RAF Warplanes: Hawker Typhoon and Hawker Tempest

Hawker Typhoon and Hawker Tempest (RAF Photo) Hawker Typhoon (Serial No. EK497), early rocket armed version. (RAF Photo) Hawker Typhoons of No. 56 Squadron, RAF, 1944. (IWM Photo, CH 9289) Hawker Typhoon Mk. IB (Serial No.R8884), coded HF-L, No. 183 Squadron RAF, with Flight Lieutenant Walter Dring,commander of B Flight, in a dispersal at Gatwick, Sussex, UK, … Read more

RAF Warplanes: Curtiss Mohawk Mk. IV

Curtiss Mohawk Mk. IV (IWM Photo, E(MOS) 274) Curtiss Mohawk Mk. IV (Serial No. BK585), running up its engine prior to giving a flying demonstration at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, Boscombe Down, Wiltshire.  BK585 joined No. 5 Squadron RAF in the Far East later in 1941. The Curtiss P-36 Hawk, also known as … Read more

RAF Warplanes: Miles M.398 Libellula

Miles M.398 Libellula (RAF Photo) The brainchild of British aviation engineer and designer Frederick George Miles, the Libellula was conceived as a carrier-based fighter and bomber, capable of assisting the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. The Miles M.39B Libellula (from Libellulidae, a taxonomic family of dragonflies) was a Second World War tandem wing experimental aircraft built … Read more

RAF Warplanes: North American Harvard, North American Texan

North American Harvard (Alan Wilson Photo) North American Harvard Mk. II, RCAF (Serial No. 3091), c/n 81-4013, AF-091, Reg. No. G-CPPM, Bruntingthorpe. (Alan Wilson Photos) Noordyn Harvard Mk. IbI, USAAC (Serial No. 42-892), c/n 14-429, built by Noorduyn Aviation in Montreal, Quebec in 1942.  Allocated RAF (Serial No. FE695), BCATP, Mo. 94.  Harvard FE695 was … Read more

RAF Warplanes: Heston JC.6

Heston JC.6 (RAF Photo) Heston JC.6 (Serial No. VL529). The Heston JC.6 was a British prototype air observation post aircraft designed and built by the Heston Aircraft Company Limited, who had previously built the Heston Phoenix, the Heston T.1/37 and the Napier-Heston Racer. The JC.6 was also known as the Heston A.2/45 or the Heston AOP.DevelopmentThe … Read more