 miles north of Luton Airport)

:eek: Did no one shoot the buggers down?

Might actually be a replica for the Dunkirk film being shot?

Think it was probably one of the Merlin powered ones.

Passed over Ternhill heading North this afternoon - but I didn't believe my eyes - shortly after what looked like a Spitfire also heading north but about 5 miles away! Anything on at Hawarden?

Thanks for the replies. I didn't realise there were no airworthy Stukas left. My brother does know a bit about planes so I believe him when he says he saw one.

Shackman - are you saying you saw them as well?

Anyway, here's a nice clip of Me109 having a relaxed time over Biggin -- and it's not often they can do that.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGhMGQst4lo

I know there was a Stuka housed in the hangar at Biggin Hill in the 60's. I don't think there has been one flying in recent times.

Probably the RAF Museum's example, used (but not flown) in the making of the Battle of Britain film.

I may be wrong, but I think you have to go back 60+ years to find the last flight by a Stuka.

Cannot remember if it was sunday or monday now but around 5 ish a 2 ship formation passed N-S just west of the Bagshot Mast going pretty fast. I was too far away to get a good look although one had a very slender profile view and looked like a P38 but I doubt it was. Any ideas on what these might have been they looked a lot more interesting than the Cherokees out of Blackbushe and Fairoaks

There is a larger scale radio control Stuka, that 109 in the film bent itself when the gear collapsed on one side a few weeks back


https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8192/2...3835b6a6_c.jpg

The P38 was in Jersey today for the BOB air display. So, it is possible that you saw it a few days ago.

Thanks KC - I have always prided myself on recognition and excellent long distance eyesight but I don't trust the latter as much as I used to. However the P38 is very distinctive from all angles and i was convinced I got a glimpse of the twin fins. I didn't know there was an airworthy one in Europe.

The P-38 is owned by Red Bull and is the famous aircraft displayed and raced by Lefty Gardner for many years - beautifully rebuilt by Ezell Aviation after a fire and forced landing a few years ago. It's based in Austria. There's also a P-38 under rebuild in the UK, it arrived from Australia a couple of years back.

The nearest things to a real Stuka that have flown were the "Proctukas" built by Viv Belllamy for the Battle of Britain film in 1968, based around a couple of well-worn Proctors. Apparently they flew horribly and were abandoned, the film unit sticking to rc models instead.

Pity your brother didn't get a pic Angels, love to know what he saw!

Here is Lefty and his P38 in better days - before it was defiled by turning it into a nasty soda-pop advert. Or should that be an advert for nasty soda-pop?
Harlingen, Tx. Easter 1977

[IMG]http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/c...Fslides-55.jpg[/IMG]

His flying was certainly exuberant as befits that rarest of beasts, a retired crop duster.

[IMG]http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/c...Fslides-11.jpg[/IMG]

But imo his Mustang was by far the prettier aeroplane. The paint job was incredible, even if not original.

[IMG]http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/c...Fslides-56.jpg[/IMG]

Agree that I'm not keen on the Red Bull scheme, but at least it's a chance to see and hear a P-38 in European skies, following the much lamented loss of Hoof Proudfoot and California Cutie, and the return of Doug Arnold's seldom seen P-38 to the USA.

Was never that enamoured with Thunderbird, some of the other civvy-schemed warbirds looked much better to my mind. Ah, Spencer Flack's Hunter, Sea Fury and Spitfire...

Back to the Stuka, I am surprised that there hasn't been one flying somewhere in the world especially when one considers that a lot of Luftwaffe stuff from WWII have managed to get flying again.
Mind you, any display would need to be choreographed sensitively and perhaps some items of its equipment disabled. :ooh:

I agree its abit strange there are no Stukas around but its a good point about displaying them-not many dive bomber pilots left around and if there were I doubt they would fancy a 70 degree dive in a 70 year old aircraft . Its a big ask to have to pull out of a steep dive at low level in an airframe that old-not much-ie none at all- of recovering if something doesnt work

Tangentially, the last active dive-bombing pilots of which I am aware were Swiss Hunter pilots who trained in the technique up until the 1970s using a SAAB bombing computer and sight. Proper dive-bombing, standing on the nose with the airbrake out; useful for hitting targets in valleys. The USMC's AV-8Bs and A-4Ms had angle-rate bombing TV cameras in the nose but those were for shallow-angle attacks of 40 deg or so, not true diving.