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The Cash and Carry Air Force

by | Sep 11, 2024 | Aviation History, Spotting

Before Lend Lease

Before the Lend Lease Act was enacted in March 1941, Britain had purchased materials on a Cash and Carry basis. Just how much is hard to fathom, but everything was obtained under those terms. If you can pay for it, you can have it.

With the fall of Europe, the American aircraft manufacturers had major problems with inventory. Thousands of aircraft in various stages of production cluttered plants, with the buyers for these aircraft gone. The saving grace here was that Britain effectively agreed to take all the inventory, saving much of the aviation industry.

What types had the Europeans ordered, it is a varied lot. The French had significant orders for the B-24 Liberator and the Curtis 75 or Mohawk, the Belgians had ordered the Brewster Buffalo. The Swedish had ordered the Vultee 72 coming to the RAF as the Vanguard, after the order was redirected.

On the aircraft front, Britain had ordered and paid for some 26,000 aircraft from America. There were many other types rolling off the production lines for the RAF, all paid for with cash and technology. As at December 1940 there were a total of 51 types on order, some like the Mustang designed to a British specification.

The Technology Trade

Often overlooked when the transatlantic trade in armaments is considered, is what went the other way. The British had a number or world leading technologies, these were effectively gifted to America. In September 1940, during the Battle of Britain the British government sent the Tizard Mission to the United States. A sientific mission to ensure that existing research could continue and thus benefit the war effort.

The British shared technology included the cavity magnetron (needed for Radar), the design for the proximity fuse, design details of the jet engine and the memorandum describing the feasibility of an atomic bomb. Though these may be considered the most significant, many other items were also transported, including designs for rockets, superchargers, gyroscopic gunsights, submarine detection devices, self-sealing fuel tanks and plastic explosives.

The value of these technological gifts can’t really be estimated, but it was considerable – the Americans were far behind in many areas in 1940.

The Monetary Value of Cash and Carry

How much did Britain actuallt spend before Lend Lease came into effect? Well the figure that seems to be closest is £5 Billion, that is $20 Billion in dollars. This was in 1940, in 2024 dollars it is around $450 Billion. On December 28th 2006 Britain paid the final installment to the Unites States of America, some 64 years after the end of WWII.

September 70 Years Ago

by | Sep 10, 2024 | Aviation History, Spotting

Musings from History

A post covering some of the historical events from September 1954, when the British Aviation industry was at its Zenith.

Batlle of Britain Week

Remembering the Battle of Britain just 14 years earlier, a time where Britain and what is now the commonwealth stood completely alone. Had the country not held onto air superiority over mainland Britain, then it is likely that the Axis powers would have invaded and World War II would have taken a different course. On the 17th September the Royal Air Force held at home days at 56 RAF Bases.

 

The Victor and a production Valiant appeared at a number of stations in South East England; a Bristol Fighter and a Sopwith Pup staged a dog-fight at Biggin Hill; a large formation of Provosts toured various airfields; and a numbr of Sunderlands and formations from the Fleat Air Arm did likewise. Formations of many different kinds made tours, so that each station would be able to provide a view of the maximum variety aof aircraft types. Fighter Command alone provided no fewer than seventeen large formations.

A record total of 1,208,000 people attended the displays.

Flight and Aircraft Engineer

24th September 1954

Here are a few other snippets from the same magazine, these are just things that have taken my interest – the magazine is just a great read if you have an interest in aviation. There is as much to be gleaned from the classified section (all 30+ pages of it) as there is from the technical sections, I just love to look at these magazines when I have a chance.

Aircraft Prices

Seventy years ago aircraft were relatively cheaper, B.O.A.C traded seven model 049 Lockheed Constelations for model 749A’s, with a cash adjust ment of £1.75 million – the 049’s being valued ar £2 million. This gives a fly away price on a L.749A Lockheed Constllation of just over £535,000, some might say a bargain but an Auster with a full C of A was only £500.

This was a time where the war time inventory was still being cleard, R. A. Short were selling Mosquitos Mk 6, Mk 16, Mk Mk 33 and Mk 37 and advertising spares for all other marks.

Civil News

Airwork was awarded the UK Government troop contract, this involved transporting 7,000 troops a year to and from Singapore in Hermese aircraft with 68 rear facing seats rated at 9g.

Other News

Lockheed

Seaboard and Western received the first of their L.1049B Superconsellation freighters, capable of carrying some 18 Tons of cargo – clained by Lockheed to be the largest freight aircraft in the world. The R7V-2 derivative of the L.1249 Super Constellation with the new turbo prop engines (The same ones fitted to the C-133 Cargo Master) managed a sustained speed of 412 MPH, these were delivered to the US Navy on the 10th of September.

Fokker

The Fokker F.27 Friendship has moved to static test, where wing flexing test as developed at RAE Farnborought during the Commet investigation will be used to prove the soundness of the design.

Douglas

The Douglas DC-7C has gone into production, PanAm is to be the launch customer with deliveries to commence late 1955 or early 1956 with an expected range of 5,000 Nm.

Boeing

The Boeing 707 testing carries on, with the prototype having being fitted with air brakes and a drag chute, Boeing have stated that the testing will take the airliner closer to the speed of sound than any aircraft before it.

 

Survivor Series

by | Sep 10, 2024 | Aviation News, Spotting, Survivor Series

The Survivor Series

To I have decided to create a series of posts relating to survivor aircraft, the posts will be type based and for each type there could be four or more posts. The number of posts depends on the number of surviving aircraft, as an example for the TSR.2 it’s likely to be just a single post. For an aircraft like the Hawker Hunter or the North American F-86 there are likely to be more posts,

Post Contents

The posts will contain an overview of the known survivors, when I say known – they’re the ones that I know about. If I’ve missed some out, it’s not deliberate it’s because I didn’t know about them. So if you read a post and know of an ommission or error, let me know and I’ll fix the post. The data for these posts is in the main from my own database, as there’s a 25 year accumulation of data there is always the possibility that something out of date has slipped through the net.

Post Frequency

When ever I get a chance, I’ll do a little bit more for the posts. But there are other things that always seem to get in the road, it is easy to go off on a tangent.

 

Download Files Update

by | Sep 9, 2024 | Online Logging, Registers, Spotting

Register Updates

The most recent registers have been uploaded, the delay as usual was down the the Australian Civil Aircraft Register. The register seems to update less frequently than it used to, it has been monthly for the past few months. Also included in the updates are the US Civil Aircraft Register and the Canadian Civil Aircraft Register, which along with the American Civil Aircraft Register de-registered aircraft file now totals some 730,000 records.

I have been looking at pulling together a number of other registers, while keeping the format the same. These include a number of European Civil Aircraft Registers, the Austrian Civil Aircraft Register and the Belgian Civil Aircraft Register likely to be the first two. Followed by the Britsh Civil Aircraft Register and the Dutch Civil Aircraft Register.

 

The ultimate Spitfire History.

by | Sep 3, 2024 | Book Reviews, Spotting

Spitfire, The History

I was gifted the first edition of this book and was immediately captivated by it, the book is a facinating look at the Spitfire from its inception to retirement and everything in between.

Written by Eric B Morgan and Edward Shacklady and first published in 1987, the book comprises over 600 large format pages with over 1400 illustrations many of them in colour, along with the service history and serial number of every Spitfire ever built.

With a foreword by Jeffrey Quill, who was involved in the test programme before becoming cheif test pilot with Supermarine. He said of Eric B Morgan and Edward Shacklady…..

 

They have made full use of the material at their disposal to produce what must be as difinitive a history of the Spitfire as is ever likely to be written.

Jeffrey Quill

Chief Test Pilot, Supermarine

Is it worth it?

When the second edition was published in 2000 I bought a copy and still have both, they are the reference I use for all things Spitfire. The book is not by any means a light read, but it contains a wealth of information just not available from any other sources and for me is invaluable.

Containing information on every single Spitfire built, with some fantastic detail – this is a truely worthwhile addition to any aviation enthusiast’s library and if you have an interest in the Spitfire then this book will have pride of place in your collection.

The book is sometimes available on Amazon, or from the used book companies that advertise their books through Amazon – sometimes available at a reasonable price in the order of £30 – but sometimes commanding much more. So if you have an interest in the Spitfire, having a copy of your own is a worthwhile investment and it is likely to be well used.

Other Reviewers

There are a number of reviews of the book visible on Amazon reviews and all of them are very positive, for me it was interesting seeing what other people though of the book by reading their reviews.