I know, it’s probably a Percival Prentice, not a Chipmunk. Got confused because Hergé usually took some liberty with aircrafts in his comics, but there’s also definitely a “Chippie” in the “Black Island“. Red/white with a bubble canopy.
Anyway, you get it. A proper Chipmunk should run a DH Gipsy engine. And the guy who writes this cannot currently fly his plane because of Gipsy cylinder issues. Go figure…
Last weekend, the airshow celebrating the Battle of Britain took place in Duxford. Long before the crews started the engines of their Messerschmitt, Hurricane, Lysander and other wonderful, 80 years-old flying machines, the show started on the ground, for those who had access to the flight line. A crowd of volunteers participated in giving a unique, 1940 atmosphere.
Winston Churchill
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
Traveling to Duxford is like playing with a time machine. Remembering that, as Churchill once said, “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
The Elysée Photography museum will soon move to new premises, downtown, in the vicinity of Lausanne’s CFF station. I hope they will keep their old photobooth. Time for a true analog selfie.
Challenging light here but the new iPhone XR performs very well. It still managed to capture details in the shadows while not burning the bright sky.
See below for a before and after: the untouched picture and, once clicked, a version edited with Snapseed posted on Instagram (which might be slightly over-processed, I confess, but it shows the level of details preserved).
By the way, this is the beautiful AMPA Morane Saulnier MS317 (1937) based at Lausanne Airport, Switzerland.
Taking a break during the 2018 edition of a (shortened, due weather) “Tour de Suisse“: Flew there with WD347, DHC1 “Chipmunk”. Wonderful classic.
Back in the air with the 1951 DHC-1 Chipmunk, HB-TUT.
Unlike American and British pilots, Red Army pilots never painted pin-up girls on their planes. Discover the messages and intriguing drawings they opted for, in this very interesting article.
Nice video from the British Pathé archives: nineteen year-old Prince Charles in flightsuit taking flying lessons in Royal Air Force DHC-1 Chipmunk, from RAF base Tangmere. Watch here.
(I have had the chance to see (and fly in formation with) this very same DHC-1 Chippie during the 2017 Bull Chip Meet in Abbeville, France.)
My friend and fellow Chipmunk pilot Florian pointed me to this wonderful short movie: A Blast from the Past featuring a beautiful DH.60 Racing Moth.
Sit back and enjoy!
