Monday Wikipedia Safari.
I've got a Statistics final on Wednesday. So of course it makes sense that I would use this morning off to, uh, put off studying that wearisome subject.
Tamara mentioned the 1914 Battle of the Falkland Islands between German warships and British warships, which naturally led me to re-read the entry on the 1982 Falklands War, in which Maggie Thatcher reminded the Argentinians that Great Britain still had teeth. For a while, at least. (Sadly, hers may last longer than her nation's.) The British made long-range bombing raids against the Argentinians in Operation Black Buck, during which they flew early 1950's vintage Avro Vulcan bombers 8000 miles from Acension Island. Ascension Island was designated the stone frigate "HMS Acension".
Backing up to look at the delta wing Vulcans a little closer, I noticed that an incident was mentioned in which a Vulcan landed hard at an airshow in New Zealand in 1959. The cheeky New Zealand Air Force fixed it up, but applied their own kiwi roundels to the plane. No word if they kept it. Looking at the various roundels of the world, it would seem that there is often a disconnect between how cool a country is and how cool its roundel is. Somalia's roundel is pretty cool, but one wonders if there are any flying aircraft in their air force. (Also the color looks faded, like a bumper sticker on the back of a 1982 Buick Regal Ltd.) Kyrgyzstan's is striking. On the other hand, Malta's is pretty neat. I would definitely suggest to Latvia, Turkey, and Peru to get visibly different ones, for their ships of war. Or at least demand that Target Corp. sponser them.
And then I needed to make a new pot of coffee.
posted by Matt G @ 11:42 AM
4 Comments:
Speaking of the Vulcan bomber, you caused me to remember when I saw one practicing nap-of-the-earth penetration flying---overr Iowa. As best I remember, in was in 1979. I was on my way to Omaha from Kansas City on I-29. I had just crossed into Iowa from Missouri when the Vulcan appeared, about 500 feet up, crossed the highway in front of me and proceeded westward. I knew the RAF practiced penetration exercises in the US from my time in the Air Force, but that was the only time I actually saw a Vulcan.
I've also seen B-52s and B-2s flying nap-of-the-earth near Wichita. There were, maybe still are, B-1s stationed at McConnell AFB in Wichita, KS.
Isn't is amazingly easy to get sucked in? Two of my favorite bunny trails were from Queen Elizabeth I (those royals, I tell ya) and Jean Gray/Dark Phoenix.
Just as a matter of interest, the US Army Air Corps insignia depicted in the Wikipedia article on roundels is shown to have been used from 1926 to 1941. It was still in use early in 1942 and was displayed on the 16 B25 bombers flown on the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, 18 April 1942. It is thought that the red “ball” in the center of the white star was sometimes mistaken for the Japanese Hinomaru “meatball,” and it was removed during 1942. This left only the white star on an “insignia blue” roundel, identical to the modern Somalia insignia, except with a darker blue color. The white bars extending to the sides were added in 1943, outlined first in red, and later in the same shade blue as the roundel.
The old style USAAC markings may be seen in the images in the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ruptured_Duck_(B-25)
And an aside: Last I heard, Somalia still has no functioning government. Do any of the warlords operate an air force?
JPG
It may interest you to know that a Vulcan has recently been restored to airworthy condition, although its future hangs in the balance due to a lack of funding.
I really hope I'll be able to see it fly at an airshow sometime next year...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XH558
J
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