D Day Dakotas

[Wander]

Since we live more or less under the flight path of today's Dakota fly-over to commemorate the Normandy landings I thought I would go out to watch them.
As did just about every other bugger!
But they were delayed.
So I went home and we were lucky enough that they passed nearby where we live. Bit of a lob shot but I managed to get a couple.
Feel free to post your shots if you got any.

 

[Robbi]

wonderful airplanes, great photos

 

[Janne]

Great photos.
Horrible planes to be a passenger in. Cold, incredibly noisy, creak..

 

[Tengu]

But not like the Dragon Rapide where a late friend I knew put her finger through the fuselage...

 

[santaman2000]

Great photos.
Horrible planes to be a passenger in. Cold, incredibly noisy, creak..

Oh I don’t know. I flew on one from Rantoul, Illinois to Chicago as a passenger when Frontier Airlines was still flying them on short commuter hops in the 1970s. Some remote airlines still do even now.

Magnificent design. From the early 20th century and several are still flying scheduled service. It’s gonna be a hard record to beat.

 

[Janne]

That would scare me $hitless......
She has long, bony fingers with very long, sharp nails?

 

[jimbo75]

Caught a few going over my parents place, just past Duxford at the weekend. Spotted the d day stripes on one of them. Found myself humming the Indiana jones music!

 

[Janne]

I had to be flown in them in the Army, but then in '81 they bought a couple more Herculeses.
Jumping was much, much easier from a Hercules. rear exit.

If the pilot decided to increase the height of the C-46 suddenly, when a jump was happening, you could end up tangled in the rear wheel.
We were told you could then also hit the rear horizontal stabilisator, we were trained to exit it in a special way if the weather was bumpy.

 

[santaman2000]

Only cargo drops and HALO jumps usually go off the rear ramp of the C-130. Normal static line jumps use the door up front.

 

[Tengu]

It was a wood and canvas plane and I think the canvas was a bit rotted.

This was in the 30s to the Isle of Man.

Gooney birds still around? I am not suprised.

 

[Janne]

Only cargo drops and HALO jumps usually go off the rear ramp of the C-130. Normal static line jumps use the door up front.

Interesting. In my days in the Army (in Sweden) we only used the rear ramp. 300m height: 8 guys in around 10 seconds. 150m height I think about 15 seconds.
Never done HALO. Ultralow yes. Highest 600m

I hated every single second of the jumping. Every single jump. I still have a problem looking down from buildings.

But it was good for my life.

 

[santaman2000]

Sounds like the same speed from the side door.

 

[TinkyPete]

My father was a young lad in Dorset and on the eve of D-Day, the airborne operation flew over the valley where he lived and he watched it all, they knew something big had to happening but did not know what. The next day his father who was the headmaster of the village school gathered them all together to listen to Churchill speeches on the radio.

 

[saxonaxe]

In company with hundreds of other people I stood on the cliffs of the Sussex Coast and the memorial flight passed directly over our heads. A quick study of the photographs will reveal that I am definitely not a photographer, but for me and family they serve their purpose.

People gathering on the cliff top..




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Our neighbours in Kent would have seen them first, and then from the East came the roar of Aero engines and then the formations appeared.


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Many of the aircraft carried British, American and Commonwealth Paratroopers who would parachute onto the same, or close to, the original landing zones of 1944.

A few minutes of excitement and engine noise and then silence.
They were gone, but never forgotten.