In 1938 Ettore Bugatti started work on an aircraft designed to win the illustrious Deutsch de la Meurthe Cup Race and to test performance technologies with a view to using them on French fighter planes. Before the incredible plane had a chance to fly, the Nazis invaded France and left Ettore and his chief engineer Louis de Monge with no choice but to smuggle the partially completed aircraft out under the cover of darkness to Bugatti’s estate outside Paris.
The concept of landing a plane on the underside of a moving airship at altitude it so utterly mad that it instantly becomes an addition to my bucket list.
It isn’t everyday that the chance to buy something as iconic as the De Havilland Gipsy Moth from the film ‘Out of Africa’ comes along, she’s heading to the auction block on the 7th of February 2013 and rather remarkably, is still fit to fly.
This is a shot of Chuck Yeager climbing out of the Bell X-1 in 1949, Chuck was first human to break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947 sitting in the cockpit of this very plane.
This is a WWII ear photograph of trainee aircraft mechanics being trained in the finer details of Merlin engine maintenance.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photograph shot into the cockpit of a WWII plane before, the nonchalant look of the front gunner is just too cool for words.
This captivating shot gives you a 3rd person view out the turret of a German bomber.
The Douglas A-26 Invader is one of the toughest and most versatile planes created during WWII, somewhat amazingly there are still many of them in service fighting fires in the Northwestern United States (as can be seen in the 1989 Spielberg film “Always”).
We’re not entirely sure where this fantastic photograph is from, we’re assuming it’s a behind the scenes shot from a war film but if you know more than we do, please let us know…
The men flyers have given out the impression that aeroplaning is very perilous work, something that an ordinary mortal should not dream of attempting. But when I saw how easily the man flyers manipulated their machines I said I could fly.
The 1970 California 1000 Air Race was a remarkable spectacle, the race was listed as “unlimited” meaning you could fly anything you wanted and modify it in anyway you liked. In short, it was a proper air race.
This photograph of a female Lockheed employee working on the fuselage of a P-38 Lightning in California in 1944 is strangely transfixing.
