Trev Clark's Obscure Aviation History Mk.2

The Ilyushin Il-20 Gorbach was a weird-looking Soviet aircraft with a great deal of heavy armour for crew protection (very un-Russian😂) when operating in ground attacks.
This weight affecting its performance, a tendency to stall at any time and appalling top speed led to its cancellation in 1949.

Don't underestimate your enemies? 😉
The French Potez 75 was a low-cost, very simple, ground-support, observation and anti-tank aircraft, designed specifically for use in 'colonial' conflicts!
Orders were placed by the French Government in 1956, but the entire project was cancelled soon after.

Truly one of the greatest aircraft of all time, the Douglas DC-3. This ex-military C-47 version was converted as an agricultural 'top-dresser' (fertiliser) in New Zealand in the 1950s, one of the lessor known roles for this amazing type.

A very, very close call!🚉
This image (which I found on FB) shows a Bristol Freighter car ferry aircraft, 'almost' reaching a railway line. Looking at the train, I'm thinking this incident might have occurred at Southend Airport.
Any locals from that area recognise it!?

The poor old Short Sturgeon was never really blessed with good looks, but in trying to find a useful purpose for her she was transformed into something truly beautiful!
The TT2 (target tug) and SB3 (AEW) in images two and three illustrate nicely what I mean😉

This antique looking Vickers Vildebeest was still in service with the Royal New Zealand Air Force as late as 1943...or possibly a little later!
Originally designed as a torpedo bomber in the early 1930s, it spent its final years as a rather unlikely advanced trainer and patrol aircraft.

The Mil V-12 (NATO reporting name: Homer) was a prototype helicopter designed in the Soviet Union and the largest helicopter ever built. The V-12 first prototype has held eight world records, three of which are still current!

Not 'Photoshop', but a real Omani Air Force SEPECAT Jaguar enjoying the freedom seldom given to military pilots.
Many of these pilots were either recently retired RAF (on a fixed contract) or still serving (but seconded) to Oman. Low flying was something the Jaguar was good at!

The flying car, seen here in the 1950s, is a popular concept that never seems to work. Will it ever 'take-off'?

It is indeed a 'Zwilling' or 'twin' He 111 glider tug. The pilot sat in just one side, a flight engineer rode in the other fuselage.

An unusual photo from the Luftwaffe in WW2. This image was taken by one of the crew, but of what aircraft??

Duck!
One of the most famous 'impossible low flying' images is a fake, created by RAAF ground crew in 1955 by mounting a EE Canberra on jacks. The image was then altered in the 'dark room' to remove the supports, in a process used by censors in wartime. All 50 years before photos shop!

The Saunders-Roe A.36 Lerwick was a British flying boat. It was intended to be used with the Short Sunderland in RAF service, but it was a disaster and only a few were manufactured.
They had a poor service record and an alarmingly high accident rate, of 21 aircraft built, 10 were lost to accidents!

The Supermarine Type 332, more commonly know as the 'Dumbo'! This aircraft was in competition for a carrier-borne attack aircraft, against the Fairey Barracuda. Despite its portly looks, its variable incidence wing gave the fuselage optimal views of the landing deck, useful, but not enough to win!

Today, the fast jet element of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm share a limited number of Lockheed F-35B aircraft. However, in the 1960s, this image captured just some of their fast jets. Before anyone comments, the Royal Air Force hasn't fared any better and the Navy still own the aircraft carriers!

The Central Flying School (CFS) was established on 12 May 1912 and is responsible for setting flying training standards and writing the flying manuals for new and modified service aircraft, amongst other duties.
This was their aircraft fleet in 1943, can you name many of there's types?

The Blackburn Blackburn...so ugly they named it twice!

In flight refuelling is an everyday thing for military aircraft, but how many know of its origins? Probe and drogue trials date back to the 1930s and this Handley Page Harrow. It was intended to refuel passenger trans-Atlantic flying boats, to enable a non-stop service. Something never adopted!

Not something that you see very often, a formation of BAC/Aerospatial Concorde airliners! This unusual event was organised to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the supersonic airliner in British Airways service in 1984. Full story... simpleflying.com/british-airw...

The Great War (1914-18) was the first large conflict to feature aviation. Early aircrew were all brave, but perhaps the Observer of Royal Aircraft Factory FE2 aircraft were a breed apart! This image shows one manning the two machine guns, including one firing backwards over the top wing.

The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52, an early British flying wing aircraft which first flew in 1947. It was built as a proof of concept for a large airliner. Tne prototype was involved the first emergency use of an ejection seat, but the second aircraft flew for many years. The airliner didn't happen!

A step too far? The Piasecki H-16 Transporter was an early tandem-rotor transport helicopter designed by rotary pioneer, Frank Piasecki in the early 50s. The prototypes were evaluated by the United States Air Force and Army, but the crash of the second test aircraft led to cancelling the project.

A nice image of the de Havilland DH 108 Swallow.
A type that came quite close to being the first aircraft to break the 'sound barrier' in 1946.
Today, it's probably best remembered for its appalling safety record! Every one of three Swallows built suffered a fatal accident.

The Miles M68 Boxcar was a prototype modular cargo aircraft, based on the firm's (mildly successful) Aerovan.
The (bonded) wooden aircraft flew as part of the SBAC Airshow at Farnborough in 1947, shortly before the company was taken over by Handley Page and the Boxcar was quietly forgotten!

The Curtiss T-32 Condor II was a 1930s American biplane airliner with more than a little 'steampunk' about it! This float plane variant was sold to the Columbian Air Force.

Airship passengers of the 1930s had to have a 'head for heights' in more ways than one! This is them boarding via an open wooden walkway, 200 feet up in the air. Health and safety is very much a modern idea. 😂

The 'ultimate' Rolls-Royce piston aero engine?
This monster is the Rolls-Royce Pennine engine, an air-cooled 24 cylinder in an 'X' configuration. Designed to power larger aircraft, it was overtaken by the rise of the jet.

The (pre-Communist) Chinese Luoyun LY-10 transport.
Better known to the British as the Bristol Bombay, I can find very little about how this obsolete bomber/transport ended up so far from home. Perhaps someone here can enlighten us?

The General Aircraft Company GA-55 was a purpose built training glider, intended to train British Army glider pilots, at the end of WW2.
It proved to be too unstable under tow to be of use, so was cancelled in 1946, when glider-borne operations were also thought not to be the way forward.

It seems people are moving across from (now awful) 'X' so I may start regular posts here when my pre-loaded X posts finish in Dec 24.
The Dee Howard Co DBA (Damn Big Airplane), designed to carry stages for the Saturn II rocket programme.
It didn't proceed very far beyond wind-tunnel testing!